How the trip went
Ages ago (OK, back in July) I found out that the scheduled game for the L.A. Kings' home opener and Stanley Cup banner raising ceremony was going to be on Friday, October 12. So, I made arrangements to work on Columbus Day (Monday, October 8) and use the holiday hours to take the Friday off instead. I booked hotel rooms, reserved a rental car, bought a round trip plane ticket, and notified my sister Karen that I'd be free to spend that Saturday with her family (herself, her husband, and their daughter and son).
Well, the NHL lockout cancelled that game, but I only get to see those kids once a year, if that. So, I went ahead with it.
I spent Thursday night in a hotel near the airport in Atlanta. I decided to wait until after 8:30 at night to leave home, because A) I didn't want to drive straight into the sunset for a couple of hours, and B) I didn't feel like missing that episode of The Big Bang Theory. I had stayed at this hotel before, last November, and it had free parking. This year, it had switched to charging a small daily fee for parking. I had no other issues with this part of the trip.
Friday: I got up, damaged one of the two books I had wanted to read on the airplane by accidentally spilling water on it, causing the back half to bloat up. Needless to say, I didn't bother packing that one because I didn't want to exceed 3.4 oz. of fluid. It's enough fun flying with insulin as it is. The line for security was very long, and I forgot to take off my medical ID before going through the metal detector. I guess that means I'm just so used to wearing it now that I don't realize that I'm wearing it anymore. They didn't pack enough meals on the plane, so when they got around to me, all I could order to stave off hypoglycemia was a bag of trail mix and some Peanut M&Ms. Otherwise, the flight was OK, but we arrived at LAX 18 minutes early but had to sit on the tarmac for 30 minutes or so waiting for a gate to open up. The traffic was insane because, besides it being Los Angeles, I happened to arrive on the very day they were closing sections of Sepulveda Blvd. and Manchester Blvd. to move Space Shuttle Endeavour from LAX to a museum. I got a glimpse of it from the window of the Hertz rental car shuttle as I was taken to go pick up my car, a black Mazda 3. I then checked into my hotel, which was a Courtyard in Culver City... that I'd stayed at twice before; the first time, when it was a Ramada, and then a year or two later when it was a Sheraton. I was trying to coordinate things to have dinner with operagirl25 but it just didn't work out. I walked a mile to Compari's Trattoria, which I used to do when I lived a block away from it. This was a little further walk, but not bad. The food is as good as I remember, and the owner/manager recognized me, even though it's been a few years since I was last there. I had a salad, a small pizza, and some iced tea. I walked back to the hotel and tried to call it a night, but the refrigerator and the air conditioner kept competing as to which could make the more annoying sound.
Saturday: I had breakfast at the hotel, drove out to Fry's Electronics in Anaheim, and was disappointed with their selection that day. I wish I'd visited the one in Manhattan Beach on Friday, but then again, the traffic would've been awful. I know I'll probably get to visit the one near Seattle in a month or so, though. Anyhow, after that, I drove straight on to my sister's house in Anaheim. I gave the kids 2 Marvel plushies each (Wolverine and Iron Man for William, and Wolverine and Storm for Amelia). We played some video games (retro Atari 2600; I kicked their butts at Slot Racers), and then we were off for lunch and Amelia's team's soccer game. The kids don't like In-n-Out (Blasphemers! Heretics! Burn!), so I had my first Carl's Jr. visit in a few years. Not bad. Amelia's team did OK, but I think my sister is much more "into" being a soccer mom than Amelia is "into" being a soccer player.
After that, we went to Camelot and tried to play a round of miniature golf. This is a mistake when one of the players is a hyperactive, undisciplined 5 year old bundle of energy and no patience whatsoever. William used the rules we read him as a checklist of things to disobey. After 11 holes of him endangering the property and persons of ourselves and possibly other people in other foursomes, my brother-in-law declared that we were terminating our game by saying, "You win, William. Game over. You got the most points." William, however, doesn;t get sarcasm yet, and so thought he'd really won. We followed it up with a trip through the arcade. I played air hockey against Amelia (7-3... she did better against me than some adults do), and then we had dinner at Rutabegorz in Fullerton. I had a mixed-fruit appetizer and a spinach and apple salad. The salad was insanely huge!
We stopped by Lowe's and a community garden on the way back to their house, and then I showed the kids the pictures I'd taken that day with my head-mounted camera. They really laughed a lot when they saw what its fishbowl distortion did to their faces in extreme close ups. Karen talked about trying to get her batch of the family up to visit our parents at the same time I was up there. My reply to that was, "Oh, come on!" (The last time that happened, I had booked my trip ages in advance and was told they'd be up there the following week. Instead, they were already there when I arrived, and they got the guest room and bed while I had an air mattress in my mother's computer room. Also, my 2 sisters aren't always able to get along together all that well, and I can be OK with one or the other, but both gets strained.) That was followed by more video games, and then I got volunteered to read them a bedtime story, or three, before I could start the drive back to my hotel.
Sunday went quite well. Breakfast, packing, checked out, dropping off the rental car, security was a breeze, and I made sure to bring plenty of food along this time. No problems with my baggage, and I got out of the airport, picked up my car, and drove straight home. I got home around 11 at night and was not particularly tired at work on Monday.
So, that was the trip to California that should have had hockey, but didn't, and should have had friends, but didn't, and should have had family fun time, and did.
Well, the NHL lockout cancelled that game, but I only get to see those kids once a year, if that. So, I went ahead with it.
I spent Thursday night in a hotel near the airport in Atlanta. I decided to wait until after 8:30 at night to leave home, because A) I didn't want to drive straight into the sunset for a couple of hours, and B) I didn't feel like missing that episode of The Big Bang Theory. I had stayed at this hotel before, last November, and it had free parking. This year, it had switched to charging a small daily fee for parking. I had no other issues with this part of the trip.
Friday: I got up, damaged one of the two books I had wanted to read on the airplane by accidentally spilling water on it, causing the back half to bloat up. Needless to say, I didn't bother packing that one because I didn't want to exceed 3.4 oz. of fluid. It's enough fun flying with insulin as it is. The line for security was very long, and I forgot to take off my medical ID before going through the metal detector. I guess that means I'm just so used to wearing it now that I don't realize that I'm wearing it anymore. They didn't pack enough meals on the plane, so when they got around to me, all I could order to stave off hypoglycemia was a bag of trail mix and some Peanut M&Ms. Otherwise, the flight was OK, but we arrived at LAX 18 minutes early but had to sit on the tarmac for 30 minutes or so waiting for a gate to open up. The traffic was insane because, besides it being Los Angeles, I happened to arrive on the very day they were closing sections of Sepulveda Blvd. and Manchester Blvd. to move Space Shuttle Endeavour from LAX to a museum. I got a glimpse of it from the window of the Hertz rental car shuttle as I was taken to go pick up my car, a black Mazda 3. I then checked into my hotel, which was a Courtyard in Culver City... that I'd stayed at twice before; the first time, when it was a Ramada, and then a year or two later when it was a Sheraton. I was trying to coordinate things to have dinner with operagirl25 but it just didn't work out. I walked a mile to Compari's Trattoria, which I used to do when I lived a block away from it. This was a little further walk, but not bad. The food is as good as I remember, and the owner/manager recognized me, even though it's been a few years since I was last there. I had a salad, a small pizza, and some iced tea. I walked back to the hotel and tried to call it a night, but the refrigerator and the air conditioner kept competing as to which could make the more annoying sound.
Saturday: I had breakfast at the hotel, drove out to Fry's Electronics in Anaheim, and was disappointed with their selection that day. I wish I'd visited the one in Manhattan Beach on Friday, but then again, the traffic would've been awful. I know I'll probably get to visit the one near Seattle in a month or so, though. Anyhow, after that, I drove straight on to my sister's house in Anaheim. I gave the kids 2 Marvel plushies each (Wolverine and Iron Man for William, and Wolverine and Storm for Amelia). We played some video games (retro Atari 2600; I kicked their butts at Slot Racers), and then we were off for lunch and Amelia's team's soccer game. The kids don't like In-n-Out (Blasphemers! Heretics! Burn!), so I had my first Carl's Jr. visit in a few years. Not bad. Amelia's team did OK, but I think my sister is much more "into" being a soccer mom than Amelia is "into" being a soccer player.
After that, we went to Camelot and tried to play a round of miniature golf. This is a mistake when one of the players is a hyperactive, undisciplined 5 year old bundle of energy and no patience whatsoever. William used the rules we read him as a checklist of things to disobey. After 11 holes of him endangering the property and persons of ourselves and possibly other people in other foursomes, my brother-in-law declared that we were terminating our game by saying, "You win, William. Game over. You got the most points." William, however, doesn;t get sarcasm yet, and so thought he'd really won. We followed it up with a trip through the arcade. I played air hockey against Amelia (7-3... she did better against me than some adults do), and then we had dinner at Rutabegorz in Fullerton. I had a mixed-fruit appetizer and a spinach and apple salad. The salad was insanely huge!
We stopped by Lowe's and a community garden on the way back to their house, and then I showed the kids the pictures I'd taken that day with my head-mounted camera. They really laughed a lot when they saw what its fishbowl distortion did to their faces in extreme close ups. Karen talked about trying to get her batch of the family up to visit our parents at the same time I was up there. My reply to that was, "Oh, come on!" (The last time that happened, I had booked my trip ages in advance and was told they'd be up there the following week. Instead, they were already there when I arrived, and they got the guest room and bed while I had an air mattress in my mother's computer room. Also, my 2 sisters aren't always able to get along together all that well, and I can be OK with one or the other, but both gets strained.) That was followed by more video games, and then I got volunteered to read them a bedtime story, or three, before I could start the drive back to my hotel.
Sunday went quite well. Breakfast, packing, checked out, dropping off the rental car, security was a breeze, and I made sure to bring plenty of food along this time. No problems with my baggage, and I got out of the airport, picked up my car, and drove straight home. I got home around 11 at night and was not particularly tired at work on Monday.
So, that was the trip to California that should have had hockey, but didn't, and should have had friends, but didn't, and should have had family fun time, and did.