Barenaked Ladies Concert & Disneyland
Read on if you dare -
A week ago Wednesday, I had the pleasure of picking up keker at the airport and then we'd drive into the city and meet up with trektone and singular_girl. This is another case of "forgot to set an EXACT meeting place". *sigh*. I did have a picture of her, but there are LOTS of people traveling - but I only asked two other people if they were Christine.
Did finally meet up with Christine outside the terminal and off we went. Traffic did not cooperate as Joey had said it should (I guess my powers were'nt working either), and it took us an hour to get to the Nob Hill Grill where Joey & Andrea were waiting. They'd managed to snag a table earlier and had been munching on a little this and that. I ordered a caesar salad and yummy calamari dish.
Missed the opening act, but we got to our third row seats in plenty of times for the Barenaked Ladies concert. It opened with the Piedmont Elementary School choir singing some Christmas/Hanukah songs. There was one little girl who took one look at the crowd and didn't sing a bit. Another one who tried to boogie/swing a bit while everybody else was standing soldier straight. Oh well. They were very, very cute no matter what Joey says. I bapped Joey when he started monku'ing about demon children and such. Bad Joey!
The stage was set up with a backdrop of a blazing fireplace, stockings hung on the mantel. The set list had a bit of everything - songs of the season, a few new ones (which I really liked) - sort of subtitled about "ending" and "melting" or something like that and some I actually knew (One Week, Testing- 1-2-3, and Brian Wilson) ! It was great fun!
Oh yeah, and then there was the monkey. Don't remember which song, but at one point, somebody from the audience threw a plush monkey up on stage. Lead singer was tickled pink and he stuffed the monkey in the fly of his pants so that the monkey's head was sticking out. Much laughter ensued. *weg*
Dropped off Christine first, then Andrea - and the street name rang a bell. Turns out my Auntie Annie & Uncle Shiro live about 3 blocks from her. Auntie Annie was one of Mom's best friends - in fact Auntie Annie insisted on going up to Reno with Mom when Mom & Dad ran off to be married. Mom laughingly complained that she had to buy a nightgown/robe in the gift shop because the only available room was a suite that they had to share.
Dropped off Joey and got home around 1am.
Thursday night/early Friday, I tried to nap until 2am, but I was just too excited. Drove over to the Sonidos by 3am. Waited while they got everything together and we caravaned down to Disneyland starting at 3:45am. Laura rode down with me. We yakked for the first couple of hours. She's not used to drinking DP on an empty stomach, so at the first rest stop she promptly tossed her cookies. Ugh. Joycie picked up some dramamine which put Laura to sleep.
We got to the hotel around 11:30am. We were both able to get into our rooms - I took a quick nap while I waited for Nancy to show. Everybody else headed over to the park. Nancy arrived around 1:30, dropped off her stuff. Quick lunch at Tony Roma's and off to Disneyland. Sometime around 1pm, Disneyland had reached maximum capacity, so they were'nt letting anybody in. So we went to California Adventure (C-A) - this was Nancy's first time to CA Adventure. We rode Soaring Over CA first, then walked over to the wharf area for a hot, very fresh tortilla and then munched on the Boudin sourdough bread while we watched the breadmaking display. All the tortillas and sourdough bread served in the restaurants at the resort are made on site!
Managed to talk Nancy into riding on CA Screaming - very, very fast roller coaster. This time I remembered to keep my head back at "lift off" - they have also added a countdown on the ride which helps a lot. No banged up head or bruised hip this time. Wasn't motion sick like the last time either. C-A wasn't too crowded, so we were able to ride pretty much anything with very little wait.
Met up with Joyce and company at the Trattoria in wine country. Had a glass of the Beauclaire (sp?) pinot noir instead of Echelon this time. They're both good. The Echelon is a bit drier.
Disneyland was now allowing people in again, so we went over there to watch the 50th Anniversary Fireworks. Found a spot on Main Street - so I actually got to see the entire show this time. OOOH Shiny!!!! At the end of the show, they had snow falling all down the street. Pretty nifty (says the inner 8 year old Debbie). I can't remember what we rode - but at midnight, Nancy, Wes and I were stuck on Pirates - it broke down while we were somewhere floating by the singing pirates. Thankfully we didn't have to swim to shore, - the ride had to reinitialize itself several times (could tell by the announcements). We did get off the ride and make it back to the hotel by 12:30am.
Saturday, Nancy & I slept in and didn't make it out of the room until after the complimentary continental breakfast had stopped being served. Oh well. We went looking for breakfast (should have just gone to MacDonald's up the block). Disneyland was already pretty busy by 10am and all the breakfasty type places had long waits and the other restaurants/fast food places didn't start serving until 11am. RATS. Ending up grabbing a banana and a diet coke at a fruit stand.
We all went over to Space Mountain and got a Fast Pass (good from 5:10pm to 6:10pm) - the wait was approxmiately 70 minutes - which truly wasn't THAT bad, so Wesley and I stood in line and had a blast riding. Met up with everybody else and we rode everything from Haunted Mansion, Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters, Indiana Jones to It's a Small World. I had never seen the Christmas version of It's a Small World - it's beautiful. The outside is decorated in fairy lights and there are light designs shown on the quarter hour. The inside of the ride is lovely - they sing It's a Small World and Jingle Bells.
Had dinner in Downtown Disney at - where else? - The Rainforest Cafe. The frequent diner card got us a table in less than 15 minutes. Yay!!! We had a lovely dinner - and celebrated Ron's birthday with a Volcano!.
One ride too many - Wes & I rode Thunder Mountain Railway at about quarter to midnight. I had put my glasses in my coat pocket but some how, some way - my glasses and my car keys had fallen out. The employee checked the car that we rode in but didn't find anything. I was advised to go to Lost and Found and file a report. He did say that they walked the track at closing.
Walked over to Lost & Found and filled out a report. Have you really looked at your glasses or your keys - what do they look like? Oy. I had to have Joyce fill out the report because I couldn't read the form. No fine vision - if I were not tired I could do it, but it's hard work - and I was beat.
So back to the hotel. Packed my bags and tried to figure out how I was going to get into car in the morning and such. I could wear my contacts or my prescription sunglasses, so vision would not be an issue. Getting in car? AAA was the answer, but did I have my spare keys in the car? I was pretty sure I did because at one point, I had thought to give Laura the key, but I hadn't. My main worry - the damn CAR ALARM!!! I didn't sleep very well.
Morning! 6:30am. Got up, took a shower, and then I called AAA. Guy came out and was able to easily get into my car. It was 7:45am at this point and the alarm went off. After a few moments of panic, I was able to find my spare key and start the engine - which turned off the alarm. *major sigh of relief*
Walked back over to Lost & Found (it's outside the park on the C-A side). One poor tired guy was ahead of us - his two year old had lost her security blanket at the park the day before. She was NOT a happy camper and had woken up several times during night and cried because her blankie wasn't there. I sure hope they found it.
I was very, very lucky. They had found my glasses (and they were fine) and my car keys. YAY!!! I was not looking forward to spending $611 for another pair. I always manage to pick the expensive frames for some reason. These are Calvin Klein's.
Back to the hotel and packed the car, and checked out. Drove over to Rainy's for a quick visit and brunch at Cafe Laurant. It's always so much fun to see Rainy & family. Lots of hugs =) Glad Emily was feeling so much better after the bad scare earlier in the week!
Had a major energy drop somewhere in the grapevine. I think I was running on adrenaline all morning. Pulled into the rest stop and took about an hour nap. Felt so much better afterwards. Drove straight through to Santa Nella and stopped at Anderson's for a comforting bowl of pea soup and a tuna salad. Made it home by 7pm.
Things could have been worse - it turns out that Wes was sick all the way home on Monday - stomach flu.
A week ago Wednesday, I had the pleasure of picking up keker at the airport and then we'd drive into the city and meet up with trektone and singular_girl. This is another case of "forgot to set an EXACT meeting place". *sigh*. I did have a picture of her, but there are LOTS of people traveling - but I only asked two other people if they were Christine.
Did finally meet up with Christine outside the terminal and off we went. Traffic did not cooperate as Joey had said it should (I guess my powers were'nt working either), and it took us an hour to get to the Nob Hill Grill where Joey & Andrea were waiting. They'd managed to snag a table earlier and had been munching on a little this and that. I ordered a caesar salad and yummy calamari dish.
Missed the opening act, but we got to our third row seats in plenty of times for the Barenaked Ladies concert. It opened with the Piedmont Elementary School choir singing some Christmas/Hanukah songs. There was one little girl who took one look at the crowd and didn't sing a bit. Another one who tried to boogie/swing a bit while everybody else was standing soldier straight. Oh well. They were very, very cute no matter what Joey says. I bapped Joey when he started monku'ing about demon children and such. Bad Joey!
The stage was set up with a backdrop of a blazing fireplace, stockings hung on the mantel. The set list had a bit of everything - songs of the season, a few new ones (which I really liked) - sort of subtitled about "ending" and "melting" or something like that and some I actually knew (One Week, Testing- 1-2-3, and Brian Wilson) ! It was great fun!
Oh yeah, and then there was the monkey. Don't remember which song, but at one point, somebody from the audience threw a plush monkey up on stage. Lead singer was tickled pink and he stuffed the monkey in the fly of his pants so that the monkey's head was sticking out. Much laughter ensued. *weg*
Dropped off Christine first, then Andrea - and the street name rang a bell. Turns out my Auntie Annie & Uncle Shiro live about 3 blocks from her. Auntie Annie was one of Mom's best friends - in fact Auntie Annie insisted on going up to Reno with Mom when Mom & Dad ran off to be married. Mom laughingly complained that she had to buy a nightgown/robe in the gift shop because the only available room was a suite that they had to share.
Dropped off Joey and got home around 1am.
Thursday night/early Friday, I tried to nap until 2am, but I was just too excited. Drove over to the Sonidos by 3am. Waited while they got everything together and we caravaned down to Disneyland starting at 3:45am. Laura rode down with me. We yakked for the first couple of hours. She's not used to drinking DP on an empty stomach, so at the first rest stop she promptly tossed her cookies. Ugh. Joycie picked up some dramamine which put Laura to sleep.
We got to the hotel around 11:30am. We were both able to get into our rooms - I took a quick nap while I waited for Nancy to show. Everybody else headed over to the park. Nancy arrived around 1:30, dropped off her stuff. Quick lunch at Tony Roma's and off to Disneyland. Sometime around 1pm, Disneyland had reached maximum capacity, so they were'nt letting anybody in. So we went to California Adventure (C-A) - this was Nancy's first time to CA Adventure. We rode Soaring Over CA first, then walked over to the wharf area for a hot, very fresh tortilla and then munched on the Boudin sourdough bread while we watched the breadmaking display. All the tortillas and sourdough bread served in the restaurants at the resort are made on site!
Managed to talk Nancy into riding on CA Screaming - very, very fast roller coaster. This time I remembered to keep my head back at "lift off" - they have also added a countdown on the ride which helps a lot. No banged up head or bruised hip this time. Wasn't motion sick like the last time either. C-A wasn't too crowded, so we were able to ride pretty much anything with very little wait.
Met up with Joyce and company at the Trattoria in wine country. Had a glass of the Beauclaire (sp?) pinot noir instead of Echelon this time. They're both good. The Echelon is a bit drier.
Disneyland was now allowing people in again, so we went over there to watch the 50th Anniversary Fireworks. Found a spot on Main Street - so I actually got to see the entire show this time. OOOH Shiny!!!! At the end of the show, they had snow falling all down the street. Pretty nifty (says the inner 8 year old Debbie). I can't remember what we rode - but at midnight, Nancy, Wes and I were stuck on Pirates - it broke down while we were somewhere floating by the singing pirates. Thankfully we didn't have to swim to shore, - the ride had to reinitialize itself several times (could tell by the announcements). We did get off the ride and make it back to the hotel by 12:30am.
Saturday, Nancy & I slept in and didn't make it out of the room until after the complimentary continental breakfast had stopped being served. Oh well. We went looking for breakfast (should have just gone to MacDonald's up the block). Disneyland was already pretty busy by 10am and all the breakfasty type places had long waits and the other restaurants/fast food places didn't start serving until 11am. RATS. Ending up grabbing a banana and a diet coke at a fruit stand.
We all went over to Space Mountain and got a Fast Pass (good from 5:10pm to 6:10pm) - the wait was approxmiately 70 minutes - which truly wasn't THAT bad, so Wesley and I stood in line and had a blast riding. Met up with everybody else and we rode everything from Haunted Mansion, Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters, Indiana Jones to It's a Small World. I had never seen the Christmas version of It's a Small World - it's beautiful. The outside is decorated in fairy lights and there are light designs shown on the quarter hour. The inside of the ride is lovely - they sing It's a Small World and Jingle Bells.
Had dinner in Downtown Disney at - where else? - The Rainforest Cafe. The frequent diner card got us a table in less than 15 minutes. Yay!!! We had a lovely dinner - and celebrated Ron's birthday with a Volcano!.
One ride too many - Wes & I rode Thunder Mountain Railway at about quarter to midnight. I had put my glasses in my coat pocket but some how, some way - my glasses and my car keys had fallen out. The employee checked the car that we rode in but didn't find anything. I was advised to go to Lost and Found and file a report. He did say that they walked the track at closing.
Walked over to Lost & Found and filled out a report. Have you really looked at your glasses or your keys - what do they look like? Oy. I had to have Joyce fill out the report because I couldn't read the form. No fine vision - if I were not tired I could do it, but it's hard work - and I was beat.
So back to the hotel. Packed my bags and tried to figure out how I was going to get into car in the morning and such. I could wear my contacts or my prescription sunglasses, so vision would not be an issue. Getting in car? AAA was the answer, but did I have my spare keys in the car? I was pretty sure I did because at one point, I had thought to give Laura the key, but I hadn't. My main worry - the damn CAR ALARM!!! I didn't sleep very well.
Morning! 6:30am. Got up, took a shower, and then I called AAA. Guy came out and was able to easily get into my car. It was 7:45am at this point and the alarm went off. After a few moments of panic, I was able to find my spare key and start the engine - which turned off the alarm. *major sigh of relief*
Walked back over to Lost & Found (it's outside the park on the C-A side). One poor tired guy was ahead of us - his two year old had lost her security blanket at the park the day before. She was NOT a happy camper and had woken up several times during night and cried because her blankie wasn't there. I sure hope they found it.
I was very, very lucky. They had found my glasses (and they were fine) and my car keys. YAY!!! I was not looking forward to spending $611 for another pair. I always manage to pick the expensive frames for some reason. These are Calvin Klein's.
Back to the hotel and packed the car, and checked out. Drove over to Rainy's for a quick visit and brunch at Cafe Laurant. It's always so much fun to see Rainy & family. Lots of hugs =) Glad Emily was feeling so much better after the bad scare earlier in the week!
Had a major energy drop somewhere in the grapevine. I think I was running on adrenaline all morning. Pulled into the rest stop and took about an hour nap. Felt so much better afterwards. Drove straight through to Santa Nella and stopped at Anderson's for a comforting bowl of pea soup and a tuna salad. Made it home by 7pm.
Things could have been worse - it turns out that Wes was sick all the way home on Monday - stomach flu.