California Trip - Day 13

July 2 - Saturday "What Did They Do to My Home Town?"

"The Day After" Recap. Megan and Miranda got up at 7:30 to do laundry. Maleen and Tyler and the girls came in to say goodbye right then. Tim and I slept in a bit more, then I packed from 9 to 11. It was VERY tight - we got the car packed 10 minutes after 11 am check out. I have an eye infection and a possible bit of food poisoning from the 3-day unrefrigerated pudding. Megan ate Tim's leftover chicken.

Disneyland was a success. My three favorite things were:
1) Star Tours
2) Hillbilly Fiddlers
3) Aladdin Show

Tink came in a close 4th. Of course, all our all-time favorite is Soarin'. The biggest scare was when Maleen told us Tim hadn't come back with them (prank). The best dinner/food was Blue Bayou. Maleen said it didn't feel like a family vacation; they didn't spend enough time with us.

Most-ridden rides: Soarin', Pirates. Megan liked Ariel, Aladdin & the Hillbillies. Miranda like Monsters Inc., Pirates, good coffee. Tim liked Indiana Jones, Pirates, Big Thunder, Aladdin. Ivory chose Miranda to partner with a lot, and Robyn chose Tim. Everyone was jealous of Miranda's glow Tink. Miranda thought Ariel's grotto was great because the platters were cool and the girls got to hug the princesses.

We talked with Tim about eating habits. (Miranda asked him "Why does your food end up all over your face?" Grandpa said, "It's because he takes such big bites; they won't fit in his mouth and he just bangs them against his face trying to get them in.") We also talked about Michael Jackson and Star Wars.

We took Rosecrans west instead of the freeway, as it was jammed with holiday traffic. All of a sudden, we were in Manhatten Beach. We drove by Tara - looked different again, brown paint, but back-yard fence still the same. Almost IMPOSSIBLE to drive ANYWHERE - so tight; barely room for the car to get through. It was ULTIMATE CLAUSTROPHOBIA!!!!!

Manhatten Beach

We had lunch at Coco's. It was packed plus! We almost left when it took 15 minutes to get welcomed. It turned out to be the best (tie with Blue Bayou) meal of the trip! Plus it was tremendously economical. I had the ground round steak. The fresh fruit was perfect (especially cantaloupe, honeydew & fresh pineapple). The Harvest Strawberry Pie was TO-DIE-FOR (beat Solvang handily). Megan bought a whole one for us to eat later. Miranda, Tim and I shared some great one-liners that made us punch-drunk laughing. (Wish I had the memory to repeat them.)

At Coco's was the only time I drove the rental car during the trip; another car had parked too close for Megan to get in, so I squeezed in and backed it up a few feet.

We drove to the hotel we stayed in before in Inglewood. I totally crashed - one of those 'can't move a muscle' situations. The others played cards. When I got up, Megan and I unpacked and repacked EVERYTHING in the sacks, throwing stuff away to try to consolidate down to our original 9 carry-on bags.

Best Western Airport Plaza Inn

Megan, Tim and I walked over to Taco Bell for dinner - brought it back and ate 3/4 of the Harvest Pie (left the rest for Miranda). We gave Tim's Bomb-Bags to the lady at the desk to avoid any mishaps on the way back (pressure would set them off). Tim had an umpteenth snit and slept on the floor awhile (did it every night at Dizzy as he didn't like the fold-out couch).

My comments:

Doing laundry at the hotel was a real pain. We had been told that it opened at 8 am, but somebody had already started a load in one of the two washers. Naturally I let Miranda do hers first. When the 'phantom lady's' wash was done and she hadn't shown up, I piled all the wet stuff on top of one of the two dryers to I could use the washing machine.

In addition to the phantom lady (who finally showed up), there was another lady with a cool accent who had laundry to do too. I generously shared my detergent with her, and my fabric softener with both of them. I spent a lot of time sitting on the bench just outside the door as it was cooler there - and I did a lot of reading.

I did NOT enjoyed driving in Manhatten Beach. Most of the streets had cars parked on both sides, and there was only enough room for one car to get through. The one time we faced another car coming down the street, I was able to move over to the side in someone's driveway to let them through. Otherwise one or the other of us would have had to back up!

We really enjoyed our lunch at Coco's and expressed the hope that this restaurant chain is in Washington (it isn't). I'm not surprised we were all laughing and a bit punch-drunk as it was probably the reaction from those three days at Disneyland. Don't get me wrong, we had a wonderful time, but it was exhausting.

Bill and I had been having an argument all day long about the things we had bought. He wanted to buy another suitcase or tote bag, and I kept maintaining that we could repack to get everything in. He was HIGHLY skeptical, and then amazed that I managed to do it. Granted, we did have to leave a few things behind - like the rest of the laundry detergent and a big jar of granola (which wasn't very good). We also discovered that we had somehow ended up with Robyn's black jacket. It was probably left behind when they all used our bathroom before taking off.

We tried to get to bed early as we knew we had to be up VERY early the next morning. We had to return the car, catch a taxi to the train station and check our luggage and we didn't want to miss it. I fell asleep, as usual, listening to Bill and Tim wrangling with each other.