Friday, September 19, 2008

Live from Disney Land!

So, after 5 days of being here I discovered we have free internet at the condo, go figure. Any how we are here in California. The time change is killing us. Let me give a quick wrap up of whats happened:
Arrived in Cali on Saturday, got the rental car, punched in the address on boB's GPS (thanks boB) and away we went. Checked in, dropped our stuff and went to the bus stop to get a quick preview of Disney Land. First impression, how cute, it's like a mini-magic kingdom. Oh wait, the prices are still 100%. Everybody out here walks around with there chest stuck out and chin high like, "yea, disneyland is where it all started!" Where as anybody that has been to WDW has figured out Walt went to FL and got it right. It's just odd, every thing is small, rides are shoved into odd places, just plain weird. We also found out most of California goes to the park on saturday nights. We bailed around 9 I think. We only rode 3 things in 4 hours.











Sunday was a little better, for about an hour. We went to Hollywood. Wow, the glitz, the glamor, the homeless bum sleeping in the nicely trimmed hedges. Yea, hollywood can stay out here. This place is creepy. Wallet in the front pocket, carry less than $20 and separate your credit cards between people so when (not if) you get mugged you might still stand a chance of making it home. We walked a fair amount of the walk of fame, this things are apparently not as pristine as you think, everybody has one. It didn't see Jesco's name, I was disappointed. It seems the crime fighting business doesn't pay, as you can see below. My spidy sense detects unemployment...









Monday we went to Burbank to see a live taping of Jay Leno. We were all fired up, sure we'd be first in line, get the floor seats, shakes hands, talk cars, etc, but none of that happened. We took the back lot tour, cash only, separate register within NBC....guess NBC can't afford one register with full credit for both tours and merchandise. Anyhow, we got out of that and rounded the building to find we were about 100 people behind. Also found out on the tour about half the 350+ seats are reserved. However, Mandy did get to sit beside "the best seats" because there were picked specifically for Maris, Jay's wife, and they fill them if she doesn't show....she didn't show. Went to the Santa Monica pier and watched the sunset. Pretty nice all in all, cold as hell too. Smog made it hazy but still yet, I can say I've done it.









Tuesday was the San Diago zoo. Been to Animal Kingdom at Disney, then save your money. Not much to tell. Did get to see a black jaguar, a lynx and those crazy little mear cats. Took the Pacific coast highway back and that was kinda cool. Stopped at a wienerschnitzel and got a milk shake.









Wednesday was back at Disneyland. We followed our unofficial guide touring plan and jumped ran to space mountain, broke/closed. So we ran over to Nemo. That took 45 mins in line. It was so so. One of those nice to say I road it type things. Nothing to particular to tell. Lost of stuff closed due to halloween but that is to be expected.





Went to California Adventure on Thursday. It was nice, minus the fact every other thing was closed or broke and working on it. We did get to ride Toy Story Mania, very cool. Well worth the wait in line. As you can see here the photopass photographers are a little more laid back here. They put me in the ears. We did leave the park and went and "freshened up". Then we went to Steakhouse 55 and had a good meal. Not stellar service but a good meal. We were glad we got a discount with our Disney credit card, I'll say that. Then we went and got some more points at downtown disney. Vacation is so hard.





It's now 12:30 local and 3:30 eastern time so I'm off to bed. The morning will suck as usual and it will be our last day in the park. Got to see the fireworks, might convince Mandy to take the tripod tomorrow but I doubt it. Reporting back soon, Scott and Mandy.

Sunday, September 07, 2008

ZZ Top

We went to the ZZ Top and Brooks and Dunn show tonight. It was awesome. So first let me explain the tickets. We had good ticket, section 6, row O, seat 1 and 2. But I checked, by chance, ticketmonster on tuesday morning (tuesday same week) and found section 2, row B, seats 28 and 29. Cha Ching, those were bought instantly. Some poor schuck behind me paid $1000 for 4. I sold the other ones at a loss at $80 but thats OK, we had 2nd row. So we figured with the selling at a loss and the good ones we had $200 for 2 tickets. Now the awesome part is toward the end of Brooks and Dunn they let us stand right at the stage. Same for ZZ Top except it was about halfway threw their set.

Now during the Brooks and Dunn segment, which was first, there was a ton of girls rushing the the stage. One well endowed and proud girl kept showing off her good DNA she was blessed with. After that we tended to get a lot more attention from the band on that side of the stage. As a matter of fact Kix Brooks pretty well parked himself on our side of the stage about 4 feet away for the rest of the show. After B&D were over you could see the entire section talking about the situation and cracking up about it. She got a guitar pick. If I would have known it would got me a guitar pick, I would have lifted my shirt too. Who knew.








I'll post more when it's not 1am after the show.