The Jackets Hit California - Disneyland Aladdin Musical About This Page:

[GATechGal]

Who:

Me – Mary Ann (41)

DH – Hikie (41)



Where:

Westin, Long Beach



Why:

Hikie’s business trip and I tagged along.



This trip was actually a long time in the making. Hikie has a client in Long Beach and he was scheduled to go out to see them July 6th – 9th. I begged to go, and since that sounded alright to him and since he had some frequent flyer miles just sitting around, we made plans to go. I lined Mom up to come stay with the kids and when his boss found out that I was coming along, she got on hot wire and got us a deal to stay on the Queen Mary. I also had plans to go to Disneyland and meet up with Hikie’s old fraternity buddy and our good friend George who works for Disney. Well we get within a week of the trip and suddenly the client isn’t ready. So things get postponed and then rescheduled for Aug. 16th – 19th. But that’s the same time when my folks are on their vacation in Panama City Beach so there’s no one to stay with the kids so it looks like I’m not going. Then Gwinnett County saves the day by summoning Hikie for Jury Duty that week. So again we reschedule for Aug. 23rd – 26th. Things are looking up. Mom can come. We can’t book the Queen Mary again, but we do get a room at the Westin Long Beach which looks very nice. Delta gives us some run around about flights, but after calling back and talking to another agent, we have all our tickets. The client decides to have 2 meetings on Tuesday instead of 1 on Tuesday and 1 on Wednesday, so now Hikie’s free for the whole day on Wednesday and he can come to Disneyland with me. Yeah!! George plans to meet us at the gate when ever we want, and he even says he has park hopper passes for us, so we can go over to DCA and ride a few things if we want, and he also wants to meet us for dinner at DTD.

But now I’ve found out that Hikie’s boss is coming with us and is really excited about seeing Disneyland. She isn’t the person I’d choose as a park companion as she tends to complain about everything. Hopefully the magic of Disneyland will work on her and we'll all have a great time.

[Colexis Mom]

What a great start MaryAnn! How great that you were still able to go!

Can't wait until you return to hear all about it

[Fantasmic! kid]

Have fun, and with Hikie's boss!

PS I hope I didn't sound rude about the boss

[snoozy]

Mary Ann you have had so many ups and downs in regards to the trip, it can only get better. Make sure the boss knows the golden rule about Disneyland, complainers get dunked in the toilet and she is not the boss at Disneyland. Have a great time.

[Fantasmic! kid]

[ QUOTE ]
Make sure the boss knows the golden rule about Disneyland, complainers get dunked in the toilet and she is not the boss at Disneyland.

[/ QUOTE ]

[GATechGal]

[ QUOTE ]
Mary Ann you have had so many ups and downs in regards to the trip, it can only get better. Make sure the boss knows the golden rule about Disneyland, complainers get dunked in the toilet and she is not the boss at Disneyland. Have a great time.

[/ QUOTE ]
Actually my plan it is to get a picture of her with Cruella to use as blackmail.

[Fantasmic! kid]

[ QUOTE ]
Actually my plan it is to get a picture of her with Cruella to use as blackmail.

[/ QUOTE ]

[Jaya]

Sounds like a great trip! Too bad you couldn't still get the Queen Mary, it's beautiful and I'd love to stay there myself someday!!

DCA is definitely worth at least a quick visit - our favorite things to do there are the ferris wheel (a stationary car only, though!!!) and the Aladdin show (which is AMAZING, don't miss it!) Tough to be a Bug is great if you've never done it, as are the rapids, and I haven't done it YET but make sure to do Soarin'!!

Also, if you're looking for a good quick bite to eat: On Paradise Pier, over near King Triton's Carousel and the restrooms, is a little store that sells chicken fingers & fries - they are THE BEST anywhere on DL property, nice and crispy without being hard as rocks, and not spicy - and the BEST dipping sauce ever (the honey mustard is my personal fav.) Whenever DH & I have hoppers we always go over to DCA - just for lunch! - and then right back to our fun at DL.

[luvnwdwgal]

Great start Mary Ann! Looking forward to reading the rest!

[DebiDebiDebi]

Anxiously awaiting the next installment...

[GATechGal]

Day 1 - Departure from Atlanta and Arrival in CA.



Hikie came home from work about 11:30 to eat lunch and pick me up. We got on the road about an hour later and easily made it to the Park & Go by about 1. They carted us out to the airport and we got through security with not trouble at all. Fortunately our gate was in the T concourse, so we didn’t have to ride the trams out. Rita met us in the hall and took us to Delta’s Crown Room with her. It’s really nice and the drinks and snacks are free, so we had a couple of Dogwood’s (a local brewery). About 3:30 we went and bought a sandwich to eat on the plane and strolled down to the gate. Remember the good old days when the food on planes was included in your ticket. I feel like the country cousin taking my own sandwich. It was PACKED and in fact, the flight was overbooked. Since there was another flight leaving for LA 45 minutes later and they were offering $200 in Delta dollars for volunteers to fly later, the three of us offered our seats up. But it was not meant to be. They didn’t need us after all, so we were some of the last folks to board. Luckily our overhead bin wasn’t full, so storing away our luggage and seating was no problem.



The in flight movie was “Mean Girls” which I probably wouldn’t have picked, but turned out to be OK. I might even let Lizzie (DD) see it now. After what seemed like FOREVER we finally landed in LA. While Rita waited for her bag, we went and got the rental car. This is a little tricky in LA as all the rental agencies are off site, so we had to come back to the airport to pick Rita up. We ended up with a Dodge Magnum which is sort of like a short SUV (has the body of a small SUV but not the height). Off we went through the traffic to Long Beach. Everyone talks about how bad the traffic in LA is, but we were in it about 6:30 and it was not as bad as traffic in Atlanta so we weren’t troubled by it at all. The Westin in Long Beach was really nice. We were on the 5th floor – right down the hall from the fitness center and pool.



After settling in we headed off to dinner. We walked down to the water and ended up in an area called Shoreline Village. There were lots of restaurants clustered around a pier and it is very picturesque. We chose Parker’s Lighthouse as it had a great view of the Queen Mary. Nothing really appealed to us off the menu, but as we were coming in, we saw them grilling shrimp in the kitchen (there were big windows to entertain you while you waited for a table). So we all ordered off the menu and got the grilled shrimp which were delicious . By the time we got back to the hotel it was around 10 pm or 1 am Atlanta time. So we fell into bed pretty tired.

[GATechGal]

Day 2 – Long Beach

Day 2 started out early – 5:45 am to be exact. Which wasn’t particularly early to our time clocks which were telling us it was 8:45. Hikie had to be out at his client’s by 7:30 and it was about a half an hour drive. He left promptly at 6:45 and I sat around with intentions of going for coffee and a danish at a little place we had seen on the pier the night before as soon as it was a decent hour. But I lazed around in the room instead and caught up on the local news. Now you’d think the news on the LA stations would be good as it’s such a big market, but the gal that did the weather (and later the FASHION report) on the local Fox station was wearin’ JEANS and some skimpy top. It was really the jeans that got me. She sort of looked like a high school wanna be. But I digress. Around 8 I headed out to the Aquarium of the Pacific. The nice lady at the concierge desk gave me a map, a coupon, and sort of tried to give me directions for the bus, which I didn’t get. So I hoofed it instead. The City of Long Beach had kindly provided signs, and I think I ended up taking the scenic route to the Aquarium. It really was quite nice around an area called Rainbow Harbor. There were lots of tour boats going various places.

Also let me break in again and tell ya’ll about the weather. It was LOVELY. You really needed a sweater in the mornings and evenings, but the afternoons were great somewhere in the high 70’s but with a cool breeze. I had expected it to be MUCH warmer but it really wasn’t. It was, however, drier than I had expected. By Wednesday I really noticed that my hair and my face were in need of some moisturizer.

I got to the Aquarium before it opened, bought my ticket (with the 10% off coupon) and got behind 2 other families to go in. It really was a nice place. They had divided it up by region and had fish and other animals from all over the Pacific – both North and South. Since I was early there weren’t many kids there, but as the morning wore on school and day camp groups started showing up. There was a really interesting exhibit about jelly fish and they had several fish in that room that lit up because they live so deep in the ocean. The Leidy’s Comb Jelly fish looked like they had running Christmas lights in their bodies. It was very cool. Outside there were Lorikeets which are a small very colorful bird in the parrot family.



And the ones in the aviary must be used to people as they were often perched on the fingers of some of the volunteers. Next to the aviary was a tank of sharks and sting rays that you could touch. I declined. But I did work up the courage to touch some of the starfish and the sea urchins in the tidal pool touch tank. I thought the starfish would be squishy when they were alive, but they are just as hard as they are when you find them dead on the beach. And you won’t get stung from the sea urchins if you are gentle. Further on there was a tank with 3 California Sea Otters. These were much larger than the river otters I had seen at the Atlanta Zoo. It was fun watching them play with a dog toy that they carried around on their tummies. Later one of the trainers came in and interacted with them which was interesting. Another fact I learned about them is that Sea Otters have the densest fur of any animal. One square inch of their fur has about a million hairs in it. That’s how they are able to survive in the icy water.



The tropical Pacific tanks were by far the most colorful and the ones that most of the kids enjoyed as they were all “looking for Nemo”. There was a whole tank full of Nemos and lots of oooooos and ahhhhs from the crowd. Here's a picture of the SeaHorses.



I really have to recommend this aquarium if you’re in the area. Well done and lots of opportunities to interact with the animals and loads of really nice volunteers ready to answer your questions.

Around 12 Hikie called and said that he only had 1 guy to meet in the afternoon and he would probably be early. I was tired of walking and hungry as I had missed breakfast so I went looking for somewhere for lunch. There’s a neat area near by called “The Pike at Rainbow Harbor” that’s a bunch of shops and places to eat, so I headed that way. Crossing the street is a pedestrian bridge that is made to look like a roller coaster , but. I missed going on it. As I was waiting at the crosswalk, a rescue vehicle came screaming down the street. I started looking around and noticed that in the street across from me was a Long Beach police car with the lights going and cones all in the street. Then to my left sort of on the other side of the bridge there were more cones and the street was roped off with yellow tape and barriers. There were a lot more rescue vehicles and lots of people standing around. All I could think was that there must have been a really bad accident. The light changed and as I walked across I continued to rubberneck. With that much activity, I thought, a pedestrian must have been hit and killed and this was the accident investigation. About the time I got to the other side of the street, I noticed that on the side of one of the rescues vehicles it said “MIAMI/Dade County”! They were filming! I went on to lunch (at California Pizza Kitchen) and when I was done asked what they were filming around the corner. “CSI Miami” the guy told me. “I hope they come in here for lunch and then maybe I can get a ride in the Hummer”. Now I’ve never watched that show, so I don’t know about the Hummer, but I walked back to the corner and got this shot – with Hummer.



Feeling tired, I went back to the hotel and sat in the hot tub for a while, then went back to the room and changed clothes. Hikie showed up about 2:30.



Coming up next - Bar Rescue

[luvnwdwgal]

Cool updates Mary Ann!! Looking forward to more!!

[Colexis Mom]

Great update Mary Ann! Glad you had a good time at the Aquarium! And to be so close to a movie set, how cool

Looking forward to more

[loobyoxlip]

That's cool. I bet that was weird seeing 'Dade County/MIAMI' trucks in California?!? How neat.

Glad you didn't think the traffic out of LAX was bad. I think my mom almost lost her lunch just being a passenger in our shuttle leaving the airport!