So we’re off to LA to spend our second anniversary in Disneyland and eat at Clifton’s Cafeteria and buy things at Amoeba and stuff…
More upon the return…
What could make for a better second anniversary trip than a Friday at Disneyland, followed by a couple of days exploring California’s REAL urban frontier?
Left San Francisco this morning. Drove a lot. Landed in the middle of a nasty traffic jam on the Santa Ana Freeway. Fled to a Best Buy in Cerritos to buy a huge memory stick for the new digital camera. Finally made our way to the lovely Howard Johnsons in Anaheim and secured a room on the top floor with a view of the Matterhorn…
Up early. Must spend entire day at Disneyland. Went on the Hanuted Mansion (twice) and also did Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, Pirates of the Carribean, Autopia, the Tiki Room, the Matterhorn, the log ride, the teacups, the train, and more. Visited all three of the smoking areas…
I was a little pissed to see that the Swiss family Robinson Treehouse is now Tarzan’s Treehouse, and has been stripped of anything particularly interesting. It was also a bit disappointing that Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain, and the Monorail, and Small World were all closed, but we coped…
Disneyland is so much smaller and more compact than Disney World. I liked it. I also liked the unnatural fog generated by all the water in the light show. It helped keep down the ash which was falling from all the fires surrounding us…
Dinner at the Blue Bayou, which is right in the middle of Pirates of the Carribean. the atmosphere was nice. The food didn’t do much for me, but Mark liked his…
I now own a miniature Haunted Mansion…
More pictures:
Brushed the ash off the car and toured Orange County and parts of LA. I was, of course, looking for miscellaneous old supermarkets and shopping centers to photograph for the other site. We also made a pilgrimage to the site of the very first Taco Bell in Downey (and then drove down the street to eat at arch competitor Del Taco). Stopped by another Best Buy in Lakewood for more necessities and then made our way to our Saturday night accomodations at 3rd and Vermont in LA…
The motel was old and dumpy, with some very strange plumbing quirks, but it was clean and not terribly scary, so we survived it (after some initial apprehension)…
We took the 110 to Pasadena. Mark had never travelled California’s oldest freeway, and I thought it was time. Popped in a record store, realized it was too late for dinner at Clifton’s, and made our way into the Valley in search of interesting sights. And food. The sights lasted a little too long before producing food, but finally we were fed and happy…
More pictures:
Anniversary day. Had breakfast at the Best Western Coffee Shop in Hollywood. We went there looking for the exact site of a Sandra Bernhard joke, but were pleased to find that it was also dirt cheap and uncrowded. We liked…
Afterward, off to Amoeba and a stop by the Formosa Cafe (from LA Confidential), and then back to the valley for some daytime pictures. Soon, we were on our way home, with a lovely cloud of smoke to our left as we approached the Grapevine…
After committing a misdemeanor at the San Jose landfill, our first real stop was in Paso Robles to survey the damage from the recent earthquake. It was considerable, and everyone in town seemed to have ventured downtown to see it…
We arrived in San Luis Obispo and checked into our suite at the Motel 6 about 7:00. We headed downtown and dinner was at a place called Mo’s Barbecue. I was taken in by a menu item called “North Carolina Pork Shoulder”. I was not amused when they handed me a plate full of shredded random animal smothered in some sort of ketchup and molasses sauce. There was no indication that it was pork and it resembled nothing I’ve ever seen in North Carolina…
Why is that most of the country thinks barbecue is defined by the (generally nasty, ketchupy, and sweet) sauce rather than the meat? Outside my home state, I tink Memphis Minnie’s is the only place that gets it right…
After dinner, we walked around downtown a bit. It’s a nice town…
We had breakfast in the former Howard Johnson’s next to the Motel 6. It was too bad the original occupant wasn’t still there, and I started worrying that this wasn’t going to be a very successful vacation where food was concerned…
Today’s itinerary included Avila Beach, Pismo Beach, Grover Beach, and Arroyo Grande. I like Pismo; it’s more of the cheap, tacky sort of coastal town I grew up with, and not one of those pretentious California “coastal communities”…
Afterward, we headed back downtown and had lunch at a surprisingly good taqueria, the Burrito Wagon. We hit a few bookstores, one lackluster record store, and came home…
We opted for dinner in the room with Cops and Big Daddy’s Pizza…
Breakfast at McDonald’s. We were in a hurry and on a budget, and McDonald’s serves up a good breakfast anyway…
After checking out, we drove toward Los Osos and then to Morro Bay. Morro Bay was nice, particularly the way the smokestacks from the power plant were juxtaposed against all the nature. Nature is, after all, overrated. We walked around town, and even went to the rather small aquarium, where the sea life was, at least, frisky…
Then it was off to Hearst Castle. It was a Citizen Kane dream come true. Yes, I find William Randoph Hearst interesting too, but it was fun picturing Orson Wells sitting in all those big chairs. Yeah, I liked Hearst Castle…
We came home on Highway 1, which means I’ve seen all of it from Fort Bragg to Pismo Beach and from Las Cruces to El Segundo now. Which — scenic as it is — is probably enough, my love of nature being what it is(n’t) and all…
Good trip. We liked…
I just don’t understand how someone could live in White Castle country and not go there every day of the week. Such a waste. Alas, this propensity toward mini-burgers might go a long way toward explaining my ample frame, but my appetite is even stronger than usual right now, what with the thyroid thing and all…
Apparently, it’s affected my moods as well. Last week, I got rather upset about something. I realized even at the time that I had little or no rational reason for being so upsst, but I still was. On top of that fact, I was a little embarrassed and mad that I’d let it get me so upset. All in all, it made me rather unpleasant company, I fear…
Wow. From hamburgers to endocrinology to psychology in two paragraphs. A record, perhaps?
Gone to the cafeteria for dinner. Back in two weeks or so…
All packed and ready to go, we headed south tonight to the Best Western El Rancho Inn in Millbrae where our room — and two weeks worth of free parking — were waiting for us. I used a Borders gift card to pick up a book for the plane at the branch in San Mateo (which is, by the way, the single suckiest Borders on earth)…