Thursday, Sept. 27/07 - Venice Beach and Santa Monica Pier, California
Ray wanted to check out Best Buy so we found one closeby. We spent some time in there. The Grey’s Anatomy 3rd season DVD was $49.99 there but had some sort of insert in the back that the ones we got from Ellen didn’t. After a while I was so bored I ended up sitting on the shopping cart and Ray pushed me in it while he looked around.
We went to Venice Beach as I’d read online that:
“It does have canals and gondoliers just like in Italy! Home to sun and surf, Venice also has a vibrant, off-beat beach community teeming with street musicians, skaters, t-shirt vendors, and cafes. This is a great place to shop for inexpensive souvenirs. See and be seen at the Sidewalk Café at 1401 Ocean Front Walk (at Horizon) for inexpensive American fare.”
We never saw the canals but did go by Marina Del Rey and found the Sidewalk Café. We ate at this café as they had a wide and varied menu. I had a Monet salad which had had spinach, goat cheese, glazed walnuts, apples and raspberry vinaigrette in it. It was really good. It was a neat atmosphere as no cars were allowed on Ocean Front Walk and there were various vendors on the beach side under their own umbrellas or out in the open (like the guy playing the piano, the guy painting names and the typical silver man). Little shops with oddball wares, hotels and cafes, lined the other side of the Ocean Front Walk. It was bustling with tourists, skateboarders, rollerbladers and pedestrians and behind the vendors were beautiful beaches left and right as far as the eye could see. The lifeguard towers could be seen too and I think Baywatch has been filmed here.
After we wandered around the beach and watched the surfers we drove a bit north and went to the Santa Monica Pier. There were people playing beach volleyball there. The pier had an amusement park on it which had a large ferris wheel that was 9 stories above the sea, a roller coaster and other rides. There were fishing poles for rent at the end of the pier. There was also a restaurant there too. The view of the sunset from the pier was beautiful and beaches could be seen as far as the eye could see to the left and right. We didn’t get around to looking for Muscle Beach which was supposed to be just south of the pier on the beach. It’s a surfside gym with gymnastic rings, swings and chin-up bars. It was too dark. We ended up spending some time in the arcade as they had not one, but two Centipede games!!!!! Centipede (and Battlezone) was my favourite arcade game back in the 80’s. There was also my favourite shooting game Area 51. I couldn’t leave until I got a high score on Centipede which took a few tries. Ray played Raiden while I became soaked in sweat, stiff and sore from the excitement and cursing while playing my old favourites. I was # 7 on the Area 51 game.
After leaving the pier we drove past the 3rd Street Promenade which was 3 blocks from the ocean and had a pedestrian walkway with outdoor cafes, restaurants, coffeehouses, bookstores, movie theatres and shops lining the walk. It was quite busy and reminded us of Robson Street but without any cars.
After leaving Santa Monica we went to Chinatown in L.A. for dinner. I think we got there about 9pm and ate at the Golden Dragon restaurant. I had cod and choy sum. Ugh- I forgot to ask them not to put in MSG so suffered with bloating and fatigue on the drive back to Anaheim.
We weren’t allowed to park our own car (Chrysler Sebring) at the resort so we had to leave it with the valet every night.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Monday, Sept. 24/07 Seattle to Vegas to Anaheim
Went to bed about 4am Sunday night so didn’t get much sleep. We left for Seattle at about 9:50 am and had a 45 minute wait at the border. As soon as we got to Extra Car in Seattle (park and fly) the guy asked us what time our flight was (2:55pm). I think at that time our flight was less than 90 minutes away. We were quickly shuffled out of our car, checked in and were being bused to the airport. They moved so fast that the guy had our suitcases on the bus before we had even left the car.
There was only 1 couple in front of us when we checked in at US Airways. There was a short line-up for the x-ray. When they got to mine the guy yelled: “Supervisor please”. The supervisor came and then looked at the screen. The supervisor put on gloves and got a wand with some sort of pad on the end. After checking with the wand he checked my bag – ugh! I had forgotten to empty out my 2 water bottles! They took my bottles and emptied them somewhere and brought them back to me. Ray had forgotten to discard his bottle of Coke but luckily his was loose in the bin, not in his bag so someone spotted it before it went through x-ray.
Before we left I was careful to take out my hand lotion and After Bite so that there wouldn’t be anything liquidy in my pack sack. But after the whirlwind at the park and fly I totally forgot to empty my water bottles. Oh well, the people behind me were only delayed for a few minutes J
The flight was uneventful – we were in row 6 quite close to the front. I slept and Ray watched a DVD after a brief nap. I fought the quease during the descent which seemed to last forever. If it wasn’t for the eye patch I think I would’ve tossed my cookies.
In Vegas ray wanted to eat in Chinatown before the drive to Anaheim so we went to Sam Wu BBQ where we’d been before. I knew it was somewhere around the intersection of the Spring Mountain/Valley View area.
I drove the first few hours from about 8pm to 10pm and then Ray drove the rest of the way to the timeshare – Shell Vacations Club at Peacock Suites Resort. It’s only a few blocks away from Disneyland. I think it took us about 4 ½ hours or so.
Tuesday, Sept. 25/07 Sunset Beach and Long Beach, California
We slept in and caught up on sleep. By the time we hit the road it was 4pm. We drove to Sunset Beach and ate at the Westbay Café. The waitress there was an older blonde women with a pony tail who looked like she had too much sun in her youth as she looked like a piece of leather! Actually I’ve seen a few older blonde women who have looked like that. At Sunset Beach I quickly stepped out and took a few photos of the beach and of the huge kites people were flying. There were a lot of homes along the long stretches of beach.
We went to Long Beach Pier H and went to the 4th floor of the Queen Mary boat and looked around. It’s a big Atlantic ocean liner that sailed in the 1930’s and then in the 1940’s started carrying military personnel. It was retired from regular passenger service in 1967 and is now a hotel with restaurants and other attractions. The view was beautiful across the water of the pier along Shoreline drive where the ferris wheel was lit up.
We then drove back over the water to Shoreline Drive and checked out Gameworks at the Pike but didn’t see anything we wanted to play.
We went to Albertson’s on the way back to buy groceries as we had a fridge and microwave in the 1-bedroom suite. We dropped off the groceries and then went to eat at the Panda Express – a Chinese fast food place.
It’s $9.95 for 24 hour internet here (4pm to 4pm) so checked email etc.
Wednesday, Sept. 26/07 The Ellen Degeneres Show, Burbank California
We ate in the room – Ray had Cheerios and I had soy milk. The temperature has been nice and warm but not too hot. It was in the late 70’s yesterday and supposed to be in the early 80’s today. We left for Burbank about 10:30 am and got there shortly after 11:30 am. There was a section for standby and a section for guaranteed ticket holders. We were # 39 and # 40 in line for the Ellen show! We got there way earlier than last time where we were #188 and #189. I think the standby #’s started at about #180 or so. We waited in the holding area watching the previous day’s show on the tv’s. There was a small concession. There was someone escorting groups to the washroom inside the studio.
We had to line up according to # out in the sun which was scorching hot! Since we were one of the first ones we had to stand out there the longest as they called 1 to 30, then 1 to 60 etc. until they got to the 200’s. Luckily we only had to stand there for a few minutes. It was so refreshing to go inside the studio which was air-conditioned. I think it was around 2:30. We practiced cheering and clapping and screaming etc and did a lot of dancing before Ellen came out. We had good seats in the section on the side where Ellen sits. So when she did her dancing she ended up near our section before going back to her chair. During breaks they had audience members dance and gave them shirts while Ellen had her makeup touched up and practiced lines.
The first guest was a guy who could jump over the width of a car which he did as they brought a car on stage – very impressive. Later on in the show he went outside and jumped over 5 cars – not all at a time but one at a time. He’s currently a busboy so Ellen is going to try to contact Nike to see if he can work for them as she was so impressed by what he could do. He said he’s never been injured. His poor knees! T.R. Knight from Grey’s Anatomy was the next guest and talked about his new puppy as well as “coming out.” Babyface sang a few songs. All the guests got a DVD of Grey’s Anatomy 3rd season. After the show I was so tired and sweaty from all the dancing, screaming and excitement of the show. The show had ended by 4:00.
We went to the Warner Bros. studio store but Ray didn’t like the Superman caps or shirts there. The shirts were a faded colour and not very nice looking.
We went to (Arnie) Morton’s Steakhouse as it was one of the places listed to eat nearby the Ellen show (NBC studio). Woo hoo – we didn’t realize how expensive it was. After we were inside I vaguely recalled S talking about this restaurant back home. The host who sat us was in a tux and he pulled the whole table out so we could sit in the U-shaped booth. The waitress verbally told us the menu and showed platters of the various steak cutgs and veggies etc. Ray and I each had a filet mignon. The veggies and potatoes were meant for sharing so we only ordered one order of steamed broccoli and one order of sautéed onions. The broccoli was huge! It was 2 small heads of broccoli not cut up. The onions were a huge portion too. We only ate 1 half of the round onion loaf as it was quite big. The bread was difficult to cut on the bottom as it was sort of hard so we had lots of crumbs on the table! The host said that if we go to the Morton’s in Vancouver that we should try the bread as he said the bread in Burbank was better.
Traffic was heavy leaving Burbank around 6:30. We stopped at the Citadel Outlet stores. I just went to a few stores and was in Reebok when the centre closed at 8:00 pm.
I was so tired from all the excitement of the day and I think from heat exhaustion standing out in the sun. We went to bed early at 11:00 pm. Every day we’ve gotten up too late to go for the free continental breakfast. Oh well, what else is new!
It's been nice without any arthritic pain!!! Just the usual stiff neck and back but that is tolerable.
Went to bed about 4am Sunday night so didn’t get much sleep. We left for Seattle at about 9:50 am and had a 45 minute wait at the border. As soon as we got to Extra Car in Seattle (park and fly) the guy asked us what time our flight was (2:55pm). I think at that time our flight was less than 90 minutes away. We were quickly shuffled out of our car, checked in and were being bused to the airport. They moved so fast that the guy had our suitcases on the bus before we had even left the car.
There was only 1 couple in front of us when we checked in at US Airways. There was a short line-up for the x-ray. When they got to mine the guy yelled: “Supervisor please”. The supervisor came and then looked at the screen. The supervisor put on gloves and got a wand with some sort of pad on the end. After checking with the wand he checked my bag – ugh! I had forgotten to empty out my 2 water bottles! They took my bottles and emptied them somewhere and brought them back to me. Ray had forgotten to discard his bottle of Coke but luckily his was loose in the bin, not in his bag so someone spotted it before it went through x-ray.
Before we left I was careful to take out my hand lotion and After Bite so that there wouldn’t be anything liquidy in my pack sack. But after the whirlwind at the park and fly I totally forgot to empty my water bottles. Oh well, the people behind me were only delayed for a few minutes J
The flight was uneventful – we were in row 6 quite close to the front. I slept and Ray watched a DVD after a brief nap. I fought the quease during the descent which seemed to last forever. If it wasn’t for the eye patch I think I would’ve tossed my cookies.
In Vegas ray wanted to eat in Chinatown before the drive to Anaheim so we went to Sam Wu BBQ where we’d been before. I knew it was somewhere around the intersection of the Spring Mountain/Valley View area.
I drove the first few hours from about 8pm to 10pm and then Ray drove the rest of the way to the timeshare – Shell Vacations Club at Peacock Suites Resort. It’s only a few blocks away from Disneyland. I think it took us about 4 ½ hours or so.
Tuesday, Sept. 25/07 Sunset Beach and Long Beach, California
We slept in and caught up on sleep. By the time we hit the road it was 4pm. We drove to Sunset Beach and ate at the Westbay Café. The waitress there was an older blonde women with a pony tail who looked like she had too much sun in her youth as she looked like a piece of leather! Actually I’ve seen a few older blonde women who have looked like that. At Sunset Beach I quickly stepped out and took a few photos of the beach and of the huge kites people were flying. There were a lot of homes along the long stretches of beach.
We went to Long Beach Pier H and went to the 4th floor of the Queen Mary boat and looked around. It’s a big Atlantic ocean liner that sailed in the 1930’s and then in the 1940’s started carrying military personnel. It was retired from regular passenger service in 1967 and is now a hotel with restaurants and other attractions. The view was beautiful across the water of the pier along Shoreline drive where the ferris wheel was lit up.
We then drove back over the water to Shoreline Drive and checked out Gameworks at the Pike but didn’t see anything we wanted to play.
We went to Albertson’s on the way back to buy groceries as we had a fridge and microwave in the 1-bedroom suite. We dropped off the groceries and then went to eat at the Panda Express – a Chinese fast food place.
It’s $9.95 for 24 hour internet here (4pm to 4pm) so checked email etc.
Wednesday, Sept. 26/07 The Ellen Degeneres Show, Burbank California
We ate in the room – Ray had Cheerios and I had soy milk. The temperature has been nice and warm but not too hot. It was in the late 70’s yesterday and supposed to be in the early 80’s today. We left for Burbank about 10:30 am and got there shortly after 11:30 am. There was a section for standby and a section for guaranteed ticket holders. We were # 39 and # 40 in line for the Ellen show! We got there way earlier than last time where we were #188 and #189. I think the standby #’s started at about #180 or so. We waited in the holding area watching the previous day’s show on the tv’s. There was a small concession. There was someone escorting groups to the washroom inside the studio.
We had to line up according to # out in the sun which was scorching hot! Since we were one of the first ones we had to stand out there the longest as they called 1 to 30, then 1 to 60 etc. until they got to the 200’s. Luckily we only had to stand there for a few minutes. It was so refreshing to go inside the studio which was air-conditioned. I think it was around 2:30. We practiced cheering and clapping and screaming etc and did a lot of dancing before Ellen came out. We had good seats in the section on the side where Ellen sits. So when she did her dancing she ended up near our section before going back to her chair. During breaks they had audience members dance and gave them shirts while Ellen had her makeup touched up and practiced lines.
The first guest was a guy who could jump over the width of a car which he did as they brought a car on stage – very impressive. Later on in the show he went outside and jumped over 5 cars – not all at a time but one at a time. He’s currently a busboy so Ellen is going to try to contact Nike to see if he can work for them as she was so impressed by what he could do. He said he’s never been injured. His poor knees! T.R. Knight from Grey’s Anatomy was the next guest and talked about his new puppy as well as “coming out.” Babyface sang a few songs. All the guests got a DVD of Grey’s Anatomy 3rd season. After the show I was so tired and sweaty from all the dancing, screaming and excitement of the show. The show had ended by 4:00.
We went to the Warner Bros. studio store but Ray didn’t like the Superman caps or shirts there. The shirts were a faded colour and not very nice looking.
We went to (Arnie) Morton’s Steakhouse as it was one of the places listed to eat nearby the Ellen show (NBC studio). Woo hoo – we didn’t realize how expensive it was. After we were inside I vaguely recalled S talking about this restaurant back home. The host who sat us was in a tux and he pulled the whole table out so we could sit in the U-shaped booth. The waitress verbally told us the menu and showed platters of the various steak cutgs and veggies etc. Ray and I each had a filet mignon. The veggies and potatoes were meant for sharing so we only ordered one order of steamed broccoli and one order of sautéed onions. The broccoli was huge! It was 2 small heads of broccoli not cut up. The onions were a huge portion too. We only ate 1 half of the round onion loaf as it was quite big. The bread was difficult to cut on the bottom as it was sort of hard so we had lots of crumbs on the table! The host said that if we go to the Morton’s in Vancouver that we should try the bread as he said the bread in Burbank was better.
Traffic was heavy leaving Burbank around 6:30. We stopped at the Citadel Outlet stores. I just went to a few stores and was in Reebok when the centre closed at 8:00 pm.
I was so tired from all the excitement of the day and I think from heat exhaustion standing out in the sun. We went to bed early at 11:00 pm. Every day we’ve gotten up too late to go for the free continental breakfast. Oh well, what else is new!
It's been nice without any arthritic pain!!! Just the usual stiff neck and back but that is tolerable.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
I got my doggy fix a few weeks ago at the BC SPCA Paws for a Cause...Walk for the Animals event. Randene Neil from Global TV was the MC. The musical chairs and bowl-licking contests were hilarious to watch. I volunteered at the drink tent with one other volunteer selling pop. The other half of our tent was used to sell Happy Planet juice by 2 women who go to different events promoting the juice. Usually they give away the juice for free but were taking donations for it. After the Happy Planet staff left there were still some bottles of Happy Planet juice so we sold those too. All proceeds went to the SPCA. After the BC Lions cheerleaders helped start the walk off they moved aside and that's where our drink tent happened to be.
Speaking of volunteering, with my newfound free time I was able to volunteer for the IIHF (International Ice Hockey Federation) Semi-Annual Conference in administration.
Went to Nanaimo last weekend.
Been having back and neck pain along with arthritic joint pain with this cooler damper weather. I'm really looking forward to going to Anaheim and Vegas and being in a warmer climate for the next 2 weeks. I guess I'd better go finish packing.
Speaking of volunteering, with my newfound free time I was able to volunteer for the IIHF (International Ice Hockey Federation) Semi-Annual Conference in administration.
Went to Nanaimo last weekend.
Been having back and neck pain along with arthritic joint pain with this cooler damper weather. I'm really looking forward to going to Anaheim and Vegas and being in a warmer climate for the next 2 weeks. I guess I'd better go finish packing.
Monday, September 10, 2007
Saturday, September 01, 2007
It's been a while since I blogged. Now with Facebook I find that I spend more time on that. The summer has gone by quickly this year. I can't believe September is here already! Some of the highlights from the past few months are:
- BC Cancer Foundation's Underwear Affair for cancers below the waist. I was able to raise $300 and did the 5k walk with A and H. I've posted some photos from the event. It was a lot of fun and for a good cause dear to me. The fact that it started late in the afternoon was a definite incentive and bonus for me!
- I hosted a Pampered Chef bridal shower for E and was glad that she was able to get so many awesome items as I love Pampered Chef stuff. The quality is great and they have so many cool products that help you out so much.
- I went to Nanaimo to visit the folks and also went to N's brother's wedding shower bbq there and met his fiancee. I'd already seen photos of her on Facebook so recognized her right away.
- Went to the Sunshine Coast for the first time with C and E. I tagged along with them as they finalized some of their wedding planning details. It's amazing how many people who were born and raised on the lower mainland have never been to the Sunshine Coast even though it is so close.
- Put together a slide show for C and E's wedding. R played a few old home videos on the original projector screen then videotaped them. The wedding location had a plasma tv so it turned out great! Luckily they had a plasma tv there as the white projector screen they had didn't show the old home video clearly.
- I took the Foodsafe level 1 course in case I need it for future volunteer positions. It was quite informative and interesting. Now I'm reading the Serving it Right manual and will eventually get that certificate for future volunteer positions.
- Have been to a few bbq's at relatives' places
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