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.