November 3, 2008 - Monday - Anaheim, California
Well. We just keep stumbling into good things on this trip.
This was "Knott's Berry Farm Day" - to ride the coasters. Since it was a Monday - in November - Knott's didn't open until 10AM, so we took our time making reservations for Tampa for our day before getting home: we're set up with a hotel room so that we'll just go to the "So You Think You Can Dance" show - in Tampa - on our way home.
Off to "Knott's" with Leila leading the way and Monroe performing in an exemplary fashion. Knott's is only about 15 minutes up the road from Disney. Kathy says we were there before - long ago - with the kids. I don't remember ever being there before.
I'd checked Knott's website last nite and found out that they're currently offering a ***30%*** discount on tickets - with a AAA membership. Wow. So we bot our (cheap) tickets and walked into the park. Uh. Wow. EMPTY pretty-much. We *did* see a few collections of young adults - and kids - and wondered why they weren't in *school* on a Monday - but it was mostly a Ghost Town - which Knott's *does* have (a Ghost Town). Unfortunately, the big wooden coaster "Ghost Rider" and the real "accelerate and shoot you straight up in the air": XCelerator - were closed for maintenance.
Kathy selected - and we walked right onto "Silver Bullet" - a suspended, floorless coaster much like "Duelling Dragons" or "Raptor" - one of my favorite kinds - annnnd... I got dizzy and slightly woozy-stomached - right on the first ride. Sigh. Poor Kathy really needs a better "Coaster Buddy": I'm a real light-weight. Kathy enjoyed the coaster - and let me sit for a minute, then we wandered over to "Sidewinder": a very innovative coaster which has rotating "quads" of seats - so as the ride proceeds, the whole set of 4 seats rotates around to add to the coaster effect. I really agonized as to whether to try it or not, but decided that I wanted to experience this technology, so we climbed aboard - and it was very smooth: they actually used the rotations to smooth out the ride. But it certainly didn't do anything to improve my head - or stomach - so I begged off while Kathy rode "Montezooma's Revenge" (mostly just quick acceleration), "Jaguar" (pretty lame), and "Boomerang" (which she said really roughly threw her side-to-side).
Then we wandered thru the park: pretty-much had the whole place to ourselves. Kathy let me spend a bit of time in an Arcade where we played a bit of Ski-ball, then wandered on to find a really-clever coaster. Each rider is locked into their own "horse" - in a riding position. It is *very* cleverly-designed: the mechanical designs to contact each riders' back - to lock them in - is unique to what I've seen. So I couldn't resist and we rode together and enjoyed a smooth ride. Really cool from an engineering viewpoint and we wished that Kelly could have been with us - both to give Kathy a "Coaster buddy" with a strong stomach - and to enjoy this "horse ride" coaster.
So. 2 1/2 hours and we were *done* with Knott's. I'm not saying that they don't have a great collection of roller coasters there. Just that when there are no lines, you can cover a lot in a very-short period of time.
Soooo... we sat for a bit to try to decide what to do next. We're here in Los Angeles. What to do?
Soooo... yesterday, the couple in line at the Haunted Mansion had recommended "Pink's" - which is a little tiny hotdog stand on LaBrea - which has been around since 1939. Probably over-rated, but still an LA "icon". So we asked "Leila" if she knew where it was - and she did. About 20 minutes away. OK. So. We followed Leila and wound up in the *long* line for Pink's. Cool. While in line, we talked to another local couple and got some more ideas of things to do. Coincidentally, the guy reminded me of someone (EVERYBODY reminds me of someone) - and I eventually figured out that he reminded me of Paul Rudd - the "older step-brother in Clueless". Ultimately, we picked out our dogs. Kathy had a "Bacon, Chili Cheese-dog" - and I went for the "Ozzie Osbourne": HOT Polish sausage, guacamole, grilled chopped onions, and nacho cheese. Topped off with an order of onion rings and a Grape Crush.
Mine is the one on the left:
Well. I didn't understand that "HOT sausage" meant HOT!!!! Sausage. It was quite tasty, but I struggled to tame the burn. Overall, we really enjoyed "Pink's" and would, indeed, recommend it.
So. Uhhh... what now?
The couple behind us in line had said that they would recommend Venice Beach over Santa Monica Pier. Sooo... we asked Leila to take us to Venice Beach. About a half-hour away. No problems. We drove on down - passing billboards of various things, but a bunch of them with "I'm No Role Model" on them. Uhh. What? Anyway, we pulled up to Venice beach and admired the wide, beautiful beach and the bike/skate paths - and the Pacific Ocean. You've seen it in TV/Movies. We figured that we should literally make this a "Sea to Shining Sea" trip - so we made a point of walking down to the water and dipping our piggies into the COLD surf. Cool, both literally and figuratively - and let us officially get "sea to sea".
Then we strolled down the sidewalk past the head shops and bikini shops - and it was just - NICE - to enjoy the GREEN grass and sunset and the time walking together - despite the 64-degree breeze.
Back to Monroe to sit and ask each other "Sooo what now? It's still only 4:30PM"? Quite a day already. But we decided to see if we could see a movie in Mann's Chinese Theatre: we'd been to the hand-prints at the theatre, but we'd never been inside for a movie. Leila knew where Mann's was - so we just headed down Santa Monica Blvd to Hollywood Blvd and found the theatre and parked.
We had phoned while we were on the way - and confirmed that there really weren't any movies playing that we cared to see - but figured we'd walk the "Walk of Stars" and see what happened. Annnd as we walked up to the box-office at Mann's
- figuring that we'd just pick *something* to see - a man approached us. Now. I had *just* told Kathy that "anybody who approaches you on a street - is offering something you don't want". But. Well. It turned out that they were doing a press showing of a new movie - with Paul Rudd (!!) - the very movie which had been on the billboards around town. And we could help fill the theatre if we wanted to see the movie for free.
Uhhh.... Really? Free?
We talked a bit and got convinced that it was legitimate. So. We filed into the theatre and talked to the people around us until the movie was ready to start (getting a lot more suggestions of things to see/do around Los Angeles) - and watched the movie. Now. We're sworn to not say anything to anybody about the movie until it's released in the next few days. But it was *hilarious*. Definitely one of the best movies we've seen this year. GREAT stuff! Literally laugh-out-loud many times. And we just "fell into" seeing it pre-release - for *free*.
We feel SO grateful to have been so lucky - so many times - on this trip.
Anyway. We walked around the attached Shopping mall and found a sign which just begged for a photo:
Back to Anaheim for the nite. We still don't know what we're going to do *tomorrow*, but we had one great *today*.
Thanks for being "with" us.
6973 miles - almost over the 7000 mile mark.
Well. We just keep stumbling into good things on this trip.
This was "Knott's Berry Farm Day" - to ride the coasters. Since it was a Monday - in November - Knott's didn't open until 10AM, so we took our time making reservations for Tampa for our day before getting home: we're set up with a hotel room so that we'll just go to the "So You Think You Can Dance" show - in Tampa - on our way home.
Off to "Knott's" with Leila leading the way and Monroe performing in an exemplary fashion. Knott's is only about 15 minutes up the road from Disney. Kathy says we were there before - long ago - with the kids. I don't remember ever being there before.
I'd checked Knott's website last nite and found out that they're currently offering a ***30%*** discount on tickets - with a AAA membership. Wow. So we bot our (cheap) tickets and walked into the park. Uh. Wow. EMPTY pretty-much. We *did* see a few collections of young adults - and kids - and wondered why they weren't in *school* on a Monday - but it was mostly a Ghost Town - which Knott's *does* have (a Ghost Town). Unfortunately, the big wooden coaster "Ghost Rider" and the real "accelerate and shoot you straight up in the air": XCelerator - were closed for maintenance.
Kathy selected - and we walked right onto "Silver Bullet" - a suspended, floorless coaster much like "Duelling Dragons" or "Raptor" - one of my favorite kinds - annnnd... I got dizzy and slightly woozy-stomached - right on the first ride. Sigh. Poor Kathy really needs a better "Coaster Buddy": I'm a real light-weight. Kathy enjoyed the coaster - and let me sit for a minute, then we wandered over to "Sidewinder": a very innovative coaster which has rotating "quads" of seats - so as the ride proceeds, the whole set of 4 seats rotates around to add to the coaster effect. I really agonized as to whether to try it or not, but decided that I wanted to experience this technology, so we climbed aboard - and it was very smooth: they actually used the rotations to smooth out the ride. But it certainly didn't do anything to improve my head - or stomach - so I begged off while Kathy rode "Montezooma's Revenge" (mostly just quick acceleration), "Jaguar" (pretty lame), and "Boomerang" (which she said really roughly threw her side-to-side).
Then we wandered thru the park: pretty-much had the whole place to ourselves. Kathy let me spend a bit of time in an Arcade where we played a bit of Ski-ball, then wandered on to find a really-clever coaster. Each rider is locked into their own "horse" - in a riding position. It is *very* cleverly-designed: the mechanical designs to contact each riders' back - to lock them in - is unique to what I've seen. So I couldn't resist and we rode together and enjoyed a smooth ride. Really cool from an engineering viewpoint and we wished that Kelly could have been with us - both to give Kathy a "Coaster buddy" with a strong stomach - and to enjoy this "horse ride" coaster.
So. 2 1/2 hours and we were *done* with Knott's. I'm not saying that they don't have a great collection of roller coasters there. Just that when there are no lines, you can cover a lot in a very-short period of time.
Soooo... we sat for a bit to try to decide what to do next. We're here in Los Angeles. What to do?
Soooo... yesterday, the couple in line at the Haunted Mansion had recommended "Pink's" - which is a little tiny hotdog stand on LaBrea - which has been around since 1939. Probably over-rated, but still an LA "icon". So we asked "Leila" if she knew where it was - and she did. About 20 minutes away. OK. So. We followed Leila and wound up in the *long* line for Pink's. Cool. While in line, we talked to another local couple and got some more ideas of things to do. Coincidentally, the guy reminded me of someone (EVERYBODY reminds me of someone) - and I eventually figured out that he reminded me of Paul Rudd - the "older step-brother in Clueless". Ultimately, we picked out our dogs. Kathy had a "Bacon, Chili Cheese-dog" - and I went for the "Ozzie Osbourne": HOT Polish sausage, guacamole, grilled chopped onions, and nacho cheese. Topped off with an order of onion rings and a Grape Crush.
Mine is the one on the left:
Well. I didn't understand that "HOT sausage" meant HOT!!!! Sausage. It was quite tasty, but I struggled to tame the burn. Overall, we really enjoyed "Pink's" and would, indeed, recommend it.So. Uhhh... what now?
The couple behind us in line had said that they would recommend Venice Beach over Santa Monica Pier. Sooo... we asked Leila to take us to Venice Beach. About a half-hour away. No problems. We drove on down - passing billboards of various things, but a bunch of them with "I'm No Role Model" on them. Uhh. What? Anyway, we pulled up to Venice beach and admired the wide, beautiful beach and the bike/skate paths - and the Pacific Ocean. You've seen it in TV/Movies. We figured that we should literally make this a "Sea to Shining Sea" trip - so we made a point of walking down to the water and dipping our piggies into the COLD surf. Cool, both literally and figuratively - and let us officially get "sea to sea".
Then we strolled down the sidewalk past the head shops and bikini shops - and it was just - NICE - to enjoy the GREEN grass and sunset and the time walking together - despite the 64-degree breeze.
Back to Monroe to sit and ask each other "Sooo what now? It's still only 4:30PM"? Quite a day already. But we decided to see if we could see a movie in Mann's Chinese Theatre: we'd been to the hand-prints at the theatre, but we'd never been inside for a movie. Leila knew where Mann's was - so we just headed down Santa Monica Blvd to Hollywood Blvd and found the theatre and parked.We had phoned while we were on the way - and confirmed that there really weren't any movies playing that we cared to see - but figured we'd walk the "Walk of Stars" and see what happened. Annnd as we walked up to the box-office at Mann's
- figuring that we'd just pick *something* to see - a man approached us. Now. I had *just* told Kathy that "anybody who approaches you on a street - is offering something you don't want". But. Well. It turned out that they were doing a press showing of a new movie - with Paul Rudd (!!) - the very movie which had been on the billboards around town. And we could help fill the theatre if we wanted to see the movie for free.
Uhhh.... Really? Free?
We talked a bit and got convinced that it was legitimate. So. We filed into the theatre and talked to the people around us until the movie was ready to start (getting a lot more suggestions of things to see/do around Los Angeles) - and watched the movie. Now. We're sworn to not say anything to anybody about the movie until it's released in the next few days. But it was *hilarious*. Definitely one of the best movies we've seen this year. GREAT stuff! Literally laugh-out-loud many times. And we just "fell into" seeing it pre-release - for *free*.
We feel SO grateful to have been so lucky - so many times - on this trip.
Anyway. We walked around the attached Shopping mall and found a sign which just begged for a photo:
Back to Anaheim for the nite. We still don't know what we're going to do *tomorrow*, but we had one great *today*.
Thanks for being "with" us.
6973 miles - almost over the 7000 mile mark.
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