1997 California Vacation
In mid April of 1997 I was sent to California to represent
our employer at an annual
software convention. This year they decided to only send myself (last year
my supervisor also went). I took some time after the convention concluded
to explore some of the sights in California and surrounding area.
Debbie joined me after her workday ended on the 10th.
Here is a short travelog of our adventures and some comments.
Sunday April 6th - Flight, Arrival in California
Monday April 7th - Conference, Mystery Dinner
Tuesday April 8th - Conference, Beach
Wednesday April 9th - Conferences all day
Thursday April 10th - Conference, Beach, Debbie's arrival
Friday April 11th - Boulder Dam, Flagstaff
Saturday April 12th - Meteor Crater, Grand Canyon
Sunday April 13th - Las Vegas, Desert
Monday April 14th - Universal Studios
Tuesday April 15th - IMax, Wax Museum, Ripley's Believe it or not
Wednesday April 16th - Disneyland, Beach
Thursday April 17th - Disneyland, San Diego
Friday April 18th - Sea World
Saturday April 19th - San Diego Zoo, Mexico
Sunday April 20th - Navy Base, Beach, Disneyland, Return to Minnesota
Sunday April 6th
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I left on America West Airlines in the morning. The weather was starting
to get bad (colder and the rain turning to snow). We had to wait while they
deiced the plane so were about 30 minutes late taking off. By the time we got
to Phoenix we had made up about 15 minutes of that time which was lucky
since I had a connecting flight that was on a tight schedule. I had to hurry
very quickly from one gate to another to catch it and had just sat down when
they started to back the plane away from the gate. The takeoff started out uneventful,
but soon it was apparent that there was some problem. We slowed and turned
to head back to the airport and the flight attendants were scurrying around.
The pilot made an announcement that they had an indication of fire in the left
engine and were returning to the airport. I was sitting at a window seat a few
rows behind the wing so I had a good view of the engine. I saw no evidence of
a problem, but had noticed a strange vibration shortly before. I don't know if that was something
to do with the warning or what the pilots were doing. We landed and were met
by the fire response crew at the airport who made a quick inspection and determined
that there appeared to be no problem at that time. We were allowed to go
back to the gate and deplane. It took 3 hours for America West to arrange
another airplane and crew so I had an extended time in Phoenix. We finally
got off again and landed with no further incidents in LA.
I picked up my rental car, and headed down to my hotel in Newport Beach to
check in. I was staying at the Marriot Golf and Tennis club again this year. I was
so tired from the long trip that I just got something to eat at the local Hard Rock
Cafe and went to bed.
Monday April 7th
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Today was filled with an entire day of work related conferences til 430pm. After
the conferences ended I took some time to check out the hotel and see if there
were any changes from the previous year. It was pretty much the same except
that being about 2-3 weeks earlier this year there were fewer flowers on display
in the area.
After touring the hotel it was time to meet our group for a dinner and then a mystery
tour of Laguna beach. We were given clues and had to tour around the area to
find the answers to the clues and that would give us the answer to the larger
puzzle. After we solved the puzzle we had time to walk around Laguna. I went
down to the beach and took a sunset walk along it. I really love the beaches in California.
Tuesday April 8th
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Today after the conference ended I went down to the beach and enjoyed the surf
and sun. It was on the chilly side here (I am told), but it is nice to me. I've been
walking around in T-shirts the whole time that I've been here. The Californian's
here have been mostly been wearing heavier clothing. I've heard
that Minneapolis, MN has been setting new record low temperatures. I'm glad
that I got out of there before the bad weather really hit!
Wednesday April 9th
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Today we spent nearly all the day in conferences so I have not had much time for anything
else. This was the best day of the conference in my opinion. A lot of interesting information
was presented. After the main conference ended there was an open house at
the software manufacturer that holds the conference. It is nice meeting people that
you talk to on the phone, but never have seen before. I needed to arrange some
updates with them and it seem to go well and our company should be all
set after this.
Upon completion of that I returned to the hotel and made some calls, worked on
this Page and then enjoyed the hot tub here at the hotel.
Thursday April 10th
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Today was the second phase of the conferences here. It was time for the users
group meeting part of the events. That went well. There was discussions this year
of starting a Web site for members of the group. After all the business was concluded
we went to a lunch and then broke up for this year. I went down to the beach and
had some more fun there, and worked on my tan.
I went and picked up Debbie from LAX after her flight in, and brought her back
to my hotel. After showing her around a bit we went to bed.
Friday April 11th
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Today we took off early and headed east. We drove thru to Flagstaff with a stop to
to see the Hoover Dam. We even made a short jaunt on the Historic route 66 in
Arizona. The trip today was about 500 miles (quite a bit for a vacation trip).
Tomorrow we are planning to explore the area around Flagstaff.
Saturday April 12th
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This morning we went to Winslow, Arizona and saw Meteor Crater. The enormity
of that is pretty amazing. To imagine that the hole (nearly a mile across and
as deep as the washington monument was formed in about 7 seconds. The entire
area surrounding the crater is kind of a strange geology.
In the afternoon we drove back thru Flagstaff and up thru a mountain pass over to
the Grand Canyon. The weather there was strange. Just outside the park it
was bright sunshine. As we neared the canyon it got cloudy and we were having
snow flurries. The clouds were blowing up out of the canyon and the temperature
changes were causing the snow. It cleared up for a fantastic sunset. As the sunset
neared it's end I proposed to Debbie, and after a moment or two of disbelief, she
accepted!
We started back to Las Vegas area at about 730pm and stoped out in the middle of
nowhere in the desert and looked at the start. Hale Bopp the comet was very visible
in the western sky and the other stars were equally as visible. As someone that
lives near a large metropolitan city it is great to be able to see as many stars
as was there. Finally got in to Las Vegas at about 3am for the night.
Sunday April 13th
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After driving around Las Vegas a bit and having one of those all you can eat
buffet brunches we left for a return trip back to the LA area. We got to Barstow
and ended up taking some of the back roads thru to the northern area of LA. We
visited the area that Debbie did training when she was in the Navy (USNCBC -
Sea Bee's. This was at Port Hueneme, CA. We walked the pier there and watched
a sunset over the ocean. We then drove back to Thousand Oaks for the night.
Monday April 14th
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Today we dove down to southern Irvine and picked up Debbie's sister Jenny
and drove across LA to the San Fernando Valley where Universal Studio is located.
We toured the complex and rode several of the rides there. The Jurassic Park
ride is very fun. The ET ride would be very good for younger people. I enjoyed
it very much. The tram ride was as good this year as last. Some of the areas
we visited were the same as last year, others had changed to keep up with the
current popular movies (notably Dante's Peak and McHales Navy).
After finishing the tours we drove back down to Irvine and dropped off Jenny, then
drove around a bit and found a motel in the area and checked in. Once
checked in we drove down to the coast (about a 10 mile drive), and I showed
Debbie the beach that I normally like to go to. We watched the sunset over the
water. Then went to a grocery store to buy some food for our exploits. Then
returned back to our motel for the night.
Tuesday April 15th
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Today we picked up Jenny and went to the nearby 3D Imax theater in Irvine CA and
viewed the movie "Into the Deep". I had seen this movie last year, but neither
Debbie nor Jenny have seen it or any other 3D IMax movie. I enjoyed it again, and
they liked it also. The 3D effect is really quite impressive in that process.
After the movie we drove up to western LA area (Anaheim) and went to the Movieland
Wax Museum (very good), and Ripley's Believe it or not Museum (so, so).
After these we stopped at a local store to pickup some gifts, then brought Jenny
back to her hotel in Irvine (she will be returning to Minnesota tomorrow). Debbie and myself then drove up to Buena Park
CA (just north of Anaheim) where we got a motel for the next 2 days. We plan
to assault Disneyland from this location over the next two days. We tried out a
local restaurant that turned out to be very good food and a wonderful value.
It is called PoFolks. The restaurant specialized in Home style cooking, and was
very good. The prices were well under $10 for a meal - what a value!
Wednesday April 16th
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Today we got up early and went to Disneyland at opening time. We enjoyed the
Indiana Jones ride, Star Tours, and Space Mountain, but thought that the Matterhorn
bobsled was over rated. We also had a lot of fun in toontown being kids. It was a
very hot day and we decided to leave by about 2pm.
At this point we returned to our motel (not to far from Disney) and picked up
our beach stuff and went to the Beach in Newport Beach. I showed Debbie how
I body surf (or at least attempt to), and we swam around a bit. After about an hour
we decided to return to our hotel and use the pool there for a while, which we
did. Then off to an early sleep. We are planning to return to Disneyland in
the morning (early admission time).
Thursday April 17th
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We visited Disneyland again this morning. We were able to enter early this
time do to the ticket that we had purchased (it gave us 5 days of entries, waved
the parking fees, and one day of early entry). It was nice getting in early. We were
able to get a lot done before others arrived. We rode some of the rides that we
did not get a chance to yesterday and re-ride some that we especially liked from
previous days. We had our picture taken with Mickey in his home in toon town.
We left Disneyland by 12:30pm and had some lunch.
We drove down to San Diego via Coastal Hwy 1 (a beautiful drive) and checked
into a Days Inn. The hotel offered a special where we received two nights at
the motel along with 2 pairs of tickets to Sea World and the San Diego Zoo. After
checking in we found a nice restaurant to eat at. The restaurant that we found
was called Tep's Tony Roma restaurant. They specialized in Italian dishes
cooked to order and have a marvelous salad bar included with each meal. The
meal was great, and the setting wonderful as well. If you are in the area look them up.
After the dinner, we drove back to the motel using the harbor drives. It was a
beautiful.
Friday April 18th
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Woke early this morning and loafed a round a bit. Finally ended up at Sea World
at about 11:30 and saw the shows and exhibits. They have changed some things
since last year, and kept some. This year they have a baby grey whale on
temporary exhibit. It was found orphaned and brought to Sea World to attempt
to keep it alive so that it can be eventually returned to the wild. The Shamu show
was wonderful as usual. The dolphin show was great too.
After leaving Sea World we took the scenic drive home and ended up at a real
nice rib restaurant (Eric's Rib Joint). The food was Marvelous and had the portions
were very large for the price. After stuffing ourselves there we returned to the
room for the night to try and recover for tomorrow.
Saturday April 19th
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We went to the San Diego Zoo today. Unfortunately
the Giant Panda's were not on normal exhibit today because they were in breading right now.
The rest of the exhibits were very good however. We enjoyed how they can
display the animals in somewhat of a natural habitat. It is much better than most zoos.
They also have a very large selection of plants around the park. We loved
a lot of the flowers. The birds that they have on display were fantastic also. One
of them (a Lory) was trying to get to a flower and I started to play with it and the
flower. It was pretty funny.
After leaving the Zoo, we went back to the motel and were picked up by Gray Line
tours. We had a coupon for a 2 for 1 trip to Tijuana Mexico. It is about a 30 minute trip
from San Diego down to Tijuana and there is not really much of an inspection
by the Mexican Federal's when entering. We wandered the streets and had a
fun time looking at all the shops. It is quite different from shopping in the USA
however. Everyone is trying to hurd you into their shops and get you to buy
something. They have lots of people on the street trying to sell stuff to, and
they haggle the price. We picked up a Mexican Blanket, and a T-shirt for a small
price.
After getting back from Mexico (a slightly longer process) we went and enjoyed a
hot tub, then off to a local pub (Elephant Pub & Restaurant) for some nacho's and
drinks. We wanted to enjoy this night since it will be the last that we are staying
over in California for this trip.
Sunday April 20th
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This morning we got up up a bit late (at least by the time we got moving out of
the motel it was late). Had breakfast at a local Denny's then drove by the 39th Street
Pier's where the US Navy's Pacific fleet in San Diego is based. There was not a
very good spot to take pictures, but they do have many ships of all classes based there
(including 2 carriers). It is a very large area.
After checking that out we drove up the coast a bit and stopped at Torrey Pines Beach.
We walked down it for about a mile and enjoyed the sun and surf for a couple of
hours. Then we headed off for the LA area.
We stopped off at The Fashion Center for dinner (Wolfgang Puck's - which I would
suggest for anyone in the area), and to see the fountains. The Fashion Center
contains half a dozen or so fountains, some of which are quite interesting to watch.
They have several that have unique patterns of spray (moving patterns) or designed
for interaction from children.
After a little while there it was time to drive up to Disneyland for the final part
of the vacation. We stopped there and rode one of the rides that we had not
had a chance to get to the other days, then staked out a location for the Fantasmic! show.
This is a kind of story about imagination that is given to you partly in projected
movies on sheets of water, partly using costumed characters on shore and boats, and
using special effects (smoke, sound, water splashes, and fireworks). It is a great
show and I wanted Debbie to see it.
It was then time to get to the airport for our return flight. It took a while getting out
of Disneyland do to the traffic and road construction and by the time that we got
to the car rental return location it was getting late in respect to our flight time.
Fortunately the rental return person there was quite nice and personally drove us
to our location at the airport. This was very nice of him since if we were to wait
for the regular shuttle it may have made us late. The flight home was very crowded,
and the air conditioning on the flight not working, so it was a relief to get back to the
mild weather here (47 when we arrived).
It turned out to be a very nice vacation and Debbie and myself enjoyed ourselves.
It was too short of course and we really did not want to return. I hope that we will
be able to do this again.
Recent activities site located on my main server
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Last update 05/02/97
