Day Monday
We started off bright and early with Amy dropping us off at the Greyhound bus station. All went well with the ticketing thingy, although I did realize that I'd forgot my water bottle. That was the only thing I forgot so, I'd say good job me. Life would have been better if the Greyhound had showed up on time (Strike 1 for the Greyhound. Actually I'm not going to keep track of them because Greyhound may have struck out for a whole ball game). We got on the bus and located a seat near the front. Then we drove and drove and drove and drove and drove and drove and drove. We had a lunch break in Medford where I got to eat LUNCHABLES for the first time in ages (Crystal and I went and purchased food for the trip and we agreed that pizza lunchables would be lunch and pasta that we cooked up would be dinner). That was the highlight of the day at least for me. I also took a random picture of a propane tank.
We had a stopover in Sacramento where we walked around for ages and had fun. I took a picture of the capitol building and a random silver fire hydrant.
The crosswalks made bird sounds when you crossed them. It was cool but I think it might actually get more annoying than the "Walk sign is on across Alder." which means I would probably want to shoot them within two days and then we had to go back on the bus which leads us into...
Day Tuesday
This day started off roughly. Literally. You ever slept on a greyhound? It's up there with playing scorpion-ping-pong with your bare handles as paddles, well at least with the guy we had. I pseudo-slept the whole night, which is more than Crystal could say. What can I say? I've slept through fireworks before. Anyway, we get into the Greyhound station at 5:45 a.m. Our next bus leaves at 10:30 from there to take us oh, about 10 blocks to the Los Angeles AM station, due to brilliant planning by the person who booked these tickets (guess which of us that was). We decided on a better idea. We would take a cab to Union Station (which is basically where you head if you want to go anywhere), call Ferfer and have him meet us there, which we did. We definitely woke him up considering that his alarm went off several minutes after we arrived back at his apartment. We decided to just chillax and watch Sword and the Stone. Crystal got some much needed sleep. Next, I went and did a workout for track that took me nearly an hour and a half (Chad and Crystal were about ready to send a search party after me before I returned). Running in Pasadena area is kind of like running in Phoenix in the winter. Hot, but not unbearably so. Oh and you have to dodge fifty billion light changes.
I returned and we hung out some more and watched another movie (Clue) and then another one just before bed (Robin Hood the animated one). We also wandered around Pasadena just having fun after that second movie. There was lots of talking and random quoting in between all of this. (I am quite certain by the end of this trip the Princess Bride and the Grinch were quoted in their entirety). Oh yeah, and I thought this Chia Spinosaurus was worth taking a picture of.
I went to bed at 9:00 for the first time in ages so I could get up early because tomorrow...
Day Wednesday
I woke up bright and early at 5:30 because I knew that it was the only opportunity I would get to run. Why do you ask? THE HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH!!! DISNEYLAND!!! On the way there, I got a picture of Angels Stadium because I could. At the park, we met up with Aaron, Bethany, and Annalise there. We hit everything one could hit in this amazing park. Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted House, Jungle Cruise, Matterhorn, Indiana Jones, Big Thunder, Buzz Lightyear, etc. I'm not a big roller coaster dude. I just don't really enjoy empathizing with a bowling pin, but I had fun. People asked me to take pictures. Um...yeah. I'm not much of a picture dude (I might be more of one if I had a camera, actually no I'd probably forget to bring the camera) but here we go.
This is Space Mountain. I didn't go on this one when I went to Disneyworld but it was enjoyable. I was quite entertained by Chad yelling "Yeah..." and the girls screaming. As you can tell, this was Crystal's least favorite.
Buzz and Tigger. Didn't really feel like waiting in line to get a real picture. Anyway, we went on almost everything. Yes even me Mr. Doesn't Want To Empathize With Bowling Pins. I found out something interesting. I go dead silent on roller coasters. I don't know why. Maybe because bowling pins are silent.
Anyway, a ride that deserves special mention is the Indiana Jones ride because you feel like you're driving a jeep. Guess who got to be the "driver" and pretended like he was steering and stepping on gas pedals and brakes all while talking in a pseudo-Australian accent? I have no idea.
Other rides that were fun was the hilarious Jungle cruise, the Buzz Lightyear shooting gallery, and even some of the roller coasters I enjoyed myself on. At 3 or so, Aaron, Bethany, and Annalyse left for California Adventure and then the three of us would go on a ride and if rock paper scissors for who was the odd one out. We met back up with Aaron, Bethany, and Annalyse at 7 for the aforementioned Indiana Jones Ride and then hung out and did some more rides and stuff. All in all quite a fun time.
We stayed in Disneyland until like 10 or something and then we all headed back. We finally crashed around midnight at Ferfer's place.
Day Thursday
This day we kind of spent hanging out for the early part of the day. Crystal's grandpa passed away this morning and me and Ferfer did our best to comfort her. We watched the Grinch which is a nice happy movie for such a situation. Ferfer suggested we go to this thing called Medieval Times. After a little bit of figuring we got it all worked out except we realized to catch it we needed to hurry out since we've been relying on public transit the whole time. While we were at Union Station we realized the next train left at 4:20 which was good because it was currently 4:13 when we realized this. We rushed to get tickets and then took off for the train departing place. We got up there and there was a train preparing to leave. Ferfer snuck his way on and tried to figure out if it was where we needed to go. The conversation went something like this
"Oceanside?"
"San Bernandino."
"Oceanside?"
"San Bernandino."
"South?"
"East."
So realizing that this wasn't where he was supposed to be, Ferfer got off the train and very nearly got eaten by it and we all got on the right train.
And public transit comes through again by the train being stupid and delaying us like twenty minutes because someone didn't know how to operate the switches or something. We took a cab after that and ended up arriving at Medieval Times around 6:00. This is when the show was supposed to start. We got these awesome crown hat thingys and were sat down. They gave us a little flag and some soup. It was set up like a medieval arena and basically we got to watch knights fight while eating dinner, which rocked!
Anyway, they subdivided us into groups and we got to root for the knight who was in our section. We got the Black and White Knight. Here's what he looked like.
Yeah. Pretty much awesome. Here's how they described him.
Defender of the Ancient Shrine at Santiago De Compostela. He is mightiest in skill among an order of warrior priests whose arrival upon the field brings despair to the impure of heart. In prayer humble. In service loyal. In battle invincible!
So yeah, if you didn't think he was awesome already...
Anyway, we had soup, a giant piece of chicken, ribs, a potato thingy, and a pastry for dessert. And since it's medieval there is no silverware. Anyway, the whole fanfare thing happens and the green knight is yelling something or other about him being the best and his home country rocking and somesuch and everyone who is paying attention realizes that he's the bad guy. For the first challenge, he asks if anyone wants to challenge him. Our dude is the only one brave enough to do so. (And anyone paying attention knows that means he's probably going to die)
There's a long and epic battle and then he dies. There's more fighting and the green knights loses to a combination of the red knight and the prince, but because I'm well versed in deluding myself, our guy really won because of the following reasons.
1. He was the only one brave enough to challenge the green knight first off. Go back and look at that picture. Do you see any fear? I didn't think so.
2. He very nearly beat the green knight by his lonesome. The red knight needed the prince's help.
3. He's a WARRIOR PRIEST!!!
4. Reason 4. We need one.
Anyway, we took the cab back and the three of us wore our goofy crown hats all the way back. We even got some comments about being royaltly. Here's the three of us because I'm too much of a cheapskate to pay for the picture myself.
We got back and decided to watch a Knight's Tale since we were in a medieval mood and then crashed.
Day Friday
So we headed off to the beach in the afternoon. We spent ages trying to locate the Big Blue Bus station, which shouldn't be that hard to locate, but given our current luck with public transit...yeah. Anyway, we found it and rode out to Santa Monica and had fun on the beach. Ferfer decided to avoid the water because of the wind but Crystal and I wandered out there, her a little farther than me. I also chased seagulls which was boatloads of fun and we wrote in the sand and Crystal tackled Chad and got him all sandy.
On the way back we decided to hit up Hollywood. First we stopped off at Universal Studios and wandered around their mall place. We found a food place with the fanciest looking Subway I have ever seen. Observe.
Probably should have eaten there but I waited fifteen hours for Pizza Hut Express to give me food. They really shouldn't have Express in their name if they're going to do that to you. Anyway, we wandered around this huge mall place, Crystal bought socks at the only sock store I have seen to date, Chad and I talked about all the various items in their toy shop including little dragons with swords that functioned as letter openers. There was also a mug with a bunch of equations on it that I recognized that Crystal said I should get. I didn't. I don't drink coffee. Anyway, after wandering around there, we headed to the Hollywood Walk of Stars and had fun dodging people and looking at all the stars.
I spent forever looking for a Liam Neeson star, but couldn't find it. This surprise though will satisfy me for now.
Here are some more people who deserve their stars and are all favorites of mine.
Okay yeah. That one I didn't see coming.
And this guy got one somehow. It sure as heck ain't for acting.
So after wandering around Hollywood for a good long time we make our way back to the metro. We see a metro preparing to leave and we hop on it just barely avoiding getting eaten by the doors. We all laugh and have a good time about just making it onto the train. And then we find out at our next time we got on the wrong train. Good job us. Especially when one considers that by the time we get back to Union, we miss the last metro to Pasadena by about three minutes. So we had to take another cab. Then we stayed up late until 3 am watching Liar, Liar.
Day Saturday
This was the last day with Chad. We really just kind of hung out, did a load of laundry, cleaned up Ferfer's apartment, watched the Proposal (I actually came back in the middle of it from running), and figured out our plan for the day. Since our itinerary stated that we were to go to the Los Angeles AM station get on a bus at 5:50 have it take us 10 blocks to the Greyhound station, and then we didn't have another bus leave until 10:30 that night, Chad would walk the 10 blocks meet us there, we'd leave our stuff on the bus and just hang out until we needed to go. It was a brilliant plan. Nothing could go wrong with it. We figured AM meant Amtrak and since Union Station was the most likely Amtrak station we headed to Union Station. A bit of talking around and we found out the Greyhound didn't stop there. So...we hoofed it to the Greyhound station where the 10:30 bus departed from, Chad and all.
We checked our bags no problem and then I watched everything while Crystal and Chad got Mickey D's. First time I'd had that in ages. Considering I also had donuts multiple times during this trip, I was overloading on junk food I hadn't had in ages. We talked and had fun in our last hour and a half with Ferfer. He technically shouldn't have been in the ticket center with us, but we snuck him in and then we all decided he should leave when we witnessed an Amber Alert thingy happening and we'd rather not have Ferfer be caught without a ticket where it said "Ticketed Passengers Only." I let Crystal have the last Ferfer hug and we bade him farewell and said that we should do it again next year with more people. After he left out of curiosity I went up to the counter and asked where the hey Los Angeles AM station was. They had no clue. So apparently , there's this phantom Los Angeles AM station that no one knows exists but apparently Greyhounds pass through all the time.
Anyway, a line started forming around nine for our bus, at least that's what Crystal thought. I could not for the life of me figure out why people would get in line for a Greyhound an hour and a half before departure but we wandered over there only to find out that this was another bus going the same direction that was late. That made more sense although both buses boarded at about the same time. And boy were they crowded. Crystal and I very nearly didn't get to sit together, but some random stranger moved so we could. Thank you random stranger. Life would have been much worse without you. Anyway, I drifted off into "Greyhound sleep".
Day Sunday
I actually slept decently and literally nothing happened this day. When you consider that a text conversation about Heroscape was one of my highlights, that should give you a good idea about the day. If I hadn't purchased that puzzle book before leaving, life would have been horrible. We stopped off in Sacramento in the morning, went for a little walk, and also had a stopoff in Medford where we ate Subway. (We didn't purchase food prior to for this trip) When we finally got back at around 6:30, Rob Bell and Jason Haggard came and picked us up and I decided that I would need an amazing reason to get back on one of those Greyhounds. Ferfer is about the only one that comes to mind right now. Thank goodness Crystal was with me. Those things would have been unbearable by oneself.
All in all, it was an amazing rock-awesome time (minus the bus stuffs). We should really get more people so we can drive and not have to take the Greyhound. Any further questions can be directed to Sam Robison or his call taker person Mr. Voicemail.
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