Posts Tagged California

Disneyland 2009

Posted by jim in Photo Blog, travel, Vacation on March 30th, 2009

Friday morning we woke up around 4:30am to get ready for our 7:30an flight, drove to the parking lot, got on a shuttle, stood in amazingly long line, waited for our flight, and flew to John Wayne airport. Molly knew we were going to California, but she thought we were going to visit my Dad. It was hard keeping the secret. Patricia and I almost blew the surprise 50 times. On the shuttle ride from the airport to the hotel we decided to tell Molly about Disneyland because everyone on the shuttle was talking about it. She was very happy.

We had 3 day park hopper passes, but wanted to use them Sat – Mon. So, Friday we walked to Disneyland to cruse around Downtown Disneyland for some shopping. Walking there was GREAT! The hotel said there were 1.5 blocks away… Blocks my ass! It was miles, not blocks. 3 miles round trip. That night we met up with Patricia’s friends Steve and Mel. They were funny. We had a great time.

Saturday we did Disneyland. We did my favorite ride first, Space Mountain. That was a painful experience. The seats have changed, or I have grown (gotten fat), because I had to wedge myself in. My ass didn’t even touch the seat. The lap bar only did one click down, and as we started to go up the first ramp I started to panic. I pulled down as hard as I could. The lap bar clicked again. That click was wonderful and painful. My nuts got smashed even harder, but now I didn’t fear I was going to fall out. Anywho, we did all the other normal Disneyland crap that day.

Sunday we met my buddy Mike and his new GF Ali for breakfast. It was good seeing him, but it made me a little home sick. Ali was great. I approve of her. While at breakfast it poured rain. We were lucky. It didn’t rain the rest of our day. We went to California Adventure and did all the normal things there too.

Monday we did both Disneyland and California Adventure. We rode the Tower of Terror. That’s my new favorite ride. It’s not often my fat ass gets lifted out of my seat! That night we were supposed to meet up with Sandi and crew. Things happened and we weren’t able to meet her wife, and oldest son, but we got to meet Sandi and her youngest son. We went to Dave & Buster’s. Sandi kicked my ass at a basketball game, proving home much I suck at basketball. She has photo proof of her kicking my ass. Maybe she’ll send the photo so I can post it and publicly humiliate myself a little more.

Monday we had an afternoon flight home. We got breakfast, check out of the room, and hung by the pool until the shuttle came.

We had a great trip. I wish our vacation was longer. Here’s some photos. I’m not sure if the new photo blog format works well when telling a story like this. I tried to put them in order though.

Enjoy!

: Waiting for a shuttle

: Jimbo + Bored in the airport + Molly’s Toys = Oh dear

: 7:30am Flight

: Jags don’t come Jimbo Sized

: Space Mountain

: Fantasmic

: Pixar Parade

: Soarin’ Over California

: Jumpin’ Jellyfish

: All Aboard!

: Tower of Terror

: Dinner with Blogger Sandi and son.

: Sandi’s loot.

: Grizzly River Run

: Molly’s Kitchen

: Jolly Rancher Soda?!

: Pool Signs

California, Photo Blog, travel

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Another Trip To California

Posted by jim in Photo Blog, travel on July 2nd, 2008

So I made a trip back to California for the 3rd time in a little over 2 months, but this time Patricia and Molly came with me. We were planning on going to the Grand Canyon, but with the price of airfare on the rise we thought it would be cheaper to drive somewhere… and it was. Flights for the 3 of us would have been over a grand, then we still would have rented a car and paid for gas. We ended up just renting a car and driving to California. We had the trip pretty much planned out. Something scheduled each day, but nothing with a real set time frame.

On Friday the 13th we drove from Portland, OR to Merlin, OR. We spent the night at my Mom’s house and she dog sat Jade for the week. It was going to be $27 a day to board Jade at the vet. Saturday morning we packed up and hit the road. We took 199 to 101 to hit the California coast. It’s a longer drive then taking the boring I-5 route, but there is more to see. Who doesn’t want to see more? You can see too.

We drove through the Redwood National Forest.

Then we stopped at the Trees of Mystery. We didn’t take a tour. We just played with Babe the Blue Ox!

There was apparently a biker “Redwood Run” the weekend we drove down. We saw THOUSANDS or bikers camped out along a river. We were too awestruck to take a photo. Sorry. I really wish we would have. It was impressive. I couldn’t see any patches of earth under the bikes and tents. They were packed in that close.

Sunday was Father’s Day. We had breakfast with my Dad, and then drove to San Jose to have lunch with my good buddy Mike McClatchey, and go to the Winchester Mystery house. I spent most of my life and never went there before. It was pretty cool. The tour guide didn’t like us. We were entertaining ourselves. Oh well… Sucks to be her!

Some of the stairs and walk ways were super tiny. It felt like I needed to grease up my shoulders to get through some areas.

The View from one of the balconies.

While walking around in San Jose I saw this in the news paper machine. Effect 6/16/08 gay marriage was legalized in California. I asked Mike to marry me. He agreed, but we didn’t follow through. Its a shame too. He has a sweet ass!

Monday we picked up my Dad and went to the Jelly Belly Factory for a guided tour. They were pretty much closed down for maintenance, but we still had fun. More importantly we got Popcorn flavored Jelly Bellies! My favorite!

The LOOT!

On Tuesday we went to Discovery Kingdom. For you old school Nor Cal peopler that’s Marine World Africa USA. It was hot. Patricia tripped and fell hard on her knee. We even had to go to the first aid booth, but she was a trooper. She still walked all over that damn place.

Molly’s first REAL roller coaster. Tony Hawk’s Big Spin.

Wednesday morning we went back over to my Dad’s house to hang out and play a little rock’n roll. After a couple hours there we went to Water World.

My Dad has had an infection in his arm/hand for a while now. He can’t really grip so he taped the drumstick to his hand. Man he needs new drum heads. He’s got them plastered with tape.

Thursday we packed up the car and drove to San Francisco. We spent the day at the Exploratorium and Fishermen’s Wharf. After the wharf we drove to Monterey, CA.

Friday we spent at the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Cannery Row. We saw sea cretcures, ate, shopped, and looked around. It was fun.

They had a new otter exhibit. It was rad! Those critters are entertaining!

This Grandpa was dressed all skater style. It was pretty funny.

I saw some shit too. Not sure I want to rub my meat with shit though…

Then we saw this guy… He was ROCKIN OUT! Notice the 5 year old watching him. He was the only person watching this dude, but he didn’t care. He was born to rock, and by god he was going too!

Saturday we drove back to Merlin, OR. We spent the night there, and Sunday morning we went on a Hell’s Gate Canyon Jetboat ride. I’ve been on the ride 4 or 5 times before, but it’s always fun.

Sometimes you get wet. What’cha gonna do?

After the jetboat ride we packed up and high tailed it home. We were tired. Patricia Mother was in from Andover, MA, and we need to meet up with her and Patricia’s sisters. We still haven’t gotten settled in. We’ve been on the go for the last week. This 3 day weekend will be nice. I need a vacation from our vacation.

We also hung out with Dustin and Dani, bitched to both hotels we stayed at and got what we wanted, but this was a long photo blog and I’m tried of typing. Maybe I’ll share that story latter.

California, Photo Blog

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Doing My Best Man Duties

Posted by jim in Photo Blog, travel on May 16th, 2008

Last weekend I flew to California for Dustin’s Bachelor party. It wasn’t organized very well, and I feel a little bad about that. It took at while to figure out what we wanted to do. There was talk of a private striper (He’s fiance shot that down quick like), going to S.F., or going to Reno, NV. Dustin finally decided on Reno. Dustin gave me a list of 20 or something people to invite. Counting Dustin and myself… 6 people came. Well… 7 if you include one of Dustin’s old co-workers that was already there with his family. He was just able to tag along with us for several hours. Even though the only real plans were a rental car, hotel room, booze and boobs we had a great time. Here’s how the weekend unfolded.

Friday May 9th, 2008

Worked from 7am-3:30pm

Packed and drove to PDX

Flight was supposed to lease at 7:30pm, but was delayed an hour and a half.

Land, get rental cart, drive to Dustin’s apartment at 12am

Saturday May 10, 2008

Realize Dustin isn’t home and call him. 12:01am

Dustin tried to give me drunken directions and hands phone to someone else.

Get to Thad’s house 12:30am

Leave the party at Thad’s house 1:30am

Get to Dustin’s apartment 2am

Down stairs neighbors come up and we partied till 5am (by partied I mean I sat in a chair and dozed in and out of sleep with my head in my hand)

Sleep 5am-7am

Danielle’s sister and friends come to pick her up for her bachelorette party 7am

Dustin and I get breakfast 8:30am

Shower/pack/play Wii Bowling 10am-1pm

Pick up Nino 1:30pm

Drive to Reno, NV.

Here is when I lose track of time.

We checked into the hotel about 4pm I think, and waited for Riggs to show up. We drank, played slots, and hit up a buffet. Around 9am we decided we needed boobies. There was talk about going to a brothel house, but due to potential of Dani killing us we decided to go to a titty bar. We got Dustin an ass load of lap dances and over priced liquor. I even bought myself 2 of the most delicious bottle of water ever! Ok, maybe not the MOST delicious but that’s what I’m telling myself. For $5.25 a pop they better have been the most delicious bottles of water EVER! They’re lucky I was sobering up and had a hang over.

At 3 am we left the boobie bar. We heading for the hotel and hit up a restaurant. We all ordered the special. $4.95 steak and eggs. GOD FUCKING DAMN! were they good! It could have been the hang over talking, but I couldn’t have spent that 5 bucks better. We stumbled back to our rooms and passed out around 5am. Got up and 10 the next morning, hit the showers, and then hit the road.

It was fun and exhausting. I flew back to Portland that night. Got home around 10:30pm Sunday night. Good thing I didn’t have to work until 10:30am on Monday.

Here are some photos I took during the trip with my phone. I have more that I took with my camera that I’ll post later.

The party at Thad’s House. It was Danielle’s friend Stephanie’s birthday party.