Vacation

We checked into our hotel early on Monday afternoon after the long drive. We stayed at the Hyatt Century Plaza in Century City adjacent to Beverly Hills. The hotel was great for the price. I booked through Priceline and got a good rate.

We went to the Fashion District downtown to look for a prom dress for Chacha. We were off to a bad start as we walked through Santee Alley. I told her not to get her hopes up, but she ended up finding a dress she loved that fit her.

We left downtown and headed to USC, my alma mater. The Queen and Chacha had been probably fifteen years ago and Cheeseball had never seen it. I gave them a quick tour including Doheny Library, Heritage Hall and the bookstore. It felt good to be back on campus. Sometimes it feels like I only dreamed I went to school there.

Tuesday morning I went for a jog and noticed some filming going on in the hotel lobby. A TV pilot for fox, Traffic Light, was being filmed. There was a clown and an actor that The Queen recognized. I spoke to an actress to get the name of the show and asked her what the story with the clown was. She told me, "it's a long story dude."

We made our way to Knott's Berry Farm. We ate at the Chicken Restaurant before entering the park. It was weird because most of the employees were over fifty years old. The restaurant was a little run down and it was very fitting that the employees were all older people. We made some jokes, but the service was good. They ticket taker at the gate was also an older gentleman. I made a joke that there must be a retirement home attached to the park.

We entered the park with low expectations. The first ride line we looked at was pretty long and slow moving. We decided to look for another ride. We were surprised that the next roller coaster we went to had a short line. That was the trend for the day. Every roller coaster except for one had a fifteen minute or less wait. We entered the park at about twelve thirty and had ridden all of the coasters by about three o'clock. We then let Cheeseball choose whatever ride she wanted. She chose some of the kiddie rides. One actually had the longest wait of the day! We left the park very satisfied with our visit. It really was a good experience. At one point, I looked out at the park and all I saw were roller coasters. Knott's Berry Farm is a great alternative to Disneyland.

Yesterday morning we went to the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood to watch Alice in Wonderland. It is a Disney owned theater where most of their movies premiere. We had no problem finding a great general admission seat and ended up saving about ten dollars per ticket over reserved seats. There was an organist playing on the stage when we got there. He played a few more songs before the previews began. We put on our 3-D glasses for the last few previews, then the movie was about to begin. Another screen descended from the ceiling and a special movie introduction began. There were pictures and crazy designs being projected all over the theater, including the screen. Then, out of nowhere, flower petals began raining down from the ceiling. After the movie, we went downstairs and got to see some of the props from the filming of the movie. It was a great experience and the movie was OK.

We walked around Hollywood for a little while and then headed back to the hotel to check out. Traffic back to the hotel was horrible. We checked out and headed back home after a great little vacation.