L.A. Wrap Up

On Sunday, we took Peter Pan's understudy (nee Grant) to Disneyland. Now you may be thinking, what two year old goes to BOTH Disneyland and Disney World within the same 6 month span? That would be an excellent question, and my only answer is GRANT.

As expected, he had a ridiculously good time. He got to ride on the Matterhorn, his first real roller coaster. And of course he got to ride many rides with NeNe (Erin's mom), which he loved.

Here's Grant sporting his "Honey, I Shrunk The Audience" 3-D glasses:



And here's Grant and me in the back car of a coaster...


I made two observations at Disneyland when comparing it to Disney World. First, the apparently "refurbed" Space Mountain at Disneyland is a VAST improvement on the one in Florida. It is MUCH darker than it's Disney World counterpart...far more exciting as a roller coaster. My other comment is that Disneyland's castle looks like a suburban home outfitted with turrets. It's tiny. I was pretty shocked when I saw it. Old Walt must have decided his studio apartment sized castle wasn't cutting it when he later built Disney World.

Here's Grant tuckered out in the rental car, post-Disney, with his favorite new appendage from Peter Pan:



On Monday, I dragged Erin around to some Los Angeles based Beach Boys sites. She was unimpressed. She apparently had no interest in seeing the house where Brian Wilson lay munching Animal Crackers in bed for several years or where Dennis Wilson hosted luaus with Charlie Manson. I guess we simply have different interests.

Next we headed over to the Santa Monica Pier to let Grant ride some more rides. The kid really is turning into a ride junkie. We bought him a pass to ride all of the little kid rides, and he had a blast. He kept the staff well entertained also.




Monday evening we had dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Santa Monica called Lares. I ordered a chicken dish in chipotle sauce which was indicated to be "very spicy." Having been lured by this before, only to find out it's "very spicy" if you think Taco Bell is "very spicy," I was shocked to discover that my meal was, indeed, freaking spicy. I couldn't feel my tongue or lips. I was drooling margarita onto my shirt it was so spicy. The flavor was excellent, but I almost couldn't keep it in my mouth long enough to enjoy it.

At the conclusion of our meal, our server came over, looked down at my plate with a big grin and said, "Not bad! Not bad!" I replied, "It bwas bewwy beweey gwood."

On Saturday we took a drive up the coast through Manhattan Beach and the world's largest "Say No To Drugs" display, better known as Venice Beach. Anyone who walks through Venice Beach and exits the other side thinking, "Man, I'd really be happier if I had a joint" is obviously not paying attention.

After Venice, we made our way to Tony P's for dinner in Marina Del Rey. As I looked out the window at all the boats, I noted to Erin that this was the exact set of docks where Dennis Wilson drowned. Having had enough Beach Boys trivia for a lifetime, she threatened to throw me overboard, so I kept my other facts to myself.

All in all, it was a nice trip, but I'm glad to be home. Erin and Grant return from Sacramento on Saturday...hopefully I can get the house cleaned up by then.