Back from vacation. It feels a little weird to be back and the weather is so much cooler here. In the coming days I will upload my trip photos to my photobucket and the videos to somewhere. I’ll also be updating my site with new artwork so keep on checking back.
Here’s a day by day vacation recap:
Day 1:
We drove down to Palmdale where one of my mom’s sister’s lives hung out and watched Vantage point.
Day 2:
We watched Ever After, The Eye and August Rush and I finished making things for the SCBWI LA conference.
Day 3:
We got up at 5:30am packed everything into the car and drove to Disneyland. My mom’s other sister brought two of her daughters and we ended up with about 12 or so people. We got to watch the Jedi Academy show during lunch and Aleric pointed out the inaccuracies in it and the fact that Darth Vader would have demolished all the kids in reality. We went on Indian Jones which promptly broke twice while we were on it. The ride’s just not as cool with the lights on and the snake was broken. We got stuck in the dark in the part where the jeep stalls while surrounded by bats or mice (it’s hard to tell which). It was hysterical because the jeep would rumble and buck and the things would squeak but it wouldn’t continue. They did however let us go on a second time but the ride seemed to break after that and didn’t work the rest of the time we were there or the next day for that matter. We then went on Pirates, I had been worried that they would take out my favorite part. Don’t ask me why but as a kid my fav thing in the whole park was the parrot that talks to you in the line of Pirates of the Caribbean. They had replaced the old one with a parrot that was closer in color to the one from the movie and much more lifelike. He was canned awesome so I took a video clip. When the park was about to close we went back to my other aunts home in Luguna Hills.
Day 4:
We are in the parking lot of Disneyland waiting for the tram when I notice that all the rides in California Adventure Park suddenly screech to a halt as the ground begins to sway. The surrounding cars begin to bounce and the air fills with alarms sounding. Yes I happened to be at Disneyland when the earthquake hit on Tuesday the 29th. We finally get in and try to walk down Main Street as the Mass Exodus fights to break us apart. I have never seen so many people flooding out of anything. Everywhere people seem to be having no luck with cell phones (they didn’t work for 2 hours). We get to and ask the girl at Star Tours when she thinks the rides may reopen, of course she has no idea. We end up sitting in the shade in front of the Tiki Room eating pineapple whips. A lady from Canada voices her surprise that all the buildings didn’t fall down and we have to explain the California building code to her. All the rides a closed for about 3 hours and then only some reopened. We ended up sitting outside Space Mountain under a tree and talking to this cool guy Brad Stone about art, and life. The only rides we actually got on the day were The Jungle Cruise and the Hall of Innovations which isn’t so much a ride as a moving room of canned awesome. We got to see the worlds move advanced AI and yes I got a video clip which I’ll post soon. Though I tried really hard to find her at Fantasmic I never did find my friend Brianna :iconbri-chan: I blame the earthquake. We finally left the park with these goodies in tow: 2 plush keychain Stitch’s, 2 Stitch as Emperor Palpatine action figures, a Squirt the turtle plush keychain, an Apprentice Mickey car antenna topper, a Star Wars Clone Pilot Republic Gunship and At-at that turn into transformers, a green Tinkerbelle “Little Miss Sassy” t-shirt and a build your own Lightsaber (which I built and proceeded to carry around the rest of the time we were there) that lights up blue and makes noise.
Day 5:
Aleric surprises me by taking me to the La Brea Tar Pits which somehow I forgot was even in California. It’s a pretty cool place if you find museums fun (which I do). It’s kinda weird since it’s a green park with a giant lake of tar surrounded by sky scrapers but hey that have Saber Toothed cats! In fact they have the largest collection of Ice Age bones in the world, an observation room and working pit where you can see Paleontology students wallowing around in tar muck. When we were done we drove back but stopped to drive down the street I was named after, Alicia pkwy. Every time we would go visit my aunt, my mom would point it out but somehow we just never drove down it. For someone with an uncommon name it’s a little weird to see your name on everything. We got back and worked on making banners. My aunt owns a scrapbooking store (among other things) that also had printing services one of which was banner printing. Though the store is closing they still have the printing equipment and so KatGirl Studio now has a 89inx33in retractable banner. If you’re looking for a banner for shows or cons for $250 (half the price of other companies) I can hook you up. I finish my art first and decide to go out and pet Hot Shot their miniature horse (apparently completely different than a pony) who lives in a cute little corral in their backyard. He’s almost the size of my parents German Sheppard and also gets taken for walks in the evening.
Day 6:
We pack up everything and head to my aunts store to get the banners printed. It’s sad that when I actually get to see it its closing, then again I haven’t seen them in about a decade so. Aside from the banners, they bestow upon me a bunch of gifts they make or import. Which I’ll share with you all later. After we go back and get the banners assembled we head out to Beverly Hills were the conference is being held and check into our inn thing. Not to complain but I wouldn’t recommend the place since the air conditioner was loud the shower was badly lit and poorly designed and the parking garage was a pain to maneuver through and we have a Honda Fit, I don’t even want to think what it would have been like in a normal car or hell an SUV.
And because this is an incredibly long post already I’ll post the Conference half on Monday =^.^=
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