welcome to sunny california

Jennifer, Stephanie, Lindsey, the doggie-dog Annabelle and Brittany were all here with us last week. Our guests enjoyed a flurry of Six Flags, beach sand castles, and everyone stayed in a hotel in San Diego to go to Sea World one day.


Doesn't this look wonderful? This hotel was reasonable and had a kitchen, living room with pull-out couch and double beds to sleep six. But no one guessed it would have this view! Everyone loves the eels.

I much appreciate Jennifer and Lindsey making sure that Brittany had a chance to do a lot of fun stuff while I was at work or unable to hang out.

week of thompson

My Friday bday surprise was goofy golfing, batting cages, arcade and homemade by Mark brownies with candles. A blast. But, I lost the SD card with the proof on it. Eva arrived Saturday evening (right after I got home from taking Stephanie to the airport.)

Venice Beach drizzle sand castle Sunday

Eva's kids are very industrious sand architects. After we built this castle, we built a hot tub.

Hollywood Boulevard Monday

They have street performers and costumed people for photos with tourists all along here. Chana had funny run-ins with both. First, a guy who did the robot really good got her to do a "white girl dance" in his show. Later she realized that what looked like red tights on this costumed guy was really just red paint on his skin - and he was only wearing a little leather g-string with tassles on his belt. She went over to try to clandestinely take a picture of his bare bottom to show her friends and he turned around and caught her. After that, he kept winking at her and waving, and then later came over, stood right in front of her, and started shaking his booty at her. It was one of those painfully funny embarassing things.

I had a good time hanging out with Roger, which I did a lot of thanks to our common love of roller coasters. Likewise for Mark and Eva with their common disinterest in coasters. (They went to the park together with the girls on Wednesday when Roger and I ditched them for the siren call of Magic Mountain.)

Knotts Berry Farm Tuesday

All but Mark went to Knotts. That park is perfect for a family with varying tastes in ride intensity. Roger, Chana and I (and sometimes Sade) broke out of Snoopy's Camp for some high-thrills. The Xcelerator shoots you like a rocket 80 mph in 6 seconds for 32 seconds worth of straight up, over a hump in the track and straight down into some loops. The Silver Bullet is probably my favorite (because the wooden coaster is closed for repair this year) - the bullet is a smooth, feet dangling coaster with lots of loops and cork screws. But the highlight of the day was seeing Aubri and Marissa become the next generation of coaster junkies. Aubri's quote, "That was awesome! Let's go again! My favorite part was when the skin on my face felt like it was falling off. Did you feel that, too?" Marissa also loved the rides, but was not big enough to feel her face fall off (she would have if they'd have let her.) So she stuck to the log ride, which was the scariest in her height bracket - and rode it 11 times.

Six Flags Wednesday

Roger, Chana, Sade and I hit the big-kid coasters. We rode every coaster at Six Flags except Superman and Tatsu. We worked the park pretty good. I've been to this park a lot of times, but surprisingly had not been on very many of the rides. The Riddler you ride standing up. The X2 - well, that one is really unpredictable - one minute you are laying on your back going up the track backwards, the next your seat swivels unexpectedly to face your head next to the track right before you plunge down. You just never know where you are going. We sat in the front row. My favorite is Batman or DejaVu. I learned that you can get too much of a good thing - after throwing up all night and still feeling like I was on a coaster all day at work the next day.

Wicked @ Pantages Thursday

I could watch this show every week. Poor Roger. Little did he know what he was in for when he insisted that he and Eva should do more for my birthday than just visit me. They treated me to this show - and it was a wonderful performance... I cried again. And I realized that one of the reasons I like it has a little to do with Eva (The Good One) and Mona (The Green Sheep) mirroring the storyline's path through friendship with one another, and ending up being Changed For Good by one another.

This one is for Eva: You asked for it.

Hollywood Driving Tour & Universal City Walk Friday

Mark took the fam on the usual drive around local points of interest. A very good Journey tribute band was playing the City Walk - and some b-boys gave a modest show. I hold Marissa to tell me I was hip, and she called me a hippo.

China Town Saturday

I collect paper money from around the world, and I got some Chinese Yuen and some Iraqi Dinar (with Saddam's face - but Mark thinks it's fake.) I don't have any pictures because I forgot to copy Eva's SD card before she and her beautiful family left today.