California Trip 19 & 20

Day 19

     So we decided to stay an extra day at the Supernatural Chicago convention to see Jared Padalecki and Jenson Ackles on stage panel.

     The actors were not due on stage till that afternoon, so we drove around and did a bit of shopping at Costco and Target.

     We headed back to the hotel for 2pm to pick up our picture from the previous days photo op with Misha Collins, which turned out pretty nice, considering the time we had to adjust for the picture. Unfortunately, I can't post the picture quite yet as we would need to scan the picture.

     The panel with Jared and Jenson was fun and entertaining. I truly enjoyed watching them tease and mock one another on stage, they were quite funny.

     We left Chicago shortly after the panel ended and made it back to Canada by midnight through the Sarnia Ontario borders and stopped for the night in London Ontario.

Day 20

     Our travels ended by 5pm Eastern time as we pulled into our driveway and we were finally home.

     It was nice sleeping in our own bed and to be amongst our own things, but the dread of work and responsibilities started to weigh heavily on our shoulders.

     Now it’s time to get back to our regular lives and start planning our next trip.

     Thank you for following along and keep coming back for upcoming posts and giveaways I'll be doing throughout the year.

California Trip Day 15, 16, 17 & 18

Day 15

     On our last day in Vegas, we woke up early and headed out to the Hoover Dam. We took the power plant tour and learned about the amazing history behind the building of the dam. Up close the view was impressive.



     Back at the hotel we took it easy for the afternoon. Gambled, had a few drinks, enjoyed what was left of our time in Vegas, then made our way to the Bellagio Hotel for a Cirque du Soleil show, “O”. Putting aside the drunken guy who kicked me and the woman who kept flinging her long dreadlocks in my face, I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.

Day 16

     We were up, packed and ready to go before dawn, as we had a long day’s drive back through the desert and up through the mountains toward our next destination.

     Crossing them through Colorado, the Rockies were much more of a challenge this time around. The car lost power, and both DH and I were short of breath. I even started feeling light headed. Neither of us could understand it until I saw the sign ahead of us. Welcome to Vail Summit, altitude 10,603ft above sea level. Well, that explained it. Once we started descending, everything got back to normal. We finally stopped for the night in Ogallala Nebraska at around 11pm.

Day 17

     Another long drive and we finally arrived in Chicago at 11pm. 2 things we learned during that day’s travels. Finding change for tolls can get aggravating, and long drives through Iowa and Illinois will render 2 travelers insane. Over exhaustion and never ending roads had us laughing like hyenas at absolutely nothing. A good night sleep in one of the nicest rooms we had yet took care of our sanity.

Day 18

Misha Collins AKA Castiel & Matt Cohan

     Our first day at the Supernatural Convention was enjoyable. The actor panels were extremely entertaining, but unfortunately, I found the Q & A’s a bit unorganized and childish. It’s was incredible seeing Misha Collins on stage, but again the questions being asked were childish, and un-entertaining example...” If you could be any animal, what would you be and why?” ... come on people! How about, “how did you get the part?” or “where do you aspire your acting career to take you?” Now those would have been more appropriate, but hey, we still enjoyed it.

    The photo op with Misha was a little disappointing, I mean, I expected to be rushed through the session, but the factory assembly line they created was ridiculous. We barely got 5 seconds with the guy, and I don’t even know if my eyes were open during the picture, hell did I even have the time to turn my head to look at the camera? The woman at the door almost jumped me for taking the time to say thank you before moving toward the door and this lovely 5 second experience cost us 75 bucks. In my opinion, they should sell less photo op tickets and give everyone at least 30 seconds to say hi to the actors before getting thrown out the door.

Matt Cohen AKA Young John Winchester

Richard Speight AKA Trickster/Gabriel

Hopefully the picture turns out, we will know tomorrow at 2pm once they are available for pick up.

Oh well ...

California Trip Day 13 & 14

Day 13

     We left the magical world of Disney and headed to Las Vegas, the city of sin ... more like the city of boring unless you’re into night clubs and gambling or if you have tonnes of cash to spend on shows.

     Another downfall is that our fabulous Flamingo hotel and resort is not so fabulous after all. Out of all the hotels we stayed at on this trip, including the stops during our drive down, this was the dingiest—and I’ll admit a bit dirty—room yet.

     We took a walk down the strip looking for a restaurant, and we both felt herded down a street like cattle with no restaurant in view. We would have had to walk into to every resort, past the casinos, before finding any place to eat. So back to our hotel we went and had dinner at the Japanese restaurant downstairs, then locked ourselves in our room for the night.

     First impression of Vegas ... not impressed.

Day 14

     Day life in Vegas was a bit better. We slept in, then ventured out to grab some lunch, did some shopping at the shops in our hotel, and perused a mall across the street before stopping for supper at the Cheesecake factory. You know ... the restaurant where Penny from The Big Bang Theory TV show works. The food was yummy.

     Throughout the day, we also fell in love with Caesar’s Palace Spanish Steps, an outdoor bar in the center of a vast terrace where they serve all kinds of frozen drinks. A fun fact about Vegas is that you can bring your drink anywhere with you even back to your hotel.

     We ended our day at our quaint Spanish Steps bar then went back to our hotel for an early night as we are getting up early to head to the Hoover Dam in the morning.

     So far ... Vegas, not so miserable, but I wouldn’t come back.

California Trip Day 10, 11 & 12

Day 10

     It was our first day in the parks. We decided to start at the California Adventures Park. It’s a small park with some sections still under construction, but it had many perks and had all of the magical Disney feeling I crave and love.

     Our day was filled with rides and theme park food. The Aladdin musical stage show was definitely worth it. The Genie was hilarious.

     The night time World of Color water show was spectacular. We also realized, once we arrived back at our hotel, that we could see the water show from our room. It was a slow day, but a relaxing one.

Day 11

     Disneyland Park, Walt’s Pride and joy, was more what we expected. It’s similar to Magic kingdom in Disney world. It was odd seeing the castle look so different.

     At the end of Main Street USA in Disney World, the view of Cinderella’s Castle is Iconic, but at Disneyland Sleeping Beauty’s castle is in its place. Sleeping Beauty’s castle is not as tall, but just as big, majestic and magical.

     It was an eventful day. We met Mickey and Minnie, Pluto and Goofy and became honorary Toontown Citizens for the day. I got to meet Princess Belle, Ariel and Tiana in Fantasyland and in Pixie Hollow, I met Iridessa, Vidia and Tink herself.

     


     We took a ride through the haunted house, where Jack from The Nightmare Before Christmas took us on a journey through his world, then we took a plunge down splash mountain and ran into Winnie the pooh and his gang. We stopped by to visit Rapunzel, but, unfortunately, Flynn wasn’t there.

We finished the day in downtown Disney again.

Day 12

     Our last day at Disney. We returned to California Adventures to see the Aladdin show again with the preferred passes we had forgot at the hotel the last time, then headed to Disneyland to do some shopping, eat a turkey leg and to see the Dreams come True fireworks show, which always gets me on the verge of tears ... yeah, yeah I know I’m weak, but when it comes to Disney, I’m a kid at heart.

     We then rushed across the park to see the Fantasmic show. Similar to the one at Disney World except in Disneyland there are no seats and the show is shown from Tom Sawyer Island, not its own amphitheatre.

     Overall Disney did not disappoint, I enjoyed it immensely and can’t wait to return someday.

California Trip Day 8 & 9

Day 8

     Our first day in Hollywood was incredible. We began our day with a trip to Universal Studios Hollywood. Not as big as the one in Florida, but way more movie based in the sense that the back lot tour brings you through actual sets where they shoot movies and TV shows and are currently filming, for example, The Desperate Housewives series. That’s right, we actually toured Wisteria Lane.

     After doing some shopping and eating supper at Universal City Walk, we headed back to our hotel and decided that the night was still young, therefor, we took a 5 minute walk down to Hollywood Blvd. to look at the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame and visit the Chinese Theater where a movie premiere for The Pool Boys was currently going on. We didn’t get to see any actors, but it was fascinating to see. Once everyone cleared we were able to move closer and look at all the actor hand and shoe prints in the sidewalk in front of the theater.

     The whole experience was extremely surreal. I mean, I know the significance of Hollywood and the Chinese Theater, yet the reality of standing in front of the most popular theaters in the movie business wasn't hitting me.

Day 9

     The next day we walked back to Hollywood blvd to capture a few pictures of the Hollywood Sign before packing up our things and heading to the Santa Monica Pier. I was adamant about soaking my feet in the Pacific Ocean. I can now say that I’ve soaked my feet at both coasts of the United States (Honeymooned in Florida’s Daytona Beach and Disney World 2 years ago.)

     We spent a few hours visiting the sights, the beach and the pier where we ate at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. then headed to Disneyland, where Walt started it all. We arrived at approximately 5 pm. Not wanting to waste one day of our tickets on just an evening we headed to Downtown Disney where we had a fantastic New Orleans styled dinner and then dragged DH to the build-a-bear, something they don’t have at Disney World, and made myself a new friend named Patches.

     Another thing that Disney World doesn’t have that Disneyland does is a store where you can customize and build your own model car that you can also turn into a remote controlled car ... we’ll be doing that in the coming days.

We are having a fabulous time seeing the sights and are happy to be staying at Disney for the next three days.

Looking forward to report my next adventures in the next day or two...


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