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A vote for peanuts is a vote for fun
Aug. 18th, 2002 12:00 pmWhew! Last days in Lodi and what days they've been. Thursday was San Fransisco / Alcatraz, which took up the whole day. Actually it was mostly alcatraz because that is a waaay cool tour that none of us had ever done so we spent plenty of hours there. I could talk about it but it was mostly an educational experience. It was kind of amazing how miserable these prisoners had it, but hey, they did the crime. (Note to self: don't go to prison.) Fortunately for us, they let us off the island when we wanted. We had dinner at Bubba Gump's on Pier 39, which was delicious. Oooh! Speaking of food, I got 2 eating adventures checked off on the way to SF: we went to an In-N-Out and discovered a newly opened Krispy Kreme next door. It was like, fast food nirvana or something. Both places lived up to their glittering reputations. (Apparantly In-N-Outs don't even have listed phone numbers - they don't need them! Put up a sign, they will come.). Except that we were at KK for lunch, and they don't make their glazeds at noon so we didn't get any hot ones. :( Can't complain too much though. And no, I didn't bring any home for you.
So that was a heck of a day and we decided to take Friday off. It was nice to laze around for probably the first time on this trip. Surprising, considering how much I expected to be doing. It's right up my sister's alley - "one fun thing after another" - so I mean, no complaints. I'd better not, 'cause the pace is slowing as the trip progresses.
Friday night was dinner at Habanero Hot's, apparantly the best authentic Mexican food around. It was, true to form, very good and pretty authentic, not that I would know. I had a fajita that was the second best ever (El Corral at, of all places, Whidbey Island, remains the far and away best mexican I've had). Yesterday was the reunion, our whole reason for this mad gallavanting around. My sister and I were going to be both unwelcome and bored at such a thing, so my parents decided to get rid of us by sending us to Waterworld USA, some hour north in Sacramento. It's inside the Cal Expo fairgrounds, and of course Cal Expo is happening this weekend so it was a huge carnival of fun and sensual overload. Beats the heck out of carrying on conversation with old people. It was hotter than blue blazes up there, but we were in the water most of the day so it was alright. Their wave pool was disappointing - waves were 5 minutes on, 5 minutes off, and they emptied the pool every hour, and they weren't even breakers - but really, this is Cali, go to the coast. They had good waterslides but the lines were a killer. Our ticket situation was funny. Whitney noticed on their website that you could get $9 off tickets at McDonalds. So we went there and got these coupons. Well as we were parking she noticed the small print that said "not valid during Cal Expo". Phooey on that, we said. So she left them in the van. When we got to the gate though, I asked (since WWUSA is contained in CalExpo grounds) if we had to pay twice or if we could just walk to the water park. "Do you have the coupons?" she asked. "Um, you brought the coupons right?" "No, they weren't valid." "Well, now we have to pay twice." I wasn't worried about it because it was Bank of Dad money anyway, what's another $18 in fair admission? Not much. So we paid fair tickets and tried to find the water park (harder than it sounds). Once we found the park, we saw a big sign that said "Free walk in". So we did, and proceeded to get a locker and enjoy the park. Eventually we noticed that everyone else had wristbands. I'm guessing that we were supposed to actually buy these wristbands (at $21.99 apiece) if we wanted to use the park. But they never checked, so we never bought. Their loss, I suppose. :)) Though I am developing this weird fungus on my left thumb that might have something to do with it. Gross.
I won't talk about how lost I got trying to get home from the park.
Today is a road day, we're making our way out to Elko, NV to stop. I-80 takes us right through Reno so we'll probably stop and scope out the lights, etc. Elko is just a pit stop though, tomorrow we're going all the way out to Idaho Falls. What's in Idaho Falls? My dad's mom. And... potatoes. And... not much else. If there's nothing to do in Lodi, at least it's an hour from things to do. Not the case in Idaho Falls. This is where all those movies come into play, then.
Missing all y'all out here, wishing I could enjoy sunny Seattle with you.
So that was a heck of a day and we decided to take Friday off. It was nice to laze around for probably the first time on this trip. Surprising, considering how much I expected to be doing. It's right up my sister's alley - "one fun thing after another" - so I mean, no complaints. I'd better not, 'cause the pace is slowing as the trip progresses.
Friday night was dinner at Habanero Hot's, apparantly the best authentic Mexican food around. It was, true to form, very good and pretty authentic, not that I would know. I had a fajita that was the second best ever (El Corral at, of all places, Whidbey Island, remains the far and away best mexican I've had). Yesterday was the reunion, our whole reason for this mad gallavanting around. My sister and I were going to be both unwelcome and bored at such a thing, so my parents decided to get rid of us by sending us to Waterworld USA, some hour north in Sacramento. It's inside the Cal Expo fairgrounds, and of course Cal Expo is happening this weekend so it was a huge carnival of fun and sensual overload. Beats the heck out of carrying on conversation with old people. It was hotter than blue blazes up there, but we were in the water most of the day so it was alright. Their wave pool was disappointing - waves were 5 minutes on, 5 minutes off, and they emptied the pool every hour, and they weren't even breakers - but really, this is Cali, go to the coast. They had good waterslides but the lines were a killer. Our ticket situation was funny. Whitney noticed on their website that you could get $9 off tickets at McDonalds. So we went there and got these coupons. Well as we were parking she noticed the small print that said "not valid during Cal Expo". Phooey on that, we said. So she left them in the van. When we got to the gate though, I asked (since WWUSA is contained in CalExpo grounds) if we had to pay twice or if we could just walk to the water park. "Do you have the coupons?" she asked. "Um, you brought the coupons right?" "No, they weren't valid." "Well, now we have to pay twice." I wasn't worried about it because it was Bank of Dad money anyway, what's another $18 in fair admission? Not much. So we paid fair tickets and tried to find the water park (harder than it sounds). Once we found the park, we saw a big sign that said "Free walk in". So we did, and proceeded to get a locker and enjoy the park. Eventually we noticed that everyone else had wristbands. I'm guessing that we were supposed to actually buy these wristbands (at $21.99 apiece) if we wanted to use the park. But they never checked, so we never bought. Their loss, I suppose. :)) Though I am developing this weird fungus on my left thumb that might have something to do with it. Gross.
I won't talk about how lost I got trying to get home from the park.
Today is a road day, we're making our way out to Elko, NV to stop. I-80 takes us right through Reno so we'll probably stop and scope out the lights, etc. Elko is just a pit stop though, tomorrow we're going all the way out to Idaho Falls. What's in Idaho Falls? My dad's mom. And... potatoes. And... not much else. If there's nothing to do in Lodi, at least it's an hour from things to do. Not the case in Idaho Falls. This is where all those movies come into play, then.
Missing all y'all out here, wishing I could enjoy sunny Seattle with you.
