More Post-Vacation Thoughts

Why are there still men in the world who insist on peeing ON the toilet seat? Why, why, why, why, WHY?!?

It amazes me how many people on a plane must never have flown before. If you have flown before, don't act surprised when the flight attendants tell you that you, too, must put your seat in the full upright position like everyone else, or when they sternly tell you to obey the "fasten seat belt" sign. It's been that way for a long, long time.

Interesting to note the difference in security measures from place to place. At Orlando International, we were able to do full curbside check-in again. At LAX, we self-checked in at a kiosk, but then had to hand-walk our own luggage to the new X-ray machines, where we waited for our luggage to "clear" before proceeding to the gate. At Dallas (where we grabbed dinner between legs of our flight home) they were still doing random searches of passenger luggage as we boarded the plane. On the Theme Park side, we had our bags cursorily searched and had to "flash" the inside of our jackets every time we entered a Disney Park. Each time we drove into a hotel parking lot at Disneyland, we had to pop the trunk and the driver (Dan) had to show his driver's license. Somehow this was supposed to make us feel more safe and not constantly remind us we were visiting one of the Top 5 terrorist targets in California.

Disney's California Adventure is probably getting a worse reputation than it truly deserves. It's not all that bad of a park (it does have some design flaws — but I'm a theme park geek so I notice that). It's probably actually a better park than Disney-MGM Studios was here in Florida when they opened in 1989. DCA's greatest problem is that it's 150 feet away from Disneyland, so people have an instant point of reference. To make matters worse, we noticed 4 references to Disneyland in DCA attractions - as if to remind consumers that for the same ticket price of DCA they could have enjoyed the original theme park just across the Esplanade. (For one, the grand finale of Soarin' Over California has guests flying over Disneyland, all decorated for the holidays, just as Tinkerbell lights the fireworks. DCA doesn't have a fireworks show.)

Finally got to visit the Getty Center museum in Westwood. Wow. We paid for parking ($5), rode the tram up to the museum, and walked right in, all the while wondering when they would stop us and charge admission. The museum is FREE. Absolutely unbeleiveable Gorgeous architecture, fantastic views, and I never thought I would get to see Van Gogh, Monet, or Rembrandt art up-close and personal in my lifetime. The only unfortunate thing is I selected a day that the museum closed at 6, but didn't arrive until 4 (when they no longer require reservations for parking spaces — welcome to LA). We managed to see all the exhibits, but didn't get to sit-and-reflect as one might have wished.

Did a side-trip to San Diego, and I probably would have fallen in love with the city if it hadn't been raining. We skipped the famous Zoo (wet animals: ugh), but the sun did peek out long enough to enjoy the Hotel del Coronado and the beach, briefly. We drove to within sight of the US/Mexico border, and were amused to find an outlet mall had been opened right at the border (i.e., the south edge of their parking lot is The Fence). Even more amused to see an Old Navy Outlet — we're guessing they just throw the merchandise over the fence to sell in the store. Quite the military presence (saw 6 large helicopters and a few F-16's), and Dan was shocked to be stopped by the Border Guard at a station almost 60 miles north of San Diego. Said station accompanied by large yellow road signs that said "CAUTION" and had a sillhouettes of three ragged individuals making a dash across the freeway.

Also made it to the La Brea Tar Pits. The park isn't spectacular but is pretty; the museum is very 70's but still interesting. And it was cool to see a couple of places where new tar was bubbling up from the lawn — weird.