Malibu III, Disneyland IV, Tehachapi II, and Metrolink to Burbank II

Posted by Chuck at 1/19/2008 8:42 PM
Categories: Travel, desert, Disneyland, Family
Sorry, we've been too busy to post. I'll try to summarize the past few days, mostly so I can have something to read in a few days when everyone is gone, so I can remember how much fun we're having.

Adrienne was here Tuesday night to Wednesday. We had omelets and coffee for breakfast and got on the road about 9:00. Adrienne woke early (maybe 6:30?) and played on the computer for a wile, then Kelly and I got up about 7:00 and we rolled through showers and left.

Kelly grabbed a bag full of butterscotch chip cookies, they're Tollhouse cookies but with butterscotch instead of chocolate, since Kelly is not a chocolate fan. Then we headed up to Vasquez rocks to look around.



They're hard to describe or to show in photos, but The Worst Fight Scene Ever was filmed there.



Adrienne wanted to film our own fight scene there, because it's just the natural thing to do, but we never got around to it.





We moved on to go to Malibu to see the ocean, but found a dead body on the side of the road first. He may have just been sleeping with his legs propped up on the one-foot embankment on the edge of the soft shoulder and his head pointing toward the road, or he was dragged feet first out of the back seat of a car and left there. Either way, it was weird and creepy.

Malibu did not disappoint as always.



Whenever I go to Malibu, I don't want to leave. That day especially.

We went back to The AV and had some In-N-Out Burgers and saw Adrienne off back to Nevada.

Richie, Chaley, Mom, and Dad all come over then and we visited here for a while and planned out Thursday's adventure, Disneyland.



That was Kelly explaining the locker situation. It was 40-something/high 60-something, so we had layers with us. It's all about the layers.



The USS Columbia is one of the highlights of Disneyland. It's a full-scale replica of the first US-flagged ship to circumnavigate the globe.



It was really a wonderful day. The crowd was small, the weather was nice, and we really were enjoying each other's company. Disney provides such immersing experiences that you can completely forget the world outside the gates, which is nice while it lasts. It's self-paced theater that lasts all day.

Friday, we went to Mojave to see the civilian spaceport and Tehachapi to see the mountains and the trains.



Chaley said, "For the record, the Charlie's Angels pose was Dad's idea."

The things behind them are windmill generators, the Tehachapi range has about 4,500 windmills.  

We went to the German bakery in Tehachapi for lunch. I had a Ruben, Kelly had a turkey sandwich, mom and Chaley had artichoke bisque in sun-dried tomato rye bread bowls, and dad and Richie had something I forget. We ate outside, it was cool and windy, but tolerable.

I wandered off to a train store and talked a while with the owner's wife Rachael, who suggested we see the Tehachapi Loop, an area of train track built in the mid-1800s to get trains over the mountains. 

 

I can't wait to see this in the spring.

Windmills.



I truly don't understand the argument against windmills. Some people just have to be against things no matter the facts, I guess.

Mojave airport is a really fascinating and historic place, look it up sometime, I'm too tired to link to it right now.

Today we took the Metrolink to Burbank. The ride down was really interesting. We shared it with about 20 recent parolees from the Tehachapi prison. Nice.

Chaley sat beside a woman who let her in on all the secrets of how to get a job after getting out of prison, how to get high without anyone knowing, and where not to live in The AV. There were a lot of other characters on the train too, like the couple that rotated going to the bathroom with the shared backpack every few minutes, all we could figure was they were shooting something up. The guy had a Seal Team 6 hat on, providing some irony.

There was also the 50-ish hispanic woman I saw as I first sat down on the train, down the stairs on the first deck who wore a big pin of a Marine's dress blues portrait on her upper left breast. She made direct, long lasting eye contact first, so I gave her a quick informal salute and a wink, then gave that seat up to mom, since mom was facing backwards where she was. The Marine mom seemed pleased with the gesture, and also seemed to be in good spirits; I hoped that she was going to see her son, not going somewhere to mourn her son.

We had a great lunch at California Pizza Kitchen in Burbank, though. Rich had the BLT pizza, mom and dad shared a garlic chicken pizza and had half salads. Chaley had a salad, Kelly had a tandoori chicken mango pizza and I had one with normal stuff. Then we went to Ikea and the mall.



We were really only there from noon to three, it was mostly about the train ride.



I can't wait to see Richie's photo, but apparently they have some super-rare battery, which has run out. 



The sun is a treat for the vitamin D deficient among us.



Lancaster's best.



Kendall's best.



We came back and swam at the Courtyard Inn with mom and dad, then shopped for homemade pizza supplies at Trader Joes and Albertsons. Don't get Kelly started on Albertsons this time. Seriously don't.






 
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