01-27-24 Half Travel, Half Universal
There may just be too many details in this day! I was up at 4 am with 3 alarms set as I had tried to go to bed early and wasn’t very successful falling asleep easily, and then woke up at 1230 and 2 before it was alarm time. I jumped in the shower, packed the last few things, stopped at RBC to get US cash out of the machine (yes that is a new thing), and then headed to the airport
Everyone was there already with Emmy on the way. I got so caught up with the excitement of getting her through, especially after she was random selected for swabbing, that I forgot to pay for my parking and the app did not function well so I was advised by the WestJet agent just to use the kiosk. It was 64 for the week! Back through security again and finally we were loading and on our way. It was a small plane to Calgary and a bit bumpy but everyone seemed to take it well. Once in Calgary Emmy and I used the moving sidewalks for the first part of our long way between gates and then caught the cool shuttle the rest of the way. We had stopped at Duty Free and I didn’t feel guilty at all about putting it in her suitcase. We were on a flight to a different airport and left an hour later than everyone else so we sat and I had breakfast while she managed to spill her apple juice. Thankfully none got on any travel stuff. We were able to check her carry on through for free and that helped a lot. Unfortunately we got the only row with a window seat with no window. That was disappointing but we rolled with it and had a very nice journey. She coloured and modeled clay and snacked on goldfish and listened to music and chatted. I read and napped a bit and chatted. I had bought a travel pillow years ago and finally tried it out. I love it!! It attaches to the seat so it supports your head and cushions it in an upright positions and fits back into a lovely bag. And finally we were landed in California.
We made our way down to the baggage carousel where Jake came and met us. Emmy the monkey put on a show as usual
I was super impressed with the Alamo rental vehicle they had for us. It is a 2024 Chrysler Pacifica with all the bells and whistles and a leather interior. It will take 7 of us to our hotel near Disneyland on Monday. They even had a booster seat available for us to use as I had also forgotten to get that from Danika. This was actually easier than bringing one. Ashlée was waiting for us at the hotel on Ventura Blvd as I had the tickets to Universal for the 4 of us. We unloaded the car and walked a couple blocks to the stop for the shuttle up to Universal City and Studios. Emmy was so excited to get a picture with an actual palm tree
It was all just so much fun and overstimulating and we were already exhausted. The pictures tell the stories but the highlights for me were definitely Super Mario World. I hung with the three youngest and we had a lot of fun as I bought the OneUp Band and we could play all the fun games together while the others were all in a very long line to do Mario Kart Racing. I don’t think any of them thought it was worth the wait. I was so glad that I got in the line for pictures with Mario and Luigi as everyone came together for the first real time all day and we got some great shots. That was on my list of must do while here. Luigi was a little frisky, lol. He kept squeezing me and hip bumping. I thought it was hilarious.
We decided everyone needed food so headed out of the area, up the big levels of escalators, through Springfield and stopped at various places to eat. Rae, Roger, Gene, Will, Sawyer and I all ate at Three Broomsticks in the Harry Potter area. It was so delicious and I bought special ButterBeer in a collector glass for Will and Dragon Scale Lager in a WartHog glass for me.
After dinner, Rae, Will and I headed to check out the rest of the HP area and go on rides while the other guys headed down to do The Mummy. We had a blast, going twice on the main ride which was so fun, and once on a very short roller coaster.
Two new things since I was here last are free lockers that use your fingerprint to lock and open them so you can put stuff in them that may fly away on a ride… and Child and parent areas where one parent can sit with a kid while the other rides, and then they switch
We all got in line and went on The Mummy which was fun and did not impress Will at all as there were parts that freaked him out. He and I rushed back to try to get into Mario Kart and it was the slowest time of the day, only a half hour or so wait. I am glad we did as I can say that I beat the game by doing all the things in that area of the park. And it was fun to do it with my Will. Unfortunately we caused Rae some stress. By now everyone was super tired. Only the 6 Guedes’s and I were left standing, all others having gone back to the hotel. We held them up, Will’s fingerprint was the one on the locker with Rae’s bag and my watch had already died and phone was about to. Tomorrow I shall be better prepared.
We dragged our tired selves up to the top to catch the shuttle back down so we could walk the few blocks back to the hotel. I stopped with Gene so he could grab food at FatBurger next door. I got beverages as I was so dehydrated. Tomorrow I shall be better prepared.
Once back at the hotel, I didn’t really have to worry about waking up Jake or Emmy as they didn’t even move when a helicopter started circling above and even shined a light in our room and around the property. I stepped out of the room onto the deck and the light passed over me so I thought better of it and came in to double lock the door. The whole thing was over in 5 minutes or so but it is a noisy area this Ventura Blvd.
triumphgal 