Gotta love it! Tech vs A&M

This was just an awesome game. At least from the Red Raiders' POV! ;)

Labor Day Weekend in Cali

I took an extended Labor Day weekend and went to visit my brother and his family in sunny Southern California. They thought it was super hot, but I thought it was pretty nice--of course, having just come from super-humid Austin, "dry heat" really feels so much better.

Brad and Trisha surprised me Wednesday night with a room at the Grand Californian Hotel at Disneyland. His boss had paid for two nights (for whoever wanted it...they had had a business dinner the night before at Club 33, the exclusive club that Walt Disney used to entertain at), and so they reserved a third night (Thursday) for super cheap because the hotel was apparently fairly empty. When you stay at one of the Disneyland hotels, you get "early entry" into the park (on certain days). So Thursday morning we got up early and got in to the park at 8.

There were hardly any lines all day!! Brad speculated that it was because the forecast was for 107 degrees, so everyone stayed home. The heat wasn't too bad, but I'm kinda used to it--plus it was a dry heat, which was easier to bear. The first ride we went on was Space Mountain, which was super cool and one of my favorites--Brad and I rode it twice while Trisha and Tristan got some fruit for breakfast. We got a really good picture of us---even cooler because we were the only ones on the car!

We went on other rides--they have annual passes and so have a good idea of what the cooler, more fun rides are. We went on Peter Pan, then we did Star Tours--which is a Star Wars video simulator thing, and which generally make me a little carsick--we did some Thunder Mountain mine train roller coaster, which was fun except that Trisha looked down and Tristan was barely in the seat. When we went on Splash Mountain, Tristan, Trisha, and I all got soaked, and Brad was the only one who stayed dry. Gosh, I'd have to look at a map I think to remember what all we rode. We went on Pirates of the Caribbean and the Buzz Lightyear Astroblasters ride. That was fun--and don't I look all serious??
The only ride we didn't go on that was recommended was the Nemo ride--it's a submarine ride, about 11 minutes, and Brad and Trisha said it was cool but even with early entry it was going to have a long line (like 30-40 minutes). So I opted to skip that one. After a while we crossed over to the California Adventure park and went on those rides---they have an awesome roller coaster (California Screamer, I think) that goes really fast. We went on another ride where you sit and it shoots up about 500-800 feet in 2 seconds--this one had "barf racks" around each person, presumably to contain the puke. In the pictures (hopefully Brad will post them somewhere) you can tell the before and after photos--I look pretty tense before and then afterward a big smile. :) We went on the big Ferris wheel--I had a death grip because some cars swing (including ours), and it made me a little nervous.

Then sometime in the late afternoon we went back to the hotel and cooled off in the pool, got dressed and had dinner and then went back in to Disneyland for one more ride on Space Mountain (me and Brad) and then the fireworks. That was awesome! Then I bought a couple souvenir shirts and we went back to the hotel and to bed. Whew. A full day. Lots of rides, though! And Brad kept teasing me that I wasn't really getting the FULL DISNEYLAND EXPERIENCE (read: hours-long waits in lines, etc). I'm really really okay with that.

The next day we checked out and went home to unload, then we hit the beach. Which kinda sucked because it was really windy and cold. But Brad got a little surfing in anyway. That night we had sushi, and we ate at the bar (rather than at a table) and that was really fun. And yummy. The sushi chef was hitting on Trisha, and she finally told him that I was single, so he started focusing on me. It was pretty funny.

Saturday we had to get up early to go dolphin/whale watching. That was fun--we didn't really see much, just a couple of very small pods of dolphins, but it was really fun being on a catamaran and being so close to the water. Seriously, I think we could've touched the dolphins.
That night we went to their friends' house and had Greek food for dinner (and Brad's margaritas).

Sunday Brad, Tristan and I hit the beach for a couple hours while Trisha did some grocery shopping, and then that night they had a barbecue (lots of consumption of Brad's margaritas). Monday we watched the Tech game at home until halftime and then went to another friends' house to watch the rest and hang out. It was very relaxing. Tuesday morning we got up really early to take me to the airport and I came hom to Austin.

That's about it. It was really fun, which made it hard to come back. :) I got to see Tristan do all his martial arts stuff, though--it was cute, because even at the beach he was karate-chopping the sand and waves. Ay-uh! :) We briefly talked about going back to Disneyland at Christmas but we'll see.