Loong weekend

My Mum, my sister & her husband are here for a few weeks. It's been strange not playing WoW for that time, even more so going to bed usually before 11pm :P The kids are both in our bedroom. Mum and Sue are in Amber's room, and my sister, Carol, and her husband, Zac, are in JE's room.

Liz has been taking care of making sure everyone does a lot of shopping. I've been doing my best to make sure Zac is not bored out of his skull. I think he's been playing a lot of Lego Star Wars on the Gamecube while I'm at work. I'm taking a day off here and there but I didn't have enough Time Off to take off the entire three weeks. I had last Friday off as my Regular Day Off, then had yesterday off for Columbus Day. The loong weekend was very busy.

Friday we got up early to go to San Diego. We stopped at Guasti on the way to have breakfast at the Homestyle Cafe. Liz chided me for talking Zac into getting the 3-stack of pancakes. My argument was they're only here the once (well, they'll be back someday but who knows when) so why not get the 3-stack. Now it used to be big, and I knew that, but that's half the fun in getting the 3-stack. I don't know many people who could probably eat a 3-stack by themselves and live to tell the tale, but now, the 3-stack is Fhuge. Yeah, that's right, huge with a capital F. Seriously, if you did manage to choke down a 3-stack all by yourself, I pity you, because you either weren't well for the rest of the day (& maybe the next) or you're already dead.

After breakfast at the Homestyle Cafe we resumed our trip down to San Diego and Seaworld. JE was entertained by our new portable DVD player and Mr. Bean DVDs. Everyone else was entertained by me taking photos, singing, etc. What can I say? I'm a fun guy :)

Sea World was pretty cool. We had lunch not with Shamu but with another Orca. The beer was free so Zac and I had a taste test. Oddly enough he actually liked Budweiser. There was no Miller on account of Seaworld being owned (I think) by Anheuser-Busch who produce Bud. Funny was the men's toilets which had anti-Miller Q&A trivia signs over the urinals, proclaiming how American Anheuser-Busch was, and how Miller is owned by a South African brewing company. We sampled Bud Light, as well as Michelob Ultra (another Light beer) and Michelob Lager (Michelob is also owned by Anheuser-Busch). Bud Light tasted like weak soda, the Michelob Ultra was ok until I tasted the Lager and then it was just ho hum. Zac has almost helped me finish off the case of MGD Liz bought a while back, so I might replenish it with Michelob Lager once the MGD is all gone.

After seeing numerous sights at Sea World (and going on a water ride/roller coast thing, where we got an excellent picture of the girls screaming their heads off) we called it a day and made our way to our hotel where we discovered the pool was heated, but the Spa even more so. Oooh, after walking around a theme park all day nothing beats relaxing in a Spa. Afterwards we hit the local BJ's for dinner but they were crowded (Friday night, go figure) and the wait for a table for 7 people was going to be over an hour, so we ordered Take Out which we ate back at the hotel.

Saturday was spent at the Wild Animal Park. We decided not to do the Feeding Tour where you sit in the back of a truck and feed the giraffes and other critters. Not at $80/person :P They also have a Hot Air Balloon for a bird's eye view of the park, but I think that's more of a gimmick than anything else. You see more from the train that runs around the park than you would from a balloon 100 meters up in the air. While Liz, Mum & Sue did more shopping, Carol, Zac, JE & I did a walking tour around the park. The little guy actually did the entire walk. Of course he fell asleep on the ride back to the hotel afterwards :P

We hit the Spa again, then got to TGI Friday before the crowds so the only wait was for the staff to set up a table for 7. Zac & I returned to TGI Friday a few hours later hoping to catch the Formula 1 Grand Prix (live from Japan) but we were out of luck. The BJs had no TVs, and we were SOL at Rock Bottom as well. Although the bouncer did asked us for ID before he would let us in :P

Across from the Rock Bottom was a trendy Mexican restaurant and it was our last hope. There the female manager (who I think liked talking to the two Aussie "tourists") actually went through every single channel of her cable line up, and she found the Speed Channel. Unfortunately they don't subscribe to it so we missed out on watching the Japanese Grand Prix while drinking Cerveza and eating Nachos in a Mexican Cantina :(

Sunday Zac, JE & I went to Legoland while the girls went shopping in a nearby Outlet Mall. We got JE on the fastest Lego Roller Coaster but he refused to go back on it a second time. The rides weren't too bad, and JE actually went back for a second go on one of the tamer Roller Coasters. We foolishly finished the day with one of the wettest rides where you get to sit in a small 4-seater Pirate Ship and shoot water cannons at the other boats and the crowd as your boat sails a preset course. Lining the walls of this ride are water cannons manned by people in the crowd, who use them quite enthusiastically to shoot back. Unfortunately their water cannons seem to have a greater range than do the cannons on the boats, and they don't have to crank handles to shoot the water either. We all got pretty wet on that ride (& JE was no use as a human shield). Lucky the day was hot enough that we were almost dry by the time the girls picked us up. The final ride of the day we found on the way out. It was a ride called Knight's Torment. Not Tournament, Torment. It has 5 settings so Zac and I naturally chose Level 5 - Extreme. JE said he wouldn't have gone on it even if it was on Level 1. It was basically a Robot Arm that swung your chair around, upside down, etc. Because of that last ride we were late getting back to the girls and they tried to tell us they'd got a ticket waiting in the Passenger Loading/Unloading Area for too long.

I don't know how everything fit into our Highlander. It might be an SUV, but we had 7 people in there, and there wasn't a lot of room going down to San Diego. I don't know where it all fit but the girls still managed to get everything they'd bought inside for the ride back home, and nobody had to sit on the roof.

Monday JE was back at school so Zac & I hit 6-Flags Magic Mountain. That was a lot of fun too, except six of the rides were closed. According to one of the ride attendants on the Superman Ride, even though Columbus Day is not a recognized Public Holiday half the staff didn't bother turning up for work so that's why the rides were closed. Luckily Tatsu, 6-Flags newest ride, was open. That thing was insane. Not scary (scary was when my harness slipped open a notch mid-ride) but intense. Apparently on its most severe corners Tatsu subjects you to 4.5g forces. I'm not positive, but I think that means for the period of time you're subject to those 4.5g's you technically weigh 4.5 times your normal 1g weight. We went on Tatsu a few times and got a good photo of Zac and I screaming our heads off to go with the photo of the girls on their Sea World ride.

And now it's back to work.