9 March, 2001 Flight and Errand Day!
Well, Friday came and I packed
as light as I could.. Baglady Lani
Teshima (who
will be making wedding buttons
for us, btw) would have been proud! I fit
it all in my DCA backpack! I got
to BART late, and ended up taking the
9:05am train to Fremont instead
of the 840 am.. then the AIR BART bus was
running late.. I got to Oakland
airport a little after 10 am but still
managed to get into the second
boarding group. I called Sean to check up
with him, then got on the plane.
We sat and sat. The plane was
supposed to leave at 1030 am.
The flight was ontime, but once we sat at
the gate the Captain announced
"Well, there's some turbulence over LAX
so we wont be pushing off for
another 20 to 30 minutes!" argh!!! Well,
I was supposed to land in LA at
1150 am and got in about 20 after Noon!!!
Rebecca's flight got in EARLY!!
She landed about 5 after.. instead of
the 1218pm scheduled.. A bit of
running around and eventually I found
her over in the AA terminal's
baggage claim on her cell commiserating
with her hubby, Tommy.
We got our stuff, got the rental
car and headed out.. Time to have
fun!!!
First we went over to the cake
place. Helena's
is at the corner on
Burbank, East of Van Nuys a few
blocks.. It's a small place and I almost
walked into the convenience store
next door to it.. Ooops! Well we
went in.. and a petite, older
lady greeted us. She had a bit of a raspy
voice and stilted speech as she
went over the photo albums she had. I
had a hard time understanding
her sometimes,but between Rebecca & I, we
got along ok. I am guessing
the lady had a stroke perhaps,which might
have affected her speech a bit...
I listened carefully though.. she was
a very kind and helpful lady and
although she couldn't do Mickey Icons
on the cake, she said she would
make a very pretty cake for us.
A funny story, while we were there..
the postal carrier came in to
deliver the mail, and is if on
queue, she thanked Helena for the cake
she had for her office that morning..
Just when Helena was suggesting
Marble cake.. the mail carrier
said "ohhh its the best cake.. we got
marble with chocolate mousse and
everyone loved it!" and said how she
used Helena for everything ever
since she got married. She walks out
and we continue to discuss it
and the lady comes back in with a small
slice of her cake.. "Now I have
this slice for myself but I want you
guys to try a little bite..."
So Rebecca took a bit and cut it in half
and we each tried it.. The frosting
is like whipped cream.. the mousse
very creamy and chocolatey!
So I ordered a chocolate marble cake with
chocolate mousse filling! The
whole incident couldn't have happened any
better, had it been planned..
=)
I ended up ordering a full sheet
cake with a 7" round top cake and with
delivery (25 bucks) it came to
125 bucks!! After all the cake stories I
had heard and the averages the
other bakeries had given me,(between 175
and 275). this was a super bargain!!
I went ahead and paid up front with
my mom's help. (My mom has
been the main financier of our wedding and
has been incredible help with
the whole wedding process.. I wouldn't
have been able to get Pickwick
reserved without her.. She covered the
invitations,cake, and many other
things as well. I owe my mom an
incredible debt of gratitude for
all her assistance!!) Thanks Mommy!
Well after that, Rebecca &
I drove around and kind of got lost looking
for Pickwick and instead found
the Media Center in Burbank.. They have
lots of shops and restaurants..
and so we parked in the garage, had
lunch at Chevy's the Mexican chain
restaurant... I had veggie
quesadillas, since I am not eating
meat now.. and Rebecca had chicken
something.. Her's looked really
good and although we were starved,
neither could quite finish her
meal.
We then window shopped at IKEA,
which they dont have in New Orleans.
This is one of the places I wish
I could be registered at.. I showed
Rebecca the dishes I want from
there and she looked at the things she
wanted too. We then headed
out in the quest for Pickwick!
After getting turned around, we
finally got there.. it was getting dusky
out and I was worried the place
was closed,but the office was still
opened and the lady in the office
was very nice to take us around. We
saw the Garden Room where the
Reception will take place and it was set
up for a wedding that would soon
start maybe the next day?? The buffet
servers were set up toward the
back left of the room.. and in the front
right was the table where the
wedding party will sit.. The lady pointed
out to me where the cake will
go when they bring it.. and I took a look
at the tables they had set up..
There were 10 seats at the round tables
but I was told since we had fewer
people, (125) it would be 8 people per
table. I need to remember
this so when we do the seating chart.. we'll
have it right. Evan though
the reception area wasn't full of people,
punch, and pie, it looked really
nice! I got a little excited again
about the wedding.
Rebecca and I went out and took
a look around at the grounds I showed
her the awning where the ceremony
will take place and the altar where
they will have a couple big floral
arrangements set up.. and the cute
waterfall behind the altar.
We then headed out and back to Kali's.
After a 2 hour commute..and a couple
turn arounds we got to Kali's around
9pm I think.. maybe later.. I
ended up knocking on the wrong door and
annoying some older lady that
answered, really embarrassed, I headed
over in the other direction and
finally found her place. Kali was on the
computer and wasn't able to answer
my plaintive calls on Rebecca's cell,
though I had let the phone ring
about 8 times. Sean managed to get
through though and called us back
to help us find our way. Once there
we chatted and since I was starving..
we walked over in the freezing
cold to IHOP where I had french
toast and Rebecca had fresh fruit bowl.
Kali didn't eat anything..
Saturday 10 March 2001 DCA & bridal dinner!
The next morning was DCA day..Rebecca
had never been before, of course.
So we headed out with the plan
to meet Kali at the Plaza at 1pm. We got
to the park around 1030 or so
and parked in Chip n Dale! (This is the
ground level of the gigantic Mickey
n Friends parking structure.. the
largest in the US, by the way!)
I was surprised in that we hardly ever
get to park here... We took
the tram in, picked up a ticket for
Rebecca.. and headed in!
First thing we did was get some breakfast at
Bakers Field Bakery, just inside
the park. This is really neat and I
like it bunches.. It's inside
a real train and serves the yummiest
cheese Danish's! I went there
the first time last week while Sean was in
Irvine for training. Rebecca &
I had the cheese danishes and Cafe
Lattes.. Pretty good but I think
I drank too much coffee! =)
We rode Grizzly River Rapdids,Soarin'
Over California and the Superstar
Limo, and checked out some of
the Animation Building, including the Art
of Animation and that show with
Mushu from the Mulan Movie.. where they
show how a character becomes.
Meeko the raccoon has a starring role in
the attraction as well, and I
enjoyed it a lot of course.. It got to be
about 1pm and we went to the Plaza.
Kali wasn't there just yet, so we
went over to Bountiful Valley
Farm where Jen was to be working that day
with Flik,the star of "A Bug's
Life" where he was hanging out near his
attraction he emcees, "Tough to
Be a Bug".. Well, Rebecca & I had taken
the Grand Californian Resort exit
from DCA earlier and made the 6pm
reservations at Storyteller's
and so I was able to let Jen know about
that.. Rebecca & I got our
photo taken with Flik, and Jen signed my
autograph book (this is becoming
more than a habit already! I think it
should be tradition now!) =)
She always thinks up funny & cute
things... So we headed back over
to the Plaza where we waited for Kali..
The afternoon was spent having
lunch at the Mondavi winery where I had
half of the mozzarella foccacia
sandwich (kind of thought it was bleh!
but Kali liked it) watched the
film "Season of the Grape" with Jeremy
Irons narrating it.. (my second
time on this) Rebecca & Kali tried a
glass of wine outside and I think
they liked their choices.. I tried the
smelling thing where you smell
the different elements: fruit, nuts,
mushrooms,caramel.. and others
and then try to guess what elements went
into the wine by smelling the
glass of wine. I can only pick out the
fruit and roses really. I think
my nose is busted. =)
We then went off to ride the Ferris
wheel.. riding the mega Ferris Wheel
(we waited for a red car, the
ones that don't move) and finally rode it
after about a half hour of it
being checked out for something... It was
pretty fun and I wasn't scared
at all after the previous week's ride in
the moving one with Kali &
Sean... that was Friday night the 2nd I
think, and I screamed my lungs
out! =) So I will definitely get back on
it now that I know the red cars
are ok!!
We caught the Eureka parade where
I "forced" Rebecca to watch it, though
I really don't care for it.. I
wanted her to see the dancing fortune
cookie and the guy on stilts dressed
like a takeout box with a giant
shrimp on his head! Too funny!
Too weird! A must see at least once..
Then we saw the Golden Dreams
film, which still gets me all misty, evan
on the 3rd viewing.
Well, we headed out and met up
with Jen at 6pm. She was already waiting
for us inside Storyteller's.
We got a booth in the back and muddled
over the menu. Jen was already
convinced to get the buffet but I needed
some convincing... I was worried
how they had so many meat choices, but
I ended up getting it.. and filled
up pretty good! I had many things
they offer on the regular menu,
so I wasn't deprived. For 24.95 you get
drink,buffet,which also included
desserts.. and of course it was all you
care to eat! So I had the
4 cheese ravioli which was better for me than
the same dish I had ordered New
Year's Day.. then it was served in a
pasta bowl and was rather watery..
This time, I could scoop it out and
leave the excess water in the
serving dish! I also had yummy harvest
vegetables and the squashed potatoes
which were excellent! I skipped the
macaroni n cheese.. had a really
good mixed greens salad with a dark
vinaigrette dressing. For
dessert I had a biscuit with fresh
strawberries and whipped cream..
I also took a slice of a wonderful
chocolate mousse type cake, which
I could only eat a couple bites of and
then quit. Jen was the only one
who ate the meat, and I think she liked
it. Kali had salad and Rebecca,
who also had the buffet, had the corn
chowder (which I found out had
chicken in it and stayed away from it)and
other similar things.
Jen very graciously offered up
her cast ID for her cast member
discount.. Which took a nice 20%
chunk off the total.. boy did I
appreciate that! =) I wanted
to take the girls out and figured a
certain sum and it ended up being
quite a bit cheaper than I had
budgeted! Most gracious thanks
to Jen for the help!!
After the meal, we walked around
a little.. Looked in Sephora, the
makeup place in Downtown Disney..
I got some free advice about my
foundation and found a really
nice shade of Clinique for the wedding
ceremony I might get in the near
future... try it out and see if it
isn't the right shade for me..
It's a lot cheaper than the wonderful
Lancome I had before.. so we'll
see. Anyways, that was the only girlie
thing we did. We checked
out World of Disney.. We left and headed over
to Jen's for the party.
Once at Jen's we carpooled to Target
where I added a couple items on my
registry.. Then we went to Von's
where I picked up the makings of
Kungaloosh! It's a fruity
drink they serve at the Adventurer's Club in
Disney World.. It's like a strawberry
daiquiri with blackberry liquor...
So I got some cheap rum, blackberry
liquor,a couple bacardi mixers and
ice.. and a couple tins of Guinness
for to appease Chris for running him
out of the apartment...(joking!)
and we headed back to Jen's where we
ended up watching South Park in
French, among other things. Much funnier
I think in French. =) Rebecca
mixed the drinks.. and we almost fried Jen
& Chris's blender with all
the ice crushing... Luckily it was ok, I
breathed a sigh of relief and
enjoyed the crunchy, fruity beverage
Rebecca had whipped up!
After the movie we headed back
to Kali's in separate cars and ended up
getting to bed pretty late.
It was well worth it though, if you ask
me!!
Sunday 11 March 2001... Shopping and flying out!
Well Rebecca, Kali, & I slept
in and we drove separately to meet up at
World of Disney so Rebecca could
get some shopping in and we would have
breakfast.. er, lunch! Rebecca
& I drove over and passed the protesters
again on Harbor Blvd. They are
protesting the casting of Antonio
Banderas in then new film on Emiliano
Zapata the company is making. I
took a picture ("Disney is Racist!")
but doubt if it will come out..
There was one with Mickey dressed
like Hitler,but I missed taking the
photo! Oh well! =) We got there
ok though and parked on the Mickey level
and took the tram over.. where
Kali was already waiting.. We did some
window shopping and then decided
on La Brea bakery for lunch. Eating
with Rebecca & Kali is pretty
painless, as far as meat eating goes..
Kali has given up meat for Lent
also and Rebecca has stopped eating red
meat some time ago, so she watches
her food intake as well. Cool! So
Rebecca and I had foccacia sandwiches..
I had a vegetable sandwich with
eggplant which was pretty ok..but
not worth getting again. It came with
french fries which I couldn't
finish.. I made the mistake of ordering
the wrong drink and our server
kept messing up.. I ordered a regular
coke, Rebecca a Diet, and Kali
an iced tea. We got refills and the lady
filled mine with diet and Rebecca's
with regular.. we switched drinks,
which was ok.. until the lady
offered to refill us again.. but we hadn't
finished the drinks we had.. so
the lady messed up again! Rebecca said
"No, I have the diet" but she
topped mine off with Diet and Rebecca's
with regular.. and so we both
had a nasty mix! Argh!!! Bleh!!! Double
Bleh!!
After lunch we hung around the
Plaza outside Disneyland and chatted and
then around 4pm, Rebecca and I
left Kali to go hang out with Pirates,
Ghosts, and critters...
First we went to the Citadel.. a shopping
outlet not too far from the park...
I had mistakenly spilled some
strawberry juice on my Pacific
Hotel sweatshirt and had it in the trunk
of the car, still wet from hand
washing it! So we went to the Old Navy
outlet and I found a nice blue
sweater in the men's section on clearance
for 6.99! So I got that
and put it on and Rebecca picked up a nice gray
fleece Old Navy sweatshirt.
So now that we were warm, we shopped around
til it closed at 6pm. They
have a 1928 jewelry store outlet there..
1928 is my favorite brand of jewelry
and they had a few good deals.. but
I didn't get anything since I
am not currently working on an assignment
at the temp agency. sigh.. I will
definitely want to go back.. and I
think I might be able to get Rebecca
to go with me at least! =)
We headed towards the airport and
found nearby a Target, a Costco (just
closed) and a place to eat dinner...
We went to Target where we window
shopped and I printed up some
gift registry lists.. The items I had
added (the microwave and the handspring)
were on the list.. but I saw
instead of the graphite handspring,
the clerk had scanned the blue
handspring barcode instead.. I
seriously doubt anyone would get us such
an expensive item but I told Sean
if we got one, I would gladly accept
the blue handspring for myself
(giggle)... Rebecca also thought we
didn't have many items, so if
we decide to change it later, I might get
someone to add the graphite handspring
to the list.. As it is, we are
hoping if folks gift us, they
would get the Disney Dollars or IKEA gift
certificates, as most all items
we would like or need come from these
two stores and not Target. =)
After shopping at Target and getting
my lists, we headed over to the
home cooked meal style restaurant..
Norma's I think it was called. I
ended up having french toast again
(been craving that a LOT lately... )
and a side of hash browns smothered
in Crystal hot sauce. We both had diet
coke (more so I didn't get the
wrong thing again by accident!) and the
waitress refilled our glasses
with a third glass that she poured half and
half into our glasses...
We got to the airport in plenty
of time to turn the car in and shuttle
over to the Southwest terminal..
Rebecca and I chatted, I checked in
(first boarding group thank you!)
and then headed out.. I didn't know
for sure if Rebecca got home ok..but
she did. Sean met me at the Oakland
airport and we headed on home.
I had a really great weekend and
am looking forward to May.. I hope the
week leading up to the wedding
is just as much fun! =)
I turned in a roll of film to Costco
last night with most all the photos
from the trip on it.. I got about
6 pictures on my current roll I will
have to wait on... (including
the protest photo) but the other roll will
be ready for pickup tomorrow night
I think... I'll update everyone when
the photos are up on my Disneyland
Photo page....
I want to thank the ladies again..
I appreciate them all coming together
for the weekend.. for getting
the time off from work, for giving up
space for Rebecca and I to stay
over the weekend.. For the discount on
the meal.. everything!! And another
thanks to my mom for all her help
with the wedding! =)
Thanks for reading so far! I appreciate
it... Sean & I will be heading
down to the park this weekend
again, I guess.... We have some special
goings on to attend and so will
of course be taking advantage of the
closeness to Disneyland! I hope
I can convince Sean to go to Rainforest
Cafe.. I am really wanting to
try the Tonga Toast (french toast with a
slice of banana in the middle)
which everyone I hear say is "really
really really good!" or "bleh!"..Since
I haven't gotten to try it at the
Polynesian Hotel at WDW, where
I first heard about it.. it should be
interesting anyway.
Thanks again!
Pamela =)