Wouldn’t you know that as soon as our vacation is quickly approaching I would write an offer. So that would leave me doing a home inspection and taking a new listing the day before we leave on vacation. The home inspection would start at 4pm and end at 8 pm getting me home at 8:30 to begin packing. October 12th, after a frenzied two days of trying to get everything done so I could leave on my vacation, which is a misnomer, because I always have to work on my vacations we are up at 6:30 and out of the house by 8:45 to take Amy to her pregnancy check up. Well not being a part of that appointment Edik and I went over to mail a package for Peter and Amy. We zipped off to Tualatin to deliver some fliers, then up to Portland to mom and dad Keysers so they could take Malachi, Edik, Peter, Amy and I to the airport.
Brian had left two days prior for his conference. Two days of peace and quiet for him! He has this bi-annual conference for NECA which is something to do with accounting for rural telephone companies. I guess it really is the Nerds flocking to Las Vegas to converge and talk nerd talk for a week. He usually skips out on most of the conference because I am with him but this time was different.
Our flight from Portland to Las Vegas was uneventful other than the fact that I got to hold Malachi and play with him and keep him entertained for most of the trip. Then the other part of the trip I listened to Ironman in Russian with Edik, I have still not seen that entire movie! Once on the ground, we gathered up our stuff and got in a taxi, the driver was great, from Croatia, he had lived in South Africa, England and now Las Vegas, because of the women he met and married. He had a personality not something you find in Las Vegas cabbies, they usually barely have a command of the English language.
Daddy was waiting for us at the entrance to The Hotel, he had arrange for our rooms, he had to get us upgrades so that we had rooms with a living room, that way our two kids could sleep there while we had the luxurious master suite.
The Hotel, is spectacular, dreamy, hip, fabulous and just my style! I love this place, with its sleek lines and its modern architecture and trendy surfaces. They have enormous displays of fresh flowers. Very modern style of arranging, usually monochromatic, this time it was white lily’s and white roses, an white Rubrum lily’s in clear glass vases on huge round glass tables at all the entrances, the fragrance of the lily’s filled all the hall ways. Devine! We love the pool that The Hotel shares with Madalay Bay. The lazy river with its 85 degree flowing water is divine to float in for hours. But having to buy the inner tube was a little ridiculous but we did it anyway!
We dined with Carrie J, one of dads business associates. We ate at the Red White and Blue Grill, while we watched the trapped Chilean miners be extracted from 2000 feet below the surface of the earth. It was a wonderful sight and I wanted to clap but didn’t. We were old fuddy duddy’s and went back to our room and went to bed around 10 pm. Then we were up at the crack of 9 am. I love vacation!
Peter and I raced off to the Excalaber to get Krispy Kream Doughnuts and Aunt Annies pretzels for breakfast. The off to the pool for a few hours in the sun and the water! After and adequate nnnap time for Malachi and getting cleaned up we trecked off to the Bellagiiio for a dinner Buffet. It was ok, we spent a lot of money to eat ther and can really only say that the desserts were good. It is mainly a seafood buffet and Edik is the only one that appreciated that. We manage to eat until we were full. We met some people from a job placement firm in Nashville, they noticed Malachi and were curious about him because a co-worker adopted from Ethiopia too.
Thursday morning we got up pretty early, Brian went to the airport to pick up our rental Van so that we could pack up and drive to LA. We packed it up with one space to spare, not sure it would have held Andy. The drive over was dull. But when we dropped down into the valley, the smog was outstanding and extremely noticeable, its hard to believe that we are in it and feel ok.
The Howard Johnson (HoJo) is where we are staying, the contrast in hotels is remarkable, but at least the HoJo tries, it is tidy and pretty clean. The freeway noise is loud but it’s a constant. We ate dinner at the Knott’s Berry farm kitchen, great pot pies, tons of food. It took us two rounds the parking lot to get a spot but finally we did it, hardest thing we did all day.
Friday morning the father squirrels got up and took the rental van back before 7:30 am so that we would not be charged another day. Then we all left for DISNEYLAND it is just a short walk over to the park maybe two blocks.
We had pre-purchased our tickets so they were in our hands and we walked right in. Got a locker and went to Small World. This was Malachi’s first ride! He loved it, looking around at everything and tracking with the music and all the movement. It was a real Kodak moment. Peter had run over to get us fast passes for Indiana Jones ride. We raced over and rode it, very fun, my favorite ride in the park. We went on to the Winney the Pooh ride, Malachi loved it as well. We had rice crispy treats and a banana. Thunder Mountain was fun, but seemed kind of weak compared to what we usually ride.
We went into the Hill Billy Saloon to sit and eat some lunch and watch a show that Peter likes. We had a great time playing with Mal when he woke up form his nap. He was a lot of fun, so much we forgot to feed him which kind of set him up for having to leave the park sooner than expected. The fiddling show was fun and toe tapping. That was a nice break.
On Main street I sat and took care of some business on the phone and Mal had a bottle. We raced off to use our fast pass for Space Mountain, very fun. One of the fun thing si running to the front of the line when using your fast pass. The ride was a rush and the new Halloween graphics are good.
California Adventure was another place for Malachi to take a nap. We saw all the new construction going on there and saw the changes they had made to the lagoon, where the world of color show will be. Screamin beconed the guys and they could not contain themselves. I declined as did Amy so we walked with Mal to keep him happy. The swings were fun if you kept your eyes closed, but the round and round makes an old lady dizzy.
Peter, Amy and Malachi, had to leave the park because he was hungry and tired. We went on, did the It’s Hard to Be a Bug show, lots of spooky things happen during that show, we rode a giant catapillar, and drove bumper cars. The guys went back and did two runs on Screamin again as I shot picures. The tour of the tortilla factory and the sour dough bakery were fun with the little samples they gave.
The culmination of our day was going back to Disneyland to get our stuff out of our locker and catching a glips of the Dance Parade. It was a relaxing good day, seeing the joy on Malachi’s face was such a treasure. I hear we have to be back at the park by 7am and at 10 am we have a Breakfast with the characters. I am having Disney dreams awaiting that time.
