TR: LA and SFMM

[Rastuso]

Day 2 and 3: LA and SFMM

 

Our second day was to be spent at Celebration, but since we decided we did everything on Saturday, we had some spare time. We decided to hit the Grove and the Farmer’s Market. We once again got some awesome breakfast things made on fresh made bread in a brick oven. We also got some various items and had some shakes at the Johnny Rockets.

 

We then headed over to the Arclight theater. I’d heard lots about this theater, and how it is a very high quality place. Definitely a nice place. Huge theaters with reserved seats, no ads, just a few previews, and there were employees helping you to your seats and making sure the sound/picture/patrons were top notch. We got some real buttered popcorn that was awesome, and sat to watch a pretty mediocre movie: Shrek 3.

 

I loved the first 2, but this one much very dumbed down. This fit well with the absolute tool behind us that was laughing at everything. I swear, Shrek could have said “take my wife, please” and he would have fell on the floor laughing. He was some snooty white guy that was obviously a descendent of Thurston and Lovey. Just goes to show you that you can go to a great theater, paying top price, and some moron can still lessen the experience. Not by being an ass, just by being stupid. But, the theater is absolutely top notch. Rave Motion here in Houston is close to this quality, and they have the added bonus of 10 DLP theaters.

 

We then headed to Pink’s for dinner. The line was way around the place to the back, just like it was when we drove by on the way to the movie. I asked the valet how long and he said he didn’t know. Yeah, sure. Well, it ended up being about an hour and a half. A few scary homeless folks came up to us in line. Too damn long of a wait, but the chili dog was amazing, as was the coconut cake. I was amazed how most of the folks in line seemed to be locals. I sure wouldn’t wait that long again. Maybe 30 minutes. I felt bad because I didn’t even think of having cash to give the lady who got my food a tip, and it seemed like she expected one. Oh well. We then headed back to the hotel.

 

Monday, a holiday, and we are dumb enough to decide to go to a major theme park. We get to Valencia, surprisingly rebuilt after the nuclear bomb a few months ago, and find about a 1.5 mile long wait at the SFMM exit. I decide to go past it and double back. This got us to a much smaller line, but thanks to bad light timing, we still had a long wait to get to Magic Mountain Parkway. Luckily, Robb and Elissa were bringing Kidtums to meet us. I was shocked they went so far out of their way to meet us, I mean, they drove about 1 mile from their house. Must be nice to be that close to some great coasters. But, honestly, they went WAY out of their way TIME wise. As we made a dumb decision and got in the valet line, they got in the normal parking line with their season pass parking. Since there was an unending stream of total assholes going all the way down the drop-off line and then cutting in to the valet line, it took a while. The car in front of us was getting pissed, even yelling “this is why people are racist” as one SUV full of blacks was trying to cut in and the mouthy woman in the passenger seat couldn't believe they weren't being welcomed into the front of th line. Surprisingly, a few folks were getting denied from cutting in, but most were successful. Another reason why I hate people in general. I mean, there were almost as many people cutting into the front of the valet line as there were people in the valet line. And yep, sorry, but very few of them were cars full of white people.

 

We head up to Revolution for a credit for my son. I must say, if you sit right, this is still a fun ride, and my son liked it. We still had a few minutes, so we headed up to Ninja and got a front seat ride right after it opened. Great ride, and tons of fun. Then we head to Tatsu where my wife was already talking to Robb and Elissa. They give my their free Flash passes for the day from their extreme season passes. WOW, that was great. After Robb used one with me to ride Tatsu, that gave me 7 free flash passes. Tatsu was pretty fun, but really missed out on the idea of a great terrain coaster going up and down the mountain. You were very high off the ground for most of it. The pretzel loop has insane g’s. Very forceful, fun ride.

 

R&E had to leave to do stuff for their upcoming trips, so we set up a dinner date and parted ways. I went for another Tatsu ride, and on to Superman. They were running the left side, but it had a long line, so I skipped it. We went down and rode Gold Rusher. Funner than I remembered, but damn jerky. We had a quick snack at Papa John’s and went to Goliath. My son wasn’t feeling great, but was ready to ride it. We used FPs and got to the station. Well, he puked up a bit of his pizza on the floor after running up the 30 or so steps that you must climb after going down 30 or so steps from the unload side of the station where the Flashpass line ends up. I went and asked for some paper towels to clean it up, and got one. I got everything I could, and figured we were done. But, my son was still wanting to ride, so I made dang sure he was OK, and we got on his biggest coaster by far. I was very nervous and really questioning the whole thing, but we were going up the lift. The ride is still amazingly smooth and really is lots of fun up to the MCBR. I asked him how he was there, and we were still good. We go through the insane helii and hit the brakes. He’s still doing fine, and really liked the ride. We get an on-ride photo and celebrate his riding a huge coaster for the first time.

 

We had 3 FPs left, so we all got on Log Jammer. I had never ridden this for various reasons and was glad to finally get on this excellent flume. We all got pretty wet, but had fun. We did some shopping and headed out. Even with the huge crowds, it was great having the passes. The parking in the morning was atrociously slow for some reason. The only thing I can figure out is that $15 is enough that few people pay it in cash, meaning more folks are charging parking, really slowing down the lines. At DL, they swipe your card and give you the receipt, no signature needed. I don’t know if they do that at SFMM or not.

 

We valeted the car, which really hurt at $30, but it saved us a lot of walking that morning since I’m sure the wait for the tram was enormous with so many people coming in. After talking with R&E, I think we made the wrong choice, and wasted $15.

 

We drove down and had dinner at the Elephant Bar with R&E. Great conversation, OK food. Again, I humbly thanked them for the free passes. I’ve GOT to go on one of their trips. They do an amazing amount of work to really make them special, and just blow away the ACE trips. They were working on it all day, and the detail of their planning is simply amazing.

 

We head back to the hotel. I was wanting to hit the Metal Skool show that night, but simply couldn’t bring myself to going to a concert that doesn’t start until midnight, meaning I’d be driving around LA alone at 2 am. Had we had a babysitter for the boy, and my wife and I both could have gone, we might have done it, but I guess I’m getting old. I simply hate midnight concerts at bars.

Two boobs on a coaster

[radiorunt2]

Pinks, I haven't been there forever. I used to work around the corner from there. They have the best hot dogs. Thanks for the great trip report.