Tuesday, July 31st
Our first trip to Disneyland since 1985, or at least it feels that way. In reality, it has been since September of 2015 since we have been here, and I honestly can’t remember the last time we came here during the summer. This isn’t our big vacation this year, this is just a “little jaunt” down to Cali for a few days. We are going to have to hit it hard, hit it fast, and hit it frequently.
Of course, we are both old as Fuck, and Tracey (AKA “Train Wreck”) has about a billion health problems, so there is little doubt that the Disney character we are both going to most resemble is “Sleepy”...so there’s that. The only thing we are likely going to be hitting hard and frequently is the pillow.
Anyhoo, we are prepared to try to get up early and stay up late, when it is cooler and less busy, and nap a lot during the day. We have always planned these trips well, and I can’t believe we are now at a point where we have to schedule naps. It doesn’t really matter though, this is our favourite place on the planet and we are going to have a great time, even if we can’t spend 12 hours in the parks. And on Sunday, our check-out day, we have a cabana booked and will be spending most of the day at the pool. We will double down on relaxation just before coming home.
12:30 PM - Into the car and off to Seattle where we are spending the night. Tracey is driving and I am...well....sleeping. For most of my life, being in the car has made me sleepy - and it didn’t matter if I was driving or not - but that had subsided as of a few years ago.
It’s back, baby!! Seems to be my “what’s old is new again” thing, and I am exhausted within 15 minutes of getting across the border. We are barely to Bellingham before I am asleep. I figure I would easily be able to sleep until we get to the Hotel, or close to it, but in fact I wake up when we SHOULD have been at the Hotel. Fucking Seattle traffic. I wake up to find us at a dead stop on I-5, still a half hour away from the Hotel. Oh well, at least we have no plans tonight but to relax and prepare for our flight around Noon tomorrow. We figured we would have a decent dinner and rest in the room with some wine and cheese that we brought.
3:45 PM - We finally pull up to the Coast Hotel and check into our room, which is very satisfactory. OK it’s not the Mandarin Oriental or anything, but it is clean and safe and our room is huge, and we are only about 5 minutes from the airport. We spy a BBQ joint in the parking lot which seems an attractive spot for dinner, since up until we saw that the leading contender was Denny’s. That it not a joke, the next best restaurant we drove by that is close to here was freaking Denny’s. I am not starting off my vacation with Moons over My Hammy.
Seriously, that restaurant was terrific. Fucking Americans know their BBQ, even here in Seattle which is not exactly Kansas City when it comes to BBQ. They started us off with some complimentary cornbread covered in maple syrup (JESUS), and for a beverage both of us ordered a Prickly Pear Mojito. Oh my. I don’t know what that is but I want it. Next up we ordered BBQ pulled pork nachos. Holy shit, those might have been the best nachos I have ever had in a restaurant. Incredible. Tracey ordered pulled pork macaroni and cheese for her entree, and ate about half of it. We brought it back to the room where we will probably microwave it for a snack later.
The only fail of the evening was my entree, crispy salmon tacos. Now, I know what you are thinking, “what kind of a moron goes to a BBQ joint and orders fish tacos???”. I will own that. I mean, I’ve just never seen salmon tacos on a menu before and I was curious. Back home you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a restaurant that serves fish tacos these days, but it is always whitefish. I was curious, OK????
Maybe it was curiosity that killed all those dead cats everyone is just flinging around.
5:45 PM - Back to the room and Tracey is hitting the bath tub while I think it is probably time to climb into bed.
*Looks at watch*. Oh, shit.
Guess I will write a blog post, open up the wine and rest for a while. Seems pretty likely we are going to need all the rest we can get!
