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Los Angeles, CA
Sep. 3rd, 2006 06:16 pmEDITED TO ADD: Vegas breakfast. Seemed like a great idea to go to another buffet. We decided on the Bellagio, because isn't that what one does? So we did. Except after finally parking and trudging through the gamblers and tossing aside the showgirls and waiting in a too-long-for-breakfast-seriously line, we got to the cashier, said "One for the buffet!" and she replied "That will be $31.50." I gasped, said "For BREAKFAST?!?!" and she snapped "Holiday Brunch!"
Well. 9am on a Saturday morning is brunch? And the holiday is Monday, bitch. So we left. McDonald's will do us just fine, thanks. Which we did. And then drove away very fast. Byebye, Vegas! END EDIT
LA, on the other hand, was fun! Brief, but fun! We rolled in around 2pm from Vegas, and met Derek at Toi, a pretty good Thai place somewhere in the wilds of Los Angeles. We needed Derek's GPS thingie and two cell calls just to get there, but we finally made it and ate ourselves silly. Mmmmm.
After saying bye to Derek and making him give us more directions a la GPS to our potential hotel, we headed off to the Rodeway Inn near LAX. And then we quickly LEFT the Rodeway Inn next to LAX, as the guy pissed us off and we got a "this place is skeezy" vibe. Instead, we drove down the street to Comfort Inn (again!) and were much happier. Patrick: "So, when the choice is 'Comfort Inn or XXX' let's just do the Comfort Inn." Me: "yeah." This blog entry brought to you by Choice Hotels!
We checked in, flopped for a while, then headed out for a quick car tour of West Hollywood and all the famous spots you'd think of. We couldn't really face more food after the stuffing ourselves incident of earlier, so instead we got some convenience store stuff (soda and candy, whoo!) and went back to the hotel. I needed to re-pack for my early am flight, and P was tired anyway. Suzanne called, warning me of the horrors of LAX and advising me to go early early early to get through security. We chatted a while, then P came scratching at my door, wanting to order delivery.
We got a pizza, chatted, and then bid each other goodbye. My plane was at 9am, and there was a shuttle from the hotel that I could take for free, so I didn't need to get P up at dawn (just me!).
I woke up early, of course. [I haven't actually flown in about 10 years. I love planes and flying, but for the last 10 years I was finishing undergrad school, getting a grad degree, and after that I was working my day job and teaching my night job -- no time for plane-type vacations! And no money, thanks to stupid student loans. So...I was pretty excited to get on a plane again.] The elevator was broken at the hotel, so I had to drag my two huge bags down several flights of stairs. The shuttle was there, but the driver wasn't, so as I checked out I asked the idiotic desk clerk (he was talking on two phones to two different friends when I walked in, and made me wait at least two minutes before he'd wait on me. Punk!) to find the driver.
Turns out the guy was just getting breakfast in the next room, so he loaded me into the shuttle and took off -- just me, my own personal shuttle! Took me right to my terminal, carried my bags to the door, and then wished me a good flight and split.
So it was 6:10am (the hotel was very close to LAX), and there was exactly one person ahead of me in line at Midwest. It took about three minutes to check in, then I had to bring my checked luggage to the x-ray. That took about 20 seconds, I cleared, and they checked my bag. I then was directed to the other security area, had to shed my shoes, put my laptop in a bin, and send my camera bag through the scanner. I didn't beep on anything, so by 6:20 I was inside the terminal. I called Mom, had a frappuccino and a scone, drank some water, then boarded my plane about an hour and a half later. We had a delay on the tarmac of about 45 minutes, but we still got into Kansas on time. And that was LA!
Well. 9am on a Saturday morning is brunch? And the holiday is Monday, bitch. So we left. McDonald's will do us just fine, thanks. Which we did. And then drove away very fast. Byebye, Vegas! END EDIT
LA, on the other hand, was fun! Brief, but fun! We rolled in around 2pm from Vegas, and met Derek at Toi, a pretty good Thai place somewhere in the wilds of Los Angeles. We needed Derek's GPS thingie and two cell calls just to get there, but we finally made it and ate ourselves silly. Mmmmm.
After saying bye to Derek and making him give us more directions a la GPS to our potential hotel, we headed off to the Rodeway Inn near LAX. And then we quickly LEFT the Rodeway Inn next to LAX, as the guy pissed us off and we got a "this place is skeezy" vibe. Instead, we drove down the street to Comfort Inn (again!) and were much happier. Patrick: "So, when the choice is 'Comfort Inn or XXX' let's just do the Comfort Inn." Me: "yeah." This blog entry brought to you by Choice Hotels!
We checked in, flopped for a while, then headed out for a quick car tour of West Hollywood and all the famous spots you'd think of. We couldn't really face more food after the stuffing ourselves incident of earlier, so instead we got some convenience store stuff (soda and candy, whoo!) and went back to the hotel. I needed to re-pack for my early am flight, and P was tired anyway. Suzanne called, warning me of the horrors of LAX and advising me to go early early early to get through security. We chatted a while, then P came scratching at my door, wanting to order delivery.
We got a pizza, chatted, and then bid each other goodbye. My plane was at 9am, and there was a shuttle from the hotel that I could take for free, so I didn't need to get P up at dawn (just me!).
I woke up early, of course. [I haven't actually flown in about 10 years. I love planes and flying, but for the last 10 years I was finishing undergrad school, getting a grad degree, and after that I was working my day job and teaching my night job -- no time for plane-type vacations! And no money, thanks to stupid student loans. So...I was pretty excited to get on a plane again.] The elevator was broken at the hotel, so I had to drag my two huge bags down several flights of stairs. The shuttle was there, but the driver wasn't, so as I checked out I asked the idiotic desk clerk (he was talking on two phones to two different friends when I walked in, and made me wait at least two minutes before he'd wait on me. Punk!) to find the driver.
Turns out the guy was just getting breakfast in the next room, so he loaded me into the shuttle and took off -- just me, my own personal shuttle! Took me right to my terminal, carried my bags to the door, and then wished me a good flight and split.
So it was 6:10am (the hotel was very close to LAX), and there was exactly one person ahead of me in line at Midwest. It took about three minutes to check in, then I had to bring my checked luggage to the x-ray. That took about 20 seconds, I cleared, and they checked my bag. I then was directed to the other security area, had to shed my shoes, put my laptop in a bin, and send my camera bag through the scanner. I didn't beep on anything, so by 6:20 I was inside the terminal. I called Mom, had a frappuccino and a scone, drank some water, then boarded my plane about an hour and a half later. We had a delay on the tarmac of about 45 minutes, but we still got into Kansas on time. And that was LA!
