Recap: A Smattering of Activity

I took all of last week (11/9-11/13) off from work to celebrate/forget my birthday:

USS Hornet / Hanging in Alameda
On Sunday (the 8th), I went to Alameda to hang out with a friend and tour the USS Hornet, a former aircraft carrier. This makeshift museum is a random setup in that there are no guided tours per se. They have docents hanging around, and if you happen to see one and ask nicely, they might show you around. But otherwise you're on your own, which suited us just fine. We had fun wandering through the narrow hallways (is that the right term?), tapping torpedos, taking silly photos, and getting the bejeezus scared out of us. As we turned a corner we heard a ringing sound like from a cell phone or an alarm clock. We traced the sound to a closed door, and since there was no sign on the door instructing us to keep out we felt within our right to open it. It was pitch black. Mary went in first. Just as I was starting to say, "let me take a picture with the flash so we can see what's in here," there came from somewhere in the darkness a loud voice, "You shouldn't be in here!" Mary shouted "Jesus Christ" and I had that weird delayed scream as we tumbled over each other back down the hall. We never did find out what the ringing was.
After the Hornet, we went downtown and had lunch at a diner, and Mary gave me a bit of a tour of her hometown. Then we popped over to a wine bar and sat out in the sun sipping on Chardonnay. A good time of course.

Disneyland
I had been thinking for several weeks about going to Disneyland for my birthday, mostly because I could get in for free, and also because I hoped some kind of karmic magic would allow me to see inside Club 33 on my 33rd birthday. But I had ruled out Disneyland because of my emotional issues, and the larger LA trip had been kiboshed anyway. But the nagging feeling that I needed to do something on my actual birthday wouldn't leave me. And so on my drive back from Alameda I psyched myself up to just do it. I got in touch with my friend Vickie who was up for it, but needed to be back in the Bay Area by 9 am Tuesday morning. Ridiculous, but we did it anyway. I got to her house at 4:30 Monday morning. The drive down was just fine - we split the driving into two 3-hour shifts and we arrived at the parking garage in Anaheim at 11:00. The park closed at 8 pm and we were back in the car and on the road by 9:00. The drive back was sketchier, and we had to switch more often. She drove the lion's share, which I was grateful for. We got back to her house at 4 am Tuesday morning.
And what did I get out of this 24-hour road trip.....
Two rides on Pirates (of course)
Two rides on Jungle Cruise (once in the daytime, once at night)
Splash Mountain - 1st time since I was a kid!
Space Mountain - 1st time since I was a kid! (if ever?)
Matterhorn - 1st time since I was a kid!
Big Thunder Mt Railroad - 1st time since I was a kid, and just as rickety as I remembered
Buzz Lightyear - could not break 50,000 dammit!
Roger Rabbit
Tea Cups
Dumbo
Mr Toad's
Lunch at the Mexican restaurant
Bill Hill and the Hillbillies
Indiana Jones
Haunted Mansion
The inside of Sleeping Beauty's castle -- 1st time ever?
A little bit of a random parade in Fantasyland and Christmas parade in Main Street, because they were once again filming the Disney Channel Christmas special.
.....all in all, not too shabby.
(But there was no karma magic to be had. I was denied entrance to Club 33! Oh well, maybe next time.)

Veteran's Day: A valid excuse to drink!
On Wednesday afternoon I met up with my dad to watch the Veteran's Day parade, which rivals the B&E Parade for small town kitsch: old timey cars, kids on fire trucks, old men on tractors, high school bands, and the like. Plus, lots of fly-overs, which made my dad happy. As the parade wound down, we headed to the Irish pub to watch the end of it while sipping on pints. After resting up, I headed back downtown that evening for our weekly pub quiz at the same pub, but they cancelled it in favor of serving all the military men still out drinking. So we made the rounds at a couple of other old hangouts, where we listened to an old man play some lively piano, and I (as usual) had one beer too many.

On Thursday - volleyball and then dinner with Melissa

Golden Gate Bridge
On Friday I went for a drive in Marin county and walked across the GG bridge

Food, Drink, and Movies
The nice thing about vacation is the leisure time to enjoy getting together with friends for dinner and movies. I met up with Lisa Tuesday night for dinner and wine, and then we went to see The Invention of Lying, which was good, but not as funny as I thought it would be. On Friday night, we went to the wine bar for dinner (a half carafe of wine is not a good dinner, I know), and we sat at the bar playing scrabble and watching Singing in the Rain. I spent more money than I wanted to because I broke down and bought some pizza at 10pm, but it was worth it. On Sunday, my sister came up for a nice day of fun. She treated me to a yummy brunch, and then we went to see Pirate Radio (formerly known as The Boat That Rocked), which was great. After that we had sundaes at the new ice-cream shoppe.

Cartoon Mania
On Saturday I took myself to the Charles Schulz Museum