The day was way too short. I had things planned too tightly, and instead of being able to leave leisurely, I spent too long over my coffee, and then had to sprint. A stop at the store on the way became difficult, when if I'd just left the house an hour earlier I could have thrown Eamon into their "playcare" place while I did my returns (never EVER use "daylight" lights in your dining room...EVER...I still can't look at the dining room the same after seeing it with those lights!) and did my shopping (Clif MoJo bars instead of granola bars, as they have 9 gm protein! and hair gel for Robert who never ever tells me he's *running* low, just that he has half a day left as of the day before).
Alas I didn't do that, so instead of leaving town at 4, I left at 4:30, to get up to downtown Seattle BY 5:30 on a Friday.
The surprise was...I just about did it! And hubby was off work, I picked him up across from Uwajimaya, and then we headed back down south.
Found the Doug Fox parking lot, got unloaded (we needed sherpas!), their shuttle bus came by (again) and took us swiftly over to the airport. The driver was a sweetheart and saw an abandoned luggage cart, pointed it out to us, then drove over got out and held onto it for us. Nice! Got our bags checked, got through security (where we suddenly became glad for our 4 years of unexplained (and unlooked into) lack of ability to create a new child, b/c the number of items on the belt for just three of us was shocking enough, let alone if we'd had the two more we want!). It was there that we encountered the first time suck (my laziness at home was not a time suck, just a total lack of time management!), where we got there on time, but as soon as we got through security, realized they would be boarding just about as we got to the gate.
Got to the gate, got gate check tickets for the stroller and carseat. Hubby and son went back to Starbucks to snag a coffee drink for the adults, and got back just in time for us to board. Boarded. Comfy. Pretty pink, blue, and purple lights, lovely shiny white plastic seat-backs. Ahhhh, I do like Virgin America.
Landed in LAX just about on time, got our bags. Found another abandoned luggage cart! Hauled everything out to the car rental shuttle bus area, and waited for
Avis to come around. Got onboard, were taken to Avis.
We had booked a car through Hotwire for some ridiculously low fee, which made it silly to take
Disneyland Express. Well, that's what we thought. In retrospect, the way that trip turned out, we could have taken DE and any needed taxis and it would have been totally fine. Then again, we would have had to haul the carseat around for the taxis (cuz we're like that), so maybe having the car was just fine.
We had booked a mid-size, I believe, and we got a snazzy Chevrolet pseudo-SUV, throwback to the Woody, sort of thing; here's a pic snapped under the PPH lights at 6am the next morning.
It was a most excellent vehicle.
We were headed to the Hilton, b/c we got a great rate there, also through hotwire. I tell ya, I'm hooked on hotwire now! Priceline with the bidding scares me; hotwire is a nice middle ground.
Of course, they have a $15 parking fee, which did raise the rate a bit.
We pulled in after midnight and it was party central outside! Tons of people smoking in the car pull-through, and many of them were wearing wristbands in various colors. Hubby went in to check in while sleeping child and I waited in the car. I people-watched to pass the time.
As Robert checked in, he found out that there were six separate conventions going on. Wow. I'll tell you, I was concerned about the noise we might deal with in the rooms, but the concern wasn't necessary. Once in our room it was absolutely silent.
Alas, I suddenly was in pain. Weird strange don't understand couldn't even really tell where I hurt, let alone why, pain. So I got barely any sleep. Hubby slept, but I kept waking him up, so his fractured sleep didn't really count.
When the alarm went off at sick and wrong on the 6th, the adults in the room weren't all that happy.
Therefore, before lights went on at all, I was fumbling with this.
Word of advice? Don't. If it looks like you'll be leaving right at 6, allow it to be 6:05 and run into the Starbucks in the Hilton, b/c that's when it opens, and just get a better coffee than whatever brand that was. Bleah.
So we got our stuff out, hubby pulled the car around, I was embarrassed to find that I had left the hotel room (with the Bell Services guy there!) with a towel draped over my arm. I do not know how I did that. Thankfully we had tipped him and he was gracious enough to take the towel in with him.
We found our way over to PPH.
Hubby went inside to check in while I hauled everything out of the car to leave with their Bell people instead of leaving it in the car. If we'd been in our own car, with the big trunk and no window in the trunk, we wouldn't have bothered. But instead we were in the funky cool car with the window into the trunk that could easily be broken into, so we dealt with the extra expense of storing it.
Hubby took a LONG time. Long long long long long.
And then....he came outside! Strange expression on his face. He has a very stoic thing that he can put on...if anyone watches Jon and Kate plus 8, you know that blank look Jon puts on that makes Kate a little nutty? That's hubby. And since they are both half Korean, I'm thinking there's a connection. Hubby thinks so too. Then again, I have a stress-face that's also genetic, shared with my mom and my aunt (my grandmother was too sweet to ever look stressed, darn her, so maybe it came from my grandfather's Irish family).
So anyway, he had that blank look...and he told us we had been chosen to be the Big Kahuna family of the day!
OK, but what does that mean?
I don't wait in lines that long! But as of today, it turns out I do, b/c we did. They didn't even start the line in the room with the video "ads", but rather over to the left in a room with some posters and a different view of General the guy with the big head and some sort of whiskers. But I had a fun talk with a woman who was there with her family for some sort of mom-blog convention, it was their first trip, they were spending almost no time and got a late start, but they were having fun! 
it!
Feet up to knees are kihihihihlling me. (yes, that is how it must be said, with all that syllables)
Exactly how much does a drink like that cost? I have a feeling you wouldn't get it if it were outrageously expensive, so it must be reasonable? Well, 'reasonable' by DLR standards!
