Back! Sort of.
May. 1st, 2019 04:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
christopher575This year I decided to do a blog post on Live in Everett to go along with the video for Banh Meetup 2, and hoped it'd be up by the time we got back so I could post them together. It's not up yet, so I'll just share the video for now.
The party was really great, and I can now share that we had an exciting partnership with Bluewater Organic Distilling, who provided cocktails! This was a really big win for me and I was so thrilled they said they'd do it, I was emboldened to approach lots of other people and businesses about this party and the gay bingo event we did.
After all that, I took a very necessary break and vacation. We had a great time in Los Angeles, which I liked a lot more than I thought I would.
There are tons more pictures than I could ever share here. click any pic and then up into the album if you'd like to see them.
Our rental car shuttle happened to pick us up at a spot with an iconic view.
We stayed at a really great Airbnb right downtown, a double master bedroom apartment with secure parking that was convenient to the back gate in a very large complex. One drawback was that on our level, the deck was shared with all the apartments on our floor, but we only ever saw people walk by a couple of times. I didn't really take photos of the apartment, but I got updated foot tattoo photos. Here's the new Starheadboy pal I mentioned.
We spent our first full day being shown around by Bryan AKA Mookie AKA former LJ user sillyape. He really loves it there and we had a blast.
Among other things, we had lunch at Sonoratown, dinner at Sushi Go 55, and hit the ScienCenter inbetween, where we saw a space shuttle!
I was a little surprised to see this there. I and lots of other people have/had it as an LJ icon, I had no idea it's a real toy.
The next day we hit the La Brea Tar Pits, which has a pretty cool museum. I was shocked to learn they've pulled 3,000,000+ fossils from the site.
The gift shop provided my first opportunity to buy crickets, which I've always wanted to try.
I ate those the next day on Facebook Live.
The LA County Museum of Art is right next door, so we did that as well.
Unfortunately, one of the buildings there has "Broad" in the name, so we thought we saw The Broad, and didn't realize our mistake until it was too late. But we also had our fill of museums, so we can do The Broad next time we're there.
The next day, we did the SkySpace observation deck and I rode the SkySlide. It's a quick ride, only one floor high, and your brain can't really process the experience very well. Thankfully it's cheap.
The views from up there are amazing.
And I happened to spot something I forgot I wanted to see!
That red stair sculpture was the setting for a finale battle scene on Heroes which took place in NYC. When I was there, I posted asking where I could find it and learned it's in Los Angeles.
From there, we rode Angels Flight.
My longtime online friend Victoria saw that and she happened to be across the street! So awesome to finally meet her.
For our final full day, Garrett surprised me with VIP tickets to Universal Studios! It's a little surprising during the tour to see some of the stuff they've kept in their limited space. Do you remember the movie The Great Outdoors? The cabin is still there.
We got to have drinks from Moe's and I think that the Simpsons ride is the best one at the park.
Garrett preferred the Mummy ride because it's a real roller coaster, and I agree, that one's great too.
Waterworld was a huge flop of a movie but they still do its stunt show, which is pretty awesome.
Surely you've heard of butterbeer, the signature drink from Harry Potter. It's basically cream soda with a creamier top.
One of my goals in life was to stay at the Bonaventure at least once, so we did that for our final night.
Dinner in their revolving lounge was great, even though the portions were too big and the table was too small.
My obsession with the Bonaventure started with the movie Midnight Madness, and I was a little offended its poster wasn't included in their collection of movie posters the hotel appears in. The climax of the movie takes place in the hotel and it's mentioned over and over. The movie's final scene takes place in room 2704, so of course we had to get pictures there on the way back to our room on the 20th floor.
I realized immediately while we were there that the hallway scenes in the movie weren't filmed there. They show a standoff in a long, straight hall, and all the actual hallways are curved. If you watch the movie, you'll see the reason they chose the hotel was the glass elevators, the hallway was a minor detail to work around.
The Bonaventure has a very generous noon checkout time, so we relaxed a while before driving back to LAX and flying home. Garrett's parents picked us up so they could see our new local airport, and that's when an era ended. I almost never wear pants, and one time I do is on airplanes. Garrett makes me wear them so that in the event of a crash, my legs will be more protected from burns. I've worn the same pair of pants for maybe 15 years whenever the need arose, but they finally started to split as I climbed into the backseat of my inlaws' car. I'd say I'd miss these pants, but I hate pants, so I won't. Too bad I have to find a new pair.
Another treat upon returning was learning that someone who was supposed to approve my contract extension at work didn't, and now my credentials have lapsed. This will put me out of commission for several days, and there's no guarantee I'll get my original email alias back when I gain access again. I've had that alias since 2009! Thankfully in the last few minutes before my access stopped working, I was able to export Outlook PST files of my inbox and "for future reference" folder. I wish I thought to get my Sent folder since I'm constantly searching there, too.
The party was really great, and I can now share that we had an exciting partnership with Bluewater Organic Distilling, who provided cocktails! This was a really big win for me and I was so thrilled they said they'd do it, I was emboldened to approach lots of other people and businesses about this party and the gay bingo event we did.
After all that, I took a very necessary break and vacation. We had a great time in Los Angeles, which I liked a lot more than I thought I would.
There are tons more pictures than I could ever share here. click any pic and then up into the album if you'd like to see them.
Our rental car shuttle happened to pick us up at a spot with an iconic view.
We stayed at a really great Airbnb right downtown, a double master bedroom apartment with secure parking that was convenient to the back gate in a very large complex. One drawback was that on our level, the deck was shared with all the apartments on our floor, but we only ever saw people walk by a couple of times. I didn't really take photos of the apartment, but I got updated foot tattoo photos. Here's the new Starheadboy pal I mentioned.
We spent our first full day being shown around by Bryan AKA Mookie AKA former LJ user sillyape. He really loves it there and we had a blast.
Among other things, we had lunch at Sonoratown, dinner at Sushi Go 55, and hit the ScienCenter inbetween, where we saw a space shuttle!
I was a little surprised to see this there. I and lots of other people have/had it as an LJ icon, I had no idea it's a real toy.
The next day we hit the La Brea Tar Pits, which has a pretty cool museum. I was shocked to learn they've pulled 3,000,000+ fossils from the site.
The gift shop provided my first opportunity to buy crickets, which I've always wanted to try.
I ate those the next day on Facebook Live.
The LA County Museum of Art is right next door, so we did that as well.
Unfortunately, one of the buildings there has "Broad" in the name, so we thought we saw The Broad, and didn't realize our mistake until it was too late. But we also had our fill of museums, so we can do The Broad next time we're there.
The next day, we did the SkySpace observation deck and I rode the SkySlide. It's a quick ride, only one floor high, and your brain can't really process the experience very well. Thankfully it's cheap.
The views from up there are amazing.
And I happened to spot something I forgot I wanted to see!
That red stair sculpture was the setting for a finale battle scene on Heroes which took place in NYC. When I was there, I posted asking where I could find it and learned it's in Los Angeles.
From there, we rode Angels Flight.
My longtime online friend Victoria saw that and she happened to be across the street! So awesome to finally meet her.
For our final full day, Garrett surprised me with VIP tickets to Universal Studios! It's a little surprising during the tour to see some of the stuff they've kept in their limited space. Do you remember the movie The Great Outdoors? The cabin is still there.
We got to have drinks from Moe's and I think that the Simpsons ride is the best one at the park.
Garrett preferred the Mummy ride because it's a real roller coaster, and I agree, that one's great too.
Waterworld was a huge flop of a movie but they still do its stunt show, which is pretty awesome.
Surely you've heard of butterbeer, the signature drink from Harry Potter. It's basically cream soda with a creamier top.
One of my goals in life was to stay at the Bonaventure at least once, so we did that for our final night.
Dinner in their revolving lounge was great, even though the portions were too big and the table was too small.
My obsession with the Bonaventure started with the movie Midnight Madness, and I was a little offended its poster wasn't included in their collection of movie posters the hotel appears in. The climax of the movie takes place in the hotel and it's mentioned over and over. The movie's final scene takes place in room 2704, so of course we had to get pictures there on the way back to our room on the 20th floor.
I realized immediately while we were there that the hallway scenes in the movie weren't filmed there. They show a standoff in a long, straight hall, and all the actual hallways are curved. If you watch the movie, you'll see the reason they chose the hotel was the glass elevators, the hallway was a minor detail to work around.
The Bonaventure has a very generous noon checkout time, so we relaxed a while before driving back to LAX and flying home. Garrett's parents picked us up so they could see our new local airport, and that's when an era ended. I almost never wear pants, and one time I do is on airplanes. Garrett makes me wear them so that in the event of a crash, my legs will be more protected from burns. I've worn the same pair of pants for maybe 15 years whenever the need arose, but they finally started to split as I climbed into the backseat of my inlaws' car. I'd say I'd miss these pants, but I hate pants, so I won't. Too bad I have to find a new pair.
Another treat upon returning was learning that someone who was supposed to approve my contract extension at work didn't, and now my credentials have lapsed. This will put me out of commission for several days, and there's no guarantee I'll get my original email alias back when I gain access again. I've had that alias since 2009! Thankfully in the last few minutes before my access stopped working, I was able to export Outlook PST files of my inbox and "for future reference" folder. I wish I thought to get my Sent folder since I'm constantly searching there, too.
