Travel Tuesday

So. Two weeks ago, we went west. Butch and I had planned to finish up our trip along Route 66. We wanted to do that this year since it was the 100th anniversary of "The Mother Road." But then, I got sick. By the time I recovered, I was pretty weak and could barely think about traveling. So, we nixed that part of the trip. Butch said that the part we had left really didn't have much to see anyway. Still, I'm a very goal oriented person. It's not my style to leave something "unfinished." I almost always complete anything I take on. 

Instead, we went straight to Los Angeles to meet up with the family. We had a delicious dinner at Musso & Frank. The next morning we went to Jordan and Robbie's condo. I'm glad we had a chance to see it since they are planning a move this year. 

From there, we went to Santa Monica Pier. We wanted this photo--although we didn't finish the last little bit, I do plan to do the layout and just tell the story of our change of plans.

We had lunch here--not exactly the Tex-Mex we're used to. 

Jordan and I shared the nachos--it was a huge platter!

That evening, we all went to The Comedy Club. Well, everyone except Butch. He doesn't like to be stuck anywhere for 2 hours!

The next morning, we checked in to our hotel across the street from Disneyland. It was so convenient to be that close. We started at Disney Springs--or was it Downtown Disney? I don't remember which is was. We had paid to go to "Mickey's Boo Bash" but that didn't allow us to enter the park until 4 p.m. 

The Halloween decorations are really good which is part of the reason we wanted to go. We've been to Disney World a few years ago, so now we're happy to have been to both. This family LOVES Disney. 

We kept our costumes simple--although everyone wore other costumes on the other days. 

I love Jordan's "slinky dog" head band.

The Neon Boneyard was an interesting place. It's full of all the old signs going back to the beginning of Las Vegas. It was fun to browse around and recognize some of those old signs.

I did not know anything about the Sphere. I thought it was a live stage performance. Instead it's the movie set with all kinds of special effects. If you've ever done Soarin' in Disney, it's like that--except of steroids! 

And then there was this. Mindy was going to breakfast in our hotel when she heard someone call her name.

What are the odds? This is one of Mindy's friends--from childhood. Lauren and her family--the Blacks were our back door neighbors. We are all still friends today, even traveling together now and then. Lauren and her family were there on fall break! We had no idea. Seriously--what a small world.

One day, we rented those 3-wheelers and went to the Red Rocks Park (not to be confused with the Red Rocks concert venue in Colorado--as Butch kept reminding me in an irritated way)! 

Any way you look at it, it's still "brown" to me.

Even the red rocks are more brownish. I've already said that I'm done with brown states. 

It's just not my kind of beauty.

We went to a "Rat Pack" show. It was fun listening to the old tunes with a few impersonators. They were pretty good.

The show was about an hour and fifteen minutes--a perfect amount of time.

We ended our trip with one of the last performances of The New Kids on the Block--ending their residency. The girls wore their vintage t-shirts. We've had a long relationship with the "kids"--even camping our for tickets when Stephanie was 12 and Mindy was 4!

I had planned to go, but by the end of the week, I was just tired. I was done walking so much. I just wanted to relax for the evening and that's just what I did. Butch watched football, so we were both happy!

We had an 8:50 flight the next morning and for once, the airline surprised us in a good way! We have never had a good surprise when it comes to airlines. 

About a half hour before we were to board, they make an announcement that the flight crew was all "here and ready to go" so they were going to board early. We had about a half hour earlier start. We got to Nashville about 20 minutes early. We got our luggage and Uber. And then, that was it!! We were stuck in traffic. Turns out, we got home about the time we were supposed to! At least we weren't late! I cannot remember the last time we actually arrived when we were supposed to! Still, I'm sick of traveling and ready for a break. 

Oh wait, and then we weren't even home a week before we made the drive to St. Louis. It was a fun trip, but I'm ready to stay home for awhile!