We've made it to Part III: The Road Home.
Let met start at the beginning...
Dylan and I took Wednesday through the following Monday off as vacation days from work in order to take this trip. We drove out on Wednesday, and toyed with the notion of maybe driving home on Sunday so that we'd have that Monday as a decompression day before getting back to the grind. However, on our way out to California we learned that Dylan's step-dad had scored some excellent seats to go and see a Dodger game on Sunday. It was decided we'd stay through Monday and use our last day off to drive home. Why not soak in all the vacation you can, right?
Recap of the Recap:
Wednesday - drove into California, lost a tire
Thursday: Universal Studios!! <3
Friday: Replaced tire, hit the beach, enjoyed lots of good eads
Saturday: Halloween shopping spree + a good meal with a friend
Now here we are at Sunday!
Dodger Stadium was cool. It's a landmark!
We hit the Dodger um... store? It probably has a proper name, but I'm both sports-illiterate and lacking in the memory zone so ... yeah I couldn't tell you. But we did score a cool hat for Dylan and a rad foam finger!
Dylan really liked the way the traffic rows were marked with giant baseballs
The we moseyed our way into the stadium
"Welcome do Dodger Stadium" :D
We did, in fact, enjoy a Dodger Dog
With some Dodger beer!
Here's Dylan posing with our sweet foam finger
*Note the awesome Krusty Burger T-shirt scored from Universal Studios. I think it got something like 3 compliments from strangers while we were ate the game.
That stadium is enormous
What I was most impressed with (and, leave it to me to be impressed by this...) is how well this stadium is designed to deal with massive crowds. There was hardly a wait for anything!
You want swag?
Multiple little mobile stores at your service
You need to go to the restroom?
Guess what?! NO WAIT! In the ladies room.
How about some snacks?
Fast moving, multi lined, multi cashiered AND there's like one of these snack stands every 20 feet! They even have different themes based on what you want to eat! Amazing.
We had great seats
We watched Wynonna Judd sing the National Anthem, and Kelsey Grammer threw out the starting pitch. (He didn't sit all that far away from us either - eee! Star-struck!)
After the game we headed back home and decided on an easy, all American, delicious dinner.
Pizza delivery.
Polished off by some more cheese cake ice cream + magic shell + sprinkles + a cake pop.
Come on! It was vacation!
We polished off vacation right! It would have made Homer Simpson proud
(This was part of Dylan's mom's score from Universal Studios)
We hit the sack Sunday night, fat, full and happy. Ready to rise and shine and hit the road. On Monday morning we didn't rush. We packed, had some coffee and then there's me taking the time to document my epic vacation sunburn
See those two dots in the center of the burn there? Yeah. Those are from where my bra had eyelets.
Next stop: Hof's Hut one of our very own Boswell end of Cali-vacation rituals
With bellies full, bags packed and vacation just about over - we hit the road.
We made it nearly100 miles before we started seeing the billboards beckoning us to exit the freeway and see the amazing Cabazon Dinosaurs (Made famous in the film Pee-wee's Big Adventure and even a Tears for Fears video)
We always said we were going to stop and check out the dinosaurs, so, we decided this would finally be the time we stopped!
Dinosaurs!
Dylan and I have spent a large majority of our adult careers creating posters/handouts/etc. that try to convince people to come to various things. That being said, I appreciated the hell out of this banner
Onward!
The fee to get in is $7.95 a person, it's worth it for the novelty alone.
First you head into the "Robotic" portion of the tour
Which consists of that guy on the left there just sort of pawing at the air with his right ...foot?
Here the kiddies have an opportunity to "ride" a dinosaur, for only $2!
Then you head out on the trail to see more dinos
I also appreciated the Welcome sign...
Then I appreciated the hilarious and adorable way the designated the Mens and Ladies rooms
They had very nice restorooms too, I'll tell you that. That's a cherished thing on a road trip! THAT may be worth the $8 ... I'm just saying.
Dinosaurs are fun
We picked up more than one of these lovelies just begging to have memes made out of them.
Like this fella, who seems sneaky/up to no good ...
These guys are a fun pair. The one in the background appears angry while the one in the foreground looks startled ... what could be going on here? Hmmm....
All I can come up with here is: Jazz Hands!
Part of your $8 to get in grants you the access to climb sir T-Rex up to the very top
So you sort of enter at the belly, and go up two regular flights of stairs
We marveled at how the innards are red and muscle looking, but they also had those little peephole windows
Once you get to the very top, in order to climb up and see out of T-Rex's grill you have to defeat a tight tiny little spiral staircase
Okay, fine - it doesn't look like much. But danged if it didn't give me the vertigo.
You get a great view from way up here, but my legs were getting too shaky for my camera to focus through the teeth! (Sorry guys...)
I had to stop and chronicle the "Dinosaur Dig" they were advertising ...
It's really just a glorified sandbox, but hey - you know kids love it.
Absolutely a worthy pull-off of the freeway to stop and fart around.
Well done "worlds largest robotic dinosaur museum."
You would think with a title like "The Road Home" that Vacation Recap III would be the last installment - not hardly.
More adventures to come, see you then!
