The somewhat passable but probably quite inauthentic dan dan noodles at the airport. I overhead the hostess tell a person "it's like spaghetti noodles with an Asian sauce". The crispy beef was good though.
She somehow gets me to do the selfie thing (every now and again). Boarded and the plane was pretty empty, it being somewhat late.
My first time with in flight wifi! Provided free for Southwest Rewards members or something like that. Although I saw this on Twitter. Here we are, leaving Kansas City which was forecasted to have a lovely somewhat warm November weekend, to head to sunny California, and get absolutely dumped on with rain. (It did not disappoint)
The LA metro is big, and quite lit up at night.
I've gotten coffee at this spot more than a few times. Larcenous, but what are you gonna do?
Waiting for the bus to Alamo.
So surreal to see these memory fragments from a stranger time.
After a tumultuous period on the bus getting through the purgatory that is the LAX loop, we arrived at Alamo, got our car, and headed southeast. Past a somewhat blurry Porsche dealership (it is LA after all).
Our destination should come as no surprise.
Staying at the Candy Cane Inn. Mid-tier expensive but Debra wanted to try it out. It was fairly pretty.
Got checked in, and dropped off our stuff. We went around the corner to 7-11 to get roller dogs, because we are fancy.
You walk into the bathroom at night, flip on the light, and the Demogorgon from Stranger Things is about to pounce on you and eat your face off. Dial that thing down a bit, geez.
Next morning, after...not as much sleep as would be optimal...we got breakfast at the buffet, which was a nice amenity for a Disneyland-adjacent hotel.
We walked up Harbor and into the park.
I don't think it was raining much. Yet.
This was Walt's apartment on the second story.
Mechanized dioramas on Main Street.
We weren't in any particular rush.
We waited for rope drop over by the Plaza Inn.
Oh, and Debra had bought some more Mickey ears. They didn't have any hammer and sickle or red star ones for me to buy.
First stop after rope drop, Matterhorn. We were letting the Genie Plus (or whatever it's called) app dictate what we did which usually works OK.
All through the line I was working on my thematically appropriate Hans and Franz routine and impressions. As we got up to the end of the line, I said to Debra (as Hans), "Ja, ja, I should ask thees cast member man, is he a girlie man or a muscle man?". Unfortunately I heard him speak a moment later and a slight lisp informed me that my Gen X / boomer jokes might have fallen extremely flat in an unintentionally offensive way. Crisis averted!
In line later behind this...just adorable chunk of a chap whose name (per hat) was Theodore. It may be a bit weird for me to have taken the pic but no one reads this blog.
Look at this absolute lad
Off to enjoy Mister Toad's tale of his path toward ETERNAL SUFFERING IN THE INFERNAL REGIONS
We are coming to grips with the fact that we may never ride Peter Pan again, that line was massive.
We sort of escaped into a quiet bit in this section, briefly.
Brief stop off at Tropical Hideaway. We meant to go back here at night, whoops!
Then the Tiki Room...before it started I heard both "Kaimana Hila" and "Lovely Hula Hands" from the Steel Guitar Magic album.
The drummers.
Slightly ironic that the fake rainstorm in the windows belied actual rain happening outside.
Then onto Indiana Jones...
And next stop, Haunted Mansion.
It was all done up for Halloween/Christmas with the Nightmare Before Christmas theming.
Headed up to Tiana's Bayou Adventure nee Splash Mountain. Riverboat was out and about.
We got absolutely soaked. Debra's jeans were all wet and my shoes were soaked through (an experience I would grow accustomed to over the trip, alas). Duck in a fake stream.
Then onto the riverboat itself. It's a bio-diesel powered steam engine. This is one of the, I dunno, pistony things.
Trying and failing to do an infinite mirror trick.
Pistony fellow on the other side in action.
Cormorant.
Rain was pretty solidly coming down as we rounded Tom Sawyer's Island.
Maintaining this stuff would be kind of fun.
Boiler (I think).
Monte Cristo for a shared snack (under a stairwell as there were no seats open).
Our fast pass for Big Thunder got rained out, so we hopped onto Pirates...this is the Blue Bayou restaurant.
Heading out for our usual midday break, we opted to stop off at the theatre for the Walt Disney animatronic. They have a gallery of profoundly abhorrent Mickey Mouse / Thomas Kinkade fusion.
This is more to my liking...awarded to Walt Disney by the Seabees.
Original furniture from Walt's apartment.
Animatronic Walt.
We stopped by at the Anaheim Hotel for Pizza Press lunch.
It was slightly warmer in the lobby so we ate there.
I managed to find earplugs for Debra at CVS, and we retired to our hotel for a nap. I spent a good while hair-drying my shoes. Then back to the park around 4:30:
Got a spot by the train station to watch the lighting of the tree. Apparently this was the first day of their Christmas season.
Then onto the train and we pulled away from Main Street.
We got off at New Orleans Square. Band was playing.
We shared a plate of street tacos at the Mexican place...not bad, not exceptional. Very wet though.
Castle lighting was cool though.
It was still very busy given the less-than-optimal weather.
We got in line and rode Dumbo...
Then over towards Small World (we did not ride).
Toon Town, for the Runaway Railway ride.
MISHKA MOOSHKA? MISHKA MOOSHKA???! ROOTLESS CAPITALIST LACKEY SHOULD TAKE SACRED WORDS OF PATRIOTIC LOVE FOR MOTHERLAND OUT OF FOUL WESTERN MOUTH! WE DENOUNCE MICHAEL MOUSE AS VILE RUSSOPHOBIC CHARLATAN UPON WHOM GLORIOUS RODINA SHALL VISIT HER REVENGE!
Longest line of the evening, but we had time. But the degenerates at Disney still insist on showing Minnie Mouse in a partial state of undress. (funnily enough Debra kind of poked me in a "don't look that way" kind of way in line, I turn around and it is a cut-out of topless Minnie right there...but it turns out she was actually referring to a mother in line breastfeeding her kid)
We bought some pens as a gift for Debra's friend and then saw Big Thunder was rained out for a second time. So we went over to Starwarsland. This is the stage for the Kylo Ren's Imperial Dance Sensation. He comes out of his ship and acts all aloof and then does a fantastic dance routine. There's even a stormtrooper chorus line. Highly recommend.
It's better at night.
We hopped on to Smuggler's Run for grins.
After a day of being soaked we opted for an early night and headed out. Fireworks weren't assured anyway given the weather. So we left, got snacks at the hotel, and watched another Caleb Hammer Financial Audit.
Next day was originally planned to be a "me" sort of day...military museums, Japanese food, and a concert. But then we found out our Worlds of Fun passes got us into Knott's Berry Farm for free, so I opted to can those plans and we'd just go to Knott's for the first time in many decades. But Knott's is a roller coaster park. And the rain was going to be even heavier, so we kind of reverted to original plan, albeit modified. First stop, In-N-Out, after a late (for us) checkout.
Then up to Chino, the Planes of Fame museum. The B-17 you see here is often accessible but not today given the rain.
OK, there are going to be a lot of planes. I'm not going to try and write something interesting about them all. I may just identify them. Skip this if you are bored by all of this. P-40 Warhawk.
A razorback P-47. Many of these in this hangar are still airworthy.
Better view of the P-40s sharkmouth.
F-4U Corsair with wings folded.
Looks like a F8F Bearcat I think?
Closer view of the P-47.
Note the holes for .50 cal casings to be expelled, on the Corsair.
Old motorcycles and aviation engines...
Yes, but -will it start-?
F-9 Panther, early naval jet fighter.
Ryan FR-1 Fireball, a mixed jet and piston powered plane from the mid 40s.
SBD Dauntless, smaller than I expected especially compared to the torpedo bombers.
The absolutely massive Avenger.
Looks like a Spitfire, but its actually a replica. Was told it was used as the Spitfire on the ground in the movie Dunkirk. That end scene with the Elgar over Churchill's speech is one of my favorites! Yak in the back.
An old BF 109 that was recovered from a frozen lake on the eastern front.
V-1 buzz bomb!
It's a copy, but allegedly made from many of the same factory components so it is more of a new production version of the same plane...FW 190.
Genuine Zero. Apparently all of their Japanese planes were original, some very rare.
Sopwith copy.
Fokker copy...
Gloster Meteor (two seater).
A human guided missile...the Ohka, purpose-made for kamikaze attack.
Perhaps the only surviving J2M Raiden left.
J8M Shusui, a Japanese copy of the Me 163.
The original, German Me 163.
The Walter rocket engine that powered it.
A copy of a Ba 349 Natter.
Heinkel He 162.
Close up of the downed Messerschmitt. Battle scars.
Horten flying wing glider up above.
I believe this was another Japanese fighter, but I can't name it.
Into the jet hangar...MiG 21 of course.
MiG 17
Douglas Skyrocket.
I took a picture of this guy last time I was here! Which was probably over 10 years ago!
de Havilland Vampire.
A P-80, quite the schnozz on this one.
F-86 Sabre.
British Folland Gnat
MiG 15, 37mm cannon visible underneath.
And its nemesis, another F-86 Sabre.
The Geebee!
It was just an engine with wings...the pilot was an afterthought.
Another (single seat) Gloster Meteor.
The P-38 Lightning gets its own hangar.
I always thought they were pretty, if a bit weird.
Outside into the rain! A B-29 fuselage, or part of it.
If it wasn't dumping rain I would have spend more time looking at this guy! M-4 Sherman.
Absolute classic tank.
F-104 Starfighter in what I was going to say was German livery (they had, and lost, a bunch of them) but looks maybe more like Belgian.
F7F Tigercat.
Into another hangar, this one was thick with very shiny, well maintained Mustangs.
Another P-51D.
Classic P-51A with the non-bubble canopy.
The B-25 was not accessible.
I should note, Debra this whole time opted to sit in the car and read her book. She probably made a good choice for her! We pulled into the adjoining air museum (yes there are two at the Chino airport) and noted the gutters failing on this building. They were not prepared for quite this much rain.
Yanks is the other air museum. Again, Debra probably wisely opted for the relaxing read in the car.
It has less foreign-built planes here, more focused on US stuff.
An auto-gyro! Sort of plane/helicopter hybrid. Engine pulls the plane forward and free spinning rotors above act like wings to provide lift.
There were some handsome old cars interspersed.
Another V-1 buzz bomb.
The bubble canopy variant of the P-47 Thunderbolt.
B-25...
O-52 Owl, rather a chunky plane for an observation aircraft.
Nice looking old Willys.
Front of the B-25...
And a slightly closer view of the bombsight.
Another Mustang...
And an SBD Dauntless dive bomber.
P-38 modified for reconnaissance with camera gear in the nose.
Another nice old car...
Top-turret of a (I think) B-17.
And bottom ball turret of the same.
In the jet hangar, you are greeted by a F-18 Hornet in Blue Angels livery. If I recall correctly this one did actually serve in that capacity.
B-61 free fall nuke.
FJ-1 Fury, which went on to influence the design of the F-86 for the Air Force.
F-5 (commonly exported) in ROC/Taiwanese livery.
F-100 Super Sabre with its distinctive nose inlet.
F-102 Delta Dagger.
F-15 Eagle. Still in service!
F-16 Flying Falcon (in Thunderbirds livery). Double seat, maybe a trainer.
British Harrier, flown by Squadron Leader Ian MacDonald if I'm reading right. Can't imagine he was very intelligible on the radio being quite THAT Scottish.
F-14 Tomcat.
Possibly an AGM-45 Shrike? Or HARM? Or a Sparrow?
This one I think is an AGM-78 Standard ARM, a modification of the naval SAM RIM-66 Standard.
Early twin rotor helicopter prototype for the Navy, MC-4.
20mm tail guns for a P2V Neptune.
Huey and a Cobra.
A Wildcat, early Grumman fighter of WWII.
P-39 Airacobra. The goofy mid-engined equivalent of a Porsche, except unlike a Porsche, it was quite underpowered.
P-63 Kingcobra, an improvement upon the P-39.
The P-40 wasn't the best fighter of the war by any stretch but it is a good looking aircraft, especially with the requisite nose art.
Restoration hangar.
Then out into the Boneyard!
My feet got (further) soaked out here but it was fun to wander around.
Just a pile of jet engines over there.
I could see Debra in the car from here. I think she would think she's getting the better of the deal.
T-38 Talon I'm guessing.
Back inside...the Curtissaurus Rex, which is surreal and weird but YES I would like to buy one.
In the gift shop, noted something I should have purchased as casual airport wear.
Matching tank top was on sale!
Then we headed out after Debra used the bathroom. There was a lot of water on the road.
It got rather deep in spots but we were fine.
They sure managed to get the signs out though!
We drove in to Little Tokyo by downtown.
First we did a bit of shopping for something for the kids. I did not understand what this was. CATS ARE LIQUID
Gretchen mentioned something about "Hatsune Miku" which both of us are about as ignorant as can be. Something something cartoon anime something or other. There was this mug with the character on it, but then I saw "Magic Mug" like you put hot coffee in it and it reveals something. And I thought, maybe its innocent but this is Japanese culture we are talking about (who knows lol)
We left Weller Court and went across to the Japanese Village Plaza, which was prettier.
The sun briefly came out!!
We sat on a bench and drank it in.
We thought briefly about sharing a bowl of ramen in a ramen shop but opted not to. I did get a small hand roll of sushi from the market as a snack. Mostly we just people watched, finished our shopping (a solar powered waving lucky cat for Pete, and some Hatsune Miku pens (NOT the magic kind) for Gretchen), and listened to Caleb Hammer berate people for their bad financial decisions on a pair of shared earphones.
This is just odd, Las Galas being spanish (the Parties?) but they have only Japanese food pictured which seems to be borne out on the internet. Huh!
Cool tower. Or whatever it is I'm supposed to call it. Shrine?
Grilled squid on a stick from this cart, wisely named "Squidward". Millenials have money now!
Back over to Weller Court. We waited for 6pm to roll around and eventually joined a queue outside of Torigoya, a yakitori shop I had wanted to visit for a few years (last time Debra and I were in LA alone, we had reservations but the chef was sick and they didn't open that day).
Amazingly (partly because we were a party of two) we got in without reservations. Debra happily resumed her reading.
Double sided yakitori grill, two chefs were slinging skewers.
Momo or chicken thigh skewer. Perfectly cooked.
Tsukune or meatball skewer.
This condiment was just magical...they call it their habanero sauce which you can order separately. Sliced habaneros pickled in a soy sauce mixture. So very good!
Hatsu "special" heart skewer. We also had a skin skewer, wing, and Debra had a zucchini and shiitake skewer. They know what they are doing here!
Then back in the car and heading over across downtown to the concert venue. Walt Disney Concert Hall here (not the venue for tonight!).
Now we paid extra (a lot...extra) for the cushy first-class option, where you have an upstairs lounge and private balcony. It was...worth it.
Debra spent more time in here listening to the music (there was a TV with a live feed) but also reading. And they had free* snacks! (*not free if you think about it)
Opening act was from a band member, Chiquita Magic. I gotta admit, not really my thing. She has talent but I think goes a little too outer space mash-the-keys-of-the-Casio for me. People seemed to enjoy it though! Including Sam Wilkes who was sitting just off stage.
And that's who I was basically here to see! Sam Wilkes, backing up Louis Cole and Genevieve Artadi in KNOWER.
They came on around 9pm.
Sam Wilkes being my favorite living / currently working bassist. And one of the more entertaining to watch given the expressiveness of his face. Ironic given he is one of a few bassists who just prefer sitting down to play (there are dozens of us!).
I took a bunch of shots trying to get a good Sam Wilkes surprised-and-delighted-at-his-own-funkiness shot.
Might as well list the setlist:
* Knower Rulez (intro)
* The Abyss
* Do Hot Girls Like Chords
* Around
* It Will Get Real
* Real Nice Moment
* Louis Cole solo loop choir as intro into:
* Same Smile, Different Face
* Nightmare (with a guy named Andy Arthur Smith doing very weird yet impressive scat)
* Andy Arthur Smith scat weirdness
* Things About You
* Different Lives
* What's in Your Heart
* Hanging On
* Crash the Car
* It's All Nothing Until It's Everything
* 1st encore I'm the President
* 2nd encore 4 part choral composition (!)
* Overtime
Full shot of the band...on keys was the aforementioned Chiquita Magic, a guy named Jonathan (forget his last name) who was a monster player, and Thom Gill on guitar.
Here are some clips I put together. The two choral vocal bits I tried to get in full (amazing stuff). The clip of Nightmare was where I was trying to catch Sam Wilkes and Louis Cole in the extremely funky outro section and the scat guy comes bounding out and I was so overcome with fremdschamen / vicarious embarassment I cut away lol
Making our way back to our car, the city was quite pretty.
Not going to make the joke
We returned our car at the Alamo and were disheartened to hear they didn't have a shuttle going to the hotels. We would have to go back to LAX...and then catch the hotel shuttle. Or walk. Either way, it didn't sound great. But we got lucky and the airport shuttle stopped to let a guy out at a hotel near ours, so we just hopped out too...short walk to our hotel.
Snacks back at the hotel where we would only be for...a bit. We had a very early flight.
I thought this was a bit silly partly because it's an airport hotel!! Who stays there for more than one night??
Lift off and seeing that lovely Pacific Ocean...
Flight back was also not too full.
Then back at KCI, finding our car in the economy lot.
All in all a very fun / successful little trip! Debra took Monday off too, gaining a four day weekend right before Thanksgiving break.