Friday, August 08, 2008

Our California Adventure

Ok guys this is going to be a long post with lots of pics from our vacation/business trip to Anaheim California. Ron had a conference to attend (the IAAM- International Association of Assembly Managers) in Anaheim, California and asked me to tag along. Since I had never been out west I was pumped! We drove to Georgia and dropped the kids off with Mima and Tia Anita and then flew out of Atlanta. That's right this was a kid free trip. :) We stayed at the Hilton right next to the convention center:



After checking in to the hotel, we jumped in the rental car and headed to Newport Beach. There, we had some great seafood sitting outside looking out at the marina. This was just awesome. Thanks to Beth for the tip on the great restaurant.

The next day we took an Amtrak train to San Diego for the day. We went to ComicCon- the largest comic book convention in the world. This was way cool and very entertaining. We got to see lots of people dressed up in their favorite characters, a few famous guys...Lou Ferigno from the Hulk and of course my favorite by far Jack Bauer, oh I mean Kiefer Sutherland, and buy some cool stuff. At the convention, we went to a 24 panel where the director, writers, Jack and Tony Almata answered questions from the audience. This was my favorite thing we did the whole time. (Disneyland was a close second). We also got to see the trailer for season 7 and a sneek peek at an episode....looks like it's going to be as intense as ever.
Here is a shot of downtown San Diego:


After the conference we headed down to the bay for some dinner and I took a few shots of the view:

The next day, Ron had to attend classes so I hung out at the pool until it was time to get dressed up for the opening reception.

Day 3...Disneyland. What can I say? We had an absolute blast!

We got an early start so we were able to finish up in Disneyland by lunch and we headed over to California Adventures. I was scared to death on the Tower of Terror and the roller coaster was great except it shoots you 0 to 60 in 3 seconds and well... that just made me feel sick. I felt better 30 minutes later and we off again to have more fun. (didn't ride the ferris wheel just took pictures of it)



After a long day at Disney, we slept in a bit and Ron had a 12:00 tee time at this amazing golf course:


Meanwhile, I headed out to sight see and shop! :) Here are some pics of the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, Ca. The pictures don't do it justice...it was a really amazing place to visit.

The last day there, Ron had classes in the morning so I headed out to see Huntington Beach:

On the way back to the hotel, I was sitting at a red light and started to feel my car shake. I looked around to see if someone was shaking my car... no. That would be the 5.4 earthquake. Our California adventure was complete! Ron was on the 4th floor of the hotel and said it was very freaky to feel the building move feet side to side but also feel the up and down shake at the same time.
After the excitement died down, we hopped in the rental and headed to LA. We went to Hollywood Blvd. and took in the tourist sites(Mann's Chinese Theater, Kodak Theater, the stars walk of fame and of course the Hollywood sign). Then, we took in a Dodgers game.




Man, what an awesome trip! The weather there was incredible (high of 75 breezy and 0 humidity) but we missed out kiddos and were ready to come home!

6 comments:

Welcome to our crazy blessed life said...

I am so glad you guys had fun and that you got to experience a good size, non lethal earthquake! :)

We are glad you are back though!

Anonymous said...

Hi Angela,

I attended the IAAM Conference in Anaheim, but did not have as much fun as you and Ron, what a great story of adventures. I'm sure our IAAM World Headquarters would love to hear of your wonderful and exciting adventures. We have often wondered what people do outside of the conferences. If you don't mind, i'll send this link to IAAM WHQ.

Say hi to Ron, Larry Perkins

Anonymous said...

What an incredible trip. That looks awesome! I can't believe you saw Jack Bauer! :)

Jennifer said...

Jack Bauer!?! So jealous. Looks like an awesome trip, Angela. I've always wanted to go out west. Maybe I can pull ideas for our next big trip from you guys. Thanks for sharing.

The Jacksons said...

Larry,
Thanks for commenting. We really enjoyed our trip. It was my first IAAM trip and I hope to attend many more. Feel free to send our information to headquarters.
Angela

Tracy Brothers said...

Wow! What a great fun-filled trip! I'm also jealous you got to see Keifer. Can't wait for a new season of 24!