Phoenix, Las Vegas and San Diego, March/April, 2004!

Most photos taken by me.   (Just thought I 'd throw that in)  : )

March 25:

Well, I got off work Thursday, and headed out on a flight to Phoenix. I'll attend a couple
of Mariner's Spring Training games and visit with some family. My cousin, Sarah, lives here,
and she's got some stuff for us to do to keep us happily entertained! (Hope there's BEER
involved...) After that, I'm off to Las Vegas for a couple of days. I'll be meeting up with
my friend Greg. We'll be gamblin' and playing in town. Then, off to San Diego for 4 days.
Wheee! Lots of stuff to do!

Right now, it's Thursday at 7:40pm. The plane was supposed to take off at 6:40pm, but it didn't
leave until 7:15. First there was the inflatable slide that fell out, then the backup GPS system
failed. Both required a technician to come and fix. Blah. But we're in the air now. Lots of
turbulence. I hope this computer has shock-absorbers...

Oh, by the way...I'm sitting about 18 inches from the front of the right engine. It's been interesting
watching the engine suck rain water from the side of the plane.
This engine sucks? hahaha. (P.U. - bad joke)

March 26:

Today my aunt and uncle and I went to the Mariners vs San Francisco Giants game. M's won!
Final score of 10-4. It was in the mid-80s with totally blue skies. Seattle was 44 and heavy rain.
Went to dinner at Outback in the evening with my cousin Sarah. She's got a neat apartment in
town and only has to bus for 15 minutes to get to work -- lucky...

At the game, I bought a souvenir mini-bat (it's like my fourth Mariners mini-bat since 1976).
I also got an autograph from my favorite "Mariner", Rick the Peanut Man. I've gotten his
autograph on several game tickets since 1979. He usually signs them "Nuts to you..." :-)
When you call out for peanuts from him, he makes amazingly acurate long-distance,
behind-the-back toss to you. The first time I was at Spring Training (1999?), I made a great
one-handed catch. This time, I tried to repeat, but bumbled the catch into the air and
had to catch it on the way back down. But it still counts as a catch! :-)

This is the field at Peoria Sports Complex in Phoenix, shared
by the Mariners and the San Diego Padres.

With the M's down 2-0, the Mariners needed something to wake them up.
This is Ichiro hitting for a double. Shortly after this, Edgar Martinez drove in Ichiro
and someone else on a three-run homer. After that, the M's never trailed again.

March 27:

Today we met up with my cousin, Sarah. We all went to the M's game vs
the Milwaukee Brewers in Maryvale, AZ. M's lost, but it was a fun game to watch (aren't they all?)
After the game we went to Sarah's apartment and hung out for a while. I got to harass her cat
again. That's always fun ;-) Then we went to Sarah's sorority's Murder Mystery Dinner. It
turned out that Sarah's character did a double-murder: those ASU students...tsk, tsk, tsk.

This is the Maryvale Baseball Park, Spring Training grounds for the Brewers.

The Brewers have Weiner Races, and one of the fans a few rows in front of us
appears to have chosen the winner.

Entrance to Maryvale Baseball Park.

Sarah's cat was fun to play with. He liked chasing cat toys.

Me and my cousin got the dorky pose goin' on.

March 28:

Today we went back to Peoria for the M's vs Arizona Diamondbacks. The D-Backs slaughtered
us. Not good. Blah. But again, the game was still fun to be at.

After the game, we went shopping at the MoMo Store. This has to be seen to be believed.
A simple explanation doesn't suffice. After that, Steve took us all out to dinner at
Black Angus. Mmmmmmmm!

At today's game, the M's got slaughtered. So, you'll note I made sure not
to get the score in this shot. Nancy, Sarah and Steve.

March 29:

I left Phoenix early this morning. Well, sort of early. I had meant to get out of town
by 7, but with the car rental company delaying me, getting stuck at a railroad
crossing for 20 minutes just after leaving the car rental company, and then repeatedly
taking wrong turns in downtown Phoenix, I ended up not getting out of town until about
9:30. Blah. Oh well.

I took highway 60 and went through the desert and saw LOTS of Joshua trees and cactus.
I love taking long drives like that. That highway goes right over the Hoover Dam, which
I've never seen, so that was quite a treat. I got out and took a few pictures and bought
some souvenirs.

I got to the airport garage in Vegas just as my friend Greg got off his plane. Timed that
pretty nicely, eh? We've been gamblin' and drinkin' brewskies for the past several hours.
Ahhhh..... %-)

This is a new bridge that is being built a few miles east of Hoover Dam. My guess is
the gov't wants to keep traffic off the dam from now on. Plus, this will make it much
quicker for non-tourists to get through the area.

This is the east side of Hoover Dam, which holds back Lake Mead. This is only about 30
minutes from Las Vegas. I didn't get pictures from the other side of the dam. Dam.
haha

March 30:

Went to the buffet at Excalibur. Lots of nummy stuff. I was strong and didn't hit
the dessert area.

Went for a walk up and down the strip. Stopped by Barbary Coast, cuz I heard that's where
my brother's childhood friend was doing his Elvis act. I had seen this guy in the National
Enquirer last year, now being billed as the world's fattest Elvis. He even claims to be Elvis'
son. A great guy: I remember a bunch of us, as kids, helping push cars up an icy hill on a
snowy day near where we lived in Seattle. The line of cars was depending on about 6 of us kids
to get them home. It was fun! Anyway, I stopped in at Barbary Coast to see if he was there,
but didn't find any indication.

So, I went back to the hotel and did some searching on the web. Turns out that was the right
hotel, and he did do a daily show from 3-6pm in the lounge. It was free! He bills himself
as "Big Elvis". When I got there, I went up to the counter where he was selling some CDs,
and told the lady I knew him from elementary school. She went back to check with him.
She comes back about 20 seconds later and says, "hell yes, he wants to see you."
So I went in and talked with him for a few minutes. He's married, has a couple of kids and
seems to be a happy guy. He had a lot of memories from Seattle and we chatted for about
10 minutes before he had to get ready for his show. It was great talking to him! I only
watched about a half hour of his show. The guy sounds exactly like Elvis -- it's amazing. If
you close your eyes, you'd swear it was him singing.

After that, I went and completed my task of finding a NICE, terrycloth robe. I've wanted one
of those ever since I saw the movie "Beverly Hills Cop". I found one I liked at the Venetian.
It cost (gasp) 90 bucks! But it was worth it. Now I just need to take up pipe smoking to
complete the image. :-)

Pete Vallee, aka "Big Elvis". Seen daily at the Barbary Coast lounge from 3-6pm.
(Sorry about the dim picture, but my zoom lens and flash just couldn't extend
that far...)

Some of the tulips at the indoor garden at the Bellagio.

More flowers in the indoor garden at the Bellagio.

March 31:

Went to the breakfast buffet at the Luxor this morning. Amazing how similar it tasted to
the food next door at the Excalibur. :-) But it was still nummy.

Checked out of the Excalibur, dropped Greg off at the airport and then headed to San Diego.
On the way, I stopped off at Lake Elsinore Outlet Mall and bought a portable CD/MP3 player
at the Sony outlet. No trip to San Diego is complete without perusing the Sony store. FUN!

I checked in at my hotel, Park Manor Suites. Boy was I surprised at the size of the room.
I've always wanted to stay in this hotel, so I'm really glad I decided to do this. The rooms
are basically studio apartments, complete with kitchens, walk-in closets, a dining area, and
a sofa and chair. It was surprisingly quiet, too. (Well, except for some jerk's car alarm
that went off 4 times in the middle of the night on Thursday. Blah!)

After checking in, I did some laundry. Running out of clean shirts: gee, way to handle the
vacation!

My pal Dennis got off work and came by to pick me up for a trip to my favorite Asian restaurant,
Ginza Sushi. I had my usual: Chicken Katsudon and some Kappa Maki. Mmmmmmmm....diet be damned!
After that, we headed out to Best Buy and window shopped.

Park Manor Suites in San Diego. (This is the north face of the building). Built in
1926, this building is listed by the City of San Diego as a Historical Landmark.

My room at the Park Manor Suites in San Diego. Mine was #604. I LOVE that chair.

April 01:

Dennis and I went to Disneyland today. We stopped off for some nutritious breakfast
sandwiches at Carl's Jr. on the way (cheaper than in-the-park food, to be sure).

We got to the park around 10am, and when I was finished getting us lost trying to find
the entrance, we finally parked. Thunder Mountain Railroad was open this time! That's
my favorite ride. We went on the paddle boat that goes around Tom Sawyer's Island, too.
I haven't been on that ride since I was a kid. It's a lot longer of a ride than I thought, and
fun!

We also went on the Winnie the Pooh ride, and picked up some great lines
to joke about, like "Where's Pooh?" and "Hey, let's have a party with Pooh." (I'm always up
for really BAD puns, so this was a great ride!)

At the end of that ride, it was drizzling. Did that for about 2 minutes and then stopped.
It was now about 3:30pm, and we decided to go on the Indiana Jones ride. That ride is all
underground. After standing in line for about 30 minutes, and the ride itself which was
about 5 minutes, we headed for the ride's exit. When we got there, we were greeted by a
torrential downpour! It was one of those thunderstorms where, after 5 minutes there are
inch deep puddles and rivers all over the place. Not a soul in sight, either. We decided
to run to the nearest souvenir shop and take cover. We ran for all of 30 seconds and then found
cover. Everyone else was already there. :-) The rains kept coming down (just like Winnie the
Pooh's blustery day!). Fifteen minutes later we decided to get parkas, but after a bit the rain
let up a bit allowing us to hotfoot-it over to the shops on Main Street. Once again, the shops
we stuffed with people avoiding the rain. But what was really funny, almost surreal, was the
sight of the mass exodus: everyone leaving the park at the same time! And it was only about 4:30!

We took our time on the way out, and ultimately decided to avoid the lines waiting for the parking
lot trams. We just walked to the parking garage. Got back to the hotel and went out to a local
bar for some beerness.

Dennis took the obligatory crow picture. They are his friends.

Nobody likes the pics of me on my website (so what if they're all 10 years old?) so Dennis
took a few for me. This is taken at the water wheel on Tom Sawyer's Island.

This is taken from Main Street: the mass exodus of people, after the thunderstorm. I bet
park management was crying watching all that unspent money walk out the door. :-)

April 02:

Stopped by the place where I used to work, but didn't stay long. I showed up at a bad time:
meetings, deadlines, etc. Oh well, next time I'll announce my impending arrival. ;-)

Went to my favorite cheap Chinese restaurant for lunch. Rice King. Love that place. About
3 blocks from where I used to work. I had orange chicken and spicy soyu chicken, along with
rice and noodles. NUMMY-LICIOUS!

Did some shopping at Fry's and Costco. Returned the rental car, and then went back to
my hotel and hung out watching TV.

After that, we headed out to dinner at Pizza Nova, joining his friend Gary.
Then we went to Top of the Park for their Friday evening happy hour, where a friend,
Jason, joined us. After that ended, we went to another local bar and I had WAY too
many gin & tonics. Paid for it next morning...
(Dennis said I was acting kinda dopey -- so what else is new?)

April 03:

Woke up. Sick. Took it easy til about noon.

Then Dennis and I headed out to his place and he copied some pics from his camera, and did
some fancy editing to cover up my untimely cold sore. Blah, a little bit of sun does it to
me every time. Then he fired up his amp and jammed a couple songs on his guitar. It was
great being there to hear it in person. Hearing his guitar over a cell phone just doesn't
do it justice: he's really good.

We went to Southwestern Furniture Source in the afternoon -- a favorite place to buy household
decor with that southwest feel. Love that place. So does my mom: I bought her a Christmas
present.

After that, we headed down to San Ysidro to an outlet mall. I bought two pairs of shoes at
the Sketchers store and a couple of t-shirts from Old Navy. Got to see Tijuana again. Ack.
Fortunately, I saw it from the US side.

For dinner, Dennis and I went to my favorite San Diego restaurant, Tom Ham's Lighthouse. I had
chicken parmigiana (oooh...where's my spell checker?). And a glass of really good Merlot.

We drove past the new Petco Park, where the Padres were playing their first pro baseball game
(a pre-season exhibition game) again the Mariners. I didn't see much of the stadium, so I'll
have to plan to go to one next time I'm down there.

April 04:

Got up and caught the early-bird special back to Seattle. Chatty Cathy (Lisa) sat next to me
and babbled the whole time. Thirteen years old, I can't believe she had so much to talk about.
Oy. Got to Seattle about 20 minutes early!

Well, that's it. See ya next trip!

- 30 -

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