Dog Tired

Oscar the wiener dog made sure that we didn’t sleep too long. He started baking early to valiantly defend us from the cleaning lady.

We loaded a sleeping Sasha into the car at 7:00am, grabbed some food and coffee from the Free breakfast bar, and high-tailed it out of Sacramento to try to miss all the traffic. Once we were out of the downtown proper, we stopped and topped off the tank of gas, got some snacks and espresso (quadruple dry cappuccino, thankyouverymuch), and drove. The good part of the drive from Sacramento down is that it is much straighter, so we weren’t fighting mountain curves with logging trucks all day. The bad part was that it is pretty much the same scenery for 250 miles.

To ward off boredom I told Yulia and Sasha about the Cows game that Hunter Gathers and Brock Samson played in the Venture Bros. cartoon. We awarded points for groups of cows, with Graveyards eliminating a players points up to that time. Sasha was clobbering me 15 points to 2, until we passed a massive dairy on my side and we called the game due to the massive poop-smell attacking us.

Just before driving up the hills outside LA, there is a really nice stop, where we had the pleasure of dining at In-N-Out burger. Best goddamn burgers on the planet. Sasha had a hamburger and sprite. I had a Double-Double with Fries, Neapolitan shake, and lemonade, and Yulia had a hamburger and water. Hell, if Yulia is willing to eat a hamburger from somewhere, it’s gotta be damn good. Oscar liked it too. He even pooped on the lawn there, for him, that’s a sign of trust.

It was close to 1:00 at this point, as we were getting concerned about getting stuck in LA traffic. Hitting traffic in Los Angeles is generally a given, but we were hoping to hit the least amount of it we could. As expected, we got stuck. As before, we have made this trip enough times that we know pretty much where we get stuck, and it was right in the center of LA, and no way around the mess. It’s odd when you are within just few miles from your destination, after travelling hundreds of miles, and have to just sit there. But as always, eventually we crept through, and hit Anaheim. Our hotel was right on Disneyland drive, the Sheraton Anaheim.

Wow. Another nice hotel. It is located just on the opposite side as the gate of the park, so it is walkable, but a lot easier to take the shuttle around instead. Once we drop off our stuff, we decide to walk, partially to stretch out after having been in the car for so long. It’s pretty hot out, and we regret hiking through the heat pretty soon. But our moods life once we hit the Disney gates. Our first stop is the Disneyland kennels to drop Oscar off. It was pretty nice, and we set Oscar up with a kennel to rest at, where we could pick him up and walk him during the day.

Sasha was nervous about leaving him at the kennel, but  she calmed down once she saw that there were two other daschunds next to him. In any case we headed into Disneyland and took a look around. The lines at Space Mountain were crazy, but the Matterhorn had a reasonable line, and Sasha and I talked Yulia into trying the ride. Yulia has never been much of a Roller Coaster rider, but she was willing to try this time. And she was OK. A little too tired to really enjoy it but no fear like she used to have.

We went over and rode Pirates, looked at a few other rides, but with the late day and long lines were just walked over to California Adventure and grabbed some food. The winery in the park is actually a pretty good deal, compared to a lot of park food. We got a pretty reasonable dinner, and started to wind down. Sasha ad I went over to Tower of Terror, and Yulia went to pick up Oscar and head back to the hotel. She was beat. Frankly, so was I, but Sasha had Disney Madness and had to get on some rides.

We went on Tower of Terror, Space Mountain, and Thunder Mountain. After that we were beat, and headed to the shuttle back to the hotel. It took us a bit to figure out which shuttle was ours, but it was a lot better than walking back.

Once back, Yulia told us that she had walked Oscar the wiener dog along Downtown Disney, and everyone was stopping to pet him. She felt like a total celebrity. At one point a blonde girl surrounded by photographers came over. Yulia thought she recognized her, but wasn’t sure. But she came over and asked if she could play with the dog a bit, what was his name, etc. Yulia was fine with that, and the girl was so happy to play with Oscar for a few seconds. As she left the photographers shouted after her, “Heather Graham, Look over here !”

So Heather Graham played with my Weiner at Disneyland. Heh.