Saturday, May 7, 2016

Las Vegas/Disneyland Trip - Day 2: Crossing the Mojave

Woke up at 5am and watched the sun rise, then dozed again until 7-ish.  Finally got up at 10am and got ready to check out by 11.  After checkout and stowing our bags in the trunk of the car, we walked across the street to Planet Hollywood and ate lunch at Earl of Sandwich - chipotle chicken avocado with bacon on wheat (yum!) - then stopped in the mall to pick up a bag of Garrett Popcorn's Chicago Mix popcorn (double-yum!!).  After that it was noon and we hit the road.

Good morning Las Vegas

A more reasonable hour to be up
It's cold and windy - very cold and very windy - this morning
Some activity on the water this morning
Daily maintenance on the fountains
Better like this...
...or like this?
Since we're already in black and white, here's another
About 45 minutes outside of Vegas.  Approaching Primm and the NV/CA border.  Is that a rollercoaster ahead?
Yep.  It's Buffalo Bill's casino.  And rollercoaster apparently.  Needless to say, we didn't stop.
After Primm we passed a Solar farm with 3 towers.  Later found out this is Ivanpah:  currently the world's largest operating solar plant.
Photo from www.brightsourceenergy.com
Photo from www.brightsourceenergy.com
Just keep going until you drive over the horizon, then repeat
Woo-hoo!  A rest stop.  Todd took this great photo.  You can't tell, but it was too cold and windy to stay outside for long.
Joshua tree
Zzyzx Rd ahead
And then this happened
Driving into a sandstorm
About to slow down to 25 miles per hour as visibility is reduced.  It took us about 10 minutes to drive through the storm, and it was like driving through a heavy, moving fog.
Stay over there sandstorm.  It's a little hard to see, but there are two windmills just visible beyond the fence; we got to see three sources of renewable energy in action on this trip:  hydroelectric, solar and wind.  Hooray!
Hehe...here's Todd eating the guardrail
Who put these mountains here?
And then it started to rain, but it was very brief.
We must be nearing civilization again - I see a McDonald's.
We made it!
Another view from our room

We arrived at Disney at 4:50pm.  It was still windy and cold.  The plan had been to arrive at the Disneyland Hotel, check in, then return the rental car since we wouldn't be needing it for the next 3 days (we arranged for a car to drive us to the airport on Friday).  There's an Avis rental car location just a mile away from the hotel.  We would return the car and walk back to the hotel - a mile's no problem, and half the distance would be through Downtown Disney anyway.  Well, things don't always go according to plan.

We really took our time leaving Vegas that morning, and we had to wrangle some with the front desk while checking in at Disney - the room rate we chose has either a pool view or Downtown Disney view.  Todd had his hopes set on a Downtown Disney view (facing the parks - you can see the fireworks), but it's not guaranteed, and in fact wasn't available.  We learned from the desk clerk that the reservation system changed about a week after we booked our trip where now you can pay more specifically for a Downtown view.  Todd was disconsolate, but c'est la vie.  So we went up and the room they gave us was next to the elevator and had 2 queen beds.  Back down to the lobby we go.  The second room was just right - a corner room on the next to highest floor with a king bed and a nice view (of the pool and slides).

After getting the room situated, we drove to a nearby gas station and filled the tank before heading to the rental return.  With the late start and check-in complications we ended up at Avis at 6:04pm...to find that they were closing the gate.  Come to find out we didn't do our research (or forgot) and they closed at 6pm.  They would not make an exception and told us we'd have to come back tomorrow morning when they open.

At this point, I was worried Todd was about to explode:


But he did really well in the name of not spoiling the trip - not much we could do about it, and it was our own fault anyway.  We drove back to the hotel, parked, cleaned up, then went to try our luck for dinner.

The sun getting low
We first went to Trader Sam's, but both the bar and the patio area were full.  We walked over to Downtown Disney and decided that Mexican food sounded good, so we went to Tortilla Jo's.  It was about a 30-minute wait, so I gave the hostess my cell number and we walked around the shops.  Right about 30 minutes later, I received the text that our table was ready.  We were led to a table upstairs and to start with ordered tableside guacamole and drinks.  I had a melon margarita on the rocks and Todd had a Corona.  The guacamole came and we placed our entree orders.

A view from the inside balcony
Looking through the window at the upstairs patio and Downtown Disney
We were almost done with the quac., and I had just finished telling Todd "We need to make a pact that we won't let anything else get to us for the rest of the trip." when the fire alarm went off.  The fire alarm.  Went.  Off.  As in, everyone evacuate the building and go stand out in the cold.

Unbelievable


A lot of people just left without paying their bill and blended into the Downtown Disney crowd - I mean, what is the restaurant going to do at that point?  We stuck around though because it was the right thing to do...and we were hungry.

We were let back into the restaurant about 15 minutes later.  I guess it was either a false alarm or a drill.  Our entrees arrived as soon as we sat down, and were still warm (and not charred or blackened), so that was good.  I had the Quesadilla Tradicional with chicken, which was described as "Chicken beef or pork, fresh corn masa, shredded lettuce, Cotija cheese, crema fresco, salsa quemada".  The food tasted great, so we ended up satisfied.

After dinner we stopped back in the WonderGround Gallery so Todd could buy a mug he saw earlier.  Then we went back to the room, had a dessert of Garret Popcorn, and hit the hay for the night - the reflection of the light-up headboard giving us the firework view Todd had wanted as we drifted off to sleep.

Ooh...Aah...

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