Anger, Frustration and a whole lot of Annoyance - The Epilogue

For a while there I thought my vacation blogging days were over. Boy, was I wrong. I seemed to have written this entire blog with a certain amount of optimism that my trip was going to end well and that in fact this was a "Disney Movie" outcome. . . oh how I wish that was true. Instead the great people at United Airlines decided that Booms and I didn't need our luggage. So now we get to play the guessing game. Is it still in Los Angeles? Perhaps it might be in Colorado Springs; better yet in Chicago. Let's just hope its not left in the sun somewhere, otherwise a certain somebody won't be receiving chocolates from the Hollywood store, hmmmm.

Yesterday we were beyond fuming. Our clothes, souvenirs, shoes and hygiene products were all in that suitcase. Someone will be receiving a very stern letter from this guy, that's for sure. Although I'm not sure what is worse, sitting at the gate until they refueled the mini truck and tows the plane onto the tarmac (true story) or this? Let's just agree that the entire ride home was horrible and I will not only be avoiding Chicago O' Hare like the plague, but United airlines as well. Loose my luggage, I'll show you **shakes fist profusely**

Day 7 - Farewell California

We decided that sleeping was over rated since we had a 7:30am flight the next day. This was a mistake. The idea of watching District 9 and playing rock band 2 until 2:15 in the morning should have stayed just that, an idea. Since we had to wake up at 5:15, 3 hours was the maximum I would be getting at this point. Good thing I heard my alarm and woke up. I tell ya, 5:15 comes early in California. We loaded up the car, drove to LAX and said our good byes.

Booms and I then were forced to play what I like to call "The waiting game". I despise the waiting game. We spent over 30 minutes just to get our ID's and our boarding passes checked. One would think you would have more then 2 people checking this information. If you thought this, you would be mistaken. We finally made it to our gate with a little time to spare. We were going home. This is it, no more California for at least a year. Anything more then that and I think the state would explode. It's just too much Booms and Brett at once.

I'll miss my friend Adam. I know I'll see him when he's in Michigan or when we go back out to see him, but still. He's a great host and nice guy. Even when tensions get high and people are on edge I know that he would still be there for his friends just like we would all be there for each other. Until next time California, until next time indeed.

Day 6 - Curse you Chelsea Handler!!!

The last time I came out to Cali I wasn't able to see the ocean. So this time it was on my "California Bucket List". But first, we had to see Chelsea Lately. We began by piling in the car and hoofing it down to the Burbank area of LA. We arrived at the studio only to see a line of people wrapped around the building. There were rumors that not everyone would get in. The funny thing is, everyone had a ticket. So my theory is this. The studio has about 40 seats and they booked 65 of them to ensure every seat is filled. Then they mess with you and say, "there is a good chance you will get in. But we aren't 100% sure. Please stand in this line in the sun for 2 hours and pray that the entertainment gods will let you in". Apparently I've been praying to the wrong God. The people in front of us were able to go in. We were not so lucky. Adam, Booms and I left with our heads held high and decided we didn't want to see her stupid show anyway. Of course we were choking back the tears of disappointment and sadness, but please don't tell our girlfriends.

On the bright side, this gave us more time at the beach. We continued to drive west until we literally drove into the ocean. Santa Monica Pier here we come! We parked on the street and made our way through the sand. We setup camp and relaxed while listening to a combination of songs that sound like the Red Hot Chili Peppers, thanks to Pandora Radio that is. It was nice to relax with the fellas and just chill. We took a walk down the beach and had some laughs especially at this kid who got hit by a wave and started screaming, "I've got sand on my inner thigh!" This of course was in a very shrill and ear piercing voice. This was our last night in Cali and we weren't going to waste it. One last task, mission, goal, achievement, whatever you want to call it, was left. A nice steak dinner with the guys.

It's amazing what you can find on google these days. While I'm looking for "Best Steak Houses in LA". Froggy decided to search for "Steak for under $20 in LA". We had a good laugh, because there aren't many places in Los Angeles where you can get a steak for that price. Was this restaurant in someones basement or perhaps out of the dumpster behind In and Out Burger. Sure enough it was a place called Taylor's. The outside wasn't too impressive, but the ambiance, decor and food itself made up for that. Bravo Froggy! You did us proud. I enjoyed a nice cut of prime rib, apparently 12oz means 16oz at that place, because my steak was HUGE! It was a nice close to a great trip.

Day 5 - I just can't F**king do it!

Today is the day Booms and I see Craig Ferguson. A crass and crude Scottish gentleman that is the host of the Late Late Show on CBS. Our good friend Adam drove us from his work to the CBS lot so that we could gain the life achievement of seeing Craig live. We stood in line of what looked like 39 people. Which some how transformed to 58 people in a matter of minutes. It seems that Alabama donated some of it's upper class citizens to California for the week. I'm shocked the one guy wasn't wearing a tuxedo t-shirt. They were loud, obnoxious and worst of all cut in front of us! This will not do, no not one bit. Our hick jokes and stories about how pushing them into the busy traffic of LA would be justice served for this fine city helped us pass the time away.

We finally made it to Craig. We sat through a speech from the Audience Coordinator as well from the warm up guy, Chunky B. Which i might add, was hilarious. I laughed more at this show then I did for Conen. By the way, Conen is the god of late night comedy. Craig and even his warm up guy, gave him a run for his money. Apparently the white bunny from Northern England was receiving complaints for cussing too much on the air. So he and Craig came on and apologized for their behavior. Then 5 seconds later stated they, "couldn't f**king do it". I about died laughed. I was actually shocked when I watched the show because they dropped around 25 F bombs. To eaches own, it's a comedy show and it made me laugh. Thank God I have a sense of humor.

After my mouth and stomach hurting from laughing so much from watching Craig, Adam drove down Wilshire and picked me and Booms up and took us back to the Cleveland Show. We were able to get a tour of his new cubicle since he's been promoted to Storyboard Assistant. Congrats Adam! And because we have such an awesome friend we were able to see a few anamatics as well as episode 201 (season 2 episode 1) of the Cleveland Show. It was great! That show is so funny. All I can say is "***'** *** ** *** ** *** **** ** ***". Ha ha ha, oh Tim the bear you are priceless. (Sorry because of strict a confidentiality agreement I can not display the actual quote.)

We decided to hit up CPK later that night to round off our day of awesomeness. We ran into a few speed bumps including the kitchen closing soon, Adam's wine spilling over and no one knowing what they want to eat. The evening was closed off with me going on yet another mini shopping spree for family. I love it how gifts for family ends up costing me more then gifts for me. Tomorrow's mission - Chelsea Lately Show.

Day 4 - Tommy's, the Mission and the Theme Park

Booms and I decided to go to Universal Studios, Hollywood. Since neither of us had ever been to this one. The math for admitance didn't add up in my head though. $69 for a day pass, $69 online for a week pass, and $79 for a year pass. I would love to spend only $10 more and visit here all the time, but I feel the cost of the plane ticket wouldn't be able to justify it for me. We both bit the bullet and paid the $69 for the day. It certainly was a blast. Numerous things and shows to do. The best part of the day th "Line Ride" wasn't operating. The most we waited for a ride or show was 15 minutes (Jurassic Park and the Simpsons Ride). Without sounding like a 5 year old there isn't much I can tell you about the park. Below is a list of rides and attractions we saw:

· Shrek 4-D (pretty funny)

· Jurassic Park the Ride (it's like Thunder Canyon meets Snake River Falls meets anamatronic dinosaurs)

· The Simpsons Ride (best ride there)

· Terminator 2 3-D (Also a fun show)

· Waterworld (Lots of special effects, fire stunts and of course water)

· Hollywood Back Lot Tour (a 45 minute tour of sets and scenes used in movies)

· House of Horrors (I misread this and thought I was going to see my ex girlfriends pop up - I'll give you a second to catch the joke)

· Blues Brothers (alright we were eating lunch right next to it and heard the whole show, I'm counting this)

Of course our day wouldn't have been complete without a photo op with Bart and Lisa Simpson. That's two more celebraties I can add to my list, done and done. It seems my gambling addiction carried over in the form of a shopping addiction. I went nuts in the Kwiki Mart. So much Simpsons crap that I don't need, but felt I had to have :)

We made our way back to the subway and went home. We had to mentally prepare for our hike to Mount Cahuenga. Adam was already home from work and was ready for the four of us to Hike to the top. Four men with a plan and a mission. To counquor that mountain. We hopped in the Jeep and had Vicki guide us once again. We parked in a near by neighborhood and began our ascent.

I'm going to pause for a minute to tell you that I don't care how old you are, it is possible to look somewhat decent with a shirt off and be out of shape. The is me in a nutshell. It took us about 30 minutes to climb up that mountain, by the time we reached the top I was about dead. But in the end, it really was worth the climb. From that point you had a 360 degree view of Los Angeles. Everything from the back of the Hollywood sign to the Warner Bros. water tower to the streets of Beverly Hills. It was truly amazing.

There is also another unique item on top of the mountain. A single standing tree. Two years ago there was a fire that raged through Los Angeles. It wiped out everything in its' path, except for this single tall tree. People used to write messages and leave them at the base of the tree. Everything from "Good view. Good Sex" to more personal notes; as if that isn't personal enough.

Well of course it only takes one ass hole to ruin something great. Someone decided it was a "great" idea to burn all of those notes. They are all gone. Luckily there was a man, a man we've come to know as Froggy. He was working on a documentary about this tree and was able to read every since note into the camera. This is before the douche bags of the area decided to have a bon fire with peoples memories, wishes and dreams. Froggy spent a few weeks retyping every single note and made it into a book with an introduction.

I told you before we had a mission, it wasn't just to climb the mountain. It was also to deliver that book so that future generations could write in it and leave behind how the mountain, the view, california, and life made them feel. Thoughts that could and would be left for future climbers of the elite club to read and cherish. We took turns writing our own messages in there. We laughed a little bit, listened to some 30 seconds to Mars (it's the only non-poppy crap I had on my iTouch okay?!) and descended down the hill. We noticed that the hill was becoming a giant trash can, much like the streets of LA. So Froggy, Adam, Booms and I (honestly more so them) collected the trash and put in their bags.

We made it to the car in one piece. Well Booms kind of ate it on the way down and scrapped his elbow, other then that we escaped unskathed. Would our next destination be some other heroic deed to acomplish or a rescue mission in the gulf, no, after Mount Cahuenga was a trip to . . . Tommy's! One of Los Angeles' little treasures. Of course I am very boring when it comes to food and I am the first to admit that. I enjoyed my regular hamburger with ketchup only and my diet coke while the other guys chowed down on their chili burgers. Thank God they decided against ordering an angioplasty.

Day 3 - Bye Bye Winnings

We awoke around 10am, even though we fought it as much as we could. We packed up our things and loaded them into the car. Our mission today . . . more poolside tanning. Upon entering the pool we learned a valuable lesson. Good looking people only go to the pool on Saturday between the hours of noon and four. Sunday morning around 11 is reserved for retired folk and Brazilian men that wear speed-o's and travel alone. I don't think I need to explain why he was travelling alone. The DJ showed up and attempted to play music that would put people in the party mood. Unfortunately $34 for a bucket (6) of Land Sharks quickly killed that mood. Looks like it would be a day of sobriety. Oh boy oh boy.

To avoid any sort of dehydration or heat stroke we decided to make our way to Old Vegas. We found a nice place and had some breakfast / lunch, also known as brunch I suppose. Then it was off to one last gambling hurrah. I was on a mission, a mission to win my winnings back. BIG MISTAKE! Adam being the good friend that he is wanted to show us the magical world of Craps. But my luck ran out on this trip and we had a terrible thrower and I lost $20 within 10 minutes. Let's guess the next thought that went through Brett's head. I know . . . go win it back at the Roulette table! DOH!

It started off good. I managed to turn $15 into $45. And again, say it with me folks "I should have walked away." HAHAHA, oh if only this was a Disney movie. Then again if it was I would be seeing Tim Allen and Emilo Estevas a lot more often. What's that you ask? Oh you know it's true, lost it! HA. This would be the first time gambling ever, that I lost money. Oh well, in the end it was only $50. I brought $100 with me, so no harm no foul.

We left the casinos, loaded into the car and headed back to Los Angeles. The ride home was pretty uneventful. Mostly watching You Tube videos of Axe Cop and Big Bill Hell. We made it to back to Cali without many problems, just that pesky fruit and vegetable check, hmmmmmm.

Day 2 - "No dude, we are having a great time. We don't need you't $h!t"

What sort of vacation wouldn't be complete without waking up early yet again. 7:30 comes way to early for anyone, especially me. We packed our bags and headed out the door; Vegas was in for a surprise. Adam, Beth, Booms and myself piled into the tan Jeep Cherokee parked out front. We were all stoked for our road trip. Quotes from the" Cleveland Show" and the "Hangover" were being rambled throughout the entire trip. Not to mention various other quotes from random friends, TV shows and movies. You can only look out the window for so long on trips like these. Nothing but desert and emptiness.

This was the view for about 3 hours. Every once in a while we would see the random group of dune buggy rides or caravan of jeeps. One time Adam said he saw water; I'm still stating it was an RC Cola machine. Silly mirages.

The driving continued until we saw. . . more desert. This trip was getting old at this point. Our only saving grace was the unlimited hours of music we had on 3 different iPod's. Without it, we would been driven to the brink of insanity of boredom.

After 1 fill up for gas, 2 bathroom breaks, 270 miles and 4.5 hours We made it. we finally arrived to sin city, the city that never sleep . . . Las Vegas. This time we chose to stay at the Flamingo Hotel. Which literally looks like they plastered the walls with flamingo remains. PINK EVERYWHERE!

Anyway, while Adam and Beth were checking in, Booms and I decided to explore our surroundings. I just so happened to get bit by the gambling bug and decided to play a couple of slots. Already down a $1, damn. Oh well, on to the Roulette table. I placed a couple of bets and ended up getting down to my last $5 chip. Luckily I was able to win back what I lost and broke even. So far down $1 total for the trip, not a bad way to start off.

To save money we decided to share a room. Four friends crammed into a "Deluxe Suite". Ya. . . right. As soon as we settled in we decided it would be a grand idea to all do a shot of Marker's Mark. For those of you that know me, I hate shots :) and for good reason. We toasted to having the best friends the world has to offer as well as a great time in Vegas. We then made our way down to the pool.

We had two paths, 21 and over and the public area. Since the 21 and over pool was $15 to get in we chose the road less costly. It turns out the public area was having a Land Shark party. $25 for a bucket (5) of Land Shark Beer. Let me tell you, heavenly. We took turn buying buckets and achieved our goal of poolside drunkenness. After laying outside, listening to music, swimming in the pool, jumping under the waterfall and down right Tom foolery, we decided to change and eat lunch /dinner.

As we have become accustomed to, we found a semi-inexpensive buffet located inside the Eiffel Tower. One thing to consider though before trying such a place, most of the food inside . . . is french. Now this wasn't a problem for me, because I was three sheets to the wind already. Nothing like walking around with several plates of food while enjoying a fantastic Land Shark induced buzz. I'm pretty sure I had the prime rib (which was rather salty, I remember that) and pulled chicken thigh. We ate until we were stuffed, and at $27 per person, we better have.

I decided the smart thing for me to do was to take a nap and sober up before heading out on the town. Silly me, I thought playing the slot machines while in an inebriated state was a good idea. Oh how wrong I was. Luckily only $5 managed to find its' way to the Vegas gods. After about 10 minutes of pulling on the One Armed Bandit, I some how managed to find my way to the room and passed out while watching reruns of King of Queens. That Doug and Carrie, when will they learn. I awoke about 3 hours later to find my fellow travelers back in the room waiting for me to awake from my drunken slumber. We then cleaned up and put on our Sunday Best. Or as I like to call it, our "Damn you guys look good" clothes.

We wandered over to Caesars to check out the Craps table, sure enough $25 minimum bet. Now I don't know about you, but I like to at least attempt to enjoy throwing my money away. This of course can not be done if you bet a quarter of your gambling allowance on the pass line. We continued to walk around and made our way back to our own hotel, the Flamingo. It was here that Booms and Adam began playing Black Jack (Beth decided to stay in the room). I, myself, went back to the Roulette table to try to hustle the Casino out of Millions of dollars. And then I woke up and told myself, this isn't Ocean's 11, 12, 13, the Hang Over, or Rain Man. I managed to double my initial investment. It was at that point I should have walked. But honestly, doesn't anyone really listen to the little angel on the shoulder when gambling. The highest point of the night - $97. It was then I should have walked, but no. Not me, I got greedy and the dealer got cold. So I decided to walk at $75. It's okay, I'm still up $34 for the day. Not to bad, at least my hotel room would be covered.

We moved over to another casino to look for cheaper Black Jack hands. I agree $10 per hand is a little pricey when your gambling budget is only $100. Of course the cheap tables were full at O' Sheas. We stepped outside to decided what to do next. Apparently our luck ran out, because we were then being harassed by a short ill dressed Korean fellow. Now normally when you walk down the strip people try to get you to get a hooker, go to a strip club and or go to a club. Once you tell them no thanks, they leave you alone. Not this douche bag. He decides it's a good idea to try to convince us to go to a club. REPEATEDLY and then continued to mock our choice of gambling and as he put it "leaning against a pole". I walked away with my middle finger in the up position. I felt I had to tell him he was number 1 in my book.

We decided to keep walking and see what else was on the strip. We walked through Imperial Palace and one other one, who's name escapes me at the moment. After about 45 minutes of walking and looking for something to do, exciting I know, we came to the conclusion that the Flamingo was our best bet. Then again we would have to walk past the Asian troll to complete our quest. Sure enough the Frodo sized Jackie Chan look-a-like was standing there hassling us again. This time we had a plan, sort of. We had a couple of options:

· Push said Asian into Traffic and have a Taxi take him out (we didn't really want a "Hangover Experience" so that idea was scrapped)

· Just walk to the other side of the street (I wonder why we didn't choose this option)

· Heckle him back and give him a hard time (ding ding ding)

Adam then decides to open his mouth and tell him, "Dude, you already told us about the club, and we told you no... Ya man we are having a great time... Yes, walking up and down the strip is more fun then your Sh*ty club.... We don't need your Sh*t" Ha, we sure showed him. I'm sure he's used to it by now, but we didn't care. We stood up for ourselves and felt we had to defend the fact that walking down the strip was more fun then a club. Or perhaps it was because 66% of us had girl friends and we weren't about to go without them. That could be it to.

We made it back to the Flamingo and stumbled upon a glorious place, Burger Joint. A burger restaurant that is open at 3am; what a country! Not the cheapest burgers, but yet again this is Vegas. They were decent enough. After a few conversations about UFC being a bunch of dudes having sweaty man sex and interrogating the server as to why her name is Jennica (we decided her parents couldn't decided between Jennifer and Jessica) the three of us parted ways again. Adam and Booms went back to the room, I mean it was 4am after all, and I found my way back to the Roulette table. If you couldn't tell by now I like Roulette. Unlike my last dealer that enjoyed hitting back to back zeros (thank you so much Chandler) this dealer was very inconsistent and appeared to barely have enough strength to spin the Roulette wheel. Sadly she cleaned me out. By the end of the night I was down all of my winnings :( So I was back to even. With a frown on my face I went back to to the room and tried to get some sleep. On the bright side, no pun intended, I was able to watch a Vegas sunrise. God bless gambling until 5:45am.

Day 1 - Stupid Drivers and Accordion Players

"Damn it!" I mumbled as I crawled out of bed. The trip began at the ass crack of dawn. The alarm went off at 6am; a time that I am normally not familiar with. There was no time for sleeping in, we had a mission to accomplish and a goal to achieve; getting on that plane. After taking care of the dog and loading up the car we departed at 6:15.

Instead of taking the normal route I decided to trust the Garmin, Keira. In her defense she didn't know that some jack ass would manage to cause an accident on the Southfield Freeway. I wish I had taken a photo of it, it would paint a better picture. One car was facing forward and the other one was upside down and facing against traffic. Almost as if he cut over, got wedged somehow into the wall and then flipped. This then caused the SFW to merge from 3 lanes down to 1 causing our 15 minutes delay.

We finally made it pass the wreckage. Although I was upset, I'm glad no one was hurt. We made it to the airport with time to spare. My sister was kind enough to drive me and Kevin to the airport so we wouldn't have to pay for parking. All it took was a little bribe ;) We went through security and made it to our gate. So far things were improving. That is of course until we sat down on the plane.

It only takes one crying baby to ruin a flight. So of course why not have two right behind me. Now I exaggerate a little, because these kids were about 3 or 4 years old, but even so I lost count of how many times the mother attempted to "shush" her children. Once every 5 minutes minutes a shriek would emerge behind me; such a sound that would wake me and make my eyes bug out. This lasted for the first 90 minutes of our flight. One down one to go. I will say the view was amazing. The random clouds in the sky were quite a sight.

We arrived in Houston 20 minutes earlier then planned (well done airline pilot). The only problem with that is, we now had a 2 hour layover. We soon discovered that Houston is Continental's main hub and it was enormous. We ended up walking up and down the halls of this behemoth until we stumbled upon the USA vs. Slovenia game. We were able to watch the last 25 minutes of that let down. (By the way, that was not offsides and we were robbed of that 3rd goal!) We managed to find our way to the Fox Sports Bar on the upper level and relax there for about 30 minutes or so. Good way to kill time, that's for sure.

We boarded our next plane headed for our final destination, Los Angeles. I boarded the plane to find a little girl, who looked about 8 years old, sitting in my seat. This is almost not worth mentioning, because this issue was solved in 2 minutes. I politely asked the flight attendant to fix the problem. Apparently people just sit where ever they want on an airplane these days.

After settling in I started reading my book, Common Sense. By the end of the flight I was able to finish it. First book I've finished in 15 years or so. Yes I know, very sad. After the book was finished I watched most of the in flight movie, Valentine's Day. It was actually better then I thought it would be. It made me think about situations and how I handled in the past. It only took 5 seconds for me to snap back to reality and realize I made the right decisions all along.

There weren't any loud and disruptive children on this flight, but there was a guy behind me that insisted on putting all of his weight on my head rest in order to stand up. Let's just say he wasn't a small guy. Other then that and it being a 3 hour flight, it was fine.

We arrived at the gate and made our way to the baggage claim. We then waited for Adam to arrive. The waiting game didn't last for two long. I say we give him a pass for leaving work early to get us and driving in semi-rush hour traffic in Los Angeles.Because of Adam having a day job we were dropped off at his apartment and were given a quick tour of the place. It has a really nice layout and pretty spacious. Booms and I decided to explore a little and by explore I mean turned right out of the apartment instead of turning left. We wandered around Korea town a little bit until we broke down and asked Adam for directions. We were back on track and headed towards the subway to wander North Hollywood or so we thought.

We hopped on the subway and road it to Hollywood and Vine. Silly me, I thought that this was the correct stop on the red line. Nope, we were about a mile away from where we wanted to be. And of course yet again, we went the wrong way.

We finally made our way down the Hollywood Walk of Fame and ended up by the Kodak Theater. We rested for a little bit and took some photos.

It was a very nice day for a walk so we decided to not only walk up and down the Walk of Fame, but also up and down a million steps at the Kodak Theater. I will say though, the view was much better from a higher vantage point.

I was tempted to see Toy Story 3 today at the "El Captain" theater, but at $20 per ticket. I think I will wait until I get back to Michigan.

After about an hour and a half to two hours of wandering around we decided to head back to the apartment. We hopped back onto the subway, and hitched a ride to Vermont and Beverly. There are some crazy characters that ride the subway on a daily basis in New York, Boston and especially Los Angeles. Booms and I were minding our own business when sure enough a man who looked to be about 26 years old walked on to the subway with an accordion strapped to his chest. He then started playing "top 40 accordion " songs on his squeeze box. Some songs I had never heard other songs, such as the theme from the movie "The Godfather" made me smile, because I knew them so well. I had thought about giving him a tip for a job well done as other had, but then the transportation authority came and busted him. Apparently you can't do such things on the subway, let along drink, eat or talk loudly (by the way $250 fine for eating on the subway, wow. . . are you hurting for money or what California). Don't worry, I took a photo of the guy performing before the police broke up his act.

As I was saying, I was about to give him some money. I'm glad I didn't because the authority figures confiscated all of the money he had made on that train ride. I'm sorry I feel he earned that money fair and square. He wasn't just sitting on a street corner. This young man had a gift. I don't see them bothering bums on the street and taking their paper cups with the words "War Veteran" on them.

We departed from the train and headed up to the surface to walk back to the apartment. Upon reaching one block closer to Adam's apartment we hear a crash. We look across the street only to see a lady get out of her car and walk to the front of it. Apparently she ran into a yellow pilon with cement on the inside going about 10 - 15 MPH, cracking her left head light. What is with people today and their horrific driving?

This blog is not meant to complain about my vacation. By all means I am thrilled to be on it and am relaxing :). But I would just like to communicate the fact that this stuff on my trip is really happening to me. I don't want to miss a single detail.

Well tomorrow we head to Vegas. My hope is I can give you many more stories, hopefully some more interesting then today. It is now approaching 1am pst (4am, back home) . . . Damn it!

California here we come - The Prologue

Tradition. That's the word used to describe events with family or friends that take please week after week, month after month or year after year. Last year my friend Kevin and myself took two separate trips out to California to visit our friend Adam. He had moved out to California to live his dream of working in film and television. After much hard work and determination he has landed a job working as a Storyboard Assistant on the Cleveland Show, a spin off from the show Family Guy. Since we don't see him that much, being that he is on the other side of the country, we decided to fly out once a year and visit him.

Like I said, last year we went by ourselves. This year we decided it would be more fun to travel together and hang out while Adam was at work all week. We began planning two months ago. This included purchasing plane tickets, booking shows to see and all around activities to do while in California. While we were lining up our schedules and requesting time off from work we ended up missing a pretty good deal through Delta. $302 for a round trip ticket from DTW to LAX. Two days later, when all of our ducks were in a row, the price jumped to $450. We were forced to book with the cheapest airline out there. . . Spirit.

The total amount was $347, not as good as $302, but whatever. I booked the tickets and let the excitement build. I was able to get my sister to watch Maddie, my dog and make arrangements with my professors in college. Everything was coming together. I didn't have a care in the world and between you and me my mind was wandering at work. Not because I don't value my job, but because I have needed a vacation for quite some time now. Apparently plans only go on without a hitch in Disney Movies. Unfortunately, this is not a Disney movie.

Two days before our flight I received an email from Spirit stating the following,

Spirit Airlines is continuing to work with our pilot union to reach a fair and equitable agreement that ensures the long-term stability of the company, and allows us to continue offering you the ultra low fares you have come to know and love.

In the meantime, as of Saturday, June 12, 2010, the pilot union has declared a strike.

As a result, your flights on Thursday, June 17, 2010 for record locator LCUGHH have been cancelled. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.

Well I guess if they are sorry, it's okay!!! I was not pleased at all. I immediately scrambled to find another flight to Los Angeles. Nothing was reasonable. For the dates we wanted prices ranged from $550 to $800. For lack of a better vernacular, we were screwed. On a good note, I did buy trip insurance, in the event that our plans fell through. Although I soon found out that trip insurance refunds your money 3-4 weeks after you make your claim.

I see where this is going. They can take my money from my account within seconds of processing my flight, but when it comes to giving me money back, I'm the one who has to wait. Dealing with Spirit Airlines and the "wonderful" people at Cheap O Air dot com, was a horrible experience.

I was able to book a flight through Expedia for $447 per ticket, but we had to adjust the times that we flew as well as how many lay overs we have to make. What makes matters worse. I received yet another email from Spirit, the very next day. It read,

Spirit Airlines is pleased to announce that we're flying again with flights resuming Friday, June 18. We've reached a tentative agreement with our pilots that allows us to be successful for years to come and achieve our mission of continuing to bring you ultra low fares.

This was the prologue to mine and Kevin's epic vacation. I feel we are off to a great start. What do you think? Is my sarcasm translating over the internet nicely. ;) Just one day after they cancel my flight, they end the strike. This just made my day all sunshine and roses.

Oh well, it is in the part, kind of. I still need to collect that insurance money for the trip. Besides, come hell or high water we set out to see our friend Adam and we did. There are just some traditions that can't be stopped, replaced or forgotten.