LiveForTheLaunch
CF Legend
SCHEDULE
Thursday 28th- Sleep at the airport
Friday 29th- Drinking, eating, taking it easy, and a little bit of morbid tourism
Saturday 30th- Griffith Park, Santa Monica, and Dodgers vs. Tigers
Sunday 1st- Knotts
Monday 2nd- Six Flags Magic Mountain
Tuesday 3rd- Fly to Vegas, gamble and drink, Cirque du Soleil
Wednesday 4th- More gambling and drinking, Tupac intersection (Sam is a very big Tupac fan), Big Apple Coaster, Karaoke
Thursday 5th- Gambling, drinks, pool lounging, fancy dinner
Friday 6th- Check out but stay on the strip hanging out all day before catching a red eye home
Sam and I have been unable to travel out of the country much because we started dating during the pandemic and the borders have just reopened on a permanent basis a few months ago. We kind of knew we wanted it to include some coasters and potentially some sporting events, so we had been pretty set on Boston/New York for what seemed to be the ideal mixture of culture and coasters. Our other ideas were Halifax and Seattle, but as enthusiasts who have been robbed the past few years of riding basically anything, we put those ideas to the wayside. I found out my stepmom’s niece was getting married in Vegas over the Canadian long weekend in May, and although we weren’t invited to the actual wedding itself, we were invited to hangout with family after the wedding in Vegas for the week. Well, Sam and I liked the idea of Vegas because we both enjoy a bit of gambling and drinking, but the long weekend prices were exponentially more than what we’d pay on other dates so he just looked at me and said “are you thinking the same thing I’m thinking?” which I knew immediately referred to Magic Mountain. Luckily for him, his favourite baseball team (the Tigers) were playing the Dodgers in Los Angeles in late April so things fell into place to get both of those things done.
Thursday April 28- Pre-Flight Night
The only thing left to book for us last minute was parking, which in hindsight was a bad idea to wait because most of the cheap Park n’ Fly lots were booked up. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 6:00 AM so I toyed around with the idea of just doing a sleep, park, fly package which ended up being about $50 more, but split between two people it made sense for three reasons. One, we had to get up stupid early to fly and it would afford us a little bit more sleep. Two, we were getting restless and both finished work at a reasonable hour. Three, my dad was picking up Zephyr at 5:30 that night to start watching him, so we decided to just book that and we headed over there around 6:15 PM.
The trip was off to a funny start (well, funny to be because I laugh at chaos) when we crossed into America, paid the toll, and Sam accidentally turned right back onto the ramp that said “no re-entry into America.” I have no idea how he did this because we live right next to the border and cross over sometimes multiple times over the span of a week. I was stifling a laugh because he was pretty mad, and since we were past the point of no return we were pretty much headed back to Canada, taking the hit on another $16 in tolls for the mistake. We ended up just pulling a U-turn right on the bridge, and surprisingly the man was pretty understanding about it despite thinking we were probably idiots. After that debacle we were finally headed towards the airport which is only about a 25 minute drive from the border.
I knew I wouldn’t end up going to bed early because Sam wanted to watch the Toronto Raptors game and I also wasn’t ready to start off the trip by being a boring old person and heading right to bed. We went across the way to the Embassy Suites where we ended up having about three drinks each before heading back and going to bed. I was going to cap mine at two, but my boyfriend told the bartender I was probably going to steal drinks of his third (way to discretely say I’m a mooch) so she brought me a small 8oz one on the house. The Raptors lost, but the night was fun and we were in bed by about 10:30.
Friday April 29- Flying, Drinks, the Cecil, Food, Getting Our insides Torched, and More Drinks
I got up around 2:15 feeling partially refreshed but mostly excited. We got the 4 AM shuttle to the airport where we were through the baggage drop line and security. Detroit Metro really can’t be beat in that terminal, it’s always so efficient. Unfortunately it was too early to get an airport beer or really an airport anything at that point so my options were crusty, overpriced sandwiches or avocados and crackers. I picked the latter, ate it pretty briskly and just sat at the terminal and waited until boarding.
I was glad the flight left on time considering it’s Spirit and they changed our itineraries for both of our Spirit flights about 4 or 5 times each over the course of the past few months. Full disclosure though, I do not like being a passenger very much in a commercial aircraft. I like to be in control (well, not of an Airbus because unfortunately I’m not that qualified yet) or at least be in the cockpit to see what is happening, but fortunately this feeling usually passes after just a few minutes. The rest of the flight was smooth and it’s always really cool flying above my home airport when I’m going on a trip.
We landed sometime between 8 and 9 and although the process of getting the bags was pretty fast, the car rental was a bit of a faff considering we had to get a shuttle to the Uber stand and then an Uber to the Westin which then only had one employee working the car rental reservation desk. I guess that’s what we get for going with a place called Nu Car Rental instead of a more reputable company, but they ended up turning out fine, they just weren’t in an ideal location. We got our white Nissan Altima, which funny enough is what Sam drives at home, and headed down to the Redondo Beach area since we couldn’t check into our Air BnB yet. It was also still too early to really go anywhere, but we scoped out a place that starts serving drinks at 8 AM so that’s where we headed. We both are a fan of dive bars so we were really excited by how seedy and divey Pats II looked, and how it had that community feel to it. After a Google search it appeared as though the name had changed from Pats to Pats II due to the bouncer being killed a few years ago, but that aside it certainly a place for older regulars to go and pretty much the exact thing we were looking for when we wanted to go to a dive bar! The bartender was an old peach named Annie who poured a strong drink (I made a completely sarcastic remark about how the super strong drink wasn’t strong enough so she took it back and poured a bunch more, what a gem) and gave us Reese’s chocolates.
You can pretty much smell the musty walls and the smoke from that picture!
Sam still had to eventually drive the car to the Air BnB so we decided not to get too silly there and drove to the beach area where they have a nice boardwalk area and some good food options with nice views. It was a bit too chilly to use the beach so we walked where the shops were and then stopped into El Torito to have lunch. We didn’t really have any set plans for the day so there was a lot of eating and drinking on the agenda. I decided not to have a huge lunch, but it ended up being pretty big anyway because America and their fricken’ portions. I ate about half of my plate and then my mindset went to wanting to save my appetite for the legendary fried chicken we were going to have later in the day! This ended up being a big regret because the food at El Toritio was great (the corn cake was incredible), and the drink was one of the best I think I’ve ever had.
After walking along the beach back to our car, I asked Sam how far the Cecil Hotel would be from our route simply because I’m morbid. Turned out that it wasn’t too much of a detour (we even got a glimpse of the TANKS) and neither was the funeral home from Six Feet Under which is still one of the best shows I have ever watched. At first I didn’t think Skid Row looked like it did on television but then we got to a part with a lot of homeless people in tents, which is not only sad but not somewhere I’d want to get out of the car and walk around.
We picked up some beers and wine at the store near where we were staying, which was in an area called Eagle Rock. The Air BnB was very nice, being an entire guesthouse with a rooftop deck and a great view!
Since we had no true plans that day, we had some drinks up on the patio before proceeding to order dinner at Howlin’ Rays. This place gets lines that are hours long at times, but we ended up just paying for delivery which took about 45 minutes. As a person who owns about 50 hot sauces and always orders the hottest sauce on the menu, I went with one of the hottest ones feeling confident in my choice. I got the second hottest called Howlin’ which use to be the hottest until someone wanted to kill someone and added something hotter, and Sam chose hot.
This ended up being hilarious after the fact, but my goodness the second I took a bite I couldn’t believe what I was feeling. Someone on YouTube described it as radioactive fallout in their mouth and they weren’t far off. I am known to be a drama queen at times but no joke Sam and I had about 3 bites each and for about 25 minutes after we were just downing water upon water upon water, which is the worst thing you can do but we had no milk at our disposal. I ended up saving the leftovers and eating his hot tenders which I could tolerate but my sandwich was just something else. I felt it burn my insides as it went into my stomach. Not fun and even though I could say it was a waste of $55 or whatever it cost, it was something I won’t ever forget. I just wish I hadn’t skimped on the El Torito earlier! The chicken itself was actually excellent but if I go back I will not be getting anything near the level of heat I got.
No, my face isn’t greasy, it’s sweat from the spice.
I didn’t take anymore photos for the night and though I was pretty jet lagged and feeling slight abdominal pain, we trudged to Johnny’s Sports Bar which had a really cool vibe that I wish I was more awake to enjoy! A ton of Dodgers fans which made us more hyped for the game the next day, and a really friendly crowd. One regular even left the bar to go home and get Sam some sports memorabilia!
Thursday 28th- Sleep at the airport
Friday 29th- Drinking, eating, taking it easy, and a little bit of morbid tourism
Saturday 30th- Griffith Park, Santa Monica, and Dodgers vs. Tigers
Sunday 1st- Knotts
Monday 2nd- Six Flags Magic Mountain
Tuesday 3rd- Fly to Vegas, gamble and drink, Cirque du Soleil
Wednesday 4th- More gambling and drinking, Tupac intersection (Sam is a very big Tupac fan), Big Apple Coaster, Karaoke
Thursday 5th- Gambling, drinks, pool lounging, fancy dinner
Friday 6th- Check out but stay on the strip hanging out all day before catching a red eye home
Sam and I have been unable to travel out of the country much because we started dating during the pandemic and the borders have just reopened on a permanent basis a few months ago. We kind of knew we wanted it to include some coasters and potentially some sporting events, so we had been pretty set on Boston/New York for what seemed to be the ideal mixture of culture and coasters. Our other ideas were Halifax and Seattle, but as enthusiasts who have been robbed the past few years of riding basically anything, we put those ideas to the wayside. I found out my stepmom’s niece was getting married in Vegas over the Canadian long weekend in May, and although we weren’t invited to the actual wedding itself, we were invited to hangout with family after the wedding in Vegas for the week. Well, Sam and I liked the idea of Vegas because we both enjoy a bit of gambling and drinking, but the long weekend prices were exponentially more than what we’d pay on other dates so he just looked at me and said “are you thinking the same thing I’m thinking?” which I knew immediately referred to Magic Mountain. Luckily for him, his favourite baseball team (the Tigers) were playing the Dodgers in Los Angeles in late April so things fell into place to get both of those things done.
Thursday April 28- Pre-Flight Night
The only thing left to book for us last minute was parking, which in hindsight was a bad idea to wait because most of the cheap Park n’ Fly lots were booked up. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 6:00 AM so I toyed around with the idea of just doing a sleep, park, fly package which ended up being about $50 more, but split between two people it made sense for three reasons. One, we had to get up stupid early to fly and it would afford us a little bit more sleep. Two, we were getting restless and both finished work at a reasonable hour. Three, my dad was picking up Zephyr at 5:30 that night to start watching him, so we decided to just book that and we headed over there around 6:15 PM.
The trip was off to a funny start (well, funny to be because I laugh at chaos) when we crossed into America, paid the toll, and Sam accidentally turned right back onto the ramp that said “no re-entry into America.” I have no idea how he did this because we live right next to the border and cross over sometimes multiple times over the span of a week. I was stifling a laugh because he was pretty mad, and since we were past the point of no return we were pretty much headed back to Canada, taking the hit on another $16 in tolls for the mistake. We ended up just pulling a U-turn right on the bridge, and surprisingly the man was pretty understanding about it despite thinking we were probably idiots. After that debacle we were finally headed towards the airport which is only about a 25 minute drive from the border.
I knew I wouldn’t end up going to bed early because Sam wanted to watch the Toronto Raptors game and I also wasn’t ready to start off the trip by being a boring old person and heading right to bed. We went across the way to the Embassy Suites where we ended up having about three drinks each before heading back and going to bed. I was going to cap mine at two, but my boyfriend told the bartender I was probably going to steal drinks of his third (way to discretely say I’m a mooch) so she brought me a small 8oz one on the house. The Raptors lost, but the night was fun and we were in bed by about 10:30.
Friday April 29- Flying, Drinks, the Cecil, Food, Getting Our insides Torched, and More Drinks
I got up around 2:15 feeling partially refreshed but mostly excited. We got the 4 AM shuttle to the airport where we were through the baggage drop line and security. Detroit Metro really can’t be beat in that terminal, it’s always so efficient. Unfortunately it was too early to get an airport beer or really an airport anything at that point so my options were crusty, overpriced sandwiches or avocados and crackers. I picked the latter, ate it pretty briskly and just sat at the terminal and waited until boarding.
I was glad the flight left on time considering it’s Spirit and they changed our itineraries for both of our Spirit flights about 4 or 5 times each over the course of the past few months. Full disclosure though, I do not like being a passenger very much in a commercial aircraft. I like to be in control (well, not of an Airbus because unfortunately I’m not that qualified yet) or at least be in the cockpit to see what is happening, but fortunately this feeling usually passes after just a few minutes. The rest of the flight was smooth and it’s always really cool flying above my home airport when I’m going on a trip.
We landed sometime between 8 and 9 and although the process of getting the bags was pretty fast, the car rental was a bit of a faff considering we had to get a shuttle to the Uber stand and then an Uber to the Westin which then only had one employee working the car rental reservation desk. I guess that’s what we get for going with a place called Nu Car Rental instead of a more reputable company, but they ended up turning out fine, they just weren’t in an ideal location. We got our white Nissan Altima, which funny enough is what Sam drives at home, and headed down to the Redondo Beach area since we couldn’t check into our Air BnB yet. It was also still too early to really go anywhere, but we scoped out a place that starts serving drinks at 8 AM so that’s where we headed. We both are a fan of dive bars so we were really excited by how seedy and divey Pats II looked, and how it had that community feel to it. After a Google search it appeared as though the name had changed from Pats to Pats II due to the bouncer being killed a few years ago, but that aside it certainly a place for older regulars to go and pretty much the exact thing we were looking for when we wanted to go to a dive bar! The bartender was an old peach named Annie who poured a strong drink (I made a completely sarcastic remark about how the super strong drink wasn’t strong enough so she took it back and poured a bunch more, what a gem) and gave us Reese’s chocolates.
You can pretty much smell the musty walls and the smoke from that picture!
Sam still had to eventually drive the car to the Air BnB so we decided not to get too silly there and drove to the beach area where they have a nice boardwalk area and some good food options with nice views. It was a bit too chilly to use the beach so we walked where the shops were and then stopped into El Torito to have lunch. We didn’t really have any set plans for the day so there was a lot of eating and drinking on the agenda. I decided not to have a huge lunch, but it ended up being pretty big anyway because America and their fricken’ portions. I ate about half of my plate and then my mindset went to wanting to save my appetite for the legendary fried chicken we were going to have later in the day! This ended up being a big regret because the food at El Toritio was great (the corn cake was incredible), and the drink was one of the best I think I’ve ever had.
After walking along the beach back to our car, I asked Sam how far the Cecil Hotel would be from our route simply because I’m morbid. Turned out that it wasn’t too much of a detour (we even got a glimpse of the TANKS) and neither was the funeral home from Six Feet Under which is still one of the best shows I have ever watched. At first I didn’t think Skid Row looked like it did on television but then we got to a part with a lot of homeless people in tents, which is not only sad but not somewhere I’d want to get out of the car and walk around.
We picked up some beers and wine at the store near where we were staying, which was in an area called Eagle Rock. The Air BnB was very nice, being an entire guesthouse with a rooftop deck and a great view!
Since we had no true plans that day, we had some drinks up on the patio before proceeding to order dinner at Howlin’ Rays. This place gets lines that are hours long at times, but we ended up just paying for delivery which took about 45 minutes. As a person who owns about 50 hot sauces and always orders the hottest sauce on the menu, I went with one of the hottest ones feeling confident in my choice. I got the second hottest called Howlin’ which use to be the hottest until someone wanted to kill someone and added something hotter, and Sam chose hot.
This ended up being hilarious after the fact, but my goodness the second I took a bite I couldn’t believe what I was feeling. Someone on YouTube described it as radioactive fallout in their mouth and they weren’t far off. I am known to be a drama queen at times but no joke Sam and I had about 3 bites each and for about 25 minutes after we were just downing water upon water upon water, which is the worst thing you can do but we had no milk at our disposal. I ended up saving the leftovers and eating his hot tenders which I could tolerate but my sandwich was just something else. I felt it burn my insides as it went into my stomach. Not fun and even though I could say it was a waste of $55 or whatever it cost, it was something I won’t ever forget. I just wish I hadn’t skimped on the El Torito earlier! The chicken itself was actually excellent but if I go back I will not be getting anything near the level of heat I got.
No, my face isn’t greasy, it’s sweat from the spice.
I didn’t take anymore photos for the night and though I was pretty jet lagged and feeling slight abdominal pain, we trudged to Johnny’s Sports Bar which had a really cool vibe that I wish I was more awake to enjoy! A ton of Dodgers fans which made us more hyped for the game the next day, and a really friendly crowd. One regular even left the bar to go home and get Sam some sports memorabilia!
