Journal entry for December 1, 2001

Today's summary: L.A. trip, Day Five. Six Flags Magic Mountain, scenic drive, and a last visit to Santa Monica.

Ah... finally... today, my grand pilgrimage to Six Flags Magic Mountain! YAY! I used my cellphone and left messages for myself on each roller coaster, narrating and recording the experience. Hopefully I'll be able to upload those recordings to the website here soon, kind of like I did for the accidental recording from my other amusement park trip.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to drag anyone along with me today, after all, so I was alone. Oh well. At least I get to share the experience with others via the recordings I mentioned before.

Being alone does have its advantages though... I got one of those "Fast Pass" things, which lets you skip the lines on certain rides. You walk up the exit and then follow a special route and they let you into the line right where people pick which car to go in. And since I was by myself, I could say as soon as I got there, "Anybody riding by themselves? Any groups of 3?" and then if anybody said yes, I'd ask if I could go with them... which usually brought me right to the next train. I think I rode their 255 foot tall, 85 m.p.h. hypercoaster "Goliath" something like six times in a row. And, four of those trips were within the same 15 minute period. Hee hee hee.

That approach (asking if anybody was riding alone) also made it much easier for me to ride on the front car on many coasters. Usually the front car has an extra long line... but that doesn't much matter, if I can slip in with somebody who's already been waiting for a while. And it doesn't affect/bother the people who are still waiting, either. In return, if I ever had to wait myself, I would call to the back of the line looking for other people riding alone and inviting them forward.

If I can get those coaster recordings onto the site, I'll come back to the journal and post detailed coaster reviews. I'll also come back and post the photos as soon as they're developed. Stay tuned, mouseketteers (sp?).

A scenic drive.

It was already getting late when I finished at the park, but I still decided to go a bit out of my way and take a scenic drive through the mountains. It was REALLY spectacular, even in the waning light; the canyon drive was very winding, and on all sides were huge mountains dusted with green bushes. It looked like a scene straight out of that IMAX movie "Hidden Hawaii"... the vegetation wasn't as lush and overflowing, but it was still beautiful and very impressive. Too bad it was cloudy or I might've been able to see the sun set there.

The mountain road dropped me off on the Pacific Coast Highway, which runs along the coastline right along the beach. Again, a beautiful view even though it was dark -- the clouds still had a glow, and the water picked up reflected light from the city. Definitely worth going out of my way. That road went through Santa Monica.

Back to Santa Monica Pier for one last goodbye.

Since this is my last night before going home, I figured I would like to go back to Santa Monica. Bye, Pacific! Bye, California! The pier was all lit up, and very glamorously trashy. I was wondering if the crowd would be even scarier than it was during the daytime, but actually it was fine -- same mix of people, families, kids, etc. So, I went to the arcade and played Dance Dance Revolution for a bit. Then I strolled up and down the pier, bought some touristy trinkets. I dabbled around at the shoreline for a bit, drank a dab of ocean water, then finally got in the car and went back to Diana's. Packed up, went to bed.

I fly out tomorrow. It's been a really fun trip and I've enjoyed it a lot. *sigh* At the same time though, I miss my husband and my friends and my family back home... and this whole wandering-around-by-myself thing is getting kind of old.