The Professor Errant

Does this count as a staycation? Well, two nights in two hotels, so technically we were away from home…

Gally

The Gallifrey One Doctor Who convention happens every February (usually, but not always, on Presidents Day Weekend) at the LAX Marriott. It’s a three day convention; we always go for the first two days, staying the night in between at the hotel. Because it’s too annoying to drive back and forth from our house in Anaheim, of course! This year we added an extra night (at a different hotel) and went to Universal Studios on the third day. For fun. (And more money for the pet sitter/pet hotel!)

The first day was a bit of a clusterf**k. The escalators between the lobby and the convention floor were down for the weekend. Plus the reservation computers weren’t working when we got there so it took a while to check in. (BONVOYED!) But we coped, walked around the dealers’ room, and had lunch at the hotel bar, hilariously named Hanger 18.

It was also Valentine’s Day weekend (they usually go together) so we went to the Daily Grill down the street at the Westin for dinner. It’s become a tradition for us.

We had fun at the convention but this year it was too many stairs, badge cops, parking lot issues (Marriott’s room key cards NEVER work for in-out), line cops, etc. Rob got the pictures he wanted with the guests in attendance (I’m rarely one to do the photo ops…unless John Barrowman is there!). We perused the art show and went to a few panels.

My favorite part of going to the convention isn’t actually at the convention at all…I love going for the plane spotting!

Those in the know know that a great place for watching flights land at LAX is the little park next to the In-N-Out Burger on Sepulveda Blvd. This year we caught an Emirates A380 and two 747s (Lufthansa and Korean), among many smaller planes.

Gallifrey One will, sadly, come to an end in 2028 (it’s been going on since 1990!). After that, Rob and I might start attending Chicago TARDIS con, which happens every Thanksgiving weekend. We’ll see!

Universal

After a slight detour to see the new Captain America movie at Alamo DTLA, we headed to the Embassy Suites in Glendale so we wouldn’t have far to go to get to Universal Studios in the morning. It’s a nice ES, even if the breakfast was overrun by kids on some kind of athletic/college visit.

We love Universal but don’t get there very often, mostly due to the proximity with which we live to Disneyland! Armed with new Silver passes, we went to check out what was new (since we were last there).

The Secret Life of Pets dark ride isn’t all *that* new, but we hadn’t experienced it yet. We love the movie(s) and found the ride cute and fun.

Super Nintendo World was also new to us, but we are not gamers so it was mostly lost on us, with nothing much to catch our interest. Seemed nice though, if you’re into that kind of thing.

The Jurassic World ride was more to our liking. We’ve ridden it many times, but it had been a little upgraded/spruced up since we were last there. We approved.

I don’t know when we will get to Universal again next, but hopefully not too long. Rob has also mentioned that we should go to Universal Orlando the next time we are at Disney World. That’s a definite!