CrossRoads Blog

So good news and bad news. The bad news, the ‘third annual’ Vegas Bellydance convention was easily the most subdued of all years. The good news, the ‘third annual’ Vegas Bellydance convention trip was easily the most subdued.

Actually it was a great long weekend. While it did not feature some of the comedic value of Belly Dancers rolling on the ground at 4:00 AM in the middle of a casino, nor playing VIP with Bottle Service at an Ultra Lounge as in years past, it was no less enjoyable as we were able to spend a great deal of the trip hangin’ with good friends Misty and Jim (Jimbo, the Jimster, the Jiminator…).

We played nice with the drinking goggles this trip, though not that we didn’t give it a run, nor for the lack of it hanging around (umm.. Misty just suggested she wanted options as she pulled 6 bottles out of her suitcase and put them into the fridge. But for the most part, grading on the Vegas curve we were good little boys and girls (or at least good little boys – you know them belly dancers…).

During the days while the girls were doing that shimmy thing over at their Bellydance classes, me and Jim did the typical Vegas Walkabouts – cruising around the Hotels and Casinos getting some people watching grins and looking at all the crap in the stores that it’s hard to believe anybody buys? Though come to think of it, I did score some really comfortable black leather Drivers at Barney’s and we found a most excellent sushi kinda’ place we really enjoyed called Woo even if the portions were a little high on the artsy and low on the quantity scale.

Being Vegas you know we got in some good eats. Kimberly and I hit up Rao’s again. I needed a redo on the Chicken Cacciatore mmmmm. And you know Payards is across the hall there at Caesars. We did the seafood thing across from our hotel one night, but the best meal of this trip was a Puck’s Trattoria Del Lupo again. We just have never had a bad dish there, they are always on it. That dinner also provided some of the trip’s entertainment as well. The table to the right of us featured one man and about 10 woman. Yep, 10-1 and they all seemed to be playing the smile and giggle notice me game. It took a bot to figure out who the heck it was, but once you saw that trademark clock you knew it was Flavor Flav. Yeah, I guess this is one of his good half decades (seems he does the the 5 year up and 5 year down life). Being husbands of belly dancers, Jim and I could only smile and nod as the woman folk hopped up to partake in the Flav paparazzi moment (like they would miss a chance to get their picture taken… please). I will say though, Flav did a little belly roll thing with the girls that was closer to bellydance than his rap is to rappin’ . Ahhh…. Just 11 months and 28 days until version Quattro!

A few PICS HERE (we didn’t take much this year)

Well, it may not be ‘the’ happiest place, but it seems every time we have hung out in that neck of Anaheim CA, it comes darn close. Kimberly and I got to play SoCal life for a long weekend this last week. I swear sometimes you can look back over 60 hours time and go “wow, we did (or accomplished) all that in that short of time?” Then other times you can have a weekend come and go and seems all you can remember doing was eating some pizza, taking a nap and playing a little Wii or some such.

It’s nice when you can tie some business around a fun weekend, and the opportunity lined up for us to do so and participate in the Disneyland Half Marathon. We started the weekend of fun right as soon as we arrived in Anaheim. The Expo for the Race was at the Disneyland Hotel and we shot right over to pick up our bib, park tickets and other goodies. The Expo was a little disjointed – though I shouldn’t have been surprised with all the lines, it was Disneyland after all! We finally were able to get our shirts, bibs (personalized with our names – cool), and bags. We walked the Expo some, ate a Cliff bar and Kimberly got a cool Disney running outfit. After a nice dinner at Roy’s, Kimberly’s Sea Bass was excellent by the way, we called it an early night. A long Saturday in the land of the Mouse was planned for tomorrow.

As part of the weekend race we had gotten a Park Hopper Pass. This allows you to get into both Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure Park. Considering we couldn’t be out too late with a 4:00 wake up call for the race Sunday morning, we dragged our behinds up early so we could get over to the parks and do as much as possible before the lines got long. Within minutes of the park opening we were walking down Main Street USA with smiles on our face and bustin’ a move to Big Thunder Railroad (the Coaster with the Kimberly max up and downage’). Amazingly the line was nothing, a couple of ooo’s and aaah’s and we were headed over to Splash Mountain. Splash Mountain is the scene of what has to be a top 5 all time favorite picture of mine. We did it with the boys circa 96’ or so and the picture they snapped just as you head down the big drop from that trip is freaking hilarious (terror captured!).

Splash Mountain was a riot as always, and also amazingly, as it turned out to be all day, almost zero lines. After Splash, a quick ride through the new (to us anyway) Pirates of the Caribbean (pretty cool), and another memory lane ride on Indiana Jones and we had knocked out pretty much everything we wanted to hit at the old Park before 10:30. We scored some ice cream and candy (it is Disney you know) and headed over to California Adventures, which is 50 yards from the Disney Park exit to the entrance.

It’s a decent Park with what seems to be a focus on Family and little ones. They are still building a good bit of the Park out, but we did get a chance to see most everything that was worthy with the exception of the shows that there was just no time for. The star attraction some visual light show, and the ‘Cars’ land (form the animated movie) is still being completed (M3 is going to love that place!). We did the giant Ferris Wheel (non spinning car), a very cool simulated ride that “Fly’s over California with you zooming above some of the coolest spots in the state, and our favorite ride the river adventure ‘Grizzly River Run’ (yep, we got wet). We toured the Mission Tortilla Factory and a tour on making Sourdough Bread that were both interesting. After a decent lunch, some souvenir shopping, a few pictures, and we had had enough. We walked back to the hotel, settled I and tried to wind down as early as possible.

Sunday morning, 5:45, we kiss and head to our corrals. We have been up for almost two hours and are less than 15 minutes from the start of the race. It’s always pretty exciting standing there in the dark with thousands of people all ready to kick it in. The scene was about as you would expect from Disney, colored lights flashing, Goofy on a monorail right in front of the start wishing us well, Mickey doing the wave, and everyone with a smile plastered to their face. The flag drops and we are off!

The race starts right near the Disney Hotel, and within seconds you are cutting through the Downtown Disney area of shops and restaurants and heading into the park itself. You stay in the park passing all the characters and rides, and of course the Castle, for the next couple of miles before you head out into the streets of Anaheim. After about the 7 mile mark one of the coolest parts of the race has you entering the Anaheim Angel Ballpark. You run around the stadium and the Warning Track and you can even see yourself on the JumboTron. Both Kimberly and I when we were in the Stadium took the time to run along and slap the hands of the cheering boy and girl scouts that were there – awesome. Just as you leave I was even able to hear my name (through the headset even) called as ‘Michael Miller from Glendale Arizona is leaving the Stadium”. The next miles you pass several bands, and cheer leading groups and many other well wishers. The final mile or so takes you back through the park and even into California Adventure before you run down the finishing shoot.

Kimberly and I both did real well form a time perspective. Kimberly had a new Half Marathon personal record even beating the time from Bryce Canyon (which was almost all downhill)! Her time 1:55:20 was fast enough to be in the top 5% of her group and 10% among all 12,000 plus that started the race! I wasn’t able to get a PR but did finish in 311th place overall 1:39:36 which was nice.

After the race we connected up with Kimberly’s cousin Shelia who was at the race as a medical volunteer and made plans for dinner later that evening with her and husband Kevin. We grabbed our ‘bling’ (a big gold looking Disney Castle) and decided to head on over to the beach to find a nice place for lunch and do some walking so we didn’t stiffen up to bad.
Forgetting that it was Labor Day weekend at Newport Beach, after about a half hour of frustration looking for a parking spot we succumbed to the $40 per day spot. We did a nice little walk on the Pier, a stroll down the boardwalk, and had a decent ‘bucket’ lunch on the patio at the Rockin’ Baja Coastal Cantina (we have eaten there several times before when in Newport). It was nice, sunny, a good breeze, and people everywhere in a good mood.

The near perfect day was topped off at Brennan’s Jazz Kitchen in Downtown Disney. We were treated to an excellent meal and great company by Shelia and Kevin. We even had the live Cajun music vibe for most of the night as our table was right next to the stage. Shelia and Kevin were especially gracious to still come over and do dinner with us considering they hadn’t slept the night before as their daughter was spending the night in emergency room all night (all okay thankfully now – though a long not good story!).
Again, all in all just a great trip and amazing when I think all was just 60 hours or so start to finish. Makes those lazy weekends hard to justify… dang it!

PICTURES HERE