Monday, August 20, 2012
8.20.12
I didn't realize it had been so long since I blogged. I'm kinda slacking. This past week has been good. Our group was a little difficult but more in the terms of annoying than actually hard. I did manage to make it out on the beach 5 days :) I am sure gonna miss that. I don't think there has been anything overly exciting happen this week. I was off on Thursday and we spent some time at the beach. The weather was great and we got to watch the practice for the airshow, which was annoying after a while. And of course the sand flies were terrible and made things a little miserable. But we stayed in the water most the time then came back and attempted to lay on the deck. But, lucky us, the flies followed us. After that we went into the city and took some pics and just had a relaxing evening. Friday was back with the travelers and it was a day spent mostly at the beach. We went and watched the airshow, the practice the day before was better, and we had lunch on the beach. Everyone seemed to enjoy it and that night we went to a movie. I was off again on Sat and did pretty much nothing all day. It was great. I slept in and went to the nap on the beach, then came in and started my packing. Yesterday we had 4 travelers staying over and one came in early so we took all 5 down to see the extreme trampoline show on the boardwalk and then to Ocean City for a parade. None of it worked out like we had planned and the day overall was extremely frustrating. But we get a new group in today and I move rooms again, back upstairs to my old room for a few days and then I head back to Texas on Thursday bright and early. I can't believe I only have 3 more days in this house. So crazy. I am ready to be home though. Of course I will miss many things and the people I have met over the summer but Matoska is waiting for me and classes start again next week.
Saturday, August 11, 2012
8.11.12
Another week has flown by. I don't even know where it went. Tuesday and Wednesday were so busy because 3 out of the 6 staff were off so we were totally consumed by our travelers. The few moments we get through out the day were not there and by the end of Wed night we were drained. We had to have a special staff meeting for warm brownies and milk just to make it through the night. Then it was down to the basement I went for our 2 days off. It was so much fun. We started Thurs day off by going down to the outlets. Didn't really find any great deals but had fun. Then off to Gardner's Basin where we went parasailing. We volunteered to go first and asked for the best dip he had. The guy taking us was a lot of fun and gave us a good ride. It was also nice and relaxing to lounge on the boat while the others got their turn, although nobody else was up to the dip we had. That seemed kind of pointless but oh well. We went and had lunch and a drink at a little restaurant there and the waitress was great and the food and drinks were great. We did a little roaming through the shops then laid out for a little while before our happy hour boat cruise. The cruise had less than 20 people on this big double decker thing and we were the only non-couple in it. Kinda funny. But it was kinda cool to get to see the city that way. We made it back home and got ready for a night out. That is when the headache started, but I tried to ignore it. We went to the Tropicana and started in the sports bar. I tried to explain football to Leanne, not the same as in England. But she was pretty lost. I couldn't even drink my beer because my head was hurting so bad, but I wanted to try to get the most out of the night. We had a confusing group sitting next to us. It was 3 guys and 2 girls, it was one of the guys bday. After they had a few drinks it looked like 2 of the guys were together but as they were leaving one of them kept trying to come up and talk to Leanne. It was all really confusing and we still aren't sure what the dynamics of that group was, but they were entertaining. After the sports bar we went down to the slots for a little while. I made it a couple hours before I had to give in to the worst migraine I have ever experienced. It was terrible and the whole next day I was sick. Kinda sucked for my second day off but at least I was able to lay around and relax. I still wasn't feeling 100% most of today but luckily by tonight I am back to normal. I can't believe this week is over. We have a busy day off drop off and pick ups tomorrow and an early start. But this will be the beginning of my last full week here at the shore house. I am kinda sad but ready to get back. Not exactly ready to get back to classes and the mysteries that await my return to Texas. But after all the driving today in the massive rain storms, I am ready for the non-humid, non-wet of Texas!
Sunday, August 5, 2012
8.5.12
This week has gone by so incredibly fast. I think the fastest week yet. I can't believe we have a new set of travelers coming tomorrow. I don't know that I feel like I even got to know the last set. It will be week 2 of high functioning weeks and we stay so busy but it is really great. We are getting to do some new things but along with that comes the new levels of complaints and the new levels of opinions. It has been challenging dealing with the different wants of this group. New kinds of challenges that we haven't really faced much this summer. Today was a good day. One of the girls and I got our ears pierced today, 3rd hole for both of us. We have really had a great week. Rain Forest Cafe and Harrah's last week, Borgata and a show this week. One of our travelers family member treated us all to the Borgata buffet tonight. It was an amazing dinner although the dessert was a little bit of a disappointment. Then we took the guys to the Legend show. While they were in with one staff we went out to the casino for a little bit. It was not a very successful night at the slots but it was fun nonetheless. I'm excited to see what this next week will bring and have decided to not stress over how things will go when I get home but just enjoy my final days here. It will be interesting but we shall see how it goes.
On a different note...all this typing for my blog has really improved my typing skills and my spelling...lol.
On a different note...all this typing for my blog has really improved my typing skills and my spelling...lol.
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
8.1.12
Well we ended the weekend with mass choas but it was all worth it for our night out. Saturday was good. Two of the girls stayed back to get a jump start on the cleaning that had to be done while we hit the town. We got caught in the rain in Smithville. Not just a little shower, a massive downpour with us stuck in the middle. By the time we got loaded and back on the road, of course, it had stopped. Just to get back to the house where there was no rain at all. We even got held hostage at Smithville by all the ducks that surrounded the van and would not let get down the road. This random guy stood out in the rain jsut watching us try to escape the ducks. He thought it was funny, we more thought of it as an annoyance since we were all soaked.
Sunday was the day. We had our plan to get everything done by the time the travelers left and our boss arrived with a few campers. The cocktail boat was booked, the hotel room was booked and the evening plan of pool time then out on the boardwalk was set. And of course our boss was running late so our lunch with him was pushed back. Then comes the rain...again. It rained just long enough to put an end to our plans for the boat ride. Lunch wouldn't have been over in time anyway. But it was all good, it was pool time. Head to the hotel and remember that we forgot to go by the store on the way. It was very difficult getting out of the area the hotel was at and ended up making a few not so necessary turns but I say it was for the scenic view...mostly because I was the one driving...lol. But all in all it worked out. Store done and now to check into the hotel room. I'm not sure the valet guy was real excited about us bringing our nice big van in for him to park but we really didn't care. All was good with check-in. The rooms were beautiful. It was really amazing. We got ready for the pool and made it all the way down there to discover that we all needed our IDs to get in. So all back up to the room. A plan was made to get everyone in, we have one staff that was only 20. So in we went in 2 groups of three. We were the first group and made it in ok but the second group was not able to pass. They were very particular about the international IDs and it was a no go. But he did tell us that there was another pool on the 4th floor that was open to everyone. So off to the 4th floor we go. Walk all the way to the right, no pool. But we did find a kid from Florida on a search for the pool as well (he was probably 15 or 16 and bored out of his mind there with his grandparents) So he follwed us and chatted as we headed off to the left, no pool. We call the front desk from a phone in the hallway, Gladys puts us on hold to find out where we are and how to get to the pool. We finally give up on Gladys and walk back down to the first pool to find this mysterious 4th floor pool. The direction we were given were ridiculous. It was like the other side of the city! You would think that this pool would want to be found. Finally we found the pool with only 30min left until it was time for them to close. We were gonna go in that last 30min! But the pool ahd just closed due to an accident in it...ugh! We were so incredible frustrated. So it was back to the room to drink some and play games before we went out. We had already decided that the hotel was so amazing that there was no need to leave to the boardwalk. So no boat ride, no pool and no boardwalk. We were off to a great start. The night did improve and we had a wonderful time. I curled my hair and did make-up for the first time in forever. I never noticed how annoying mascara was on your eyes. Then I was annoyed that it annoyed me because I was not used to it anymore. But we felt great and we looked great. We played at the slot machines most the rest of the night. One of our girls won about $300 and another one about $700. It was so much fun and really exciting. All off penny slots! We had dinner around midnight at this burger place and the food was not very good. Two of our girls had ended up passed out in front of the room by 10pm...lol. We made it in around 2am and attempted to get some sleep but it was not happening for me.
The next morning was up early to be back at the house by 930am. We were on a mission to get food as soon as we left but the line was too long and we were running late. So we were going to just get food at the house. The campers were there waiting on us to cook their breakfast, which we were not expecting and by the time we got it almost done it was time for me to head off for our first pick-up of the day...with no food. That took 2hrs! We got back to the house just as the campers were getting ready to leave and did not have time to eat before heading out for our next pick-up. By this time it is after 12pm and we have been trying to eat breakfast since about 830am. I don't think I have ever been so hungry. It was crazy. We did finally mamage to pull through a McDonald's on the way to our second pick up. Never have I been so excited to eat nasty McDonald's food. We could finally make it through the day. All travelers arrived...eventually and staff was so exhausted it was ridiculous. But I did get to enjoy the next 2 days off. So I was in bed as soon as possible that night, which was later than we would normally get to bed because of all the catching up we were still trying to do from our night out. I actually slept for about 12hrs. It was amazing! I did absolutely nothing on my first day off. Slept and laid out on the deck a little bit and then watched girly movies with the other girl that was off. Today has been pretty close to the same. Slept in until about 10am and went down to the beach to lay out. Played in the water until the lifeguards made us get out because of the weather. Then laid around some more. I did manage to get laundry done and a few odds and ends that needed done but overall it was a much needed break and I am ready to get back to it tomorrow. Too much idle time is not good for my mind. Especially since it is getting so close to me going home and there is so much uncertainty about when I am back in the real world. But I have survived and everything will work out like it always does. Exactly 3 weeks today and my summer adventure is over! Back to Texas and school and my puppy and the job that I don't have yet...lol.
Sunday was the day. We had our plan to get everything done by the time the travelers left and our boss arrived with a few campers. The cocktail boat was booked, the hotel room was booked and the evening plan of pool time then out on the boardwalk was set. And of course our boss was running late so our lunch with him was pushed back. Then comes the rain...again. It rained just long enough to put an end to our plans for the boat ride. Lunch wouldn't have been over in time anyway. But it was all good, it was pool time. Head to the hotel and remember that we forgot to go by the store on the way. It was very difficult getting out of the area the hotel was at and ended up making a few not so necessary turns but I say it was for the scenic view...mostly because I was the one driving...lol. But all in all it worked out. Store done and now to check into the hotel room. I'm not sure the valet guy was real excited about us bringing our nice big van in for him to park but we really didn't care. All was good with check-in. The rooms were beautiful. It was really amazing. We got ready for the pool and made it all the way down there to discover that we all needed our IDs to get in. So all back up to the room. A plan was made to get everyone in, we have one staff that was only 20. So in we went in 2 groups of three. We were the first group and made it in ok but the second group was not able to pass. They were very particular about the international IDs and it was a no go. But he did tell us that there was another pool on the 4th floor that was open to everyone. So off to the 4th floor we go. Walk all the way to the right, no pool. But we did find a kid from Florida on a search for the pool as well (he was probably 15 or 16 and bored out of his mind there with his grandparents) So he follwed us and chatted as we headed off to the left, no pool. We call the front desk from a phone in the hallway, Gladys puts us on hold to find out where we are and how to get to the pool. We finally give up on Gladys and walk back down to the first pool to find this mysterious 4th floor pool. The direction we were given were ridiculous. It was like the other side of the city! You would think that this pool would want to be found. Finally we found the pool with only 30min left until it was time for them to close. We were gonna go in that last 30min! But the pool ahd just closed due to an accident in it...ugh! We were so incredible frustrated. So it was back to the room to drink some and play games before we went out. We had already decided that the hotel was so amazing that there was no need to leave to the boardwalk. So no boat ride, no pool and no boardwalk. We were off to a great start. The night did improve and we had a wonderful time. I curled my hair and did make-up for the first time in forever. I never noticed how annoying mascara was on your eyes. Then I was annoyed that it annoyed me because I was not used to it anymore. But we felt great and we looked great. We played at the slot machines most the rest of the night. One of our girls won about $300 and another one about $700. It was so much fun and really exciting. All off penny slots! We had dinner around midnight at this burger place and the food was not very good. Two of our girls had ended up passed out in front of the room by 10pm...lol. We made it in around 2am and attempted to get some sleep but it was not happening for me.
The next morning was up early to be back at the house by 930am. We were on a mission to get food as soon as we left but the line was too long and we were running late. So we were going to just get food at the house. The campers were there waiting on us to cook their breakfast, which we were not expecting and by the time we got it almost done it was time for me to head off for our first pick-up of the day...with no food. That took 2hrs! We got back to the house just as the campers were getting ready to leave and did not have time to eat before heading out for our next pick-up. By this time it is after 12pm and we have been trying to eat breakfast since about 830am. I don't think I have ever been so hungry. It was crazy. We did finally mamage to pull through a McDonald's on the way to our second pick up. Never have I been so excited to eat nasty McDonald's food. We could finally make it through the day. All travelers arrived...eventually and staff was so exhausted it was ridiculous. But I did get to enjoy the next 2 days off. So I was in bed as soon as possible that night, which was later than we would normally get to bed because of all the catching up we were still trying to do from our night out. I actually slept for about 12hrs. It was amazing! I did absolutely nothing on my first day off. Slept and laid out on the deck a little bit and then watched girly movies with the other girl that was off. Today has been pretty close to the same. Slept in until about 10am and went down to the beach to lay out. Played in the water until the lifeguards made us get out because of the weather. Then laid around some more. I did manage to get laundry done and a few odds and ends that needed done but overall it was a much needed break and I am ready to get back to it tomorrow. Too much idle time is not good for my mind. Especially since it is getting so close to me going home and there is so much uncertainty about when I am back in the real world. But I have survived and everything will work out like it always does. Exactly 3 weeks today and my summer adventure is over! Back to Texas and school and my puppy and the job that I don't have yet...lol.
Friday, July 27, 2012
7.27.12
This has been a crazy week, probably one of the most frustrating and stressful yet. I have a traveler that has never really traveled and honestly I don't know how his family deals with him being in public at any point in time. Especially with people he is unfamiliar with. He runs off, he yells, he bullies the other travelers and he refuses to listen and follow the rules. Pair this up with another one of my travelers who is very much like Eeyore. Something is always wrong, he is always picking fights with the first traveler and he refuses to walk at a normal pace or move at all when he is upset, which is a lot of the time, or he does not feel like doing what we are doing. It has been a struggle to be stopped and convince him to move while trying to keep the others by me in crowds of people. Just one more day, just one more day! The schedule this week has been all weird so my days are thrown off too. It has seemed like a very long week. But the guys for the most part are so much fun. They sing and dance to everything and we have had a lot of musical activities. But, to top it off our boss will be coming down on Sun morning, as the travelers are leaving, with some campers to spend the night. So cleaning has to be perfect and very quick. But on a good note...we have no travelers staying over and we have nobody coming early so we all get Sun evening off together! This has not happened and probably won't again so we plan on doing it right...lol. We will start with lunch at Rainforest Cafe with the boss, then we are leaving him to go stay the night at Harrah's. We will spend a few hours laying out at their Oasis pool, then go to a coctail cruise for a couple hours. Then we will let them shuttle us to the boardwalk for a night out. It should be a lot of fun and much needed for all of us. I will miss the final night out at the end of summer since I am heading home before the other girls so I am super excited! I will post more pics up to FB at some point. I am going to get all the pics from the summer on my flash drive so I can have the ones that were not taken with my camera. You can tell that we are all more relaxed and just having fun with everyone by this point in the summer. Next week should be easier. It will be week 1 of 2 for high functioning and we will only have 9 travelers rather than the 11 we usually have. Most of them manage their own money and meds for the most part. Still plan on doing a flash mob with them. I will post about our night out when I get a chance :)
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
7.24.12
It has been a busy week and the time is still flying by so fast. Last weeks group was so much fun. They were loud and energetic and loved everything. We all really enjoyed them and even had 6 stay over for this week. This week seems like it will be a little bit more of a challenge but I think we all think that when the new group comes in and by the end of the week we are not ready for them to leave. We have one traveler that is on his 3rd week, which in this house, seems like he has been here forever. He is such a sweet guy and the whole staff has just fallen in love with him. It is going to be sad to see him go at the end of this week. Last night all 5 staff were putting him to bed...lol. It was really sweet.
We will finally have all staff back this week. 2 weeks without seeing my old roommate seems like so long. It is weird to be back in my own room and last night I spent the night down with the girls in the basement so I could sleep in today for my day off. I am just hopping beds here...haha. Enjoyed my day off today but the down time makes me miss home. I slept in and laid out on the deck and down at the beach. Got some laundry done and even took a nap. It has been a migraine day though so all I want to do is lay down. I guess it is a good thing that I had already planned on staying in all day and doing nothing. I just hope it is gone by tomorrow. I only have 3 more days off before heading home and keep avoiding the things I need to do before I get home. I am going to miss the beach and the girls and the travelers. Pretty much everything about this summer will be missed. But gonna enjoy all the sum I can get to have the best tan going home :) Nothing really exciting has been going on. Just usual everyday stuff. We have adjusted to our nurse leaving and it seems like the stress level has been improved. Our house manager has done a great job on organizing the house and it is running smoothly. I plan on making a scrap book from the summer and will probably start getting all the pics together pretty soon so maybe I can get started on it before I go home. Although that may be a bit adventurous...we will see.
We will finally have all staff back this week. 2 weeks without seeing my old roommate seems like so long. It is weird to be back in my own room and last night I spent the night down with the girls in the basement so I could sleep in today for my day off. I am just hopping beds here...haha. Enjoyed my day off today but the down time makes me miss home. I slept in and laid out on the deck and down at the beach. Got some laundry done and even took a nap. It has been a migraine day though so all I want to do is lay down. I guess it is a good thing that I had already planned on staying in all day and doing nothing. I just hope it is gone by tomorrow. I only have 3 more days off before heading home and keep avoiding the things I need to do before I get home. I am going to miss the beach and the girls and the travelers. Pretty much everything about this summer will be missed. But gonna enjoy all the sum I can get to have the best tan going home :) Nothing really exciting has been going on. Just usual everyday stuff. We have adjusted to our nurse leaving and it seems like the stress level has been improved. Our house manager has done a great job on organizing the house and it is running smoothly. I plan on making a scrap book from the summer and will probably start getting all the pics together pretty soon so maybe I can get started on it before I go home. Although that may be a bit adventurous...we will see.
Friday, July 20, 2012
7.18.12 (LA Trip)
What a crazy week it has been. So much has gone on and it went by so fast. I can't believe I am already back from LA. I started off by borrowing on of the girls bags to take with me since I broke mine on the way down here. But apparently there is a trick to the handle and once it is up it is difficult to get down. No big deal, I decided to just leave it down. I got to the train station to head to Philly the night before we were to fly out. I wasn't even sitting there 5 min before I realized I forgot my glasses. Not a good start to the week but it ended up that was the only thing I forgot. Not too bad. I got to Philly with no problems and we only had one traveler in for the night. The next morning was a 4:30am meet-up at the airport. The other 3 travelers arrived on time and we were off. As we were walking onto the first flight one of my travelers tells me he is not feeling well. Already holding his stomach. My thought was "oh great...this is going to be an interesting flight" Turns out he just gets nervous at take off and landing. All was good. No delays, no big issues. Switched planes in St. Paul, which is a really big airport. Then we got into LA. LAX is a terrible airport. There are a ton of people and it is laid out very bad. I had to go meet some other travelers and at LAX you can't go from one terminal to the next. So I had to go through security again just to get back into right beside where I came in. What if people had flights from different airlines and had to catch connections? Luckily I had plenty of time. It took a while and a little bit of running around but we had everyone picked up and on the bus. The driver was very rude and ended up getting lost on the way to the hotel. He had to pull over and call someone to help him get us there...it was kind of funny. Check into the hotel, room assignments are done, then rooms are changed and everyone is happy. We walk to dinner at this place called Mel's. It is supposed to be pretty good and they are ready for us when we walk in. Always a good sign with a group of 24. It goes downhill from there. It takes longer for us to get drinks than it does food, some end up with the wrong order, some end up not having food at all. It was a big disaster that took forever. They could have received a lot of business from our group since we eat out every meal on trips, but we were not going back.
The next day, thursday I think, I started out with 2 of my girls waking up super early and deciding to leave their room to go sit outside, or wonder the halls, or wake up everyone else. It was great! We headed to breakfast at I-Hop. It was nice, service was good and we walked down to the strip. We noticed a guy running across the street with a camera. We think that he has to be running to catch photos of someone famous...we are in Hollywood. We see him a few minutes later on our side of the street running through everyone. It was the Amazing Race people. There was a team right there running in the middle of us looking for a specific star on the Walk of Fame. Who knows, maybe we will be in the background when it shows on tv. A pretty cool way to start off our trip. We went on a city tour of all the famous Hollywood home. I took lots of pics but now don't remember who's house was which one. But oh well. It was pretty interesting but got a little boring in the end. 2hrs of looking at houses that you can't really see because of the gates and shrubs is only so entertaining. After the city bus tour we went to the wax museum. That was really cool and I got a lot of pictures. It was interesting to see how these figures are made and they are so accurate. It is crazy how short most famous people are. The only one that I was disappointed in was Jennifer Aniston. It did not really look like her and I had to read the board to figure out who it was. The travelers had lots of fun posing with the figures. That night for dinner we went to California Pizza Kitchen. The service was great and the food was amazing. I was surprised at how many choices they had and it was all really good.
The next day was Universal Studios. I ended up only having 2 travelers with me that day since it was a lot of walking and rides and a couple of my people did not want to do it. It worked out well to have such a small group. We ended up getting to do more that they wanted to do. We took a train down to Universal and we had one traveler get scared on the train. Then it was a short shuttle up to the gates. It was mass craziness trying to get everyone into the park and our passes to not have to stand in line but once that was done it was perfect timing for the show of Waterworld. One of my girls wanted to sit in the splash zone so we did but we didn't get wet. It was a neat show and a good way to start the day. Next we all went on the ride through the movie sets. That was really neat. There was a 3D park with King Kong that was pretty cool, although a few travelers got really scared. Then we got to sit through the earthquake set that was used in Bones, again a few travelers were scared. But my girls loved it. I was kind of disappointed in the rest of the park because it was a lot of wait around for a show or attraction to start so we weren't able to get very much in. We did the Shrek show, which was 4D and the girls really enjoyed that. Then we tried to go to the The Terminator 2 one. Once you go in it had this computer talking to you explaining how the designers are the top technology company in the world and blah, blah, blah. Once it had almost gone through its little greeting a couple times it got old and they came over the speaker to tell us that they were having technical problems and we would have to come back. Go figure! So we didn't get to do that one. A little bit of shopping and it was already time to go. Dinner at the Hard Rock was really good and it was nice to cool off. Everyone was so exhausted from the day and once we got back to the hotel it was off to bed. One of my girls that had chosen to stay back ended up calling her staff and telling them that she couldn't go to Universal because she was too slow. Lol...the staff was kind of upset until she learned what really happened.
The next day was a trip to the Autry Museum. I was pretty excited about this. They were having a little farmer's market outside so we went there before we went in. Farmer's markets are so neat and I finally got a water fresca. That made my whole trip! It wasn't as good as back home and I still plan on getting one as soon as I get home but it was still great. Went through the museum with a tour guide and he was very knowledgeable and did great with our travelers. I had a really hard time staying with the group and kept getting distracted with everything to look at. After lunch our travelers went shopping and I got to go back in to look at the room with all the guns. We didn't get to it on our tour so I went back. Got lots of pics. We panned for "gold" and made a movie. It was a really fun time. That evening we were suppose to go on a tour of the Dolby theatre but did not get there early enough so we went on an open bus tour of the city. It was a little chilly sitting on the top deck, we could not hear the announcer, I stubbed my toe getting on, and it was a lot of the same stuff we had already seen. But we just sat back and chatted and enjoyed the fresh air. After the tour we went back to dinner at the California Pizza Kitchen. Once again we saw the cast of Dance Mom's. This time they were waiting with us to be seated. I chatted with one of the mom's for a few minutes and found out they were there for a month and she was ready to go home...lol. I even got a pic with the dancers. It was pretty neat, but only to me since the other staff did not know who they were.
We got up a little early the next morning to go on the Dolby theatre tour. It was kind of neat to see where the Oscars are held. It is a really big deal. But we couldn't take any pics and we were in a rush to get back to the hotel to meet the bus to head to Venice Beach. I absolutely loved Venice Beach. We did not get to stay there nearly long enough and I could have stayed all day. The shops were neat, the beach was beautiful and the people watching was so much fun. There were the places of course that had the medical marijuana and I just had to laugh at them. All that hard work on our debate last semester a reality. They even wore green scrubs standing outside yelling for people to come in and "visit the doctor" LOL. We left there and went to Santa Monica Pier. There were a ton of people there. We ate at Bubba Gump. It was pretty neat. The view was great and the service was good but it was one of those places you go just to say you have been. We did not make it far on the pier because of all the people and the limited time but that was ok with me.
Monday was a really early morning to go to The Price is Right. They were really accommodating and let us in to sit instead of waiting in the long lines. Most everyone skipped the interview process but it was a lot of waiting around in lines. We were there about 6hrs and the tapping itself was only a couple of hours, if that. The studio was a lot smaller than I expected and they didn't even let anyone take in phones. It was a neat experience and there were some cool shirts and some crazy people. Some of our travelers were not very into it so I'm sure the cameras were trying to avoid us. But there was a guy in the row right in front of us that was called up. He was going crazy! He fell getting out of the isle, hit his arm on the lights on the stage running up to the front and was just funny the whole time. Drew Carey was really funny with him and it will be great on tv. This episode won't air until Nov. 15th, but who knows. Maybe we will be seen. Lots of people won some really great prizes and I knew that they had to pay the taxes on the prizes before they got them but I didn't know that they didn't get the prizes until after the air date but the taxes have to be paid within 30 days. Kind of crazy. That was the day that the song "Can't Have You" was sang every 5 minutes and was stuck in every one's head for the rest of the trip. That night was dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings. Dinner was great and the service was pretty good. Lots of good conversation and a great way to end the trip.
Flying home the next day was a really long short day. We were at the airport by 8am to get everyone to the right terminals and on their flights in time. I took my 4 travelers through security and it went well except there was a bottle of sunscreen in one of their bags and we had to stop and get it rescanned. One of the other girls freaked out about it taking so long but overall not too bad. We got on our first flight and found out that one of the other flights that had 9 flying out was cancelled and 8 of the 9 ended up staying another night in LA. Both of our flights were smooth and everyone was picked up relatively quickly. We ended up getting into the hotel about 1am. Losing 3hrs made that day really long. But I got a nice quiet night in a room to myself. It was great to relax and have some time to myself before returning to the shore house the next day.
It has now taken 3 days to get this blog done and I will have to do another one soon to catch up on the craziness going one since I got home. But in short, I passed my roommate on my way in as she was heading out for her Orlando trip, we lost our nurse this week (not a big loss), and we have a 1 on 1. So this makes staff pretty stretched. I am in the process of moving down onto the travelers floor into the nurse's room. It is a nice, cosy room but it will be different being down there since I am now used to my view and having a big bed and a roommate. But it will be good.
Oh...I forgot about the rash that I had the whole trip. I noticed my chest was itching the day I left for Philly but just thought it was from a sunburn since I had been out in the sun a lot the previous couple of days. But by the time we landed in LA I was miserable. One of the other staff had some benadryl and anti-itch cream and I used it like crazy but by the next morning it was on my arms as well. I took the benadryl all week and it finally went away the day we left to come home. I am still not sure what caused it.
The next day, thursday I think, I started out with 2 of my girls waking up super early and deciding to leave their room to go sit outside, or wonder the halls, or wake up everyone else. It was great! We headed to breakfast at I-Hop. It was nice, service was good and we walked down to the strip. We noticed a guy running across the street with a camera. We think that he has to be running to catch photos of someone famous...we are in Hollywood. We see him a few minutes later on our side of the street running through everyone. It was the Amazing Race people. There was a team right there running in the middle of us looking for a specific star on the Walk of Fame. Who knows, maybe we will be in the background when it shows on tv. A pretty cool way to start off our trip. We went on a city tour of all the famous Hollywood home. I took lots of pics but now don't remember who's house was which one. But oh well. It was pretty interesting but got a little boring in the end. 2hrs of looking at houses that you can't really see because of the gates and shrubs is only so entertaining. After the city bus tour we went to the wax museum. That was really cool and I got a lot of pictures. It was interesting to see how these figures are made and they are so accurate. It is crazy how short most famous people are. The only one that I was disappointed in was Jennifer Aniston. It did not really look like her and I had to read the board to figure out who it was. The travelers had lots of fun posing with the figures. That night for dinner we went to California Pizza Kitchen. The service was great and the food was amazing. I was surprised at how many choices they had and it was all really good.
The next day was Universal Studios. I ended up only having 2 travelers with me that day since it was a lot of walking and rides and a couple of my people did not want to do it. It worked out well to have such a small group. We ended up getting to do more that they wanted to do. We took a train down to Universal and we had one traveler get scared on the train. Then it was a short shuttle up to the gates. It was mass craziness trying to get everyone into the park and our passes to not have to stand in line but once that was done it was perfect timing for the show of Waterworld. One of my girls wanted to sit in the splash zone so we did but we didn't get wet. It was a neat show and a good way to start the day. Next we all went on the ride through the movie sets. That was really neat. There was a 3D park with King Kong that was pretty cool, although a few travelers got really scared. Then we got to sit through the earthquake set that was used in Bones, again a few travelers were scared. But my girls loved it. I was kind of disappointed in the rest of the park because it was a lot of wait around for a show or attraction to start so we weren't able to get very much in. We did the Shrek show, which was 4D and the girls really enjoyed that. Then we tried to go to the The Terminator 2 one. Once you go in it had this computer talking to you explaining how the designers are the top technology company in the world and blah, blah, blah. Once it had almost gone through its little greeting a couple times it got old and they came over the speaker to tell us that they were having technical problems and we would have to come back. Go figure! So we didn't get to do that one. A little bit of shopping and it was already time to go. Dinner at the Hard Rock was really good and it was nice to cool off. Everyone was so exhausted from the day and once we got back to the hotel it was off to bed. One of my girls that had chosen to stay back ended up calling her staff and telling them that she couldn't go to Universal because she was too slow. Lol...the staff was kind of upset until she learned what really happened.
The next day was a trip to the Autry Museum. I was pretty excited about this. They were having a little farmer's market outside so we went there before we went in. Farmer's markets are so neat and I finally got a water fresca. That made my whole trip! It wasn't as good as back home and I still plan on getting one as soon as I get home but it was still great. Went through the museum with a tour guide and he was very knowledgeable and did great with our travelers. I had a really hard time staying with the group and kept getting distracted with everything to look at. After lunch our travelers went shopping and I got to go back in to look at the room with all the guns. We didn't get to it on our tour so I went back. Got lots of pics. We panned for "gold" and made a movie. It was a really fun time. That evening we were suppose to go on a tour of the Dolby theatre but did not get there early enough so we went on an open bus tour of the city. It was a little chilly sitting on the top deck, we could not hear the announcer, I stubbed my toe getting on, and it was a lot of the same stuff we had already seen. But we just sat back and chatted and enjoyed the fresh air. After the tour we went back to dinner at the California Pizza Kitchen. Once again we saw the cast of Dance Mom's. This time they were waiting with us to be seated. I chatted with one of the mom's for a few minutes and found out they were there for a month and she was ready to go home...lol. I even got a pic with the dancers. It was pretty neat, but only to me since the other staff did not know who they were.
We got up a little early the next morning to go on the Dolby theatre tour. It was kind of neat to see where the Oscars are held. It is a really big deal. But we couldn't take any pics and we were in a rush to get back to the hotel to meet the bus to head to Venice Beach. I absolutely loved Venice Beach. We did not get to stay there nearly long enough and I could have stayed all day. The shops were neat, the beach was beautiful and the people watching was so much fun. There were the places of course that had the medical marijuana and I just had to laugh at them. All that hard work on our debate last semester a reality. They even wore green scrubs standing outside yelling for people to come in and "visit the doctor" LOL. We left there and went to Santa Monica Pier. There were a ton of people there. We ate at Bubba Gump. It was pretty neat. The view was great and the service was good but it was one of those places you go just to say you have been. We did not make it far on the pier because of all the people and the limited time but that was ok with me.
Monday was a really early morning to go to The Price is Right. They were really accommodating and let us in to sit instead of waiting in the long lines. Most everyone skipped the interview process but it was a lot of waiting around in lines. We were there about 6hrs and the tapping itself was only a couple of hours, if that. The studio was a lot smaller than I expected and they didn't even let anyone take in phones. It was a neat experience and there were some cool shirts and some crazy people. Some of our travelers were not very into it so I'm sure the cameras were trying to avoid us. But there was a guy in the row right in front of us that was called up. He was going crazy! He fell getting out of the isle, hit his arm on the lights on the stage running up to the front and was just funny the whole time. Drew Carey was really funny with him and it will be great on tv. This episode won't air until Nov. 15th, but who knows. Maybe we will be seen. Lots of people won some really great prizes and I knew that they had to pay the taxes on the prizes before they got them but I didn't know that they didn't get the prizes until after the air date but the taxes have to be paid within 30 days. Kind of crazy. That was the day that the song "Can't Have You" was sang every 5 minutes and was stuck in every one's head for the rest of the trip. That night was dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings. Dinner was great and the service was pretty good. Lots of good conversation and a great way to end the trip.
Flying home the next day was a really long short day. We were at the airport by 8am to get everyone to the right terminals and on their flights in time. I took my 4 travelers through security and it went well except there was a bottle of sunscreen in one of their bags and we had to stop and get it rescanned. One of the other girls freaked out about it taking so long but overall not too bad. We got on our first flight and found out that one of the other flights that had 9 flying out was cancelled and 8 of the 9 ended up staying another night in LA. Both of our flights were smooth and everyone was picked up relatively quickly. We ended up getting into the hotel about 1am. Losing 3hrs made that day really long. But I got a nice quiet night in a room to myself. It was great to relax and have some time to myself before returning to the shore house the next day.
It has now taken 3 days to get this blog done and I will have to do another one soon to catch up on the craziness going one since I got home. But in short, I passed my roommate on my way in as she was heading out for her Orlando trip, we lost our nurse this week (not a big loss), and we have a 1 on 1. So this makes staff pretty stretched. I am in the process of moving down onto the travelers floor into the nurse's room. It is a nice, cosy room but it will be different being down there since I am now used to my view and having a big bed and a roommate. But it will be good.
Oh...I forgot about the rash that I had the whole trip. I noticed my chest was itching the day I left for Philly but just thought it was from a sunburn since I had been out in the sun a lot the previous couple of days. But by the time we landed in LA I was miserable. One of the other staff had some benadryl and anti-itch cream and I used it like crazy but by the next morning it was on my arms as well. I took the benadryl all week and it finally went away the day we left to come home. I am still not sure what caused it.
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