Author: Kyle Dickerson

The Best Western we stayed at in Colton, CA kept a hot breakfast running until 10 and checkout wasn’t until 12. Which was great for us coming in exhausted from being out in the sun and on our feet all day.

For breakfast Corinne had bread with whipped cream and sprinkles–because vacation! She was in heaven (I think I made her eat some yogurt too).

We spent the day driving into Arizona. I was able to buy a Raspberry Pi 4 just before our trip and outfit it with OSMC so the girls could watch TV shows and movies on the van’s screen while we drove. A lifesaver for long drives.

We stopped in Tucson and had dinner at a Cracker Barrel. A thunderstorm rolled through as we continued south on our way to Benson.

We got to Mike’s observatory not super late, but late enough that it was bed time. In the morning we found that out train was an hour behind schedule. So we had a slightly less frantic start to the day. We had breakfast and packed up our stuff and then Mike drove us to the station. Where, here, “station” means a dirt parking lot, a slab of concrete, and a two-sided shed with a roof just big enough for two benches–it’s not a busy station. And yet, on our way out and our way back there was more than one other person also getting on or off so go figure.

The train was 2.5 hours late and I went across the street to the gas station to buy some cold drinks for our wait. The shed may not have been much, but it was crucial to not melt in the heat (98F) and sun. The train arrived and we got on without issue and ate lunch while cruising across Arizona.

I developed a sore throat by this point and so the train ride was less than enjoyable since nothing is enjoyable when you’re sick. It was lame. I’d spend the next ~5 days suffering the worst of it and still have a little congestion lingering almost 3 weeks later. Thankfully it seems no one else picked it up from me.

We had the family room on the train which sits on the lower level and spans the width of the car. Once we figured out a way to arrange the room that allowed us to effectively stash our luggage it was roomy. During the day we kept the top bunks open and put all our luggage up there.

Usually it’s nice to step off the train at the longer stops to stretch your legs, but everywhere was 100+F so doing that was actually not very much fun.

Meals are served in local time, so when you’re eastbound it feels like you’re constantly eating. And since all you’re doing is sitting you’re not really working up an appetite. But getting up, going upstairs, and moving to the dining car is at least a nice change in scenery. I will say being on the upper floor is nicer than being on the lower floor. You have a better view out the windows and the objects you’re seeing generally aren’t moving as quickly past the window (since you’re 7 feet up from the ground) so it’s less likely to produce motion sickness (or seems to be for me).

The train was late into our destination at Malvern, AR arriving around midnight.

Jess’ dad picked us up and we got back to their house and crashed.

The next morning we visited with the families of Jess’ siblings that were able to meet us there for the weekend. I had to go pick up the rental car we had reserved with Enterprise. Two months ahead of time I reserved a minivan. I’ll give you one guess as to whether they had a minivan available when I arrived to pick it up.

They did not. Well, they had a minivan, but apparently had just given that away to someone else (who could have predicted that I’d be showing up to get the car I reserved?). They offered me a full-size SUV instead, cause who wouldn’t want a vehicle twice as large? The smallest thing they had which still had 6 seatbelts (so Jess’ parents could ride with us instead of taking 2 cars) was a Ford Explorer. So that was annoying and yet entirely predicted. They at least knocked $150 of the price. Though when I returned it the person checking me in showed me a price $300 more than my original reservation, but when I said that was the wrong price they were able to find the correct price.

Back to the house with the car and then hanging around for the day.

Corinne collected a pile of sticks for the visiting dog. Babies are always a hit. And playing Swoop.

Our big trip this summer started on July 24 when we drove down to Hollywood. Once we got to the hotel the girls went swimming for a bit and then we walked to Universal Studios City Walk, ate dinner at Johnny Rockets, and then had fancy dessert from the Chocolate Emporium.

The food at Johnny Rockets was pretty good. The fancy milkshakes from the Chocolate Emporium looked pretty cool, but weren’t worth the price (unless your primary goal is to post cool-looking pictures on social media).

On Tuesday, we got up bright and early and walked to Universal Studios at opening. We walked directly back to Super Nintendo World and got in line for the Mario Kart ride. Although this was where 75% of the people entering the park were going we managed to get in pretty quick and line “only” took 90 minutes.

The final section of the line had a ton of really cool stuff to look at, but for whatever reason we had to basically power walk through it all and barely got to see it. It would have been way more interesting to spend the 90 minutes wrapped back and forth in that space instead of the lightly-decorated areas we were in.

The ride was fun and everyone enjoyed it. You put on the Mario “hat” and when you get in the kart you connect an augmented-reality visor to it which overlays game entities during the ride. The idea is that you’re in an actual Mario Kart race against Bowser’s minions and you to have throw shells at the other team to earn points.

However, the instructions didn’t indicate that aiming your shells is done based on where your visor is pointing and if you don’t figure that out it will seem entirely random. The whole thing does feel a bit chaotic, but I guess they matched the feel of Mario Kart 8 which has a more chaotic feeling than the earlier entries in the franchise.

Super Nintendo World was crazy packed by the time we got off the ride so we decided to head back up to the upper park and visit Hogwarts for lunch.

We had the family feast at the Three Broomsticks, which was far more food than we needed, but we actually made an appreciable dent in it. It was pretty decent. We had a couple of frozen butterbeers with lunch.

By this point it was miserably hot (high of 98F) with a Heat Advisory in effect. The line for Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey was advertised as 90 minutes, so we went and got in line. More than 2.5 hours later we finally got on the ride. So much of the line was outside and the final section before entering the castle proper is in the greenhouse-themed area (which took ~1 hours itself). By that point we had to already put our water in a locker. It was miserable. I’m amazed we didn’t see anyone pass out. I’m also quite annoyed that the worker standing in that section is apparently explicitly trained not to tell people how long the wait is (everyone was asking). Had they told us that it was still another hour from that point we probably would have bailed.

Anyway, we went through the air-conditioned castle areas and finally got on the ride. Great. Here we go. After 45 seconds the ride shut off and left us staring at a blank screen for about 7 minutes (while, I presume, the whole system rebooted or something). Heather about lost her mind, but we did survive. The ride finally started back up and Heather about lost her mind again because of the intensity of the ride. It took her about an hour to calm back down afterwords (Corinne was fine).

As we got off the ride we were given 2, 6-person, one-time-use Express Line passes for the inconvenience of the ride stopping. Heather needed to calm down so Corinne and I went back to the lower park to ride the Jurassic World log flume ride. I believe the regular line was advertised as 2 hours at that point. With the Express Line we were off the ride and walking out the gift shop in 20 minutes.

Then we went back to the upper park to ride the Secret Life of Pets ride as something extremely chill for Heather to enjoy. This ride has a virtual line (via the Universal Studios app) so had we intended to do it originally we could have done it without a line, but the Express Line got us through in about 30 minutes.

By that point we were all super tired and hot. We’d been in the park for about 12 hours and, yes, did 4 rides. 2 of which wouldn’t have happened without the free Express Line passes. My conclusion is don’t bother going unless you’re willing to pay the extra $100 per person for the Express Line. With it you could ride every ride and probably be done before lunch. Without you will spend the entire day standing in lines.

We headed back to the City Walk and had dinner at VIVO Italian Kitchen and dessert at the Crêpe Café. Then I walked back to the hotel to get the van and pick up Jess and the girls and we drove out to the eastern edge of the LA metroplex to our next hotel in order to avoid some of the morning traffic the next day as we headed east.