Entrenched in our hotel room

Our summer vacation got underway today. It was off to a bit of a late start to begin with, but was slightly complicated when we found out Gerlie had strep. We were planning to stay at her pad in Northridge, but that was off. She sounded terrible, I hope she is at home getting lots of rest and fluids.

We were able to call our hotel and have our hotel extended a day, but the real issue was we were an hour behind schedule and looking at driving into Anaheim now instead of Northridge. Sure enough, we (meaning "I") hit some massive traffic on I-5 near downtown that never really stopped until we got to Anaheim.

We are at the Holiday Inn Express Anaheim Maingate, and I have to say it's not too shabby. For the price and location (about two blocks from the convention center), it can't be beat. TripAdvisor seems to have hit the mark for me, again.

Apropos of nothing, the cookies at the Harris Ranch gift shop are hella good. The baker's dozen won't make it back to the Bay Area.

After checking in and settling in a little, we bumped up our trip to Costa Mesa planned for tomorrow and went to Book-Off to do some pre-Anime Expo bargain hunting. I was pretty stoked to get the Asian Kung-Fu Generation DVD I have been eyeing for months but did not have the gall to pay $60 for. It was $35. Rhonda and Sara each picked up some CDs. If we have time, we might hit the Gardena one on July 4th (provided it's open).

After that, we drove to The Lab, a self-described "anti-mall", on the recommendation of my former co-worker Xochitl. We all bought a t-shirt at Great Laundry, a Japanese t-shirt company. Rhonda got the "Samurai" shirt, I got the "Dragon" shirt, and Sara got the "Shinobi" shirt. All legitimately awesome.

Our first meal in Anaheim was Taco Bell. Not earth-shattering, but better than nothing. Looking forward to those cinnamon rolls they like to talk about here in a few hours. Dinner with Xochitl is the only thing on our agenda for tomorrow, so it might be a relaxing day in advance of all the chaos.