Another wonderful play with playful writing by Rupert Holmes! Did I expect anything else? Not really! And he even included a WENNerism: there was a "if you set a bird free" line, but it was a little different as there were no homing pigeons mentioned... and I'm kicking myself for not having a pen with me to write down the line.
He had some hilarious dumb girl lines: "Welcome to our humble Adobe" and "Meet my finance... I mean my fiance." Brought back lovely memories of Maple slaughtering words. There was lots of up to date humor as well; the play was set in the present day. Jokes about Ipods and IM's and "change being a good thing"... you had to be there for that one! LOL
[I wanted to go to sleep, so the rest of this is posted on the next day]
I started the drive a tiny later than I wanted, but otherwise I thought I'd be cool with everything because this was the second time I was doing this, right? Heh! Without batting an eye I took the wrong turnoff on my first turn... I-805 South, instead of North, like any descent person wanting to go to Long Beach would do. This was the very same stretch of road I was turned around on Friday evening, and it was a good thing I noticed the exit that I took then... because I thought, "wait a minute! isn't that on the wrong side of I-8?" LOL! So just a minute and I was going the right way again... away from Mexico!
After a while I put on another Our Miss Brooks to interrupt my music, and half-way through that I noticed that I was passing my exit... LOL! I guess I was a little absent minded or something... so another minute and I was turned around for another attempt at the exit. Whew! Finally no more missed roads!
I made it to the Aquarium of the Pacific right around when I wanted to - unbelievably! At first I didn't know if I'd like this one as much as the smaller ones (it's big, flashy, and meant for large crowds), but it ended up being a great experience. And because I got there right away when it opened, I missed most of the crowds. My favorites were the weedy and leafy sea dragons... oh, my gosh! and the octopus! He was moving all over the place... right on the glass... I stayed with him for a long while. :)I retraced Friday's steps after a little lunch of a cheeseburger in the aquarium cafe, again crossing those huge bridges across harbor island to San Pedro.
Saw the SS Lane Victory in the distance, but this time I kept going into San Pedro. I drove to Angels Park on the tip of the jutting peninsula and visited an old coastal battery which houses the Fort MacArthur Military Museum. Active from the War of 1812 through the end of WWII, this battery had a pair of 14 inch guns. The little video they played inside was very fun to see, especially when they showed that big railroad gun firing... yikes! My goodness! after going through the couple sets of displays (it was pretty small - mostly photographs, local newspaper front pages, and a few artifacts - including a US Army missile from the 70's, I think, and part of a 14 inch gun that they're trying to restore), I went out on top of the fortifications... Wow! What a view! The ocean was gorgeous blue and everywhere as far as visually possible. There were four or five big tankers coming into port as far as I could see.
Right across the street from the museum was a marine mammal rescue shelter. They had quite a few seals and sea lions. The first one I saw was isolated for biting someone, but he climbed on top of his short concrete wall and leaned against the chain-link to look at me. 
Goodness, he was cute! One of the staff came over to answer questions while I was watching/taking pictures, and he said most of the animals only stay for around three months before they are released or sent to an aquarium. Gee, they really behave like big-water-loving dogs. They lie around all day and sun themselves, sometimes playfully chasing each other and then of course they bark. :)I decided to forgo cutting it really close by going to the Santa Monica Aquarium. It was just a little too far away and a little too late in the day to try it... so I headed back to Balboa Park around 3pm, and yet still managed to run into (not literally) quite a bit of traffic. And yet again, everything (the museums and art galleries) had just closed when I arrived at 5.
I had a really good parking spot, like I did on Friday, and then changed my top again, like Friday, and then ate another fabulous dinner at The Prado (it's pretty much the only restaurant in the park) and then simply relaxed for the hour or so before seating time. There was a lovely tropical garden right nearby, so I took my camera, walked around and just sat down on a bench for a while. Lots of people walked by... couples with photographers being the majority of them. I put everything but my ticket back in the car so I didn't have to worry about carrying anything.
Finally outside the Globe, waiting for the doors to open, I saw someone who could have been Amanda... so choking down my heart in my throat, I plucked up the courage and I asked her. I would have driven myself nuts if I didn't... but it turned out not to be her. Sigh. Right after that, the Globe's doors swung open and I found my seat in the balcony. I now have proof that there isn't a bad seat in the whole place... I was on the extreme right of the last row. And it was great! I suppose it did help that no one sat directly in front of me, but it was good anyway.
Oh, and back at the hotel afterwords, I got to hear that episode again and found out the name of the oft repeated street/town was "Springdale". LOL
Jp
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