What a Weekend!

FRIDAY

Things kicked off Friday night with a trip to the Hollywood Bowl. I was joined by three co-workers for composer John Williams’ annual bowl concert. It’s an evening of movie music, featuring many of John’s most memorable scores. The highlight of the evening is when the orchestra strikes up music form one of the Star Wars films. And this year we got two because in the main program they played music from the throne room scene at the end of the first (okay, many of you know this as the fourth episode, but since I choose to ignore the prequels it’s still the first one to me). Then one of the encore pieces was the Imperial March, otherwise known as the Darth Vader theme. Truly awesome. And as always, when the Star Wars music plays, the light sabers in the audience are proudly displayed. In years past, I’ve even seen people dressed up as Luke Skywalker or Princess Leia, but no matter what, the light sabers make an appearance.

SATURDAY

The following morning, I left my apartment at 5:45am, because I needed to be at the Disneyland Resort by 7am. Mark and I were scheduled to take the new Segway tour tour at Disney’s California Adventure theme park. They conduct the tour prior to the park opening so that we can ride around unobstructed. We had been waiting a long time for this tour, even before we went to EPCOT in February 2006 and did the Segway tour there. Despite the frigid temperature (it was in the upper 30’s – Fahrenheit), it was the highlight of the trip. So when we found out recently that the tour here was finally up and running, we were very excited. There was a short-lived snafu when they couldn’t find the reservation, but once they found it we were met by our tour guide Robert and escorted backstage by our tour guide, Robert. We were given muffins, fruit, juice and coffee and then some brief instructions on how the Segway operates. Then we went outside and the fun truly began. Robert was joined by Ashley in leading us through the training session. We spent about 20 minutes learning the basics of how to operate the Segway – starting, stopping, turning, up and down hills. There were two others on the tour with us, a married couple named Chris and Krista. Krista was a little anxious when we began, but within five minutes declared that she wanted a Segway for her birthday! A few minutes later, Chris offhandedly stated that his wife was getting a Segway for her birthday!
Once training was over, we proceeded to tour the park. The only other people out there were a few maintenance workers, so it we had the place all to ourselves. It was truly glorious. Believe me, if I could find a way to justify the expense, I would have already bought one for myself. They are so easy to operate and so much fun to ride. If you ever have the chance to ride one, definitely do it. You won’t regret it.

SUNDAY

Yesterday, I saw what might just be my favorite movie of the summer – Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I live just down the hill from Universal Studios and City Walk, where there is an IMAX theater. So I decided to see Harry there, especially since the final battle was being shown in 3D. It was great. Phoenix was not one of my favorite books, but the producers and filmmakers made a terrific movie.

I’ve actually seen a number of movies over the last month or so. Eventually I hope to post some brief reviews of them soon.