Felix has decided that His Place To Relax is now on my desk, right next to my mousepad. These two sentences have taken me almost three full minutes to write, because Felix keeps rubbing his face against my hand, standing on my keyboard (he just opened 17 terminal windows) and showing me that either a) he loves me or b) he wants me to get away from my desk so he can go back to sleep.
I’m inclined to think it’s b).
So we’re back from vacation. 2200 miles of road trip, one book signing, several tourist traps, and not a single comfortable bed later, we’re home.
The trip was mostly wonderful. We drove all the way to Portland, with some stops along the way to visit family and friends . . . and The Oregon Vortex — the original Tourist Trap. It was silly, but fun.
Also on the way to Portland, we stopped in Brownsville, which is the town where I filmed Stand By Me in 1985. It was AMAZING! Hardly anything has changed in this tiny town, and the local historical society even has a map of “Stand By Me Locations” that we were able to visit. We had lunch in this rockin’ pizza cafe, and the owner told us that hundreds of tourists come there from all over the world to see our old locations. He said that busloads of Japanese kids come over and want to see the treehouse (which is gone, but the tree is still there.) I took lots of pictures, which I’ll add to the gallery once I get some time.
The day after we got to Portland, I had my reading and signing at Powells Technical Annex. It was also amazing (I’m going to need a thesaurus pretty soon, since most of this trip was . . . well, amazing.) There were about 150 people there, and they seemed to enjoy the selections I read. See, here’s the thing: I have read stuff from Dancing Barefoot so much, I know where the laughs are, I know where the slow parts that pay off later are, and I know how audiences generally react to it . . . but until Powells, I had only read one small bit to an audience, and that was at the Star Trek convention, which has a very unique crowd. So I was terrified that I was going to suck, or I would go on too long, or not long enough . . . basically, The Voice of Self Doubt was in full-effect.
Luckily, it went very well, and I had a lot of fun while I was there. Amber from Powells told me that the next time I go up there, she’s going to put me in the main store, because I keep drawing such huge crowds! So an epic Thank You to everyone who came to Portland (I know some of you drove from Eugene or Seattle to be there) and supported me. It wouldn’t matter how good I did if there wasn’t an audience, and I am really grateful to everyone who showed up.
After Powells, I was officially On Vacation for the next week. We went to Mount St. Helens and The Columbia River Gorge, and I spent lots of time each night playing Hold’Em with Nolan. He’s turning into an incredible Hold’Em player, because he combines incredible memory (“I threw that hand away because the last time you raised like that you had kings”) with his great math skills (“I couldn’t call because the pot odds weren’t correct.”) Keep in mind that he’s 13 on Thursday, and hasn’t ever cracked open a poker book. Everything he knows he’s learned from playing with me, and watching poker on TV. I made two TERRIBLE plays when I was on WPT, and I know he’s going to be severely disappointed in me when he sees them.
From Portland, we drove down to Southern Oregon and spent the night with Anne’s grandparents. Some readers may recall that Anne’s Grandmother is in the early stages of Alzheimer’s, and I guess it’s good to report that she was the same as when we visited them back in October of last year. Actually, both of them seemed happy and in good health (considering that they’re 1000 years old, of course) and I’m looking forward to visiting them again in Spring.
We took Interstate 5 up to Portland, so on the way back we crossed 80 through the North Bay and San Francisco, down through San Jose (with a stop at the Winchester Mystery House), and across the 17 to Santa Cruz. Anne and I had both been to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk when we were younger, and we were really excited to take the kids there . . . but it was very different than I remember it. I don’t know if I’ve gotten too suburban, or too old, or whatever, but the whole place felt so skanky, I couldn’t wait to leave. It was like a traveling carnival had set up on Venice beach. Anne and I were really bummed out. In an effort to find the half of the glass that was full, we rode The Giant Dipper (it’s been there for 80 years!) . . . and the whole thing was worth it. We had so much fun on that ride, screaming and laughing in equal parts terror and delight, all the skanky carnies and pan handlers didn’t matter. We also walked down the boardwalk to this big arcade that my parents wouldn’t let me go into when I was last there 18 years ago, and it was just as awesome as I’d imagined it would be: shooting gallery, lazer tag, all sorts of games of chance, and I got to play Robotron and Q*Bert!
We ended our day with dinner at some spiffy Italian restaurant in Downtown, and got up early the next day to drive to Monterey, which has always been one of my favorite cities in the world.
The Montery Bay Aquarium is known to lots of people at “That Place Where Mr Spock Did The Vulcan Mind Meld With The Whale In Star Trek VIV (I know Roman numerals, I swears it, precious!)” It’s best known to me as “That Place Where I Spent Most Of An Afternoon Watching An Octopus Swim Around And Change Colors When I Was 14.” Now, it’s “That Place I Want To Go Back And Visit Right Away.”
I’ve always loved the ocean, and I’ve always loved marine mammals. In fact, when I was a little kid, I wanted to be a marine biologist when I grew up, so I could understand whales (especially Blue Whales) and somehow convince people to stop hunting them. So it’s like The Monterey Bay Aquarium was specially built just for me (okay, I know it wasn’t, but leave me with my dream, dammit!) Since I was last there, it’s been significantly expanded, and modernized . . . but it still feels like a small, private aquarium, run by volunteers who truly care about conservation and love the ocean as much as I do — probably because that’s exactly what it is.
We went to the Aquarium on the second-to-last day of our trip (I’d say “penultimate day,” but that probably sounds like I’m trying to impress you . . . did it work?) We were all tired, and starting to get on each other’s nerves a little bit, (which, I observed many times at many stops, is pretty common on long family vacations 😉 but the aquarium was so beautiful, and so soothing, we all relaxed and simply basked in the beauty and serenity of huge aquariums, filled with fish schooling and swimming. When we left, I vowed (as I always do) to one day have a salt water aquarium in my house so big it covers one full wall, and requires a full-time marine biologist to care for it. Take that, MTV Cribs!
Oh, and in one large exhibit, which featured fish you could expect to see in the deep water near the outer bay? I saw a turtle.
We drove home the next day, down highway 1. We did the 17-mile drive, then went all along California’s incredibly beautiful coastline through Big Sur and Morro Bay. At San Luis Obispo, we crossed onto the 101, and took it all the way home.
Overall, it was a great time. The kids are not quite at an age where they can appreciate just seeing cool stuff from the car, but they *did* appreciate the Jelly Belly factory tour, and Nolan *did* get excited about driving over the Golden Gate Bridge when it was covered in fog. To their credit, they didn’t do nearly as much “are we there yet?” as my brother and sister and I did when we were their ages, and when I really wanted to share something with them, like Brownsville, Oregon, they put down their books and turned off their music, and paid attention. If I had it all to do again, I’d shorten the trip by two days (one in each direction) and plan to spend less time on the road, and more time in the hotel swimming pool, so there was more of a balance . . . but that’s part of the on the job training that all parents go through, I guess.
I’m really happy to be back home. I missed my dogs a LOT, and I really missed sleeping in my own bed. I thought I wouldn’t miss my website, since I haven’t really taken a major vacation in years, but I did. I kept a hand-written journal while we were on the road, sort like a luddite blog, I guess. After years of putting most of my thoughts here for anyone to read, it was cool to have a place to record them without any intention of sharing them with anyone.
Anyway, I’m sure there’s stuff I’ve forgotten, but I’ve been here for a long time, and Felix is getting pissed.
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I was at the Monterey Bay Aquarium once about ten years ago and I discovered that five hours is not enough to spend there.
Welcome back, Wil! Glad you and your lovely family had a great time!
Missed ya Wil!
Oh, I just took my visiting in-laws and best friend to the Winchester House on Friday! It was more interesting than I expected. Haven’t done the Monterey Bay Aquarium yet (we opted for the closer California Academy of Sciences in SF, which is going to ROCK, o science geeks, when it fully re-opens in 2008).
Anyway, even though I know you must be really busy catching up. you should definitely read this entry by m_cat, which is a cat-based Livejournal humor blog:
http://www.livejournal.com/~m_cat/72578.html
The entry’s about you. Kind of.
(Reading back a few entries at http://m_cat.livejournal.com/ might give you some context.)
Keep up the good writing…
Welcome back Wil !! I’ve missed you terribly. I’m glad you and your family are home safe and sound. Yeah, the poor old SC Boardwalk. It’s a pretty sad place. I haven’t been there in years and only go to ride the Giant Dipper anyway. I grew up and live near the Winchester Mystery house and had never seen it until a few years ago. You need to take the “Friday the 13th Flashlight Tour”. The Monterey Bay Aquarium is awesome. Give Felix a scritch for me. Now get back to work, we need more reading material !!!!
Lorraine
Hey Will,
Just wanted to say that I thought the picture you’ve taken of Big Sur looks absolutely gorgeous, and I hope you don’t mind but I’ve put it on my desktop.
Glad to have you back,
Chris.
Welcome back. Just wanted to let you know that I’ve been reading a book about the Ig-Nobel prizes (I started it after I finished JAG) and found an interesting item. The 2000 Ig-Nobel Computer Science prize was won for a product called PawSense. After reading this post, I’ve decided that it’s a bit of software you might find useful. Check it out at:
http://www.bitboost.com/BB_Welcome.html
(My own blog is sporadic and not-too-interesting, compared to yours. But I plan on reviewing your book, soon. Feel free to stop by and say, “Hello.”
Finally! (kidding) Man you crack me up sometimes – luddite blog? Holy toledo. I wanted to make it to Portland, but had to write. It’s the trade-offs in life that piss me off. Glad to see you back on the blog again. Very glad.
e
Wil,
So glad to have you home; I am sure you had a wonderful vacation. You should take a picture of Felix by your computer and call it “Cat and Mouse.” My cat does the same thing. I had to look up “skanky” in a thesaurus–it is actually a word.
Thanks again for sharing your life with us and welcome home.
Freeman 🙂
Sounds like you spent a fair amount of time on my old stomping grounds – I grew up in Monterey, and from when it opened (in, ummmmm…1983? Summer before I hit seventh grade, anyhow.) until I turned 18, our family had a pass which meant I could go in there whenever I wanted. Many was the Saturday where I would kill $5 in quarters at the arcade down the street, and then kill a couple hours at the Aquarium, before calling Mom for a ride home. 🙂
Sad to hear that the Boardwalk has gone downhill…that’s another happy memory of my childhood…and as great as you thought the Big Arcade was…it used to be _better_. That arcade used to be famous as the place where Old Arcade Games Went To Die…you could play games there you simply couldn’t FIND anyplace else anymore, and they always seemed to have one or two of those games that were in such limited release (The Adventures Of Major Havoc) comes to mind, that theme parks were the only places that had them.
Between that and the girls running around in swimwear, it was a good place to be an adolescent male. 😉
Hey Wil,
Hopefully next time you’ll head to Edmonton,Alberta, Canada for a book signing – we are all dying to hear you read up here!
Glad you had a great trip. Do you actually feel relaxed after all that DRIVING? LOL! I believe there’s a difference between refreshed and relaxed and I hope you’re both.
Welcome back wil!! we all missed you!
Do you draw huge crowds just walking around? I’m going to Gen Con tomorrow, and I can only imagine the mayhem!
I love going back now, and doing things that I couldn’t do when I was a kid. Being able to explore, or eat stuff that’s bad for me. Sometimes it’s a mixed bag, because it’s not as fantastic or filled with magic as it was when I was younger. Sometimes though, it has its own kind of grown up magic.
Hey, Wil, Welcome back! Glad to hear that the vaction turned out so well. It sounds like fun. My parents live in Portland so one of these times I’ll try to be there when you are. My cats are always walking across my keyboard and then sitting on my hand when it is resting on the mouse. It sure makes typing interesting. Give Felix a scratch for me.
I saw Wil @ Powells. He did not suck. I did though. To be sure he remembered me I pitched myself on the floor at his feet. Wouldn’t you know it?
(www.knightwriter.blogdrive.com)
Why is it when you want to be cool, you are a complete idiot?
Wil you rock. even if we didn’t get that picture.
*GGG*
Dammit, how did I not here that you were in Portland? I went to the Vortex on a road trip to San Diego once, but we got there after they’d closed. Hope you had better luck!
Hey Wil… sounds like a wonderful time with your family and for your authoring career.
I’m the guy that missed the entire Hollywood signing on Sunday. Thanks for bein’ cool, as I knew you would be, when I came up to you on the patio sometime after it was all done. [I actually drank some sort of mocha thing to kill time whilst you ate a late lunch. Coffee… it’s okay. I guess. LMAO]
So glad Border’s had a few signed copies for us late comers. And thank you for signing some in advance for the tard[y]s, like me.
Mostly bummed to have missed your readings! I sure hope an O.C. signing gets set up like you mentioned it might.
Laters… and just Tivo past the two bad plays you made on WPT!
It was great seeing you in Portland, Wil! Thanks for signing my girlfriend’s book. I definitely got a few punch holes on our relationship card. I’m sure I’ll get a free sandwich soon.
The SC Boardwalk has actually improved over the last couple years… the kid’s section (under the log ride) was totally revamped in the last couple years and looks much better than it did before. We always stuck to the arcade when we went, there’s a great South Park pinball machine in there (and a ST – TNG one too!) The beach, though, is touristy and dirty… Twin Lakes on the other side of the harbor is a much more family friendly place & it has rings for bonfires too.
But take a look at “The Lost Boys” sometime, you’ll see the people haven’t changed much since that was filmed.
I had no idea that town had Stand By Me ‘tours’!
Dammit…now I need to go. That will always be one of my favorite movies ever!
Hey, Wil–
I hate to feed the Voice of Self-Doubt any more than it already feeds itself, but if you went to the aquarium on the second-to-last day of your trip it wasn’t the penultimate day (which would be the last but one), but the antepenultimate day (two days before the last). Unless you’re using “second-to-last” in the sense of “next-to-last.”
(There. Have I confused the issue enough yet?)
Anyway, great to have you back again, glad that the trip was good. And give me a shout if you’re ever going to be in or around Chicago doing a reading. Just a Geek absolutely rules, and I’d love to hear you read from it live.
Hey Wil!
Hope you had a good vacation, always kinda sucks for a vacation to be over, but always good to be back home in my experience. Saw you up in Portland at Powell’s. Got there a bit late, but that’s what you get when take the wrong exit and get caught in Portland’s fantastic rush hour traffic when driving like a maniac from Eugene…lol. Really happy to see you dug the Prisoner sign I duplicated. Always wanted one myself, but knowing you were a fan I printed an extra for you. I didn’t want to bring the line to a screeching halt while I told you all about how I made it, but I will say it was a trick tracking down the right picture. Once I loaded it all into Illustrator to add the text, it was a snap to finish.
Thanks again for the autographs on the books and I agree with the poster who says you and your family should visit the Oregon Coast Aquarium next trip up. Also, having lived for SEVERAL (read – too many) years in Southern Oregon (K-Falls), a good place for a hot summer day is Lake of the Woods. Lots of fond memories from there. I couldn’t tell you to save my life how to get there now, but it’s worth finding on a map. If you’re in that part of the world, probably worth checking out too if you’re visiting that part of Southern Oregon.
Hope the iBook gets back to you ASAP. Take care! Vote for Number Six! 😉
Brian
I have a great picture of an octopus attacking my arm while I was teaching a SCUBA class in S. Florida that I’ll have to dig out now.
Welcome back, Wil! Glad you had fun… I can’t wait to see the pics of Brownsville. Stand By Me is one of my favorite movies and it will be interesting to see what the town looks like now. :o)
Wow, you’ve been back for, like, five minutes and you’ve got 71 comments. Big show-off.
I haven’t commented here before, but I thought I’d join the conversation today since it seemed to be the thing to do. Wil, glad you’re back. I’d been tuning in recently and was slightly distressed to see you disappear. Very pleased you had such a great book-tour-slash-vacation.
My mom lives in McCloud, CA, and I do believe it was Engine 25 of the McCloud River Railroad that chased you and the boys across that trestle. On one of my trips there in 1994, my then-boyfriend and I drove out to visit the trestle. Went and stood in the middle of it and took pictures of each other there. (I’ll have to scan and post those one of these days.) Have you visited there? A stop for your next west coast tour, perhaps.
Now, see, I feel like a total weirdo because my family and I LOVE Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. We love the skankiness of it, the whole bit. I spend the day assessing how much flesh can be bared before one crosses the line, counting tattoos, etc. It’s fun!
Glad someone already posted the link to Pamie’s blog entry about you. It’s worth reading, both the post and the comments that follow.
Welcome home!
Dude,
What an awesomely fruitful and well-rounded trip that West Coast tour must have been!! I’m sure Corey Feldman never ventured further north than Ojai to yell at his agent nor further south than Dana Point to score heroin.
Hope your tour takes you to Brooklyn some time.
BTW, Santa Cruz Boardwalk is always a great experience when you’re tripping on a hit of high powered blotter acid recently purchased from one of the many dreadlocked, patchoulli soaked hippies downtown.
Nice to read you again, Welcome back.
My favorite part of California on my last visit there was going down Highway 1. (A long time ago). I’m glad to see that others beside me appreciate it. Of course I was out having the time of my life, with to other equally broke Okies who turned a college road trip into a memory of a lifetime. I hope to share that drive with my daughter before she goes off to college, but not the same circumstances.
Welcome back, Wil! I’m so glad you had a good time on your vacation.
The comments for this entry are very interesting! So many people from your Portland signing and so many people familiar with Monterey.
Now, what about an East Coast signing tour? 😎
Welcome back wil. Glad you had a great vacation.
Now when are you going to do a reading in AZ?
Re the Oregon Vortex. There is exactly the same thing in Santa Cruz: http://www.mysteryspot.com
It is a tourist trap but very entertaining. Been there a couple of times already.
Allright dangit, I’ve waited long enough. WHERE IS FISH ON PART 3? I mean you can’t stop at the end of two. You are going to the poker room and thinking about your game and then you get there and…
And another thing…I’m NOT taking the bait on “I saw a turtle.” No way.
Forget it.
Seriously.
It’s been done.
Hi Will ! Great you’r back again. Sounds like you guys had a great time. Any chance you’d be visiting Europe (The Netherlands)in the near future ? Keep on writing dude, you realy rock.
Leon
Hey Wil, welcome back!
Damn, you came to San Jose? Went to the Winchester Mystery House? I’ve lived in San Jose eight years and still haven’t gone inside, although I have looked around the grounds there.
I have, however, been to the Monterey Bay Aquarium at least six or seven times. That place is incredible. It’s really cool to be there with a group of kids who have never seen fish beyond a small tank.
Now you’ve made me want to go back there ASAP.
god, what i waited for our writer to come back telling us all about the trip!! i made your site my starting page and yeah, reading that you’re still on vacation wasn’t much news… nevertheless you deserved it – can’t wait for mine, so i know the feeling… anyways – glad you’re back!!
yayyyyyyy wil saw a turtle 🙂
Road trip tip:
If you want to make sleeping in uncomfortable beds a bit less uncomfortable, bring your own pillows. It’s amazing how much a difference it makes.
Joel
Hey, Ignore “The Voice of Self Doubt” when it come to the readings. You perform quite well. Welcome back!
There are quite a few places around the states that have similar strange-oddities like the Oregon Vortex.
Here is NY, there is a place where items (cars in particular) roll UPHILL.
What would be nifty is if there was a tour of all these places for us curious folk.
Browser Hijacker Remover
welcome back
Welcome back Will! You were missed. (BTW, I can identify with a cat and the keyboard. Jake the Wonder cat does the same thing to me)
Andrea
I’m so glad to see you back at “work” because you’re one of my daily stops in my morning Internet rituals and I was seriously going through a case of Wheaton-withdrawal.
I just wanted to let you know (if you haven’t seen it already) that the little blurb from you is in the latest issue of Wizard, the celebrity issue. It’s right next to the really sexy ST:TNG Crusher pic, and I forget what page number it’s on. Thanks for helping me score another freelance paycheck. ^_^
Welcome back! Kudos to you for saying you were going to be gone too.
Last month, we drove highway 1 from San Fran to beyond Santa Cruz for the first time. It was a spectacular view, and I’m glad you got to share it with your family as well.
I spent a long afternoon at the Montery Bay Aquarium once playing with a Cryptochiton stelleri (http://oceanlink.island.net/oinfo/biodiversity/gumboot/gumboot.html), oogling the jellies, and petting the rays. It’s an amazing place and I was only a little disappointed there wasn’t a huge empty whale tank on the bayside for George and Gracie. 😉
And Santa Cruz (Santa Carla for Lost Boys fans) was pretty seedy too, but the tacos were memorable.
Welcome back, Wil…I missed your blog more than I thought I would. Thanks for sharing your family vacation memories with us. And when are you gonna come to Chicago?! 😉
Happily surprised
again a new dawn shines on
bees visit the flowers
It’s about time that Powell’s figured out that you need to be in the main store! I was saying that to my friend who works at Powells…
Glad you had a great vacation and thanks for coming to Portland to see us 🙂
Mari (The one in the Candy Striper Uniform)
Glad to see you back, Wil.
Didn’t see it in your post, but did you happen to catch They Might Be Giants at the Bite of Oregon in Portland on Friday the 13th? It was a rockin’ show. Their new drummer rules. 😀
Hey Wil,
Welcome back.
After reading yourlatest post, I have to say:
“Do it man, get a salt water fish tank”
I have one. A bit more work that a freshwater tank, but totally worth the effort. The boys will love it. So will you.
So do it. Just don’t get one that big. 100Gallon would be perfect.
Rick
Welcome back, Wil! Sounds like you had a wonderful time.