Things that might be decidedly odd…

Pictures from Christmas

I only took a couple of random pictures while I was down in SoCal for Christmas.

Since I was staying in a hotel in the neighborhood where I grew up (until I was 11), I drove by my childhood home and took a picture of it:

The paint job on the place is pretty hideous (teal and beige) and the lawn is rather dead. Where the bench is now, there used to be a palm tree whose top stuck up through a hole in the roof. There also used to be a very tall tree on the park strip, but even I remember when that had to be cut down since it would drop large, heavy branches occassionally. I also remember when the block wall on the right side was built.

I also drove by my old elementary school. Here’s a picture:

Yes, I really went to Walt Disney Elementary School. I’m not sure if that’s bizarre or tragic or what, but I generally liked going to school there. In fact, I attended no less than 3 elementary schools as a kid. Mattie Lou Maxwell School for Kindergarten and for maybe a couple weeks of first grade, Disney until about March of 6th grade and then finally Ole Hanson Elementary in San Clemente for those remaining few months. I’m still not sure who Mattie Lou Maxwell was. Everybody knows who Walt Disney is. Ole Hanson was the founder of San Clemente and Twenty-Nine Palms and oddly enough a former mayor of Seattle.

Christmas Accomodations

For those who don’t already know, I’ll be flying down to southern California to visit my extended family for a few days around Christmas. This will be my first trip down there since my parents moved away, which means I no longer have the same accomodation options as with previous years. I’m sure other family members could put me up, but this year I’ve decided to just stay in a hotel. Mostly, it’s that I’d like some of my own space since I’ll be seeing everybody for pretty much all waking hours already for those five days. Also, I feel that since I now have a real job, I can afford it without really any financial hardship. I’m already paying for a flight and rental car–hotel’s just part of the equation for this vacation too.

It was fairly strange looking at the different hotel options in north Orange County where most of my family lives. In fact, my parents were the only ones to live in the southern part of the county which is why I didn’t even bother looking down there. I’m assuming most everything will be going on around my grandfather’s place in Fullerton, so I looked at what there was in that general vicinity. Virtually the entire hotel stock in the area is right near Disneyland and caters to families visiting the park or business people visiting the Anaheim Convention Center. For me, I have no need to be close to the park. In fact, I’d rather be farther away from it to avoid the extra premium in hotel rates and parking costs (the Hilton wanted $11 a day for parking!). A lot of the hotels bragged about how close they were to the baseball stadium and the Crystal Cathedral, so those must be big tourist draws as well. It’s strange reading about your home town in tourist terms.

In the end, I booked a hotel that’s about 8 miles away from my grandfather’s house, but just happens to be only a couple blocks from the first house I grew up in. It was actually funny reading the reviews I found online. Most of them were middling claiming the hotel was nice but that it was too far from all the tourist attractions like Disneyland, Knott’s Berry Farm, etc. Bad choice for others, but hopefully a good one for me.

While I’m there, I’ll have to spin by the house I grew up in and my old elementary school to take some pictures.