All things other than the weather considered it’s good to be back in Tempe, on my own computer again with my anime collection and epic internet pipes and digital cable.

But DANG it gets hot here. Seriously, holy frick.

In any case, vacation was fun. Lots of driving on Monday (yes, we drove from Tucson to LA, in the daytime); stayed at the Residence Inn by Marriott in Los Alamitos. Tuesday, Disneyland; we had a reservation at the Blue Bayou Restaurant there, which was well-timed with the earthquake happening not long before. We didn’t feel anything, but all the rides were closed for inspection for a couple hours. We didn’t go on too many rides anyway; this was the third time in just over four years (second time with my family) that we’d been to Disneyland, so I think it was all still old news right then. Another year or two’s wait might have been better.

Wednesday, California Adventure; pretty good, it was my first time going. Muppets 3D was definitely the highlight of the day; the Animation Workshop was interesting too, and the Monsters, Inc. and Soaring Over California rides were pretty good. Then ESPNZone in Downtown Disney that night for dinner. There are televisions at eye-level above the urinals there. Best restaurant of the trip.

Thursday, a bunch of different things: Aquarium of the Pacific in the morning; Seal Beach in the afternoon; and Dodger Stadium, believe it or not my first Major League Baseball regular-season game outside of Phoenix, in the evening. We were in the vast minority of people not wearing any Dodger Blue, and I didn’t see anyone wearing anything Diamondbacks (even though the D-backs won, 2-1). I did have a Dodger Dog though…you have not tasted an excellent hot dog until you’ve had a Dodger Dog with the works.

Friday, Universal Studios. Much smaller than Disneyland actually, which I wasn’t expecting but much to the delight of my legs. The tour is really the highlight of the park; it’s half real sightseeing, half totally contrived (but passingly fun) theme park fun-tram ride, but fun nonetheless. We opted to pass on The Mummy Returns and Jurassic Park rides; the Shrek 4D show was amusing, the special effects demonstrations were enlightening despite being punctuated by really dry attempts at humor, and the Simpsons Ride was totally worth the 45-minute wait spent watching an about as long Simpsons “Best of Krustyland” video loop.

Saturday, more driving. All in all I took a good several hundred photos, which I still have to get into iPhoto and sort out the good ones before uploading them, but I’ll probably get working on that after I (finally) get some furniture and clean my room.

Oh yes, and it was much—MUCH—cooler in Los Angeles.