Star Wars Day

Even though I'm still sick I wasn't going to let it get the best of me this weekend. My buddy Chris and I talked about seeing Star Wars Episode 1 The Phantom Menace in 3D. We had first talked a few weeks ago about us meeting in Santa Barbara, kind of of middle ground for both of us. But last week when I was visiting him he mentioned seeing a Star Wars Exhibition down in Santa Ana. So kind of last minute he decided that he would come down here for the weekend and we would go to the Star Wars Exhibition and then go see Star Wars Ep1 in 3D. I suggested that he try and take Monday off so we could go to Disneyland on Sunday as well since he still had a pass and will be leaving CA in April. So the fun filled weekend was born at the last minute. We opened up the Star Wars day to close friends, ones whom we knew were big Star Wars fans. And Sunday Disneyland we opened up to everyone.

My friend Jes who lives up in the San Francisco area manged to work some magic and get the time off to come down and join us. She actually arrived at my place last night. So we got up in the morning had some breakfast. I had to do my taxes today at 11am but first my buddy Anthony texted me last night to see if I would be able to swing by and pick him up as well. Of course both he and Jes would have to go with me to my tax guy, but both were cool with that. As I was getting my taxes done those two walked to Starbuck for some coffee. About a half hour later I was done with my taxes (getting best refund yet) and we headed down to The Discovery Science Center where they were holding the Star Wars Exhibition.

Anthony, Jes and I were the first to arrive and the place was packed so we had to park in the mall across the street. Shortly after we arrived Chris arrived. The four of us went into the mall to grab some lunch. While there Jen arrived and joined for lunch. After lunch we got a message from Anne and Nicki that they were at the Science center so we headed over to meet up. When we got there we saw the large building that contained the Millennium Falcon experience (a 4 and a half minute ride in the cockpit of the Falcon), though we were there around 2pm the experience had already sold out.. which put a dampener on the beginning of this awesome weekend.

So Chris, Jes, Anthony, Anne, Nicki and I entered the Science center and went directly to the Star Wars Exhibition since our tickets were for 2pm. Part of the section had replicas, models and costumes and the other sections had interactive games, simulators, robot building and other hands on things. While there Rupert joined us. We walked around the place looking at all the cool Star Wars stuff. We first started off as a group but some would take more time to look at things then others so eventually I was by myself taking pictures and checking out all the AWESOME things. I did several pass as I took pictures the first time, then figured out a better setting on my camera so I started over again and took more pictures then realized that I really didn't look at anything with my own eyes so I went back for a third time and looked at everything and finally did one finale pass with my flip cam. Chris joined me for a bit, but eventually it was just Rupert and I in there while everyone else went to check out the rest of the Science center.

You can check out some of the pictures HERE

After the Exhibition we all headed back to the mall to re-group and figure out where we were going to go to watch Star Wars Episode 1 The Phantom Menace. We decided to go to The Block at Orange. We had planned to go to Dave and Busters to play some games before hand but when we got to The Block we had about an hour before the movie started so we opted to go get tickets and get in line. We saw the movie at an AMC and it was kind of bizarre as they didn't hand out 3D glasses, you had to go up to guest service and get them (though they didn't tell you this when you bought the ticket). Anyways there were folks dressed up at the theater (as expected). Besides Chris, Anthony, Jes, Jen, Anne, Nicki, Rupert and myself we were joined by Kim and Brian. Anthony already saw the movie so he opted to go see Chronicle with his friend Rachel.

As for my option of the movie. I'm a HUGE Star Wars fan.. have been since I was 7 and seeing the original Star Wars in a drive in theater 16 times. I enjoyed The Phantom Menace, I'm not one of the many haters. Of course there are parts that I'm not a fan of but the great parts out weight the bad. But with the 3D aspect I have to honest and say I really didn't see a different. There were a few shots that were cool and you could see the 3D aspect of it but for the most part I was just excited to see this movie on the big screen again.

After the movie we met up with Anthony and Rachel and went to grab some dinner at Alcatraz. I wasn't that hungry because I ate so much crap during the movie (and got flack for it.. thanks Chris :) ). But Nicki and I shared some wings and fries.

Once dinner was over some of us who were not local (Brian, Chris, Jes, Anthony and I) headed over to the Disneyland area to get a hotel close to Disneyland so we could just get up and go tomorrow morning.

All in all it was a fantastic Star Wars filled day.. and it's only the beginning of the weekend.