This was interesting. They charged you for selecting your seat. It started at around $20 for the front and went down $1 every few rows until it was $13 in the back. You did have an option of not selecting your seat ahead of time for free, though.
We went to Knott's Scary Farm on Sunday night. It was the first Sunday it was open, which was great because it was almost empty; we didn't have to wait in line anywhere. As it gets closer to Halloween, the lines get really long.
There are a lot of other haunted houses around LA, but Knott's has the most stuff. They have mazes, shows, and all the rides are still going as well. From what I've read Universal Studios has the best costumes, which would make sense as they do that for a living. This was the entrance to one of the mazes.
The smoke and lighting in the sidewalks outside certainly added to the atmosphere.
There was a section labeled "Trick or Treat bag location" on the map, but it was just some woman running carnival games.
One of the shows: Zamora the torture king. He did acts like lying on glass while this woman jumped on him.
And sticking a pin through his lower jaw. I'd seen most of this stuff before, though, but it was still fun mainly because of the other actor, the weird doctor.
The entrance to another maze. I thought a lot of the set pieces in the mazes were very well done, although I didn't get any pictures because you weren't supposed to use flash inside of the mazes and without a flash they'd come out pretty blurry.
A day after the full moon; perfect timing for a haunted house.
Angela didn't like the mazes. She basically went through with her eyes closed and holding onto my arm for dear life. Of course, all the actors noticed this and went after her, not me. I spent my time congratulating the actors on their costumes and looking around.
Our first ride: a water one.
We realized this was a bit of a bad idea since we got pretty wet. During the middle of the day, that would have been great, but in the evening, not so fun.
I took off my seatbelt and stood up whenever water came at me. Still got my butt wet when I sat back down, though.
A little roller coaster where you sit in horses.
It obviously didn't go upside down, but it was super-short; like a 15-second ride. Good thing there were no lines; I would have been mad if I had waited an hour for that.
Another one of the shows.
Ed Alonzo's Funhouse. It was a comedy / magic variety show.
This was probably my favorite show of the evening. It was outdoors in the middle of the park.
They were trying to decide who to hang. The lawman in the middle ended up fighting all kinds of people, from comic characters to people in current events.
Ooh, that looks fun. Some of the bigger roller coasters were great, especially the one that started off super fast.
And band with guys grinding on metal.
Some of the actors exchanging insults with some teenage patrons. The witch is actually a dude. The actors were destroying the jerks, ha.
Two pairs for $46, that's hard to compete with.
A woman with her tiny dog tied to her walker.
I can't figure this plate out at all.
Arg, I hate people who wait until the last second to merge. Back here I always leave space in front of me to make it easy for people to get in, but when I get up to the solid white line, I won't let them in any more.
You don't get much more Polish than that.
The big problem with the carpool lane is you can't get around someone, so if you get stuck behind someone going slower, like this bus, you just have to wait or illegally cross tee double yellow lines.
A woman driving alone in the carpool lane and putting on lipstick while driving.
What happens if they have another one?
Pretty sundogs around the sun.
Thursday night was the Malibu Music Invasion. Marie Grace told me about it last year, and they sent me a notice about it this year, so I forwarded that to some friends. It was RSVP only; here they're checking people in.
Starting off with some of the open-bar drinks.
Turntables to make your own scratchings.
They had this last year, but it was still fun.
This was new: a guy pressing designs on a shirt for you.
The line was really long, like almost an hour, but talking with friends while drinking while waiting made it much more bearable.
They had women going around with plates of food. However, they could barely make it out of the kitchen without being mobbed, and some people just waited there to grab it as soon as they came out. I guess the staff decided that wasn't fair to the other party goers, so they had this big guy take the food with the woman following him...
... then he'd give it to the woman in the middle of the venue and people would descend upon it like vultures.
Enjoying the appetizers.
And some more.
Having fun in the picture booth.
Malibu Rum, good stuff.
The bartenders inside.
The drink options.
The dance floor when we first got there.
One of the hula hoopers.
And then dance floor later on.
The big singer of the night was Wynter Gordon. We were right up in front.
This guy was pretty much in love with her, haha.
Singing to some fans.
She even leaned into the crowd to get pictures with people.
And pulled this woman up on stage a bit for a picture.
She was really fun to watch.
And sang some really good songs.
She invited people up on stage to dance with her.
The guy in front took more time taking pictures of Wynter and himself with his cell phone than dancing.
With her after the show.
She even went into the crowd and danced with them a bit.
A guy showing off some moves in the dance circle.
Wow, that's impressive.
Holy cow, it gets better: doing a side flip.
And a front one.
And two doing side flips.
They weren't even a part of the act; just two women in the audience who must have done gymnastics. Really fun to watch.
My goodies from the night.
Not only did you stop in the crosswalk, you're even sticking out into traffic a bit. Horrible job.
Grr, some guy in the right lane with a big ol' "right lane must turn right" sign and not turning. Honestly, if you make a mistake like this, you should turn and then figure out what you have to do to fix it. You should deal with the consequences of you being stupid, not others.
That would be a good license plate for someone who works in the ER: the 5 looks like an s for stat.
Saturday afternoon Farrah and I went to Sky High, a place with tons of trampolines.
This area was really fun: dodgeball.
It was hard to catch balls when you were constantly jumping. Sure, you could just stand there, but that makes it too easy.
Farrah about to catch one as well.
And throwing one. The guy running the games was really fun as well and made sure everyone was having a good time. The only downside was I think they should have had more balls. You spent a lot of time just waiting for people to throw them.
Hey, that's not fair.
A giant foam pit you could jump into.
Me spread eagle.
Farrah going in.
The hardest part was actually climbing out. The best part was watching big adults struggle, haha.
You could even go off the side. I did a front flip and a back flip, although I got yelled at for the back flip. Most of the kids were under 10, but there were some teenagers who were also doing tricks with us.
The entrance. There's football on free wifi for parents who don't want to jump.
Another area.
Ooh, cool chairs.
Taking a break.
We raced down this long strech. I won pretty easily, but she's coming fast.
We were both covered in sweat the whole time. Nothing like a little Gatorade to get back some electrolytes.
The only damage I sustained was a burn on my knee after slipping while going really fast down a line of trampolines.
That's a fun shirt.
I always check for the rare McDonald's Monopoly game pieces before I throw them away. In this case I'm almost positive Illinois isn't the rare one since I got two of them, but better check just in case. I'd really feel like an idiot if I threw away TWO of the rare ones.
All the gum like this is now sold in double packs, which I hate, mainly because there are fewer pieces per pack, so I have to switch out the packs in my car more often.
I have two bags I alternate between for hauling stuff to the beach, one from the Salvation Army and one from on ophthalmology practice. Opposite ends of the spectrum.
Going up.
And down.
Vysal going for a spike.
High-fiving the dog.
Cookie time!
David with nice form.
Interesting leg positioning.
Great serves, though.
This guy served extremely hard.
Me going down to hit the ball.
At the net.
This guy came under then net when I went up, but thankfully I avoided him on the way back down.
Matching outfits.
The Fetish Film masquerade ball.
By far my favorite outfits of the evening. The women had lights in their hair, too.
Some genies.
A Dancer.
The hosts for the night, the Boulet Brothers.
A strip tease.
Johnny with a couple of his friends.
Interesting wolf outfit.
Shiny.
Lots of black tonight.
More interesting outfits.
Another show.
More black.
Me with Johnny. I actually reused a mask I made a few years ago. I put a bunch of stick-on stars on to match it. I had lots of extras, so I put them on people at the party.
Interesting outfits.