1999 California Vacation

June 8^th, 1997

A few years ago, at Utah's Gay Pride festival, I saw a nice-looking young man who I saw the previous night at the Pride Eve dance. He saw me too, and smiled. We didn't stop to talk, but one time as I passed him he winked at me, and the next time he lightly touched my shoulder. Unfortunately, by the time I decided to go ahead and give him my phone number, I couldn't find him again.

June 14^th, 1998

At the next year's Gay Pride, I finally caught up with him. His name is Weston. He was very friendly and we had a nice long conversation, followed by an even nicer long hug. Sadly, he doesn't live in Utah any more; he lives in West Hollywood, which would make dating more than a little difficult. But he does try to come to Utah every year, and I gave him my email address so we could correspond in the meantime.

Spring 1999

At the beginning of this year, I was looking forward to seeing Weston again at Gay Pride. Since he takes the time to come to Utah every year, I wanted to go down to Los Angeles this year in return. So I started searching the Web for L.A.'s Gay Pride. To my dismay, I discovered that it happened to fall on the same weekend as Utah's.

I wrote to Weston about it, and he answered that since our Pride Days coincided, he wouldn't be able to come to ours this year. I in turn would be unable to go to L.A. Pride, because I was going to help out QUAC at ours. So instead I started searching for other events in L.A. which I could attend, and eventually I discovered Gay Day at Disneyland in October. So I started thinking about how I could plan a vacation around that event.

A few weeks later, my boss got news of an upcoming trade show which he wanted my entire division to attend. The show was in San Jose, California, and happened to fall during the week right before Gay Day. So with a little planning and convincing, I was able to arrange to travel directly from the trade show to my vacation in Los Angeles, with almost no extra travel expense -- my company paid for the entire flight!

September 27^th-30^th

The trade show in San Jose was a nice break from my regular work, but it was still work, and we didn't have time to do any sightseeing. Not that there was anything to see in San Jose anyway. San Francisco would have been nice -- I've never been there before -- but that was an hour's drive away.

One curious aspect about the trade show: among the hundreds of attendees, there were a fair number of attractive young men, and I spent an inordinate amount of time looking for people's third finger on the left hand. Don't know what good it would have done... I didn't even have time to ask anyone to dinner.

October 1^st

The morning after the trade show was over, I flew from San Jose to Los Angeles. An interesting thing about the flight: this was the first time I boarded a plane from outside the terminal, rather than going through a connecting tunnel. Anyway... On arrival, I picked up my rental car, then drove directly to Six Flags Magic Mountain.

The last time I was here, there was one particular ride I wanted to try out more than anything; unfortunately, it wasn't open at that time. This year, however, Superman - The Escape was running! I stopped first at Viper a couple of times -- it's still one of the best roller coaster rides I've been on -- then proceeded to Superman and gave it a try. WOW! If you've never been on this one, you have to try it! It's unlike any other ride... You don't get any warning when it starts. One second you've been strapped in your seat, waiting for the ride to start, and the next you're accelerating with a force of over 2 G's! Just a few seconds after blasting out of the tunnel you're suddenly heading straight up. Oh, when you go on this, try to get a side seat and look to the outside as you're heading up, up, and awaay... it's a real trip!

I also tried the new Riddler's Revenge ride, which makes you kind of stand up as you go because the seats are like bicycle banana seats and are three feet above the floor. I didn't like it all that much. So I went back to the Batman roller coaster ride -- now that one is worth it! Hanging upside-down from the track, twisting and flipping over both backwards and sideways, at breakneck speeds. I'm tempted to say it's a better roller coaster ride than Viper, except that I wouldn't put it in the same category as ordinary roller coasters.

Unfortunately, sometime after I got soaked on the Roaring Rapids (it was like getting a barrel of water dumped on me!), I discovered that my camera stopped working. During my unsuccessful attempt at getting it to work again, the few pictures I had already taken got ruined, so I don't have any pictures of my own. (The above images were from two years ago.)

Of course I tried to get on all the rides, and the fun ones several times in a row. Learning from my mistake two years ago, I tried to do as little walking around between rides as possible, especially knowing that there was going to be a lot more walking in the next week to come.

October 2^nd

Saturday morning at Disneyland started rather ordinarily; I got in early by using my Flex Passport, so for the first hour and a half the crowds were relatively light. I started the day by going straight to Tomorrowland and I rode Space Mountain twice -- it is, in my opinion, the best ride at Disneyland.

After the 1-1/2 hours were up, the park opened to the general public, and the crowds immediately got thicker -- in fact, the way I found out the park had opened was that I ran into a line in Adventureland running all the way from Tarzan's Treehouse outside to Main Street! It was after this point that it became apparent today was Gay Day, for I started seeing several small groups of people wearing red shirts who were quite obviously not families, but Family. It wasn't long before I found a group of good-looking guys at the Matterhorn; they were ahead of me in line, and as they boarded the bobsled I waved at them, and one of them winked back. When I had gone through the ride myself, I was happy to see that he had waited for me, and invited me to join their group. Well, there was no way I was going to refuse an offer from such a handsome young man! He introduced himself as Eddie, and then introduced me to the rest of the group -- just as soon as we could get them back together :^) -- there was Chris, Andy, Josh, Jeff, Steve, David, and Elena (tell me if I missed anyone; I had so many new people to meet that day!).

I soon discovered that I was probably the only one (at least one of a rare few) who had come to Gay Day from out of state. As a visitor then, especially being from Utah, I was subjected to all kinds of questions from the other guys about myself and home. I didn't mind it; in fact, I enjoyed the attention. One thing that was brought up was that I was hoping to see Weston there, and I was a little surprised to find that several of the guys knew him.

Well, we went on some rides together, then all stopped for lunch in Tomorrowland, picking up a few more people along the way: Bruce, Ken, John, and probably a few more I can't remember. As the afternoon went on, Eddie flirted with me every now and then -- especially in line for the canoe ride -- which was a totally new experience for me, and I loved it!

After we (and a bunch more guys we had gathered up) had seen the Animazement show, we were all milling about outside the theater deciding what to do next, when suddenly I spotted Weston about fifty feet down the lane. He hadn't seen me yet, so I hurriedly told the nearest person in my group "I may or may not catch up with you guys", then went to surprise weston from behind. Big hug! We were both very happy to see each other. He introduced me to the boys in his group, and we talked about what I've been doing so far. A short while later the people in my group spotted us and came over to say hi to everybody; it was like a big reunion. Of course we had to get a photo of everyone, including any passers-by we saw wearing red shirts. Since Weston's group was going into the show which we had just left, I decided to stick with Eddie's group and meet with Weston again later on.

The next place we went was the Indiana Jones Adventure, which I had never been to before. It was a really cool ride -- except for the fire pit, that is. :^) Later in the evening, after a very nice western-style dinner at Big Thunder Barbecue, we went to get a good seat for Fantasmic. We arrived just a few minutes before the previous show ended, so at the same time as that audience was leaving, we staked out a plot of pavement right in front of the stage. Not too soon, because hundreds of other people were doing the same! We had an hour and a half to save our spot before the next show, so most of us just sat and talked with Johnathan, one of Disneyland's cast members who happened to know many of the members of our group (oh, I forgot to mention: a few of the guys in our group also work for Disney, in various divisions.)

After the show we figured we would have time for one more ride, so we quickly headed for Space Mountain. Luckily the line was relatively short at that time of night, so it didn't take too long to get on it. (Still the best ride there.) We still had a little time left after that, so the guys decided to go through Alice In Wonderland. Because it was getting so late I almost left right then, but when I tried to say goodnight to Eddie he complained, held my hand, and pleaded with me to stay a while longer. So I relented, and still holding hands with Eddie, we all ran to Wonderland. Eddie and I took a car together, and since I had gotten comfortable with him by this time, I put my arm around him and he did the same, and we held each other close for the whole trip. In fact, the mood there was surprisingly romantic, and at some point in the middle of the trip we gazed at each other and then we kissed. It felt so wonderful!

October 3^rd

I went back to Magic Mountain for part of the day. The crowds here were even smaller than they were on Friday; I could repeat several of the rides without getting off at all. But after spending yesterday with friends, going about the park by myself just wasn't any fun.

That evening I went to visit Weston at his West Hollywood apartment; the first of many evenings I would spend with him. It was just the two of us this time (mostly). We started with a dip in the pool, then went out to dinner where he got to hear my life's story. Later we returned to his apartment, where I stayed until very late in the night -- Weston is used to getting up at noon and staying up until around three o'clock in the morning, which is just the opposite of me, but I made an effort during the week to get a taste of the night life in West Hollywood. (I actually only succeeded in losing sleep; I never managed to sleep in past eight a.m., and often woke up earlier.)

October 4^th

I went back to Disneyland today. There were still crowds, but not nearly as bad as Saturday; most lines were very short. So after going on my favorite ride (Space Mountain), I toured the park looking for rides I hadn't been on yet, either Saturday or never before in my life. I had a really good time of it -- not as fun as Gay Day, certainly, but still good.

Unfortunately, four straight days in amusement parks had taken a rather bad toll on my feet. By midafternoon it started to hurt when I walked, and once when I tried to run I got such a sharp pain in my right foot that I immediately had to stop. So I went on just a few more rides (4 times through the Indiana Jones Adventure, and again on Space Mountain), then did some window shopping, but didn't see anything I wanted to buy, so I left.

I took the rest of the evening off.

October 5^th

Today I started shopping. Browsing, actually; I'm not normally a big spender, and I generally don't have use for souvenirs. Later in the afternoon I went to the pool at West Hollywood Park and swam some laps. It was good to be working out again after more than a week. But towards the end of my workout, surprisingly, my right foot was hurting just from kicking the water.

That evening I went to visit Weston again. He had another friend over already, Tim, who I had met briefly at Gay Day but only for a minute. The three of us went out to eat and I got to know Tim a little better. Quite often I found myself staring into Tim's eyes; he's very attractive and looks so much younger than he really is!

After dinner Tim left us to go walk his dog, and Weston took me to a gay bar where a drag queen was giving trivia questions to the crowd. I don't go to the bars in Salt Lake, so this was another new experience for me, and some of it was interesting. When the show was over, we went to another bar just a short way down the block. This bar was darker than the first, the music was louder, and there was smoke coming in from the people gathered outside; I didn't like that place at all. So after a while we left that place and went to yet another bar down the street. This place had just a few people in it, and the music was much quieter. There wasn't much going on, but after the previous bar, it was very relaxing.

October 6^th

Wednesdays are video night, and Weston had me and two other friends over, Robert and Tim (shown here counter-clockwise). All but Robert started out with a dip in the pool (Tim is a total hunk under that shirt!), then Robert joined us for dinner at Subway. When we returned to Weston's apartment, we stuck in a short video of Tim skydiving, which was when we all gathered 'round in the seating arrangement you see here, but with Weston (not in the picture) on my other side. It was absolutely heavenly! After that we popped in the movie The Mummy. It was shortly after the movie started that Tim conked out (ZzZz).

We pretty much spent the whole movie like that, with Tim on my lap and Robert on my side. Tim woke up a couple of times and asked if I was comfortable. (Are you kidding? Just look at us!) Of course I was getting a little too warm after a while until Robert turned on the air conditioner, but more importantly I was feeling very good inside -- unreserved, free, and content.

October 7^th

This morning I started to feel a sense of urgency, knowing that my time left was limited. I started with a trip to Universal Studios since this would probably be my best chance to see it. I only went on a few rides; except for Jurassic Park, they paled in comparison to the other amusement parks.

That evening I wanted to visit some of the museums along Hollywood Boulevard. I walked down there (the hotel at which I was staying was very close) and went into the first museum I came across, found it totally boring, and went back to the hotel.

October 8^th

More window shopping, then swimming at the park. Afterwards I went to Weston's apartment, but he was taking a nap, so I decided to hang out in the local bar by myself for a while. To my surprise, I found Tim there! I was glad I didn't have to be there alone. I hung out with Tim for an hour or so, then left to meet Weston and Robert for dinner. (Tim was playing a video trivia game, so he wouldn't be joining us until later.) The three of us took a dip in the pool, then picked up Tim and went out to dinner.

After dinner we went back to Weston's apartment, then Tim had to leave to walk his dogs. I gave him a warm hug goodbye and told him I would miss him. He said he would miss me too, and he held my hand, smiling at me, for a brief moment before he left. (sigh!)

Robert was lying down on Weston's futon, so seeing an opportunity, I cuddled next to him and we stayed like that for a long time. Nostalgia: it reminds me of a time when I used to have a boyfriend. It was very comforting.

And that's all I'm going to say about that night. ;->

October 9^th

I finally bought something: a reflective rainbow stripe to put on the back of my car. The pink triangle I have on the back window has faded to white, and I think the rainbow looks prettier anyway.

I spent all afternoon just talking with Weston. It was a pleasant way to pass the remaining hours of my vacation, and it was very thought-provoking. I was left with a determination to seriously think about my life in the long term, and to alter my short-term plans if necessary to achieve my dreams.