Anaheim: I Remember the Parking Lot from the Hotel Window
My A-Z of my…uh…’Favourite’ Travel Destinations begins
Author’s note/excuses: First my thanks to Adrienne Beaumont for inviting me to participate and for giving me some insight into how to approach the challenge.
You see I’m not that widely travelled. But if I think more loosely I might be more comfortable in my writing — like lounging around in those sweatpants you’d never wear outside — and at least make it past A, B, and C.
Australia? Hmmm, no. How about Asakusa? At least I’ve been there more than once. Nah. Anaheim…Anaheim?…
The truth — at least for me back then — was that the city in Orange County was just background information. It was a fact that wasn’t obscure enough to be the answer to a pub quiz question.
Anaheim was hidden, made unseen by the bulk of Disneyland.
Thinking about it now, I think I can make a case for Anaheim being first in this little series. And I have a feeling it’ll be little indeed!
Up until the summer of 2004 I hadn’t been abroad for eight years. The last trip was to visit family in Malaysia when I’d just finished my second year at university.
I was unemployed; I divided time and effort between selling junk on eBay and applying for local jobs.
My mum asked if I wanted to go on a trip to Disneyland along with my younger sister.
“Too old for Disneyland be damned! California here I come!”
Plus, I could get a dead-end Xmas-temp retail job when I returned (and I did so).
Thanks to my more considered approach to eBay selling I’d invested in my first digital camera: the HP Photosmart 612.
It was a 2.3MP, 2x optical zoom, 4x AA battery-powered, silvery plastic photographic behemoth!
More seriously, though, it meant that it’d be the first time ever I’d be taking photographs on holiday (excluding school trips).
I tried to remember the photos I’d taken of Anaheim before I opened up the folder on my computer.
Only one came to mind. I thought it was a little more warm orange, the blue the tiniest touch softer. Otherwise, this was Anaheim for me.
There are other photos, of course. But aside from a few of the hotel lobby they capture elsewhere — Los Angeles, Universal Studios, Disneyland…
I’m not sure if I was limited by my imagination or by the capacity of the memory card, which would’ve only been measured in megabytes, but Anaheim is otherwise undocumented.
All I’m left with are memories, and short scenes that wouldn’t even make a TikTok video. Or something even smaller, less easy to define — dust motes that are briefly illuminated by fading sunlight as they fall and are soon lost.
What can I form from these small, useless parts? Is there a sum total? I fear not. All I can do is create a list, something a digital assistant itself would query, answer back:
- the dollar specials at Del Taco
- a DVD copy of The Last Samurai bought from Target across the road
- the heat while walking across a shopping mall parking lot; the temperature on the electronic billboard reads 100°
- the obsession with Super Size Me
- the strangeness of seeing Arnold Schwarzenegger on TV news
- hot winds, like a sustained, silent roar of breath, that make the wait at the bus stop more wearying
- the decision to buy a chilli dog from a convenience store.
In addition to Adrienne, it would be wrong to not credit and thank Sam Millichap who started it all. Apologies, Sam, for taking things in a different direction. I’m including her piece on leaving the UK — who’d have imagined that it’s actually worse now!
I’m also thankful to Jerry Dwyer whose latest story has reminded me that I now have a choice if I get around to writing B:
