Okay, really, why don’t the kids get up this easily on school days? For most of us it was the excitement of hitting Universal Studios for the day, but for Patrick it seemed it was the pancake machine in the hotel lobby.

After fueling up on every form of carbohydrates known to man, we made it to the park right at opening and headed straight to the tram tour. Emily, having visited Universal the most recently of us was impressed with the King Kong section and we simply had to see it. After the previous day’s disappointments, I was determined to be a follower. Lower your expectations and you won’t be disappointed, I figured.

The park had changed immensely since I was last here in 1991 the year I came down with my gang of friends and hit up Universal and then Disneyland. I had come down with Neil Beymer, Ryan Toyama, Kevin Bertrand and Mary Schlemmer. Was this the year Karolyn came too? Jody? My memory fails me. Lisa’s last visit to Universal? The Six-Million Dollar Man was the highlight. For me it was E.T., the ride. That makes me laugh.

Someday, we’ll recall this trip and laugh too, but for today the state of the art in rides is the aforementioned King Kong segment of the tram tour and the Simpsons ride. Both are amazing, and both, it should be noted, are simulated motion rides with full-emersion projection screens. I’m sure Ryan will give me the technical term here since I was exchanging texts with him as we stood in line. “Too bad Transformers isn’t open yet,” he sent me. It was sad though that the park had moved forward so little in more than 20 years. We’re we really just attacked by the same rubber-looking pneumatic shark on the side of the tram? And did that 80’s looking food stand really fit in with the shiny new themed eateries just across the street?

On the drive home after stopping for Sushi, Emily asked Patrick what his favorite moment was…that one moment when you just said, “That was awesome!” My immediate joke answer was “Washing my hands in the restroom and then putting my hands into the Dyson Airblade and slowly retracting them, dry.”

My actual answer was when, riding the Simpsons ride for the second time I completely convinced myself that we had actually made a full barrel roll in our broken roller coaster. That ride is amazing. Did I mention that?

However, in retrospect I realize that my true “awesome” moment was during the stage effects show when we were selected to go up on stage. I had just told Patrick “We never get selected,” as they asked for volunteers and Patrick bounced up and down awkwardly in his seat, one hand cocked to the sky yelling, “Me, me!”

Then they asked for a family. “I’ll raise my hand,” I thought. Just for the heck of it. A family of four… “Hey, we stand a chance.” Maybe a mother and father and two kids, and as others lowered their hands with a dull “Awwww.” I raised mine a little higher. And then we were selected- all four of us-to go up on stage and play in front of hundreds, perhaps a thousand audience members.

These are the awesome moments that memories are made of-the stories we’ll tell our grandkids. There would be many more to come in the following week.