Littlestar and I spent the last weekend going to and from Orange County, where we spent a day for a good friend's wedding (which is another, and altogether more beautiful, story). Outside of the fun of the wedding, it was a trip well-laden with quirks, starting with the hotel parking garage for the ostensibly 3.5-star Anaheim Hilton (reserved blind via the wonders of Hotwire).
We parked our car in front, gave the keys for safekeeping to one of the valets (at her request), and then after checking in had to get them to track down said valet, who'd just held onto the keys rather than handing them into the office. After that very mild adventure, we pulled into the Hilton parking garage proper, which had a few immediate quirks.
First, it was arranged somewhat backwards, a trait it shares with the parking in downtown San Jose.
Second, it was arranged very oddly, such that signs for (for example) the handicapped parking actually looped you completely around the periphery of the third level, only to direct you up to the fourth level (rather than just directing you immediately to the fourth level). Truly exciting, however, were the fracture marks everywhere:
The pictures don't do justice to the rolling ups and downs of the floor, either. It looked and felt as if, perhaps, the entire hotel were slowly subsiding in bits and pieces. It altogether looked like it wouldn't survive the next good-sized earthquake...which seems as if it would be a concern in Orange County.
But you see, it's okay, because there's a massive network of jury-rigged metal supports undergirding the floors in this place:
What's especially exciting, and unfortunately not captured in pictures, is how some of the structural pillars in this place are obviously being tugged inward by the nearest jury-rigged crossbeams. It makes me glad that the chance of an earthquake while you're actually in the place is pretty low.
Signs of subsidence, unfortunately, continued into the hotel proper:
The angle obscures it quite a bit, but the bed itself is sloping away from the center of the room, following the downward slope of the floor as it moves toward the headboard.
This door (actually a suite door connecting the room to the neighboring room) was also subsiding, torquing the lock you see there quite a bit.
The trip back from Orange county was not without its own quirks.
Don't buy the gas here.
Don't drink the water, either.
But do laud these nice folks for conserving it.
It was a good trip for a worthy cause, and when the Anaheim Hilton finally collapses, at least we'll know why.