by Bettina

2001-11-15

Now I am back in the south of France where it is much too cold for this time of the year and I can’t believe that I was taking sunbathes at a pool in sunny California this time last week. We had a marvellous holiday in the USA and this not only thanks to the great weather but especially to the nice girls we spend a great time with. So, first of all, I would like to thank Jana, Uli and Vreni, as well as Heidrun, Uta and Antje for their company.

Then, I would like to start with the beginning of our trip, the flight to Los Angeles on November 3. Julie and I had already spent almost one week in Germany and on that Saturday we started our journey well rested. My parents were so kind to take us to the airport in Frankfurt from where an Air France aircraft should bring us to Los Angeles via Paris. We felt a bit uneasy as on the evening before we heard about the possibly planned attacks on bridges in California. Controls at the airport were thorough but despite in a relaxed atmosphere and so was the atmosphere on the plane itself. This contributed to the fact the we were looking forward to our holiday in LA. The service for disabled persons was really good and an airport employee took us through all the controls. The weather was not the best; a bit rainy and humid as we often have it in the south of France. Julie immediately said: "I’m smelling the ocean. It smells like at home."

After a meal in the restaurant of our hotel which was located near the airport we fell into our beds, totally exhausted. The next day, about midday, we set off well rested for the car rental company Alamo and Julie had already written postcards to all her German and French friends. Arrived at Alamo, we got our rental car, which was quite small but comfortable and then I gave Jana a call on her cell phone (I had bought a Calling Card). Jana, Uli and Vreni were supposed to land at midday and indeed, I reached Jana immediately: "We are already in the shuttle." Great! 5 Minutes later, they arrived and we hugged each other happily. Then the 3 girls also got their rental car which was a bit bigger and we drove on Freeway 405 in southern direction, to Escondido near San Diego, where Uli had booked a fantastic domicile for us. (Uli, we will always be grateful for that!)

We managed to arrive at the Welk Resort before dusk and there we moved into an extremely large and well-equipped vacation apartment. After having chosen the rooms (Jana and Uli took the one with the 2 single beds, Julie and I took the one with the double bed and Vreni slept on the sofa in the living room) we went shopping in a near supermarket and to a fast-food restaurant (no, it wasn’t McDonalds, we didn’t find one that fast *g*) for a hamburger. But we didn’t go to bed that late as the girls were still exhausted from the flight and Julie and I were still fighting with the jet lag.

On our way to San Diego

Julie and the rental car

At the Welk Resort -

our vacation domicile

The next morning, we were woken by the bright Californian sun and we made ourselves comfortable at one of the 6 pools in the resort. We could have spent the whole day there but Jana wanted to explore near-by San Diego. Julie and I stayed at the pool a bit longer and then we decided to have a walk through the shopping mall of the resort (and it is really like a small town) and finally followed the others to San Diego, Old Town, where we later met in a Mexican restaurant. At this point, I would like to praise my daughter for her map-reading abilities; without her I would still be driving around somewhere in San Diego or LA looking for my way.

Tuesday, we were again lured by the sun to spend the whole day at a pool. We decided to do so and relax and in addition we had met some nice Americans and the girls were especially taken with one of them, Greg. He was from San Diego and he gave us hints for where to go for sight-seeing. But unfortunately, the week was far too short for all that; next time we should stay there for 2 weeks. In the evening, we had dinner at the restaurant of the resort, which was really good and later drove to Escondido, a small town near the resort in order to find an internet cafe. We wanted to deliver a short report to all those who had stayed at home but unfortunately we didn’t find a place to send our emails.

After this calm Tuesday, we decided to have some action on Wednesday and go to San Diego to visit Sea World. Unfortunately we were neither fire fighter nor policemen nor paramedics, so no "American Heroes" and thus had to pay the full price of almost $40. But it was really worth it as the shows with dolphins and whales were just great. The trip was also not too exhausting for me as there were wheelchairs available at the entrance and Julie had fun making "wheelchair races" with me. Sometimes I had no choice than closing my eyes and hoping that she won’t crash me into a crowd. *g*

For the later afternoon, the girls had decided to leap into the saddle, after my daughter had begged for it, and have a ride along the Mexican border. We drove to a ranch, which Uli (our perfectly English-speaking tour guide J ) had called beforehand. I preferred to stay on the ground while the others leaped into their saddles and I was responsible for taking pictures with several cameras. As the horses were tame, there were no incidents during the ride, which might have been a bit boring for Julie. But I think that the other girls were quite satisfied with the unhurried attitude of their horses, especially because they came back after dusk.

Thursday was Julie’s and my last day in the Welk Resort and according to our logical row of "day for relaxing" and "action day", we decided to dedicate this day to our beauty. *g* I had been at the hairdresser’s on Tuesday and I had seen that it was part of a beauty salon. And Uli thought we could do something for our physical well-being in our holidays. So all of us made appointments for a massage, facial and nail care and we spent most of the day in the beauty salon where we also got drinks, had a pizza and simply enjoyed the time. Jana and I drove to Escondido in between as we had learnt that there was internet access in the library. So we could finally send our email and print the posted program for the Galaxy Ball. And the best thing was that the internet access was for free. Being happy about this cost saving, we left the library and were almost flabbergasted: a nice local police officer had given us a parking ticket amounting to $25 for parking near a hydrant. Well, "law and order" is functioning well in the US. *g*

Friday morning, Julie and I packed our things because we had to check in at LA’s Sheraton Universal, the hotel where the Galaxy Ball took place, in the evening. But before driving to LA, we wanted to visit Disneyland as Anaheim was on the way to LA. In Disneyland we should meet Uta and Heidrun who had arrived on Thursday as they told us via SMS. Julie and I took a different route than Jana, Uli and Vreni did but we arrived almost at the same time in Disneyland, where Uta and Heidrun were already sitting at the Main Street, enjoying the sun and waiting for us. It has already been our second visit to Disneyland; the year before Julie and Sabine (K’Laus) had tried all the attractions. But obviously, a child can never get enough of it and so she pulled Jana, Uli and Vreni with her, while Heidrun, Uta and I were sitting in the sun. Later we made a tour on train around the whole area and that was really funny. After the parade, Jana, Uli and Vreni went back to the Welk Resort because they only wanted to go to Hollywood the next morning. Uta and Heidrun set off for LA to look for a motel and Julie and I also went to LA where, after a bit of a search and having landed in the Universal Studios first, we finally found the Sheraton Universal Hotel.

Just having arrived in the lobby, Rigel and Judy came running towards us to give us a warm welcome. The next person to welcome us was Sabine (K’Laus) who had already been in LA since that Wednesday together with her friend and who had arrived in the hotel only a short time before. Later we met Antje, Sabine and Danny who had just arrived from Germany and had come directly from the airport. After a short walk through the hotel, Julie and I came back to the lobby and we could hear from a distance that other Robert Beltran fans from the ORB and RBEB had arrived. *g* We heard chattering and laughter and I preferred to sit down first behind a big bush in the lobby in order not to be seen right away. But I failed to reckon with Julie’s curiosity: of course, she walked around and soon I heard other Robert fans shrieking: "Julie!!! Nice to see you! Where’s your mum?" So I had no choice but to come out from behind my bush and I was lively welcomed by Elena, Cat and the others. Annie from Rome whom we had already met before in the hotel boutique, had told us, that in room 1428, Doreen’s room, there would be a party and said that we need to come. That was what we did, accompanied by Antje. In the meantime, we had met her again and she had introduced her friend Beate to us. However, we didn’t stay long because even in large, air-conditioned American hotel rooms, 30 or more women are too many; it was too loud and too hot and apart from that, we wanted to be fit for the Galaxy Ball the next morning.

Saturday morning, at 9:00, we met Heidrun, Uta, Jana, Uli and Vreni in the lobby and together went to the GB breakfast which was organised by Elaine. As agreed before, we wore our ‘No-Fans’ T-shirts and so we gained a lot of funny comments. The most funny thing was a conversation with a couple who really did not recognise the guy on our T-shirts. The woman read the text: I’m a No-Fan. Only here by accident. Who is that guy? And then she really asked: "Who is that guy?" She didn’t know Robert and thus didn’t recognise him. And we responded: "We don’t know. Because we are no fans." *g*

At the table reserved for the RBEB members, we met their listmom Jannie who gave us a warm welcome and I introduced all German group members to her. She is a really nice lady and I was happy to meet her again. Later Antje and Beate joined us and we set off to get registered fro the Ball. At the organizers’ table, we were welcomed by Bridget who had taken part in organizing the Random Flight Cruise as well and thus knew Julie and me. We got our green stamp with a star on our hands and they wrote the number of our table on our tickets. Thanks to Josette’s commitment, it had really worked that we were all sitting at the same table.

In the still quite empty room, we found good seats at the front, left of the stage and we didn’t have to wait long before Robert came and welcomed the guests. So far I always preferred Robert having short hair but this medium length hair which he always stroke out of his face with a certain movement of his hand, suit him very well. He wore black trousers and a lose falling long-sleeved polo shirt which concealed his beginnings of a paunch quite well. *g* But you immediately recognise that he has put on some weight as you can see from his fuller face and his chubby cheeks. But this does not spoil his attractiveness at all! For all those who haven’t met him in person so far, I can only repeat what others already said: this man looks much better in reality than he does on pictures or on TV. Unbelievable but true! However, my heart doesn’t beat faster anymore whenever I meet him. Somehow I got used to him and it’s like meeting an old friend.

The Q&A session with the actors from TNG (Stewart, Spiner, Frakes, Wheaton), DS9 (Auberjonois, Eisenberg) and Voyager (Bob Picardo, Roxann Dawson, Robert Beltran) was extremely entertaining and sometimes we almost killed ourselves laughing. I won’t write down anything about that here as I posted an "official" report on the RAB! Website (sorry, only in German and French). Apart from this, there were numerous reports posted on the ORB and this report is supposed to reflect OUR experience. Anyway, we had a lot of fun. The only little flaw was that the GB program leaflets hadn’t been delivered so far and we asked ourselves where to have the stars sign later. It was a pity because we didn’t only get the program leaflet in the evening but also get a great cast picture of the Voyager crew which would have been perfect for signing.

While we were discussing how to proceed during the signing, Julie had already lined up at the front but as we others didn’t come she gave up her good position. She was angry, walked away and as I went after her to talk to her, there was a well known male voice with an American accent calling my name stopping me. Robert! He was already sitting at the signing table and I hadn’t even seen him. I went over to him and he welcomed me with a kiss and asked me how I was and for how long we had already been there and so on. When Julie saw that Robert was distributing kisses she came back voluntarily, went through the same procedure and her mood was much better right away. *g* Later we realised that Robert only wanted to kiss us on one cheek. But we simply also kissed him on the other cheek. Sorry, Robert, but we’re living in France and there it is a tradition that people always kiss on both cheeks, in some areas even twice. *g*

Then, we also queued up at the end of a pretty long queue for the autographs (why do people always do that ;-)) and Julie had decided to have the Enterprise poster signed and in addition the picture from the Paris convention which showed him, Julie and Jana. I was anxious to see Robbie McNeill’s reaction when he would see Julie as we had met him in Blackpool and Julie had him sign the Cruise picture back then. And, indeed, he said: I know you! He wanted to know where they had met and Julie answered "Blackpool". I had Robert sign Jana’s great drawing and Jana and Uta made him sign at the backside of their No-Fans T-shirts. Robert read the text and seemed a bit confused. Well, you are not confronted with No-Fans every day. *g* Jana gave him our album and Uli (our interpreter) was summoned back to Robert to explain what this was about. Later we were sitting in the lobby again and I said to Jana: "Our nice album! Actually, it is too good to give it away." And Uli responded: "I’ll get it back" and she stormed back to the escalator to snatch the album away from Robert. On her way she almost ran Louie Cruz Beltran over who had just come up the escalator, stared confused after our Uli and couldn’t believe that this beautiful blonde who came running towards him with open arms was gone again without even having looked at him. *g* But Uli hadn’t even recognised him and was now discussing with Robert who didn’t want to give back the album. (Well, girls, I’m convinced that Robert is going to have a look at it after he defended it that bravely against Uli. *g*)

Now it was time to get ready for the real Ball which was to begin in less than an hour. Uli took over Julie’s make-up so that I could get dressed calmly. Later we gathered again for the cocktail party. And to be honest, I was quite surprised by the ball dresses that could be seen this year. At last year’s ball, there were also a few people wearing festive evening dresses but they were the minority. This year, however, people were dressed up and there was shining and glittering wherever you looked. Well, our girls could keep up with that trend with there festive clothes and when we entered the ball room, we realized happily that our table nr. 14 was right at the front, left of the stage. Later we thanked Josette for her organising skills and as a little present she got original Swiss chocolate, which Vreni had brought with her. Dinner was served really fast and tables were cleared with the same speed. This wasn’t really the French way of enjoying a meal but the food was quite OK. (sorry folks, I don’t want to sound arrogant but I’m quite spoiled concerning food and meals as I live in France;-). Due to this hurry, we were already having coffee when Robert officially opened the evening. Just beforehand, he had gone through the ball room and also come to our table in order to thank us for our coming. Well, you can’t deny that he is very charming and he knows how to pay compliments: "You look all beautiful tonight". *g*

The singing or other musical performances of the Voyager cast members were all really great. I’m surprised every time again by the variety of talents these actors have. Concerning the singing, I like most Tim Russ and Julie is delighted by Bob Picardo’s sung parodies. Ethan Phillips was excellent at his saxophone and the songs performed by Roxann, Robbie and Robert weren’t bad at all, too. Robert also recited a poem which reminded me of the poetry reading in April and to be honest, I like it more to hear Robert reciting poems than seeing him act as Chakotay (sorry to all Voyager fans, but this man does have a lot of talents.)

Later Chris and Isa came to us and we were dancing while Louie played his music. Even if – as a lot of you may know – I’m not such a big fan of Robert’s brother, I have to admit that he is a marvellous musician. We all stormed the dance floor and even my rheumatism couldn’t stop me from dancing again and again. Julie was on the dance floor almost non-stop and got a lot of compliment for her dancing style, however this time not by Robert because he had left the ball room and was outside besieged by fans who wanted to take a picture with him. Julie, Jana and Vreni later had a picture taken with him as well and the evening passed in a flash. Shortly after midnight when we were wondering whether Louie’s band has a break or the evening had come to an end, we got the answer right from Robert who appeared on the stage and told us that, unfortunately, the ball was over now. Louie played one last song heating up his drums again and then everything was over. Robert came to our table once again in order to say goodbye. Julie had the honour that Louie spoke French to her when she went up to him to get an autograph.

Jana, Uli, Vreni and Antje were tired and went to bed but Heidrun and Uta followed us to our hotel room to finish off with the evening. We raided the minibar and Julie fell asleep right in the middle of our conversation. Well yes, it had been a long day.

The next morning, we said goodbye to Antje, Beate, Uta and Heidrun knowing that we surely will meet again but not knowing when as I wouldn’t leave my winter residence in the south of France until the next spring. Winters in Germany are simply too cold for me. *g*

Later, on the Hollywood Boulevard, after having had our brunch at "Hamburger Hamlet", we also said goodbye to Vreni, Jana and Uli. The 3 girls had a week of holiday left and they went up to the Big Bear Lake to relax and enjoy. Then Julie and I were on our way top the airport, gave back our rental car at 2 p.m. sharp and then made ourselves comfortable until our flight back to Frankfurt in the evening. Thanks God, we didn’t hear anything about the plane crash in New York and so our flight was relaxed. In Frankfurt, my parents were waiting to pick us up. But we almost got a shock when being exposed to the freezing temperature in Germany, and unfortunately, here in France it isn’t much warmer either. And today, we had rain all day long. Again, there is this song in my mind "California dreaming… on a winter’s day". Well, let’s hope that there will be another Galaxy Ball next year providing the pretext for spending our holidays in sunny Southern California again.

Bettina

(Translation: Susan Rudolf)

The girls ready for the Ball!

go to Galaxy Ball photo page

go to RAB! Website