Star Trek: The Experiment

I don't think I'm giving anything away here by saying that while on the Klingon Encounter Mission, we are transported from one room onto the Enterprise. Yes, beam me up Scotty, we are beamed. We start off in a square gray room with video monitors and doors in front of us; the light go out, the air whooshes, and little flickers of light surround us for no more than 3 seconds, then the lights are on and we are standing on a transporter pad. Yes, the circular transporter pad, lighted floor, no monitors, no doors - just some Starfleet Lieutenant telling us we've been beamed through a temporal rift into the future. This room is not the same color, size, or anything as the one we were in less than 3 seconds before. How did they do it?!

Since I couldn't afford the Behind the Scenes Tour, Max and I were trying desperately to work this question out on our own. We rode 4 times on Day 3 just to see if we could figure it out. My first clue to the Experiment was the small print for the Behind the Scenes Tour that said you would have to sign a Confidentiality Agreement. My second clue was realizing that the first thing that happens to you as you pass through the doors for the Borg Invasion ride is a bioscan. Here is my theory:

11 years ago after many trials and errors, the government finally discovered transporter technology. We all know that Star Trek has been an inspiration for years and many things we have today can attributed to the franchise. (Let's face it - that flip phone? that's Kirk's communicator!) Once they discovered the technology and safely tested it on inorganic objects, it was time to test it on live animals and humans. This must have worked on the small scale, but I think maybe there were some issues with how far people could be transported. Like any government agency, they are only happy when something has been tested for 20 years on thousands of people. But the urgency was so great, "we have it, we need to perfect it, it has to be done now"; and so Star Trek the Experience was born.

How many people would volunteer to be dismantled at the molecular level if we aren't sure if we've got this totally right? A few, but not enough to get those conclusive 20 year results. What better way to have the volunteers coming in droves if we make it an amusement ride! When the Experience opened 10 years ago, it was only the Klingon Encounter - hundreds of thousands of people, fans, paying to be materialized elsewhere. Then once it was evident that yes these people can be transported, it was important to know if there were any cumulative effects - hence the Borg Invasion with its entry bioscan was born!

Let's face it, the Klingon mission is better, everyone who's been on it knows it. Since the admission, became an unlimited day pass, what do these hundreds of thousands of people do? Get transported multiple times and then get scanned once or twice depending on how slow that Klingon line is. So, they get a good luck at us on the cellular level after we've raced to be transported a few times. And now, hopefully and conclusively, they have all the evidence they need to prove that they have perfected materialization with no long term or cumulative effects. And so, they are closing down the Experiment and we should see transporter booths being erected all over the planet within 3-5 years.

Imagine: dinner in London, dessert in Sao Paolo! Beam me up again :)







And no, you can't smile when standing next to a Klingon or an Andorian. They'll think you are up to something and kill you where you stand. There are no questions before or after - and if you were a good Trekkie, you would know that!

Vacation: the Vegas part!

Soooo, merrily we went back across the Mohave desert, stopped at Jack in the Box (mandatory on any Southwest trip!), and got to Vegas at about 2 pm. The rest of that day we spent at the Star Trek Experience. We stopped a Borg Invasion and prevailed in our Klingon Encounter; we ate Sisko's Ribs at Quark's and revelled in Nog's Chocolate Cake for dessert. It was wonderful! Day 2, we went to the Stratosphere, went up the tower (1000+ ft in the air!) where Max rode their rooftop thrill rides while I sat serenely in the observation lounge taking pictures of the whole city. We then ate lunch at Top of the World revolving restaurant - which was mediocre at absolute best, but I suppose I was paying for the view. Then we stopped at Caesar's Palace for some shopping and to watch the Atlantis animatronics show - very cool. If I can ever figure out how to upload a video without overloading the computer, I'll do it. Then we went to the pool party at the Tropicana where we were staying and had dinner at Wolfgang Puck's Grill. Now there is true food talent.







Tomorrow Day 3 and the Conspiracy Theory!

Vacation, part 3

Later on Friday, we went to the hospital to visit the new baby. Here are some pictures of our happy family:






As you can probably tell, we hate babies :) Anyway, Saturday was spent cleaning up, cooking and freezing lots of dinners, and getting ready for the next part of our vacation. Sunday after church, we headed back to Vegas for our Star Trek Mission.

Vacation, part 2

After Mt. Baldy, we arrived at my sister Lori's house. She was busting at the seams, ready to give birth and as you know, did have little Jillie later that night.


Friday morning, while Lori and Brandon were recuperating at the hospital, Max and I had the pleasure of taking my nephews Bryson and Sebastian to their weekly Mommy & Me class. Wow! What an experience! 15 toddlers and mommies doing activities and singing songs for 2 hours. Thank goodness I had Max and my oldest nephew Gavin there to help. Look at these shiny, happy faces!

Vacation is over :(

So sad! I had a great time! Max and I landed in Las Vegas on Wednesday night - very late. We rented a car and a GPS we'll call Maggie. Maggie is a ditz - not nearly as competent as Australian Karen or British Daniel.

Anyway, we crawled into our hotel room, passed out, woke up early, ate breakfast buffet as only Las Vegas can do it, then jumped in the car and relied on Maggie to get us across the Mohave Desert as quickly as possible. We admired the heat, bright sun, and lack of vegetation - so reminiscent of our Arizona days; it's a dry heat.

3.5 hours later, we arrived at Mt. Baldy - one of Max's destinations. Of course we had experiments to conduct: air pressure, altitude, vegetation lines of demarcation, air drag, etc. I, personally, was testing my "winding mountainous road" reflexes; that was interesting. The view from Mt. Baldy was gorgeous of course (except for the brown LA fog hanging over their city at midday).






More coming.....