Rick West

I was born on January 10th, 1970 in San Bernardino, California. I grew up living much of the time with my grandparents in Rialto.When I was very young, my grandparents divorced and I inherited a step-grandmother, who remains very near and dear to me to this day (and forever). She and my grandfather raised me a great deal in Redlands while my grandma lived the rest of her life single in various locations in Southern California.My mother took the reigns full time when I was in grade school and I grew up in Irvine, California. I spent many summers at Laguna Beach, Newport, Salt Creek and so on. Good times.I went to high school in El Centro, California - I know, a long way from Orange County (long story). I spent four years there in the Imperial Valley and made many friendships that remain sacred to me.Upon graduation, we moved back to Irvine, where I found work at nearby Disneyland.Fast-forward to 1994. I created Theme Park Adventure and its online presence via a bulletin board I named Black Rainbow BBS.In the late '90s, I moved to the San Francisco area and married my wife, Venus West.Just over three years ago, I went through the most emotionally challenging months of my life. My grandfather passed away, and my baby girl was born - within about a month of each other. It was very, very difficult. My grandfather was my hero and my Everything. I wanted nothing more in my entire life than to have a picture of him holding my baby. That never came to pass.My little girl, Emily, is now four and a half. She did get to know my grandmother before she passed away almost a year ago. Losing my grandmother was very hard on me as well. She was a teacher once upon a time and gave me the skills of reading and writing. She lives on through every word I put down online or on paper.In December of 2005, I put the idea on the table of moving away from San Francisco. The job climate is miserable there and I was not happy. For 8 years, I felt like a stranger there - never at "home." That is a long time to be unhappy.After the New Year, we made the decision to move to Las Vegas. Less than a month later, we did it. My family and I now live just 10 minutes from the Strip (yes, we can see it from our neighborhood and at night, the light from Luxor can be seen very clearly from all of our rooms facing the Strip).I currently work at Excalibur as a supervisor at the Players Club booth, overseeing the clerks there as well as any of the Ambassadors we may have on the floor during my shift.Theme Park Adventure continues to thrive as we have exciting plans for 2007 and some big announcements that will come later in the year.All is well now in the Land of West.