I know that I live right across the street from the Valencia Town Center Mall. And I know that I had already heard that they would be opening an Apple Store there. But…

Imagine my surprise when I found out from a City of Santa Clarita tweet yesterday that the grand opening would be today! I guess that just tells you how often I bother spending time at the mall.

I had to take my car into the shop this morning for its 80k service, so I thought I would go stand in line for the opening. The store is in the new “Shops at the Patios” section of the mall in a fairly nice location (and conveniently, it’s diagonally across from Teavana). By the time I had walked over at about 8:30, there was already good-ish size line of about 100 people formed. Still, it was a very pleasant, cool morning and I didn’t have anything better to do so I didn’t mind waiting. I really kinda wanted to make sure I got a grand opening T-shirt with the name of my own town on it (not that I’m a big T-shirt wearer anymore), and that was no problem.

At about 9:30, the store’s entire staff did their traditional “high five” parade along the whole line of people waiting, then at precisely 10:00 they opened. The store doesn’t look particularly imposing from the outside, but let me tell you—it’s very large inside. I think part of it is the high ceilings, but I couldn’t believe how spacious it felt, even crowded with people. You’ll forgive the less-than-stellar quality photo, but it was taken with my iPad. This was from the very back of the store by the Genius Bar looking toward the front.

I quickly browsed around the place, checking out where everything was but with so many people it was a little too zoo-like. I didn’t actually buy anything, but that’s okay—I know I’ll be back!