California Day Four (Last Day)

On Monday we really slept in. We planned to go to downtown LA after lunch and see the LaBrea tar pits and the Hollywood walk of fame. Super tourist day basically. :) Then off to the Metro Rail back to the airport, and then home. At midnight. Texas time.

When we finally find the tar pits, I get really excited, this is some really awesomely cool stuff. Although I didn't really care for the smell. I loved how they had statues in the tar that were molded from bones that were actually excavated in the area. We even got to see the pit bubble. Big woah! Ok, my not so inner nerd is starting to show. I'll tone it down a bit.

After walking around the one big pit, we wondered over to the museum and had a look inside. It wasn't too huge inside, but they had a ton (haha get it mammoths. ton. sorry.) of skeletons, and that really surprised me. It was really informative, but I'll just show a few pictures and spare the "boring details." But one of my favorite parts I didn't photograph. They had part of their lab out in the museum and through thick glass we could see scientists cleaning off fossils that had be found in the back where they are still excavating. Oh so fascinating. I was born for tedious science work!

After browsing the museum we learned that there were places in the back where we could see them excavating. Oooooh!!
So after the pits, we headed over to Hollywood. At first when we were walking along the stars, I wasn't impressed. I didn't recognize any names. But eventually as we got closer to the chinese theatre we saw some big names.

Then we came to an area with look-a-likes everywhere. All trying to make a buck of course. I had to stop and get a quick pick with one of my favorite movie icons, Napoleon Dynamite. He stayed in character pretty well. It was his idea to do the "yessssssss" thing. Clever guy. :)

And then we saw the chinese theatre with all the foot prints and autographs in concrete, didn't take any pictures though. Doh!
And then before we left, we saw Michael Jacksons star. Of course it was the most popular in terms of having a mob of people surround it to take pictures and maybe mourn.

Then it was off to the Metro Rail! Which we got on just in time for five o'clock traffic. Fun! I did really enjoy the light rail system. It was very convienent for us, and was super easy to navigate even for out of towners. We get to the airport and get through much faster this time. Hooray! And even had time to eat over priced Burger King for dinner.

We got back to Austin a little before midnight and when Chris tried to call some of his police pals to give us a ride, there happened to be a SWAT call. I was like, "Come on. On a Monday night." So we ended up taking a cab to the East Substation and drove home to a very lonely Xander. Then shortly hit the hay.

California Day Three

We planned day three a tad more, to fit two adventures. And we even planned to wake up "early" so we could leave at 9:00. Our first destination was Raging Waters, which is a big water park. And once again, we had free tickets thanks to Tina's awesome hook-ups from Clear Channel.

Here is a picture of us driving up to the park. Of course I didn't bring my camera in, so this is the only photo I have.

I hadn't been to a water park in about eight years. We stayed for about four hours and then decided that was enough heat and sun. Plus, we were ready for lunch, which was in the car. We packed a picnic lunch to save some money. And it was a good thing too because we looked at the price of food as we were leaving and a slice of pizza and a soda cost, $9!! Highway robbery!

Once we left the water park we headed out to Santa Monica, aka The Pacific Ocean! Now I've seen the Gulf a few times and have even been to beaches in Florida, but non of those compared to the Pacific. It was crisp blue color, and of course there were mountains around too, adding to the awesomeness.

When we got to Santa Monica we drove down the PCH, Pacific Coast Highway. We saw lots of over priced beach houses and hotels, tons of people and even a Ferrari. You know you're in Cali when you see a Ferrari.

Also, about half of the stretch of the highway we drove was along steep cliffs. I suppose people are too busy looking at the ocean to notice if a rock fell on your car, unless it was a big one.

So once we find a place to park, and start walking around we see what was a type of "muscle beach," at least that what's I'm calling it because all you could do it work out and show off like these guys.
We walked over to the pier and had a look around. It was so neat. There were shops, rides, and street shows. Oh and lets not forget the freggin' OCEAN!

So I'm going to get it over with and tell you about being dragged, and yes the man did drag me, into "performing" with some break dancers during a street show. They were funny, and very talented, but they also picked the whitest looking people in the audience to pick on. It was awesome. Humiliating, but in an awesome way.

Now I'll admit I was a weeny and didn't go into the ocean. I was already in dry clothes and didn't really feel like getting wet again. Chris and Jon went in for about half an hour or so and Tina and I took pictures and hung out.

And so eventually the sun started to go down and it was time to go back to the apartment. That night we Had In-N-Out Burger for dinner, thanks to the marvelous suggestion by Gypsy. It was super yummy. We went back to the house and relaxed for the rest of the night.

California Day Two

Boy it sure was different waking up on my own instead of to Devon or Matthew. But since California time is two hours earlier than Texas. I had to have woke up at 5:00am Cali time, because it was still pretty dark outside. I just stayed in bed and dozed for a while until everyone else got up.

On the agenda for Saturday was Universal Studios! I was really excited about this. Since Tina works at Clear Channel she was able to get us all free tickets, which normally cost a little over $60 each. Yikes! Three cheers for Tina!! And it was only about a 25 minute drive from their place. Oh and have I mentioned they live pretty darn close to a mountain. I was incredible!

Everywhere we went there were mountains visible. I was in heaven. I love mountains! I just never really thought about the topography of Cali. Having all those mountains around makes the tectonic threat pretty obvious though. I was slightly worried about the .000000000999 percent chance that an earthquake could happen the few days we were there. So basically this means my thought process was,

"Woah. Mountains. Sweet. They're huge. We're surrounded by them. It

took thousands and thousands and thousands of years of tectonic activity

to create them. Wait. Tectonic activity? That means earthquakes. Oh man.

I didn't even think about earthquakes. Dang."

And then my worrying was over. Such a simple mind. I know. But here are some pictures of the mountains.

This was just up the road from there apartment. I don't know if I would ever go inside if there were a mountain right outside my house.

Yep. There were mountains by the ocean. Gorgeous! But technically we went to the beach Sunday. So this is a sneak peak.

So on to Universal! I didn't take my camera because they don't allow them on the rides and I don't trust people enough to leave it in a cubby hole while I'm on a 3-10 minute ride. Paranoid. I know. But it was awesome. First you go into a place called Universal City. There are tons of shops and big name restaurants. It seemed like they were going for a time square/Las Vegas look. Cool stuff.

After that you go into the actual park. We rode on the new Simpsons ride, which Chris said was his favorite. We also did The Mummy ride, which was an indoor roller coaster in complete darkness. Scary. Then of course was my personal favorite, the Jurassic Park ride! Let's see. I can't remember some of the other things we did. Uhg. And it's only been a week.

We also took a tram tour of the lots where they film tv shows and movies. It was really neat. The tour combined entertainment sections and also real sets. For instance, we drove down the actual Wisteria Lane (spelling?) from Desperate Housewives. I don't watch the show, but it was interesting the see how they just built there own neighborhood in the middle of rows and rows of studios.

We were able to get our hands stamped to go back out to Universal City and had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. Those are always fun. But pricey! We stayed at the park all day. It was awesome. Not once did I have to change a diaper or read "But Not the Hippopotamus" a million times. I had real conversations without interruptions. I could make decisions without worrying how they would impact a one year old and five year old. It was nice. But I still missed them. :)

California Day One

We've been back for almost a week now. I'd better blog now before I forgot what happened. ;)

Well, first off, we dropped the kids off on Thursday afternoon, meeting Chris's parents halfway to their house. It's a four hour drive total. We met at a McDonalds and the plan was to eat and let the kids play on the playground, but of course it was raining. One of the three days it rained this summer! We load up everything in Pop's car and move the car seats over. Then came the hard part, saying good-bye. The trick was to be sincere but not too sappy to where Matthew would get upset. Meaning I couldn't show how sad I really was, because I knew I would miss them. So I had to be tough. I did a good job because the kids left smiling and that was the important part.

We drive back to Austin. Now our plan was scheduled to leave at 7:40am on Friday morning. Instead of paying $25 a day to park at the airport, we park at the East Substatin, Chris's work. Seemed like a good secure place to park, within the large gates and surrounded by police cars. You can't beat that!

We wake up at 5:15 on Friday morning, get ready real quick, and drive to the East Sub. From there we walked a few blocks to a bus stop for the airport flyer, due at 6:28am. We cleverly packed everything in backpacks to make this easier.

As we are approaching the bus stop I realize I don't have any change for the bus and I wasn't sure if they took 20s. So Chris dashes across the street to a Sonic to get change. He ran back across the street just before the bus was pulling up. What a trooper! The bus gets us to the airport in ten minutes. Shocking. I know.

We go into the airport thinking, "yeah, we're here an hour early that should be fine this early in the morning." Then we see the lines to check in baggage. UHG! I was feeling panicky. An airport employee told us we had to go to a specific (and LONG) line to check in Chris's gun. It takes half an hour to get to the counter and it turns out we actually could have gone through any line. Grrr. So we pay for the bag and then fill out some paper work for Chris's gun. While there I nervously say, "We can make to the terminal by 7:40 right?" The lady then tells us the most amazing news, the flight was delayed by 35 minutes. Talk about relief. So we go over to where they really check the gun and then we were off to go to our terminal.

We wait in another line to take off our shoes and put everything through the x-ray machine. When we get out of that line it was 7:32am. If our flight had not been delayed we would have had eight minutes to get to the gate and board before it left. But luckily, we we're stressing any more.

We board on the plane. And arrive in sunny California where it was 74 degrees at 9:15am. Awesome weather! We collect our bags and hop on a shuttle bus to the Metro Rail. I was really impressed with the rails there. It took us an hour to get from the airport to Passadina, where Jon and Tina live.

We meet up with Jon and Tina and then we were off to Chinatown! We had lunch at Foo Chow, which was used in the movie Rush Hour. You may have heard of it. But we weren't that impressed with their food. Then we walked around, taking tons of pictures of course. It seemed pretty empty. And I was expecting more outdoor vendors, but maybe it's different on the weekends.

Then we headed back to get some groceries, because lucky me was getting cooking lessons from Jon, who buy the way is almost done with culinary school at the Le Courdon Blue. You know we're Emiril went. Yep. Jon's that good. :)

He showed me how to make mac and cheese, the real way. I've tried twice and both times I ruined the sauce and we had to eat buttered elbow macaroni. And Chris said he wanted quiche, so I got to learn out to make that from scratch too. Both were actually pretty simple, I just learn cooking techniques better hands on. We had sooooooo much cheese though! It was great.

Honest Abe, I mean Devon

Today was a day for one of our bi-monthly trips to Costco. I love it! But that's not the point of this short story. As we're heading toward the check-out counters, with a very grumpy Matthew, I see a display for kids vitamins, of course in jumbo bottles. Instead of just grabbing the one I know I'll end up buying, I compare all the different kinds (it's a sickness, I can't just pass by the other options there could be a better deal). And after a few minutes I hand Devon the bottle that I knew I was probably going to get.

Devon holds it and points to the bears for Matthew saying, "Bear. Matthew can you say bear?" She's cute and helpful, huh? So I load up all our goodies onto the conveyor tables and check out super quick as usual. When they push my basket to me Devon stops me with a very serious voice saying. "Stop. They didn't let me pay for my vitamins." She's been big on buying things herself lately. I turn to ask the cashier to ring it up real quick, but she had already scanned half a dozen things from the lady behind me in line. I told you, these people are quick.

I really didn't want to go back to the end of a line. So I go to a manager who is conveniently near me and tell him what happened and asked if he could ring it up for me. He was very happy to help so we go to an empty register and pay for it. While I'm swiping my debit card he turns to Devon and says, "Are those your vitamins?" She replied, "Yes. The lady didn't scan them and I forgot my money, so my Mom is really nice and is buying them for me."HAHA! Then he tells her, "That was a very honest thing to do. Just like honest Abe." And here's the best part, she told him, "You know, his real name is Abraham," in a very as a matter of fact voice. We both just laughed. He told her, "You sure are a smart kid," and we left.

I would have been so embarrassed if we had left the store and not payed for them. I just wasn't paying as close attention when putting my things up. Next time I'll know to check the kids laps when checking out. As for Miss Know It All, I can only hope she keeps up the confidence, but needs a little work on respect to adults. Luckily the manager wasn't offended.

Side story. As I was loading the car, I witnessed two cars back out into each other. One car was very calm and sincere, the other had a very grumpy lady who insisted on calling the police. When I had put everything up and the kids were loaded, I went to tell her they would be waiting in the parking lot a while for a police officer to show up, for maybe even two or three hours. But she cut me off at "Excuse me." She started yelling at me that I would need to "wait a damn minute for the police to get there," before she would move her car. I just laughed and turned around. Her car wasn't really blocking mine, but if she's going to be snippy, then too bad for her. We left for home.