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. :)