California 2009
So Cali was interesting...Mostly awesome times, but things got weird at some points. I will just choose to ignore those moments and focus on the good stuff, haaa.
Day 1:
Brian crashed at my house Thursday night and we ended up going to Wings and Rice before picking up Shroov and Chan. We left Tucson around four and drove to San Diego via I-8. The ride was pretty uneventful although we took a couple pit stops, because Chan had to eat like three times. I swear, I have no idea where that food goes, he's so SKINNY! Lameeee, we should trade body types. We got to San Diego at around 11 PM and stopped over at this gas station where this extremely nice lady gave us some directions to the beach, because that was what we wanted to see first. We made our way to Mission Beach and walked on the mini-boardwalk. They even had a wooden roller coaster...it was so cute! It was kinda small and boring so we ended up driving a few minutes north to Pacific Beach. After parking the car, we started walking for about three blocks to find a restaurant that was open. Unfortunately, the three blocks consisted of bars, bars, bars. No food. After walking for a while, we found a cute little Thai restaurant called Basil Thai. Sarah and I shared some delish Tom Yum soup and the boys got Pad Thai. The boys were craving tacos so they also got some bomb fish tacos from this hole in the wall Mexican restaurant next door. They were so good! I wish I had some right now. On the way back to the car, we saw this crazy drugged up bum mumbling "Bad cigarette, bad cigarette..." and we thought it was hilarious. For the rest of the trip, when we saw some weird, cracked out person we would just say, "Bad cigarette."
We were supposed to meet up with my friend Beau in SD, but they couldn't find us so we just ended up finding a motel for the night. I think it was called Cowboy Trail (yee-haw) or something, but it was pretty nice for being cheap. After making fun of Chan for taking weird pictures of himself on his camera and after taking a nice hot shower, I crashed on my little cot with Puffington and went into dream land.
Day 2:
Woke up around 9 AM and got ready to go to the beach to have a little sun time! We headed out to Pacific Beach and the weather that day was just gorgeous. Shroov and I immediately ran to the ocean and squished our toes in the wet sand. It was really nice to be looking into the big, blue ocean again. The ocean reminds me how of how small and insignificant I am in the scheme of the universe...quite humbling. But it didn't detract from the fact that it was beautiful! On a different note, I really like the people and counter culture that make up beach towns...it could def be a place I could call home.
Most of the day at the beach was spent in the water. Sarah and I swam pretty far out into the ocean and I seriously almost drowned. The waves were pretty brutal and I got super tired, but this guy asked me if I wanted to rest on his wakeboard and I said YES! So I rested for a bit and just paddled back to shore when I caught my breath. I really think I need to work on endurance, haha. Yeah, definitely need to start running on a regular basis. Brian and Chan were playing their guitars on the beach to get some cute girls to come by and watch but I guess they only attracted a little five year old girl who liked Jack Johnson. They did end up swimming too for a little while. Brian also had to go the number two, so he just pooped in the ocean. 0_0; We bought some great carnita soft tacos for lunch with avocado, lettuce, tomato, and fresh salsa. It was very tasty! After lunch, we sadly packed up and left for LA. We wanted to stay a lot longer, but alas we had places to go in the city.
Day 2.5:
We drove up to LA and made our way to Chinatown. The boys and I were pretty hungry so we ate at this place called Philippe's. I guess Philippe's is infamous for their French dipped sandwiches and dang were they good. I got a double dipped roast beef sandwich with a slice of banana cream pie for dessert. I really really wanna go there again when I get the chance!
After that, we just messed around in Chinatown and looked at all the Asian paraphernalia. (That's where I got the little guy pictured above!) We walked up to this pretty bridge where the transit line stopped and these weird emo, Mexican kids asked us whether we were going to the Love Fest.....? I don't know what that meant. We eventually made our way to this cute plaza. Shroov and I shared a strawberry smoothie and fortune cookies. Chan and Brian bought some poppers and were throwing them in the air and at each other. They even brought their guitars to the plaza and played a Scene Aesthetic song while I recorded it. (You can actually see it on FB, if you're friends with Brian). This weird creepy Asian man was just watching and placed himself a few inches behind Brian's head...his close proximity made me feel uncomfortable...wonder how Brian felt!
Day 2.75:
I was supposed to meet my friend Ethan in Chinatown, but plans sketched out so we went to Little Tokyo to kill some time. We walked around this Asian supermarket and found rainbow colored mochi!! I was so excited when I saw it, so Brian just bought it for me. Yay. We walked around the rest of the shopping center and Brian saw this black guy dressed up as Kakashi from Naruto and he freaked out. It made me laugh, because he wanted to take pictures with him. He was like a little boy in a candy shop. :) Shroover wanted to eat sushi so I accompanied her to this restaurant called Honda-Ya. She bought yellow tail and California rolls and I ordered a spicy tuna roll. We also split some tempura fried veggies. Overall, we were very impressed with the sushi because of its freshness and flavor. Later, we met up with the boys at Mister Ramen and we went to the Sanrio store (!!!) and Pinkberry (!!!!) for dessert. We added our rainbow mochi to the yogurt and it was amazing.
Day 2.80:
We left Little Tokyo and drove out to see my friend Ethan, whom I hadn't seen for six years. It was pretty sweet, but we couldn't crash as planned so we ended up questing. Let's just say it was a long night.
Day 2.95:
4 AM at Denny's. Tired. Enough said.
Day 3:
Drove back to Tucson on little sleep and stopped at Cabazon to take pictures with the dinos. The trip had its ups and downs, but it was worth the experience and next time we will be going to theme parks to ride roller coasters!