Long overdo~
Thursday, Thanksgiving, was spent making the food and cleaning house. Food was nommed then I drove up to Zach's Mom's house for their Thanksgiving feast. Came home and packed for the drive to California.
Friday morning me and the bros woke up and rolled out of bed and into the car and got on our way. I spent the drive sleeping, writing and reading. We got to Riverside around 3pm their time and stopped by my cousin Craig's house. We spent several hours there just hanging out cause he has quite the bachelor pad and man cave and an adorable dog (of which I ended up being allergic to xp). Drove the 40 minutes or so to Newport and checked into our resort and I immediately took a shower to get the dog off me so I could breathe. And man, the shower/tub in that place is amazing! Camron and Steven Red Boxed Super 8 and we watched that while I NaNo'd and watched gab's Livestream.
Saturday the boys woke up and left for Six Flags while I remained in the resort by myself and finished my NaNo. It sounds kinda boring, but I found it relaxing despite how much work NaNo is and I was on vacation. Just being in California with an ocean view, listening to music and writing was relaxing.
Fog was out that day XP Some days were so clear we could see Catalina!
The parents got to the resort not too long after I finished my NaNo. I ate some dinner and asked them to go for a drive as I had cabin fever. We drove around for a bit trying to find parking just to walk around the shops and then we discovered it was too cold. So we picked up donuts and came back to the resort and waited for the boys to get back.
Apparently Steven lost his keyless entry thing to his car so they had spent three hours trying to get Six Flags security to help, and then a locksmith. This kind of stuff ALWAYS happens to Steven because he's dumb. So they got back and we listened to him rant and rave about that event for a while.
Sunday we went to church with my aunt and uncle in Brea then went to their house to hang out with the rest of the family. They recently moved into my Uncle David's parents house and they are remodeling it like they did with their old house. David loves to keep busy and is constantly improving it. I'm absolutely in love with all the wood work that is done in that house. I'm lame and didn't get any pictures XP She invited me to come and stay whenever I'd like. Hmmm. I think I'll be planning a California trip in the summer. David is helping John craft a surf board! And is refurbishing his dad's trains.
Once we were back at the resort, me, Mom and Dad walked over to Crystal Beach for a bit, then came back and played Ticket to Ride. Then went to bed.
Monday was Beach day. We drug our feet to get out the door. I purposefully didn't bring my swimsuit because I still think 60F is too cold to be in one, but mostly cause I hate wearing it. We were there for a few hours and I spent most of it sleeping as the previous evenings I didn't sleep at all. Walked around the shops for a bit, came back to the resort and cleaned up and went to a restaurant called The Islands for dinner. Omnomnomnom fish taco.
Strolled around Fashion Island for a bit, idk why as all those places are uber expensive XD BUT I did manage to buy some awesome boots for $30. Big deal guys... I don't buy shoes. Came back to the resort and watched On Stranger Tides in preparation for DISNEYLAND in the morning :D
SooooOooOooo we had been searching for cheap ways to go to Disneyland. Unfortunately there are NO discounts for one day passes cause Disney wants you to go more than one day so you get your monies worth. So Steven found a place on Ebay that has a location a few blocks away that basically sells you a day on a six-day hopper pass for $70, originally $105 for a one-day hopper pass. We went in kind of weary and prepared to pay if the passes didn't work. So we got up and stopped by the place and we had to sign the passes with special ink that the place could rub off later and sell to someone else the next day. It was just awkward and we all felt very dishonest about it, so I'll probably never do it again.
What made it worse is that Steven was the one that got caught. His signature had rubbed off his pass so the gate security pulled him aside and questioned him about. Steven told the guy the story the one who sold them to us told us to use (a friend bought them for us). Needless to say, the security guy didn't buy it and voided the ticket. Thankfully Steven requested a copy of the voided ticket and went back to the place and got a new one no problem, since this thing happens often. The rest of us got in the park just fine.
While Dad went with Steven to get the new ticket (getting to the parking lot is getting more and more crazy since they keep knocking out the parking!), Mom, Camron and I went to Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyear and walked around a bit. An hour or so later Dad and Steven came back and we went to Indiana Jones.
Pirates of the Caribbean was closed most of the day for some reason D: I learned Thunder Mountain was closed before we even got there and I was very sad as that one is my favorite. With those two closed, that left Haunted Mansion to be next.
All decked out for the holidays.
It was really cool to be there for the Haunted Holiday. It's all completely redone in Nightmare Before Christmas style. Yay Jack everywhere! <3
Oh hey, my parents!
Splash Mountain was next and we got very soaked. We are all too heavy to go on that ride and not get wet. Thankfully it was in the 70s that day so we dried off fairly quick. We met up with my cousin Alex and his little boy after that and road Winnie the Pooh and took some pictures before he had to get going (he has a season pass, so lucky him just being able to come and go when he pleases!!)
Dad bought us Mint Juleps while we waited in line for Star Tours, and that ended up being our longest ride wait. The changes were really cool! 4D RIDE! After that we went to the lockers and ate some lunch then hit up California Adventure with Soarin' Over California, California Screamin' and Tower of Terror (Mom sat the last two out... she still can't look at the Tower without crying.)
Ran back over to Disneyland and did Pirates and the Matterhorn and Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage. Sat and watched Captain Eo! (awwww memories~) Met up with Ashley and she hung with us for a bit and we rode Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyear again. Then ran over to Splash Mountain and got wet, AGAIN, and it was night by then so it was kind of uncomfortable being wet. And I'm sure you've all seen the epic Splash Mountain photo on Facebook. On our way back to California Adventure, I hugged Ashley goodbye and we did California Screamin' again and the swings.
Crappy camera phone photo activate!!
For dinner we just ate whatever we wanted. I ate at Garden Fresh and had the yummiest Greek Kabob ever!!
So we went through the hassle of getting a Fast Pass for World of Color. We get there and it starts and everything is off sync and it stops after about five minutes and it gets canceled for technical difficulties. Someone behind us says the show rarely works right. Well that's comforting. So yeah, we wasted some good time there when we could have went on some more rides before they closed! And Winter Hours for Disney suck.... Close at 8pm? Baaaaah so lame.
After vacating the pack, we went to Downtown Disney and bought stuff. This is probably the smallest haul I've gotten ever. I only managed to buy one pin. There weren't any I really liked, honestly.
Biggest disappointment of my Disney experience was not being able to take a lot of pictures. As Ashley said, We do Disney Turbo! We can easily do both parks in a day if we book it. Longest ride wait time was a half hour, everything else was walk right on or maybe ten minutes. My camera is so much better than the one I had last time. Everything was so pretty with Christmas decorations... even my Dad was disappointed of the lack of photos. Ah well.
Wednesday was a lazy day to recover from Disneyland. The boys wanted to go to Huntington Beach, but as always, it's windy, so we ended up walking around the shops there. For me it was pretty unfruitful, but fun to look at stuff anyway.
Cool car, though.
We then wandered Coastal Highway and sought out a Target to get noms as our snack and candy supply was running low. Then we drove around for a time trying to find a place where we could all eat. I was on a mission to eat some fresh sushi, so I was trying to find a place that served other Japanese food that everyone else could eat. Okay, Dad was excited about the sushi idea, too. After an hour or so, Mom spoted a place that looked promising. It was called Coast Point and it's right on the Coastal Hightway in Newport, so I had high expectations of GOOD SUSHI. We got there during Happy Hour and all appetizers were on sale for $3-$5 and sushi was 20% off! I got a Yum Yum Rolls which was eel, shrimp and crab :9 Prolly the best roll I've had in my life. Also amazing to note, is that every sushi roll is treated like a combo! So my sushi came with a salad and edamame!
Once dinner was devoured, we drove over to Balboa to walk around and discovered a lot of the shops had changed and the carnival was gone, although that could be due to it being November. Then we went and got Balboa bars!
Best dessert ever!
Oh Camron.
Bought more donuts and came back to the resort and watched The Kid.
Thursday we woke up and went to the Newport Temple to do some baptisms. Came back and got cleaned up to do another beach-ish run since Steven really wanted to surf. I was kinda annoyed at this since I wanted to spend the day in Hollywood like originally planned.
Came back to the resort and got cleaned up and drove to Los Angeles/Hollywood and stopped at the temple. By then it was 5pm and the Museum of Media that I really wanted to go to had just barely closed :(
Being Californians, you'd think we would have been to Hollywood and the walk of fame. Nope. I'm glad we did get to do it this trip, but I don't really care to go there again. I feel safer in Vegas.
My favorite stars:
Chinese Theater!!
We had a burrito at the zomg huge mall and then we just walked up and down the street taking pictures of stars. I got several, but these were my favorites to note. There was a cute Disney store that was a soda fountain as well! I bought a few things there. Once we were tired and exhausted we left there and got stuck in traffic (Joy!), the only traffic we got stuck in our entire trip to California. Dunno how we got so lucky.
All teh stuff I purchased! I'm in love with my Pepe plush.
Friday we got up and finished packing up and checked out then we lingered at Newport for a while.
The drive home was spent playing Lego Harry Potter and reading and experiencing Steven's road rage. We hit a storm in Cedar City and Steven was texting while driving and I asked him to not do that and he bit my head off. Yeah, I was clutching my seat for dear life cause my brother is an ass. Speaking of which, he has no respect for anyone and snapped at my mother multiple times during the trip. I would have smacked him if I didn't fear making the situation worse. I was just glad to be home and know I'd be without Steven until Sunday dinner.
Overall my trip was enjoyable. It just sucks that I cannot sleep when I'm on vacation. I'm in a new place and different bed and I just can't get myself to sleep. And then Camron and I shared a room and he snores so that added to the not sleeping thing. Steven complained that we are always on the go when we go on vacation and we never rest. I agree to a point, but I can't imagine just sitting around doing nothing when I go to places. There's so much to see!! Any place away from work and home is a vacation to me. But being able to sleep would have been a fabulous thing.
"Paradise" by Coldplay was on the radio every time we turned it on, so it wins being the song of the trip XD
It's sad to think that this is probably the last trip we'll take together as a family. One reason being Camron will be going on a mission in a few months, and going on vacation with just my parents and Steven doesn't sound very fun. Vern and Jenny COULD come I suppose, but they live in Idaho and now they have two kids, so who knows. Maybe I won't be living with my parents anymore, soon.
Alright, now that I got that out of the way... must make note that I'm making a goal of finishing Book Two by the end of the year. As well as getting all the gift art for presents done. *flails**falls over**goes back to work*