I left my heart in
Well, I have returned from an amazing 12 and a half days in Southern California.
The weather was beautiful, California is beautiful, everything was beautiful!
Thursday morning I woke up at the ass-crack of 6am and cabbed it with Katy to JFK. Ate one of the world's most delicious bagels (seriously, Peet's Coffee, you are a winner) and boarded the plane. We flew Virgin America, partly because of the random cheapness of the fare, but mostly because of the purple mood lighting and WIRELESS INTERNET that every plane is outfitted with. The novelty of checking my email while in the air was absolutely worth the $8 it cost, and kept me occupied so I didn't annoy Katy for 6 hours straight.
When we arrived at LAX we were greeted with "Great to see you two, there's an In N Out right down the street, so let's get goin!"
I love LA already :)
After my date with a double double animal style, we headed back to Katy's place which is GORGEOUS. Her family lives in some kind of magical paradise they call Huntington Beach, or so I'm told. We promptly threw all of our shit on the floor and hit the beach. And so began my relentless obsession with BEING IN THE SUN. The stretch of beach near the house is a dog beach, so there were adorable creatures frolicking in the water everywhere. One big difference I noted between beaches on the east and west coast is that you can do whatever the fuck you want on the west coast. Over here everything is prohibited. No dogs, no booze, no bonfires, no swimming, no surfing. It was WEIRD to have basically no rules except to just clean up after yourself. I approve.
We were pretty exhausted from waking up technically at 3am CA time, so we had dinner and passed out at grandma o'clock.
Friday we woke up EARLY. It felt fantastic. I have been attempting, since I've been back in NY, to maintain some of that same schedule. But the earliest I can manage is to force myself painfully awake at 10am. The main difference I've found is not so much the time difference, but more the fact that I had something to wake up for in CA. lol. Katy and I took out a pair of bikes from the garage and rode to Main St to do some shopping. Because I am made of money and all.
Anyways, I was having some SERIOUS trouble with my bike. I felt like I was going to pass out and die in the street about 5 minutes in. Am I really this out of shape??? Fuck's sake. But no, we discovered that both tires were unusably flat, and after a quick pit stop to a bike shop I was back in business!
It was the Friday before the 4th, so there were a million people everywhere all barely clothed and beautifully tan. At this point I was still the whitest person in all of California, so I did my best not to lash out in a fit of jealous rage and beat everyone to death with their surfboards. We wandered from surf shop to surf shop looking (unsuccessfully) for a pair of bathing suit bottoms that don't make me look like a behemoth. Note: such a thing does not exist. So we gave up and wandered over to a little street fair and up the pier where some seals were playing around in the water. There's a Ruby's Diner at the end of the pier so we grabbed some lunch there before heading back to the house and laying out by the pool. Now, Katy told me there was a pool in her parents' complex, but I didn't expect it to 1) be so awesome and 2) be literally right out the back door from their house lol. So we laid out for a while before dinner trying not to burn. I want to say I am missing something from today, but I can't remember what. So I guess we just went to bed. However now would be a good time to mention the single thing I didn't like about California: the water. The water is so incredibly hard that it was like showering with melted candle wax. You know when you put your Barbie's hair up in a pony tail and then like a month you decide to let her hair down again and you take the hairtie out but her hair is still stuck in that ponytail shape? That's what my hair was like for two weeks. I don't need any help looking terrible, so this was kind of annoying until we discovered the solution to this problem was simply jump in the pool or the ocean and your hair would look beautiful again. Ah, it's a hard life.
Saturday was the 4th! We grabbed the bikes again and rode down to the parade and camped out at the prime real estate Katy's mom had staked out along the parade route. It was, without a doubt, the best Huntington Beach 4th of July parade I have ever seen. lol. The announcers were pretty much unbearable, but there were lots of rad cars which, I discovered, are ALL OVER southern California. Cars are kind of a big deal.
Later in the afternoon, Katy's dear cousin lostsailors and her pal ladybrick came down to spend the day with us. Mostly I forced them to sit out by the pool with me. So they, not being as sun-starved as I was, huddled under the shade of an umbrella while I basked like a lizard for a few hours. That night we went down to the beach to watch fireworks and it was beautiful and lovely. Blabbed late into the night before I passed out.
The gals headed out in the morning and Katy and I mostly spent the rest of the day by the pool. Oh yes, I loved that pool. I think we went out to dinner at Cheesecake factory that night, then came home with our cheesecake slices at watched Underworld 3 which was, of course, hilariously bad lol.
Monday we went a bit further down the beach with Katy's very nice brother and his girlfriend and their roommate who was also named Katy. Or Katie. Who knows. The water was FREEZING which was a shame cos it was beautiful and (to my untrained eyes) clear and most importantly: free of jellyfish. That night Katy and I embarked on a very important trip to DAIRY QUEEN because they are constantly playing DQ commercials here and there are NO DQs IN NYC. It's torturous. Anyway I got a peanut butter cup Blizzard and it was every bit as magical as I remember them being. Which is pretty damn magical. After our Blizzardfest Katy drove me around town to see the sights and generally just drive. Another thing I noticed about California is the moon seems HUGE there. It's pretty sweet, but also kind of scary in a Majora's Mask kind of way.
Tuesday was our epic trip to LOS ANGELES. I made 4 mix CDs for the road and we rocked em all! We got stuck in a little traffic caused by Michael Jackson's dead body, but otherwise the drive down was lovely! Probably because I was in the passenger seat! :)
First we went to the Getty Museum which was... unbelievably gorgeous. If I lived near there and parking wasn't so damn expensive, I would go there once a week, no joke. The museum's exhibits were interesting of course, but the museum itself was the amazing part. It's all this beautiful rough cut white travertine stone. The grounds are at the top of this big hill that you have to take a tram up to. Everything around it is just expansive views of the city and the surrounding hills and scenery. I really couldn't get enough of this while I was out there. I like being up high!
We ate lunch on the terrace which, randomly, had wireless internet. Walked through the gardens and soaked up some more of the view before heading out. We drove down Sunset Blvd and saw lots of incredibly beautiful mansions and palm trees and winding streets. Again, I couldn't get enough of it. I'm sure it's old news to most people but I dunno, I thought it was gorgeous. We went to this crazy shopping center... thing called The Grove. It was like Disney Work or something. There was a fucking trolly to get around the place! We mostly window shopped but I did, however, buy a pair of enormous sunglasses at an Anthropologie so I could blend in with the natives.
Katy drove me around to some more sightseeing in the city and then drove up to Griffith Park to see the Observatory. MORE HILLS! :D Again, the grounds were gorgeous. Even more amazing views everywhere. The Observatory was adorable and full of fun SPACE stuff. Shoulda gone to the planetarium but I was feeling cheap at the time and didn't want to shell out $7. Durh. Our intention for the evening was to meet up with Jon after the Observatory, but he was running a bit late so Katy and I sat out in the park for an hour or so and played Bejeweled and watched the sun set. Ahhh.. :)
Eventually we drove to meet Jon at his new place. Which was lovely, by the way. (jealous glaring)
He ended up living like... literally a block and a half from lostsaliors's apt. SMALL WORLD. I told him to keep an eye out for a redhead walking a cat lol. We walked down to this really adorable (outdoor seating yesssss) sandwich/cafe/bakery place called Alcove for dinner where I got the biggest god damn sandwich I have ever seen. Afterwards we walked thru Los Feliz which, I gotta say, was some kind of crazy cartoon neighborhood. Every house totally different and charming and most of them had a theme. Like this Laurence of Arabia-esque apartment building we pass. So cool! Also lots of neat, cartoonishly tall trees. Jon was saying how, being from the east coast, you watch old cartoons and see these oddly shaped foliage and landscapes and think "where do they come up with this shit?" then look at LA and it all makes sense. We eventually got to this kind of randomly-placed bar called Barbarella that was really swanky and had my favorite beer on tap. Exxccceellleennttt. I almost forgot we were in LA until a woman came up to me at the bar and asked if she could take a photo of my beer sitting on a napkin advertising this movie The Ugly Truth for her promotional campaign or something. Hilarious. We made an early night of it since poor Katy was my DD and Jon like... has a job. So we parted ways around 11 and I bounced around happily in the car back to HB til my buzz wore off and passed out at around 1.
Wednesday we did a bit of sightseeing in Laguna Beach, which was.... I don't even know. Katy's mom took us to this little secluded park on a cliff side overlooking the ocean and it was probably the single most beautiful place I have ever been. No joke. I took a billion pictures before we headed to the main drag for more window shopping. When we got home I laid by the pool a bit by myself then went to this verrryy nice restaurant down the road. We had probably the world's most infuriating waiter, but my food was to DIE for. I even had leftovers. Om nom nom.
Thursday we got up bright and early to pick up Amelia from the airport!! We once again headed directly to In-N-Out Burger before coming back to the house and loafing by the pool AGAIN. I made spaghetti and meatballs for dinner which were, thankfully, well received. Then the gals and I all went out for a romantic sunset stroll on the beach. Swoon. It was seriously gorgeous, and I took a million photos.
Friday we went back to Main Street for EVEN MORE SHOPPING! lol. Then Amelia and I laid by the pool. Yes, again.
Saturday we hit the beach. Woop. I managed to fuck up the application of my sunscreen pretty spectacularly, and now have the most unattractive and freakishly hideous burn on the backs of my thighs. On my right leg it's just like...I don't even know how it happened, it's just this huge rhomboidal shape of brownish purple with a white line right through the middle. I can kind of see the sunburn alone, but how did the line get there? Perhaps my fat rolled over itself and blocked the crease from the sun lol. But why only one thigh? And why is it the most disgusting color I've ever seen skin turn?? I am new to this whole suntanning thing, and it is proving to be much tricker than anticipated lol.
As a result, I have been peeling my legs painfully off of every surface I sit down on haha. WHY are there so many leather seats in the world?
We stole Katy's brother's discount card to the surf shop and bought a bunch of cheap(er) stuff, and got some of the most amazing gelato I've ever had. Banana chocolate chip and amaretto? Yes plz. We went to dinner at this tasty little place called Mario's which was, weirdly, a Mexican restaurant. But good!
Sunday was our RETURN TO LOS ANGELES. Well, kinda. We drove to meet up with questionstar, emoxic, and shilane in Pasadena for food an BOWLING. We got kind of stupidly lost on the way to Senor Fish but we eventually made it to delicious tacos. Then we hit the bowling alley where, can I just say, bowling in NY is SO expensive. It was $11/person to bowl for an hour. That's like... a $60 venture in NYC. What the hell??
I SUCK at bowling, as usual, but Amelia took some hilarious photos so it was all worth it. The ladies then introduced me to the wonders of Jamba Juice. Oh swell, another expensive chain to become addicted to! D: I went to the Jamba Juice by Amelia's work yesterday and was saddened to discover that a small smoothie is like $1.50 more money than in Pasadena. D'oh! Half of us who went to Jamba Juice met up with the other half who decided on Cold Stone and we sat in there talking for like... 2 hours, no joke. They must have been so confused hahaha. But it was good!
We had to be lame and leave to go home and pack and such, but it was awesome to hang out you, dudes! If you're even in NY, we'll show you a good time kukuku ;)
Monday was our last day in California, so naturally we spent it at DISNEYLAND!
We got there bright and early and went to fastpass Space Mountain but it was CLOSED. NOOOO. Thankfully though they said it was most likely temporary, and that we should come back later. So we rode Star Tours, saw that Space Mtn had reopened and grabbed our fastpasses. We had a while to kill so we headed to ride the Matterhorn. We didn't have to wait very long but as soon as we get on the ride, we get stopped halfway up the mountain at the beginning of the ride. It's supposed to be all suspenseful I guess, so it's pitch black. Oh, awesome. I grabbed my phone for a little light, and saw that I had service (I love Verizon) so I texted Jon and Jeanne lol. They eventually turned on the LIGHTS, thank god. We were stuck on the incline for maybe 20 minutes before they just shut the whole thing down. We had to climb out of the little cars onto the tracks which, well... you may know how much of a pussy I am. I was not happy lol. I felt especially lame since no one else seemed to give a shit. Was this not an ordeal for anyone else but me?? I guess not lol.. ; ; BUT they gave us little fast-passes to any ride we wanted, so we used it later on to cut to the front of the 2 hour Splash Mountain line like the smug assholes we are. Totally worth it.
Overall our ride report was as follows: We got stuck on 4 rides. The Matterhorn, as mentioned above. Indiana Jones stalled out right as the ROCK is supposed to roll down. We didn't have to climb out of that one, thankfully, but were once again stuck in the pitch blackness. SWELL. We got stopped on the Haunted Mansion ride because someone climbed out of their Dooommm Buggyyy.... And, lastly and probably most retardedly, we got stuck on the BUZZ LIGHTYEAR ride. Which wasn't much of an inconvenience since the whole time you just shoot aliens with little space blasters, so we just sat there and racked up points haha. We rode Space Mountain 3 times, the third of which was after the fireworks show (which was beautiful and amazing I might add). It was INTEEENNSE. My stomach was pretty much in my skull after every drop. After we got off Katy was saying how there's a kind of urban legend that they run Space Mountain faster at night when the kids go home. I dunno if it's actually true, but I TOTALLY noticed a difference. I think my favorite part of Space Mountain is the picture they take of you at the end. We took 3 pretty amazing pictures, that looked something like this:
(right click>view image)
picture #1 I thought I lost my purse but it had slid under Amelia's legs, so the camera got me mid-sentence saying "WHERE IS MY PURSE" lol
picture #2 I made the most incredibly retarded face I have ever seen myself make. Which really is saying something considering my face.
picture #3 we decided it would be funny if we all looked really bored and/or asleep when they took the picture, but we were all laughing too hard so they came out like these weird half-lidded drivers license faces. I almost peed myself laughing at that one lol.
Basically, If I could ride Space Mountain all day I would. You should be able to ride it once after work every day. Can you imagine how awesome your life would be??
Man, bad day at work.
WHOOSH SPACE MOUNTAIN
Wow I feel much better!
This is a brilliant plan.
And so ended our trip to Disneyland and, ultimately, our trip to California.
All in all it was an amazing trip. Full of flawless weather, beautiful scenery, wonderful Shuttleworth hospitality, and good tiiiiiiiiiimes. <3
Here is the short version.
Things I loved about California:
• the sun
• hills
• palm trees
• eating outdoors
• In-N-Out Burger
• Supreme Donuts
• Woodies
• huge hollywood sunglasses
• riding in a car
• Disneyland
• the Getty museum
• crazy houses in Los Feliz
• pool water
• ice cream
• bougainvilleas
• the sun
OR, you can skip right to the photos lol
My photos
Amelia's photos
THE END
The weather was beautiful, California is beautiful, everything was beautiful!
Thursday morning I woke up at the ass-crack of 6am and cabbed it with Katy to JFK. Ate one of the world's most delicious bagels (seriously, Peet's Coffee, you are a winner) and boarded the plane. We flew Virgin America, partly because of the random cheapness of the fare, but mostly because of the purple mood lighting and WIRELESS INTERNET that every plane is outfitted with. The novelty of checking my email while in the air was absolutely worth the $8 it cost, and kept me occupied so I didn't annoy Katy for 6 hours straight.
When we arrived at LAX we were greeted with "Great to see you two, there's an In N Out right down the street, so let's get goin!"
I love LA already :)
After my date with a double double animal style, we headed back to Katy's place which is GORGEOUS. Her family lives in some kind of magical paradise they call Huntington Beach, or so I'm told. We promptly threw all of our shit on the floor and hit the beach. And so began my relentless obsession with BEING IN THE SUN. The stretch of beach near the house is a dog beach, so there were adorable creatures frolicking in the water everywhere. One big difference I noted between beaches on the east and west coast is that you can do whatever the fuck you want on the west coast. Over here everything is prohibited. No dogs, no booze, no bonfires, no swimming, no surfing. It was WEIRD to have basically no rules except to just clean up after yourself. I approve.
We were pretty exhausted from waking up technically at 3am CA time, so we had dinner and passed out at grandma o'clock.
Friday we woke up EARLY. It felt fantastic. I have been attempting, since I've been back in NY, to maintain some of that same schedule. But the earliest I can manage is to force myself painfully awake at 10am. The main difference I've found is not so much the time difference, but more the fact that I had something to wake up for in CA. lol. Katy and I took out a pair of bikes from the garage and rode to Main St to do some shopping. Because I am made of money and all.
Anyways, I was having some SERIOUS trouble with my bike. I felt like I was going to pass out and die in the street about 5 minutes in. Am I really this out of shape??? Fuck's sake. But no, we discovered that both tires were unusably flat, and after a quick pit stop to a bike shop I was back in business!
It was the Friday before the 4th, so there were a million people everywhere all barely clothed and beautifully tan. At this point I was still the whitest person in all of California, so I did my best not to lash out in a fit of jealous rage and beat everyone to death with their surfboards. We wandered from surf shop to surf shop looking (unsuccessfully) for a pair of bathing suit bottoms that don't make me look like a behemoth. Note: such a thing does not exist. So we gave up and wandered over to a little street fair and up the pier where some seals were playing around in the water. There's a Ruby's Diner at the end of the pier so we grabbed some lunch there before heading back to the house and laying out by the pool. Now, Katy told me there was a pool in her parents' complex, but I didn't expect it to 1) be so awesome and 2) be literally right out the back door from their house lol. So we laid out for a while before dinner trying not to burn. I want to say I am missing something from today, but I can't remember what. So I guess we just went to bed. However now would be a good time to mention the single thing I didn't like about California: the water. The water is so incredibly hard that it was like showering with melted candle wax. You know when you put your Barbie's hair up in a pony tail and then like a month you decide to let her hair down again and you take the hairtie out but her hair is still stuck in that ponytail shape? That's what my hair was like for two weeks. I don't need any help looking terrible, so this was kind of annoying until we discovered the solution to this problem was simply jump in the pool or the ocean and your hair would look beautiful again. Ah, it's a hard life.
Saturday was the 4th! We grabbed the bikes again and rode down to the parade and camped out at the prime real estate Katy's mom had staked out along the parade route. It was, without a doubt, the best Huntington Beach 4th of July parade I have ever seen. lol. The announcers were pretty much unbearable, but there were lots of rad cars which, I discovered, are ALL OVER southern California. Cars are kind of a big deal.
Later in the afternoon, Katy's dear cousin lostsailors and her pal ladybrick came down to spend the day with us. Mostly I forced them to sit out by the pool with me. So they, not being as sun-starved as I was, huddled under the shade of an umbrella while I basked like a lizard for a few hours. That night we went down to the beach to watch fireworks and it was beautiful and lovely. Blabbed late into the night before I passed out.
The gals headed out in the morning and Katy and I mostly spent the rest of the day by the pool. Oh yes, I loved that pool. I think we went out to dinner at Cheesecake factory that night, then came home with our cheesecake slices at watched Underworld 3 which was, of course, hilariously bad lol.
Monday we went a bit further down the beach with Katy's very nice brother and his girlfriend and their roommate who was also named Katy. Or Katie. Who knows. The water was FREEZING which was a shame cos it was beautiful and (to my untrained eyes) clear and most importantly: free of jellyfish. That night Katy and I embarked on a very important trip to DAIRY QUEEN because they are constantly playing DQ commercials here and there are NO DQs IN NYC. It's torturous. Anyway I got a peanut butter cup Blizzard and it was every bit as magical as I remember them being. Which is pretty damn magical. After our Blizzardfest Katy drove me around town to see the sights and generally just drive. Another thing I noticed about California is the moon seems HUGE there. It's pretty sweet, but also kind of scary in a Majora's Mask kind of way.
Tuesday was our epic trip to LOS ANGELES. I made 4 mix CDs for the road and we rocked em all! We got stuck in a little traffic caused by Michael Jackson's dead body, but otherwise the drive down was lovely! Probably because I was in the passenger seat! :)
First we went to the Getty Museum which was... unbelievably gorgeous. If I lived near there and parking wasn't so damn expensive, I would go there once a week, no joke. The museum's exhibits were interesting of course, but the museum itself was the amazing part. It's all this beautiful rough cut white travertine stone. The grounds are at the top of this big hill that you have to take a tram up to. Everything around it is just expansive views of the city and the surrounding hills and scenery. I really couldn't get enough of this while I was out there. I like being up high!
We ate lunch on the terrace which, randomly, had wireless internet. Walked through the gardens and soaked up some more of the view before heading out. We drove down Sunset Blvd and saw lots of incredibly beautiful mansions and palm trees and winding streets. Again, I couldn't get enough of it. I'm sure it's old news to most people but I dunno, I thought it was gorgeous. We went to this crazy shopping center... thing called The Grove. It was like Disney Work or something. There was a fucking trolly to get around the place! We mostly window shopped but I did, however, buy a pair of enormous sunglasses at an Anthropologie so I could blend in with the natives.
Katy drove me around to some more sightseeing in the city and then drove up to Griffith Park to see the Observatory. MORE HILLS! :D Again, the grounds were gorgeous. Even more amazing views everywhere. The Observatory was adorable and full of fun SPACE stuff. Shoulda gone to the planetarium but I was feeling cheap at the time and didn't want to shell out $7. Durh. Our intention for the evening was to meet up with Jon after the Observatory, but he was running a bit late so Katy and I sat out in the park for an hour or so and played Bejeweled and watched the sun set. Ahhh.. :)
Eventually we drove to meet Jon at his new place. Which was lovely, by the way. (jealous glaring)
He ended up living like... literally a block and a half from lostsaliors's apt. SMALL WORLD. I told him to keep an eye out for a redhead walking a cat lol. We walked down to this really adorable (outdoor seating yesssss) sandwich/cafe/bakery place called Alcove for dinner where I got the biggest god damn sandwich I have ever seen. Afterwards we walked thru Los Feliz which, I gotta say, was some kind of crazy cartoon neighborhood. Every house totally different and charming and most of them had a theme. Like this Laurence of Arabia-esque apartment building we pass. So cool! Also lots of neat, cartoonishly tall trees. Jon was saying how, being from the east coast, you watch old cartoons and see these oddly shaped foliage and landscapes and think "where do they come up with this shit?" then look at LA and it all makes sense. We eventually got to this kind of randomly-placed bar called Barbarella that was really swanky and had my favorite beer on tap. Exxccceellleennttt. I almost forgot we were in LA until a woman came up to me at the bar and asked if she could take a photo of my beer sitting on a napkin advertising this movie The Ugly Truth for her promotional campaign or something. Hilarious. We made an early night of it since poor Katy was my DD and Jon like... has a job. So we parted ways around 11 and I bounced around happily in the car back to HB til my buzz wore off and passed out at around 1.
Wednesday we did a bit of sightseeing in Laguna Beach, which was.... I don't even know. Katy's mom took us to this little secluded park on a cliff side overlooking the ocean and it was probably the single most beautiful place I have ever been. No joke. I took a billion pictures before we headed to the main drag for more window shopping. When we got home I laid by the pool a bit by myself then went to this verrryy nice restaurant down the road. We had probably the world's most infuriating waiter, but my food was to DIE for. I even had leftovers. Om nom nom.
Thursday we got up bright and early to pick up Amelia from the airport!! We once again headed directly to In-N-Out Burger before coming back to the house and loafing by the pool AGAIN. I made spaghetti and meatballs for dinner which were, thankfully, well received. Then the gals and I all went out for a romantic sunset stroll on the beach. Swoon. It was seriously gorgeous, and I took a million photos.
Friday we went back to Main Street for EVEN MORE SHOPPING! lol. Then Amelia and I laid by the pool. Yes, again.
Saturday we hit the beach. Woop. I managed to fuck up the application of my sunscreen pretty spectacularly, and now have the most unattractive and freakishly hideous burn on the backs of my thighs. On my right leg it's just like...I don't even know how it happened, it's just this huge rhomboidal shape of brownish purple with a white line right through the middle. I can kind of see the sunburn alone, but how did the line get there? Perhaps my fat rolled over itself and blocked the crease from the sun lol. But why only one thigh? And why is it the most disgusting color I've ever seen skin turn?? I am new to this whole suntanning thing, and it is proving to be much tricker than anticipated lol.
As a result, I have been peeling my legs painfully off of every surface I sit down on haha. WHY are there so many leather seats in the world?
We stole Katy's brother's discount card to the surf shop and bought a bunch of cheap(er) stuff, and got some of the most amazing gelato I've ever had. Banana chocolate chip and amaretto? Yes plz. We went to dinner at this tasty little place called Mario's which was, weirdly, a Mexican restaurant. But good!
Sunday was our RETURN TO LOS ANGELES. Well, kinda. We drove to meet up with questionstar, emoxic, and shilane in Pasadena for food an BOWLING. We got kind of stupidly lost on the way to Senor Fish but we eventually made it to delicious tacos. Then we hit the bowling alley where, can I just say, bowling in NY is SO expensive. It was $11/person to bowl for an hour. That's like... a $60 venture in NYC. What the hell??
I SUCK at bowling, as usual, but Amelia took some hilarious photos so it was all worth it. The ladies then introduced me to the wonders of Jamba Juice. Oh swell, another expensive chain to become addicted to! D: I went to the Jamba Juice by Amelia's work yesterday and was saddened to discover that a small smoothie is like $1.50 more money than in Pasadena. D'oh! Half of us who went to Jamba Juice met up with the other half who decided on Cold Stone and we sat in there talking for like... 2 hours, no joke. They must have been so confused hahaha. But it was good!
We had to be lame and leave to go home and pack and such, but it was awesome to hang out you, dudes! If you're even in NY, we'll show you a good time kukuku ;)
Monday was our last day in California, so naturally we spent it at DISNEYLAND!
We got there bright and early and went to fastpass Space Mountain but it was CLOSED. NOOOO. Thankfully though they said it was most likely temporary, and that we should come back later. So we rode Star Tours, saw that Space Mtn had reopened and grabbed our fastpasses. We had a while to kill so we headed to ride the Matterhorn. We didn't have to wait very long but as soon as we get on the ride, we get stopped halfway up the mountain at the beginning of the ride. It's supposed to be all suspenseful I guess, so it's pitch black. Oh, awesome. I grabbed my phone for a little light, and saw that I had service (I love Verizon) so I texted Jon and Jeanne lol. They eventually turned on the LIGHTS, thank god. We were stuck on the incline for maybe 20 minutes before they just shut the whole thing down. We had to climb out of the little cars onto the tracks which, well... you may know how much of a pussy I am. I was not happy lol. I felt especially lame since no one else seemed to give a shit. Was this not an ordeal for anyone else but me?? I guess not lol.. ; ; BUT they gave us little fast-passes to any ride we wanted, so we used it later on to cut to the front of the 2 hour Splash Mountain line like the smug assholes we are. Totally worth it.
Overall our ride report was as follows: We got stuck on 4 rides. The Matterhorn, as mentioned above. Indiana Jones stalled out right as the ROCK is supposed to roll down. We didn't have to climb out of that one, thankfully, but were once again stuck in the pitch blackness. SWELL. We got stopped on the Haunted Mansion ride because someone climbed out of their Dooommm Buggyyy.... And, lastly and probably most retardedly, we got stuck on the BUZZ LIGHTYEAR ride. Which wasn't much of an inconvenience since the whole time you just shoot aliens with little space blasters, so we just sat there and racked up points haha. We rode Space Mountain 3 times, the third of which was after the fireworks show (which was beautiful and amazing I might add). It was INTEEENNSE. My stomach was pretty much in my skull after every drop. After we got off Katy was saying how there's a kind of urban legend that they run Space Mountain faster at night when the kids go home. I dunno if it's actually true, but I TOTALLY noticed a difference. I think my favorite part of Space Mountain is the picture they take of you at the end. We took 3 pretty amazing pictures, that looked something like this:
(right click>view image)
picture #1 I thought I lost my purse but it had slid under Amelia's legs, so the camera got me mid-sentence saying "WHERE IS MY PURSE" lol
picture #2 I made the most incredibly retarded face I have ever seen myself make. Which really is saying something considering my face.
picture #3 we decided it would be funny if we all looked really bored and/or asleep when they took the picture, but we were all laughing too hard so they came out like these weird half-lidded drivers license faces. I almost peed myself laughing at that one lol.
Basically, If I could ride Space Mountain all day I would. You should be able to ride it once after work every day. Can you imagine how awesome your life would be??
Man, bad day at work.
WHOOSH SPACE MOUNTAIN
Wow I feel much better!
This is a brilliant plan.
And so ended our trip to Disneyland and, ultimately, our trip to California.
All in all it was an amazing trip. Full of flawless weather, beautiful scenery, wonderful Shuttleworth hospitality, and good tiiiiiiiiiimes. <3
Here is the short version.
Things I loved about California:
• the sun
• hills
• palm trees
• eating outdoors
• In-N-Out Burger
• Supreme Donuts
• Woodies
• huge hollywood sunglasses
• riding in a car
• Disneyland
• the Getty museum
• crazy houses in Los Feliz
• pool water
• ice cream
• bougainvilleas
• the sun
OR, you can skip right to the photos lol
My photos
Amelia's photos
THE END