So I am back from Spring Break and honestly I do not want to be here in Oregon. The weather and everything was just so nice in California that I forgot how much I despise Oregon. Classes have started and I am not as thrilled to be in school here at the moment. No one seems to be really, I guess it is because it is the start of a new term and summer seems so far away.
My trip to California with my friends went pretty well. I do not usually go on such trips with people because none of us really has the time and/or money to do so. That plus I usually work at the zoo on my breaks. So it was a nice change, if I did not go anywhere I would have gone back home and worked at the zoo. I can always us the money.
I will tell you about the break, but not in complete details. I do not have the time to do so and I forgot a lot of things. First of all Sarah, Alexa and myself had to leave at midnight Wednesday the 19th. We took the Greyhound down to Sacramento and then to San Francisco, it was going to be about 12 hours of travel. I hate Greyhound, but that is all what we were left with. We had drunk people and the drive was driving crazy through the mountains. I woke up several times thinking I would fall into the aisle of the bus. We had to switch buses in Sacramento and head towards Oakland. We were suppose to go to San Jose, but since we had to change our plans to stay in San Francisco we were going to take the Bart to SF, but they let us stay on the bus and continue to San Francisco.
Our hostel in SF was horrible, it was in an alley next to a massage parlor and was not clean. Our room had not been clean, the sheets and blankets were not washed. Our window would not close because a cable to the cable TV went through it. The shower had a hole in the ceiling for ventilation and the fire escape was outside out window and every night someone was going up and down it. We were only staying there two night and it was to sleep, not relax in the room. One our first day we walked to pier 39 and had dinner at Hard Rock Café. On the second day we went to the Golden Gate Bridge, ate at The Cheesecake Factory and saw a play. On our last day we waited for Aoi to arrive and then spent our time around Pier 39 and Fisherman’s Warf. We took a night tour to Alcatraz and then stayed at the house of a woman Aoi knows.
Joan, Aoi’s friend is an amazing woman. She worked on Wall Street and now owns her own financing company. She has written a book for women and how they can take control over their money. She has a beautiful house and took us in without a question. She paid for all our meals and just took us in, we were amazed with her and the people she knew. We did not want to leave her place to stay with our friend show lived in the same town. We did after having a wonderful meal and a signed copy of her book. We stayed at Katie’s house for Easter and then took the Megabus to Los Angeles.
We arrive at midnight in LA and hailed a taxi to our hostel, which was right off of Hollywood. We got settled in and was impressed with the place. They would not let you in through a locked door that lead up to the room unless you showed your room key, the room was nice, and clean. We had our own bathroom and just felt comfortable and safe there. The people were great, all had a free loving attitude and organized some fun trips. Our first day was Monday and we spent it going around Hollywood Blvd. Took pictures of stars (the ones on the ground), visit Ripely’s Believe it or not, Virgin Records and saw Jimmy Kimble. We might actually be in one of his skits. I do not have a TV, but look for a girl giving her pink polka dot bikini to Uncle Sal. That is Alexa and we were behind her. We also went to the tar pits, which looks nothing like I thought they would. It was more of a small lake with oil sitting on the water. There was also sculptures of mammoths getting stuck in the tar.
On the second day we went to Venice and Santa Monica to get a taste of California beaches. Good thing I know what they are like because it was hazy and never went away. So we could not go play in the water like we wanted to. We did some shopping and got some food to eat, but really, it was not what we were hoping for. Our bus back into Hollywood was long due to rush hour traffic. We got back and went to see if we could get tickets to see Wicked, we ended up not getting any and grabbed some pizza. On our way we noticed a crowd and realize that it was the paparazzi outside a restaurant. We went to grab food and then came back out to see if they were still there. They were and that is when we saw two famous people. The first one was Courtney Cox Arquette getting out of her SUV and the second was Nick Lachey driving pass us.
Our last day in Hollywood Sarah and I went to Long Beach to see the Queen Mary. We took the metro to Long Beach and got food at a cute Irish pub. Then walked to the ship, it sounds easier than it really was. We had trouble getting to it, you would think being able to see the ship we could walk to it easier. Wrong, but we got there, but had no clue where we bought tickets to get in. We asked a family, but they really could not answer it for us. There was a small English village in the same area so we walked there and asked, the place was right there. We bought tickets to see the ghost encounters tour. You all know me and how I love a good ghost story. We were allowed to walk around the ship before our tour started. We did and I got chills, not sure if it was the draft, the fact that I knew the ship was haunted or the music that was playing. Being on a ship hearing old 1940s songs gave it an eerie atmosphere. There was one thing that gave me the chills and I refuse to look at, Sarah was even freak out. The propeller box, it was underwater (the propeller) and just was odd. I could hardly look into the water. I have only had this issue once before. Sarah just walked quickly through once I told her that we could not go any other way.
Our tour started and our guide told us all kinds of stories about sightings. I took a lot of pictures, I only notice orbs in my pictures, but I have no looked closely at them to see if anything else is there. After the tour we looked around the ship and then decided to head back to Hollywood to get some food to eat before we had to leave the next day for San Diego.
We got delayed leaving LA, but that was because the car rental place gave me trouble. There was fine print that I looked over, but did not realize. I had to have $400 for them to hold on my card. So I had to wait for my mom and aunt to help me before I could try to get the car. I felt horrible, I hate feeling like money is something I am unable to hold onto. Nothing worse than thinking you have enough to buy something and realize that you do not because things changed. I finally got the car and we made our way to San Diego. The car was crappy, a Dodge Charger or something like it. The back window was tiny, I had huge blind spots on the car and it accelerated horribly. I made it through without any issue though.
I remembered pretty well how to get around San Diego, the only exception was I had a downtown map and it was hard to tell what streets would take me to the I-5. A few look like they would and they did not. Once I figured out how to get to I-5 I was able to get us to my favorite places in San Diego. The first place was La Jolla, I wanted to see both shores and cove, but we went to the cove first. This place is kind of posh and not the best beach for swimming and sunbathing, but still fun to see. There was a herd of seals on one beach and we went to the next one over for some fun. I mostly took pictures of the waves, while Sarah played in the water. After a few hours, we grabbed dinner at a nice Mexican restaurant. Then we headed back to downtown, we grabbed food at the grocery store because we wanted to do a picnic on the beach and watch the sunset. We watched a movie on some guy from Australia and then went to bed. Our hostel was not too bad, kind of weird because it was a converted warehouse. The next day we to the San Diego Zoo and Mission Beach/Belmount Park. The zoo was amazing; I had trouble keeping my mouth shut, after working at a zoo for so many years it just feels natural to talk about animals. Mission Beach was nice, we got there a few hours before sunset and enjoyed out picnic.
Our last day in San Diego was nice, we went to Old Town, which is a period Mexican town. I was never into it, but Sarah and Aoi loved it. We spent a few hours and then went to La Jolla Shore before we headed to LA. It was sunny while we were in Old Town, but once we got to the beach, it was cloudy. I wanted to visit Surf Diva’s shop and I bought a rash guard. I have been meaning to get one and after some of the sunburns and heat rashes I got I needed it. We sat on the beach reading since it was a little too chilly to be out swimming. We stayed a few hours and then drove to LA. We did not want to head back to LA or to Oregon. We arrived at our hostel and got up early the next morning to fly back to Eugene.
That was our trip pictures are all over the place, myspace, facebook and I am working on Flickr. So look out for them.
