Tuesday, September 22, 2009

I wish they all could be California Girls

My two bff's and I went to California this weekend.  This whole thing started when a friend of my roommate's emailed and said there was a conference in California, did she want to meet up there.  Since I am always game to travel, and hadn't been to northern California, I said yes.  Then our other friend said she had grandparents in the area, and we could stay with them.  The hysterical part is the original person who did the invitation got married before the conference even happened!  

The trip out was smooth.  We went up to Oakland in the morning to do a temple session.  On the way we tried to find a breakfast place.... three different places in the GPS turned out to not exist.  Then we finally found something.  It was a gorgeous day, and the temple was beautiful.  Since my parents were married there, it was really neat to see this temple.  My friend ran into someone she knew, which just proves how small the church really is :)  Then we found a smoothie place in a little shopping district.  Yum.



Then we drove around San Jose.  Then we went to the opening social, which was a luau.  They actually had roasted a whole pig for the event, but it wasn't like a pig-pickin'.  I will admit, this was mostly a spectacle of awkwardness because it is people meeting new people.  The good news is we left to go get ice cream :)  It was alot of fun because my friend's cousin came, and they laugh the same, so you know they are family. 

Saturday was International Beach Cleanup day, so we cleaned up a beach.  It was nice to stroll along the beach, and the coolest thing we found was a shotgun shell.  I will say Pacific beaches are not the same as Atlantic beaches.  I kind of like Atlantic beaches :) but my friends say it is fun to have a bonfire on the beach.  

Then we went to Santa Cruz for lunch and to go to the boardwalk and the beach and just have fun.  I am seriously scared of roller coasters, but I did try a few.  We also saw a wedding, and kept running into random people from the conference.  We got to put our feet in the pacific ocean, but it was seriously cold, so that was all.  Also, I am not a fan of the sand flies and the kelp.  

Then we stopped for some really good Mexican on the way home and got ready for the "red carpet".  They had rented out a ballroom, and had a band, and then a dj.  It was a pretty dressy occasion, and I was excited to wear my red shoes.  The most random thing was meeting someone there who had lived in North Carolina and knew all the people we knew from our ward.  Then we walked down the pier, and went home to bed.  

Sunday we had breakfast with my friends grandparents, and the highlight was the bacon waffle.... yes, that would be bacon mixed into the waffle batter.  Then we tried to see the cliffs near Santa Cruz, but there was a bike race, so the roads were closed and the other roads were pretty busy, so then we went to church, and got on a plane to come home.  Before coming home, we did go to In n Out which is a West Coast only thing.  It was pretty good, the interesting part was the "animal" style fries.  Unfortunately, flying all night and having the airlines loose your luggage made coming home the worst part of the trip.  I did just have a carry on but the plane was so full, I had to check it with a hand written tag from the stewardess (are they still called that?).  I knew a hand written tag was a recipe for disaster.  Lucky for me they did find my luggage and were able to deliver it today.

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