Vacation!!

Ahhh..... How I loved being on vacation. It's very good to be back, but it was fantastic to get away and relax. Here's the run down on what we did. We left SLC bright and early on the 12th. We arrived in Long Beach bright and early as well since the flight was only 1.5 hours. We grabbed our bags and went for the rental car. I almost puked when they told me our car would be a Chevy Aveo and then I realized it didn't really matter as long as it got us from point A to point B. We appropriately named the car Avvy. We hooked up Nina (the GPS) and off we went to LA to find some good shopping. We found an H&M which I loved, a M.A.C. store which I also loved, and we learned very quickly just how easy it was to spend money. After a few hours of shopping we jumped back in Avvy and headed to our hotel in Long Beach. Once we got to our hotel and realized they charge for everything, including parking at $15 a day, we decided it would be best to buy groceries and eat in our room as much as possible. By the time it hit 10:00 we were ready for bed. Wednesday morning we woke up well rested and ready to play. We hit the Aquarium of the Pacific which I LOVED. I got to pet a shark and stingray and was scared to death to do it. Good thing I was there with a bunch of little kids on field trips who just stared at me like I was crazy.We also got to feed the Lorikeets there. They would land on your arm and eat the food out of you hand. That night we headed off to Hollywood to see Dirty Dancing. We got to get all dressed up and look grand. Don't worry, $25 for valet parking. Good thing I looked at the guy and said, "thanks, but I can park my own car." We got to walk down Hollywood Blvd. and see all the stars on the sidewalk. On the way home, the freeway was closed. Hmm.... How do you tell the GPS, Nina, that the freeway is closed? She made me drive around in circles until we finally turned her off. Unfortunately we ended up in Thai Town followed shortly by Korea Town. You know things are not looking good when you go from English to Korean symbols on buildings and billboards. The only English thing I got out of there was some restaurant that served LIVE seafood. Not raw, LIVE. We eventually made it home after about an hour of wandering around. Thursday we woke up, at least I think we woke up. I was in a bit of a drug-induced coma thanks to the sea-sickness patch. We hopped on the boat to Catalina and off we went. I promptly fell asleep and remember nothing about the boat ride except for seeing the Queen Mary. We walked around Catalina which was absolutely beautiful, I think. We found a beach where I found some chairs, ate some Teddy Grahams and goldfish crackers and once again fell asleep. I finally woke up because I was thirsty. We grabbed some lunch, walked around, ate ice cream, found a little patch of grass where I could fall asleep, again. Then we got back on the boat, fell asleep and went back to Long Beach. Due to my coma I had a lack of sunscreen, hence the lovely sunburn. Ugh. Friday we went to Costa Mesa and did more shopping. I have never seen more Gucci stores in my life than I did on this trip. We went to a dueling piano bar, which was absolutely amazing. I loved watching the pianists play any song you would request and duel it out with each other. We had a blast there. While sitting in the hotel lobby we started seeing all these it's. Not sure if they were men or women. Once we saw them go into the women's restroom we knew they were women, but wait a minute, they were with women. Yes, that's right folks, it was gay pride weekend in Long Beach. Leslie and I looked at each other and realized everybody thought we were lesbians too since there were no men with us. Ha Ha. We also found this amazing little restaurant called Creme de la Crepe right by our hotel. Ahhhh.... heaven! They had the best crepes ever. Saturday we checked out of our hotel, headed back to Costa Mesa to get some things we forgot and then found a movie theater and watched Angels and Demons. After that we took Avvy back to the airport and got on our plane to come home. Ahhh..... Salt Lake looked beautiful, even though it was really late and all I could see where the lights. I'd lke to give a shout out to Ativan (anti-anxiety) for helping me get through the plane rides with all of my hair and Scopalamine for getting me through the boat ride even though I don't remember a lot of it, or any of it. At least I didn't throw up and get sea sick like usual.