All Good Things Must Come to an End...

Wow...it feels like we've just arrived and yet, bright and early tomorrow morning (at the obscene hour of 3 a.m.) we begin our voyage home.  To think that I was terrified to drive on the LA highways just 2 weeks ago and now it feels almost normal to have 8 lanes of traffic which may change to 3 or 10 at any given moment and good luck figuring out which lane you should be driving in.  Today even, Robert and I grew frustrated with the amount of traffic on the freeway and the pace at which it was going, recognized the name of one of the exits so took it, hoping we would find our way back with the help of our GPS constantly recalculating and we did!

We have done so many things in just a short time but there were so many more things I wanted to do on my list!  I think I forget that there are only 24 hours in a day and that you still need time to eat, sleep, and shower.  One of the things we ran out of time to do was eat at In 'N Out and I didn't eat as much Mexican food as I was hoping to either.   We did have a great opportunity to catch up with Robert's aunts and uncles from the Philippines though and to finally meet his cousins and their families, and for them to meet our kids too.

Saturday and Sunday took us to Universal Studios.  We had early admission both days, thank goodness, which allowed us to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter for an hour each day before the gates opened.  Then as the crowds flooded to Hogsmeade, we ventured out to some of the other attractions.  On Saturday, I had just mentioned to Robert that I was suprised it wasn't busier seeing as it was a weekend but we bemused that the heat (32-34 degrees Celsius) was keeping the crowds away.  Next thing we knew, we could barely move the crowds were so thick.   The 10-15 minute wait times were suddenly 40 minutes or more.   We've decided Duncan is not a very good Filipino and was not built for heat; the poor kid was dripping with sweat and complaining frequently about how hot it was.  We tried to reschedule our hotel shuttle to pick us up a couple of hours earlier than planned but it wasn't available so we stuck to our original 13 hour day as planned.  Needless to say, the kids were desperately begging for a swim when we got back to the hotel.  The next day, we only spent a little more than half the day there which was nearly perfect as the heat and crowds swelled again.

 Danica's been practicing her red carpet poses.

 Duncan loved the cool zones!

Mmmm....butterbeer.....

Last night, being the last night in the U.S. for the Filipino contingent, Robert's Tita Gina planned a big spread for dinner:  crab legs, rice, pickled green papaya, sinigang, stuffed eggplant and stuffed peppers.  We picked up an ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins for a belated birthday celebration for Duncan for dessert.  Instead of banana leaves, Robert covered the table with tin foil and we ate in a traditional Filipino manner, without utensils or plates, much to Duncan's dismay.  He and Danica elected to eat with their fingers but out of a bowl "like civilized people" as he was concerned about germs.  That in itself was hilarious as the kid is certainly not a germaphobe.
I even ate the crab; it was quite tasty with the pickled green papaya.

Strawberry Margaritas for the ladies...

Today, we spent a couple of hours organizing and packing our suitcases.  Then Robert and I headed out to the Long Beach Towne Centre where I finally had success in shopping for myself and Robert set out in search of a massage.  Unfortunately, they did not have any available slots so he ended up at a Nail Spa having a MANicure and pedicure instead; he opted for a longer leg and arm massage instead of having colour applied to his nails.  I found him finishing up and enjoying his massage chair and he then convinced me that I needed a relaxation treat too.  Who was I to argue?  The walking and sandal wearing has wreaked havoc on the pedicure I had with Sharon prior to our departure.

Afterwards, Robert and I picked up some Chick-Fil-A to bring back for a quick dinner before the Filipino aunts and uncles headed to the airport.  Somehow their luggage quadrupled in size so the Expedition Tita Gina and Tito Danny rented for their time here was able to hold the luggage but not the people.  Robert and I were asked if we could accompany them to the airport in order to transport the people.  We obliged and can I say that I was impressed with how we navigated the airport?  I always find the terminals, on and off ramps, parking exits and the like confusing as a passenger yet we were able to figure it all out rather easily and even beat Tito Danny there and he tends to drive like a maniac.

And now I should be getting ready for bed as I am sure that 245 a.m. will come super duper early.....See everyone soon!

Swimming Pools, Movie Stars....

Look at me with another Beverly Hillbillies reference!

So we left San Diego yesterday, but not before checking out a few other places I'd had on my list of things to do.

1)  Mt. Soledad - as promised, the views were 360 degrees and stunning.  Apparently it is a great place to watch the sunset but we arrived in San Diego after sunset on Tuesday and clouds covered the sky before sunset on Wednesday so we had to do with morning sun and blue skies.  I guess it was turned into a Veteran's Memorial as there is a giant cross on top and there was a lot of controversy about having a religious symbol on government property when there is supposed to be a separation between church and state.

2)  Sunny Jim's Cave - this is a sea cave that you can access from land.  Most of them are only accessible by sea but in the early 1900s, two Chinese men dug a tunnel through to this cave.  Later, stairs were added so that people can access this tunnel through the Cave Store.  There were apparently 145 stairs and the ceilings were quite low in parts but it was very interesting.

We'd also planned on taking a quick stop off at the Scripps Pier but couldn't find it in our GPS so decided against it.  Not realizing how long we'd spend at our other stops, I had also considered stopping at San Juan Capistrano  Mission which is apparently a 200 year old Mission that has been well maintained and full of history of how the European settlers attempted to "educate" the natives.  I was disappointed to miss it but we just don't have time to do everything!

We headed to Long Beach to pick up Robert's parents and headed on into LA where we checked into hotel #1.  You see, Robert was trying to book a hotel near Universal Studios but ended up with a hotel near USC (University of Southern California) which is nowhere near our intended destination.  We decided to make the best of it though and used it as our home base for our Hollywood touring.

We were exhausted yesterday and considered just grabbing a bite to eat and hang out at the hotel pool.  We figured if we headed to Hollywood last night then we could just do the sign and the beach today for Duncan's birthday.  Boy were we glad we did.  As we walked down Hollywood Boulevard from where we parked our car, we stumbled across the Hollywood Premiere for Pirates of the Caribbean:  Dead Men Tell No Tales.  Our vision was limited as there was quite a crowd and we'd arrived rather late, but we got to see Orlando Bloom and Johnny Depp from a fairly close range and Geoffrey Rush and one of the actresses in the movie were walking the red carpet.

After grabbing some dinner and walking a little more along the Walk of Fame, we ended up at Grauman's Chinese Theatre just before their last tour of the evening so we decided to head on in.  What a gorgeous venue!  It was quite interesting and just happened to be their 90th anniversary.  Our tour guide told us how small Rita Hayworth's feet were when she showed us her black dress from "Gilda" but Danica was so proud to realize her feet fit perfectly inside Rita Hayworth's footprints outside the theatre.

This morning, we checked out of that hotel and ventured up into the Hollywood Hills, following directions provided to us by Robert's mom's cousin, to see the Hollywood sign from fairly close up.  Let me tell you, the roads were narrow, steep, and windy!  They better all have really good brakes and they would be screwed if they ever got snow or freezing rain!

Afterwards, we drove to Santa Monica and had fun jumping waves, playing in the sand, and basking in the heat and sunshine.  The people watching was fun too.  Robert laughed at me when we finally arrived there though (the length of time it takes to drive 10 km in this city is absolute insanity!).  I was trying to park our rental minivan in a narrow spot and I just couldn't get the angle right so I got out of the vehicle and told Robert to park it because I gave up.  He giggled hysterically at the fact that I could drive in the 8 lane traffic without any trouble but gave up trying to park the car later.

Finally, we spent another hour and a half in the car driving 20 km to our next hotel - the Safari Inn.  It was the seen in True Romance, Coach Carter and Apollo 13 as well as having appeared in a number of TV shows.  Close by was a restaurant we'd noticed on the way here called the Dog Haus which ended up being the venue for Duncan's birthday dinner.

Now we are trying to have an early night as we head to Universal Studios for early entry tomorrow.

Leaving Las Vegas...

We left Las Vegas yesterday, but not as early as planned due to Robert's desire to head to Fremont Street to pick up some souvenirs and the promises we made to the kids to visit the M&M store on the strip.  I saw everyone's warnings about Fremont Street at night but somehow thought that it may be better at 10 a.m.  Wrong-o.  A man there was holding up a sign saying that his wife had a sex change and ran off with his girlfriend so I ended up having to explain that to the kids.  And then there were the grow your own boyfriend/girlfriend and worse in the stores that the kids, of course, were the first to notice.  You can't say Vegas isn't educational, although it may not be the education their teachers were hoping they'd get while we were away...

 Anyone who knows Danica at all knows how much she LOVES M&M's and how excited she would be getting to choose her own mixture from the wall of them.

We ended up arriving in San Diego after dark last night so didn't do much exploring, or any for that matter.  I came to a couple of conclusions though:
1)  Drivers in Los Angeles are more considerate than those in San Diego and actually let you in when you signal whereas the drivers here just seem to block your way completely and ignore your signal light
2)  The fact that motorcycles do not have to follow the lane rules of the road and are allowed to weave in and out of traffic is insanity; thank goodness helmet laws still apply here
3)  There are no driveways and never enough parking for the number of cars in any given place, leaving lanes of parked cars along both sides of every street no matter how busy or how narrow.

This morning, we planned on heading to the zoo for a couple of hours and then doing some other.    We ended up at the zoo until almost 4 pm!  Apparently we walked 7 miles when all was said and done.  The funny thing is that we had tickets to the Kangaroo (hop on hop off) bus and didn't use them at all, electing to walk everywhere instead.  Robert was disappointed that all the animals seemed to be sleeping and I think we missed the elephants during our walk about (although we did see them while on our bus tour).  It was nice and sunny and warmer though so I was happy.

 The Aerial Tram - Dad, you would have hated it!

After the zoo, we attempted to locate the Spreckles Organ Pavilion in Balboa Park but there was no parking or any place to stop near by and it seemed rather busy in the area so we headed over a bridge scarier than the Mackinaw Bridge (there was no green grate but it was super long and super high with guard concrete that didn't seem high enough for the speeds, curves, and height of the bridge) over to Coronado Island to check out the beaches of glittering sand and catch a glimpse of the Hotel Del Coronado.  Apparently it's been the setting of many movies as well as the inspiration for the Wizard of Oz.  The kids ventured into the ocean to jump the waves, but other than my feet, the rest of us stayed on the sand.

 Duncan found some sea creatures.

After that, we headed to the Children's Pool in La Jolla (pronounced La Hoya as in Oscar de la versus like jolly, which is how your non-Spanish speaking blog author and friend pronounced it).  The wind was whipping and there weren't as many seals as we'd expected but it was still an amazing sight.  We were especially fond of the big grey one that seemed to be putting on a big show for the cameras.

Then we headed to Roberto's Taco Shop for dinner.  Or so we thought.  Either it changed names to Mr. Rubiberto's or we were at the wrong place or Roberto's is the nickname.  Directly across the street, though, was Belmont Park so Robert and the kids decided they needed to ride the rollercoaster from 1925 before dinner rather than after.

They had so much fun that they rode it a second time before we headed for dinner.  Everyone else had the tacos but I opted for the California burrito that I'd read about.  It was good but the guacomole was a little spicy for my wimpy taste buds.

Then after bringing Manilyne and the kids back to the inn, Robert and I had a little "date".  We walked down the street, debating between a drink or dessert and ended up settling on The Baked Bear which had a line snaking out the door when we drove by it earlier.  It is a custom-made ice cream sandwich shop.  You pick your flavour of cookie or a brownie or a combo for the top and bottom, your ice cream for the middle, an optional topping, and whether or not you want it slightly heated.  I opted for a peanut butter cookie top with a brownie bottom and a salted caramel fudge ice cream.  It was pretty delectable.  Robert had a cookies and cream cookie, a brownie, cookie dough ice cream and caramel topping; his was a little too sweet.

And tomorrow we head back up north, picking Robert's parents up and venturing into LA for 3 nights.  There is certainly no time to rest while on vacation!