Well, we made it back from California just a FEW dollars poorer than we were when we left. :) The important thing however, is that we had a blast and made some fun memories! Here is a synopsis of our trip along with a few pictures.
We left Logan at 8:30 pm to drive down to St. George. It was a pretty quiet ride until about Fillmore... Cove Fort ish area. (This area has been known to be problematic to us... awful snowstorms, flat tire...) I had been working/at class all day and evening, so I was pretty dead, so I had tipped my seat back and was sleeping on and off while Jaren listened to a book on tape. It was probably around midnight that I suddenly woke up to our car swerving, Jaren saying, "woah! woah!!", and instantly my mind jumped to the conclusion that Jaren had fallen asleep behind the wheel and had run off the road and we were going to die. I bolt upright, the bottom falling out of my stomach bracing for impact, when I see that we were not careening through the weeds on the side of the road, and then I heard Jaren laugh and say, "Did you see that? We almost hit it!" I guess there had been a huge coyote in the road. Jaren instinctively swerved a little and then corrected instantly, but when you are going 75 miles per hour, suddenly slam on the brakes and swerve even just a little the car moves alot. We barely missed hitting the coyote and I was wide awake the whole rest of the trip. This probably ranks in the top 2 times I have been terrified in my life... Thank goodness it was only a coyote.
Day two was spent driving Jay and Jeri Dell's nice car. Jay was nice enough to let us borrow it for our trip. I think their car would definitely stand up against a coyote much better than ours... :) We got to California around four o'clock, checked into a ghetto little Howard Johnson hotel, got into our swimming suits and headed to the beach. The gas gauge in the car had beeped at us a few miles before telling us that the gas was low, so we were heading towards the beach looking for a gas station. We were waiting at a red light about a block and a half away from a gas station when.... the car sputtered and went dead. OH NO. We were right in the middle of a busy California street. Jaren tried getting it started a couple times, but nothing. Cars were flying by honking at the stupid Utah drivers just chillin in the middle of the road. Finally we decided the only thing to do was to push it. I climbed over into the drivers seat, and Jaren got out to push. He is SO strong and pushed the HEAVY car for a whole block and only had help pushing it up the incline into a parking lot across the street from the gas station. (Due to a stupid steering mishap on my part, we couldn't go straight to the gas station.) Jaren got a gas can and got us enough gas to get to the gas station. We were VERY careful to make sure the car was fueled up after that.
On day 3, we went back to the beach. We walked around the little shops for a while to look for surfboard rentals and a rash guard shirt for Jaren to wear while surfing. Once we found them, we headed out to the beach and Jaren went surfing. . . "or swimming with a surfboard" says Jaren. He almost got up a couple times... Sorta. While he was out, some dolphins swam by... :) At least we HOPED they were dolphins.
That day, we invited my aunt, cousin and my cousin's kids to play on the beach with us. Love the beach! That night we went to Olive Garden for dinner. Happy anniversary to us!
Day four was a busy one. We got up early and I forced Jaren to turn off the TV and get on the road. :) We drove up to Venice Beach to check out the shops and boardwalk and the crazy people. It is kinda fun to see, but it gets old pretty fast. It's kinda creepy :) After walking down and back, we decided to go to Hollywood! We walked down Hollywood Boulevard, stopped at the Chinese theater to check out the hand prints, and took a few pictures of the Hollywood sign from a huge mall next to the theater. We definitely got our walking in this day... probably at least a few miles. It was killer!
After Hollywood, we had a few hours to kill before our DODGERS GAME! We took a little nap at a park, and drove around for a while trying to find a McDonald's so we could get some ice cream. California streets are CRAZY!
Finally it was time for the game. We changed into our Dodger's T-shirts and headed in. If you hadn't heard, we got tickets for the "All You Can Eat Section" in right field. We weren't sure if it was the best idea, but realized this night that it is definitely the way to go. You can't help but grin when you realize... I can have as much as I want. Definitely cool. :) We ate more food than our tickets cost. The Dodger Dogs were SO good and we both downed a ton of root beer. Without ice. Really, it is so much better without. The game was definitely a highlight of the trip. We will go back someday!!
Saturday, we slept in a bit and went exploring in some tide pools, took lots of pictures, went back to the hotel for a nap, and headed back to the beach in the evening. We had every intention of boogie boarding, but the wind was blowing SO hard and the waves were HUGE and the tide was coming in. We sat on the boogie boards and watched people kite surfing instead. The sunset was beautiful on the beach and Jaren got some awesome pictures under the pier as the sun was setting.
Sunday, we went to my aunt and uncles house for lunch. My aunt made cream cheese chicken. It was AMAZING. :) We ended up checking out of our hotel early to stay the night at their house to save us some time driving home. We all had fun chatting that night. We enjoyed staying in their nice home, it was definitely a step up from the Howard Johnson. :)
Jaren drove us home on Monday. I'm glad he can drive far. :) I am not very good at it. We stopped in St. George to visit Jay & Jeri Dell and switch cars. Jeri Dell got her braces off and looks amazing!!
There you have it. That was our trip. The End.
Haha. You can see it better from another view and it looks a lot different than this. The tree just blocks the view. It looks like it will be perfect. I was hoping that little mesh thing in the bottom right of the picture wasn't our door..... :S haha
