Ever since I came home from my internship last fall I have wanted to return to California and this past month I got that oppertunity! My Mom and I took off for nine days and went to California! We drove to Springville on friday Aug 27 and spent the night with Jenn and Ricardo. Saturday we drove to the SLC airport and at 12:25 we took off. We had a one hour layover in Vegas before flying on to the Orange County airport. At the airport we picked up our rental car, a bright blue Ford Focus, and set out for my friends house. We spent three nights with my friends Nacolynn, Natalie and Mandy in their super cute apartment. Saturday night we went to a great pizza place in Balboa called BJ's. Their food was amazing! Nacolynn and my friend Austin went with us to dinner and then we all went to the Great Park for a concert by a group called Te Vaka, they play a modernized version of island music, lots of Samoan and polynesian influences. They were really good! Sunday I was able to catch up with another friend, Brenda who spent most of the day with Nacolynn and I.
Monday my mom and I got up and going early and by 9:30 we were walking down the beach, picking up sea shells and enjoying the sand between our toes. We walked almost the whole distance between the Newport and Balboa piers. When we got to Balboa we were just in time to go out on a whale watching boat. It was alot of fun! We went out for two hours and got to see four blue whales, a minkee whale, which we were told are hard to find, and a pod of dolphins! My mom also saw a jelly fish. On the way back into the harbor we saw some sea lions hanging out on a bouy. We went out just over six miles from the coast. We spent the rest of the day shopping in Balboa and Newport. We also got Balboa bars and sat on the beach eating them, boy are they messy when they start melting! I left my mom laying on the beach under the umberella Naco let us borrow, thanks Naco!, while I went out into the water to look for shells. I found lots of little shells and one really big one. I was so excited becasue I've never found a shell so big but alas I wasn't able to keep it as it's owner was still living in it so I took a picture and threw him back out into the water as far as I could. He was pretty cool and it was still fun to find, even if I couldn't keep it.
Tuesday we packed up our stuff and loaded it in the car, and drove back out to Balboa to do a little more shopping before driving down to Anaheim to check into our hotel. By three we were all checked in and dressed to head over to Disneyland! Our hotel was directly across the street from the main Disney entrance and it took us about five minutes to walk to the main gates of Disneyland or California Adventures. We had so much fun and dropped into bed each night with our feet aching from all the walking we had done that day! We rode almost wvery ride at least once and most of our favorites three or four times. We spent three and a half days at disneyland!
We couldn't have planned a better time to visit California as the tourist season was over and the kids were all back in school. The beaches and Disneyland were both fairly free of crowds. At Disneyland we rarly had to wait more than 10-15 minutes for even the most popular rides! Friday night we spent to night with my friends Rachel and Brant. Saturday we went to the airport and set backoff for first Vegas and then Salt Lake before driving home. We got home about 9:30pm and boy were we glad to be home. All in all it was a great vacation! I can't wait till I get to go again! Thanks to all my friends who let me stay with them!
