The Trip

Here's a recant of our trip to California. We were gone April 20th - May 1st, it was
a long one, but a fun one!

Thurs: Early AM road trip to Jacksonville airport. It was a 2-hour drive and not too terrible. Luckily it was early enough we didn't have traffic issues and what-not. So we started our day in Savannah, stopped in Florida, stopped in Texas and made it to California. Flying is fun, haha!

We time traveled, gaining 3 hours when we got to Cali. We went to the hotel and hit the pool and freshened up. The water was heated, so even tho it was about 70 degrees out, it was glorious! Yup, outdoor pool! So after getting prettied up Sara came and got is. Teehee, she has a belly! :) It's cute. We went to their house and saw Mom & Dad too. Uncle Dick & Aunt Elaine also made the trip. They drove out. So we were at the house and Charles, Mom, Dad, Greg and I went to their favorite Taquerita (I can't remember the name, teekeetakee or something like that) and had a snack. Well, the pork quesadilla I had ended up being a meal. This is the place Charles and Sara go on Tuesday nights for Taco Tuesday, so Charles knew all the rights and wrongs...and the right drink. Greg had this concoction (they should try it at Dos!) but it was a glass of dark beer (mexican) shot of tequila and some sweet & sour or margarita mix (remember, this is day one, I don't remember all the details!) Apparently the limit is 3, record is 5. We went back and hung out at the house and Tony, Tricia, Taylor, Dick & Elaine showed up after T,T&T got in from the airport. They were all hungry, so back to the Taquerita! Everyone went except Greg & I and Charles & Sara. We stayed and waited for the dessert guy to bring the cake stand for saturday. Everyone came back, we hung out for awhile and went back to the hotel for nighty night. Wasn't that exciting? :O

Friday: We pretty much just helped at the house for Saturday's party. Mom, Sara and I went and did the shopping in the afternoon, Charles picked up his family at the airport and then we all met. We got everything put away and went back to the hotel to get gussied up. Charles' Aunt & Uncle rode with us and his parents rode with my parents. We got to take them for a little tour of San Jose when we took the scenic route. There's construction and chaos throughout san jose, so it was easy to loose our way! Needless to say we did it again on the way to dinner. :) We had dinner at La Pastaia. It was a neat place and we had our own area, along with our own personal menu's. oooh lala! Greg and I both had the Filetto - fillet of beef served on a portabella mushroom with a Barolo wine sauce and deep fried shallots (yes, I saved my menu) and it was delicious. It was a fun night.

Saturday: Big party day! We went to the house and helped get stuff set up and ready. Went to TOGO's to get lunch...it's a sub shop. After that we went back to the hotel for a siesta before the party, got ready and it was party time! It was great to put names with faces and meeting everyone. And the food was awesome! Dale & Joan did a lot of everything and did it well! Yay! And Marro (don't quote me on the spelling) who is a pastry chef...Greg and I made idiots of ourselves standing around the cake table and sampling one of everything.
That tower is a tower of cream puffs and oh man, they were so good. We were able to stay up late that night due to the massive sugar high!

Sunday: During the day Greg and I went into San Francisco. He wanted to see Chinatown and Little Italy. We had a good time and got in an incredible hill workout! haha! We drove down Lombard St...the infamous crooked hill. What else...walked the pier for a little bit, went across the bridge...ohhh, we ate at The Stinking Rose.
YUM! It's a garlic themed place I guess you can say. We got some of the Garlic Olive Oil, it was so yummy. Thanks to Chris for that great information. Eventually we made our way back to San Jose and by then, everyone was gone and we (Mom, Dad, Sara, Charles, Greg and I) had dinner at Original Joe's.

Monday: We got our stuff together and checked out...went to the house, had a little breakfast and said our goodbye's. Then off we went to find Hwy 1 and 17 mile drive. It's a beautiful drive and you get to see some pretty swanky houses. We also stopped in Monterey, had some lunch, did a little sightseeing and got on our way again. So we made it to Carmel and found a hotel for the night and went on a mission to find a place to eat. So if you're looking for artwork or expensive stuff, this is the place for you! It's not much of a town for us, or kids. But we found Jack London's pub for dinner and then Hog's Breath Inn for a after dinner drink.

Tuesday: off to LALA Land!!! We got there and found a hotel...the not-nice lady at the Marriott lost them our business so we went across the street to Holiday Inn I think it was. Every other Marriott we went to was wonderful, but cranky butt was a queen.

Tuesday night we lived the Hollywood lifestyle I must say, teehee! We went to House of Blues for dinner (one of Greg's favorite places around the country) and our waiter asked if we were there for the show, we said "what show" and he said "Chris Cagle" and I said "ooh, I would like that but he wouldn't". Well, either we were beautiful enough or they just wanted to fill the show, but we got free tickets. So we hung out until the show started and I had a good time, Greg couldn't care less, but had fun. And then, Cagle brought out John Waite! He sang a couple songs with him, that was fun. And THEN Cagle babbled about stuff...he was at American Idol that day and wanted to praise one of the guys...some bald guy named Chris? I don't watch the show, but I was standing 2 feet away from him...around a pole...and then Chris Cagle's whole record label and manager were all in the same vicinity! Our brush with fame! :) So we left a little before the show ended and walked up the strip (oh yeah, this is all on the sunset strip). We went into Whisky-a-go-go, where the Doors were a house band when they first started. What a dive! haha! But it was neat...there was some punk rock band playing, they were fun. Then guess what we did? We tried to get into The Viper Room!!! hahaahaa! Do you honestly think they let us in? HA! We waited 3 minutes and said screw it, Jonny Depp doesn't need our money. At least we can say we walked on the sidewalk where River Phoenix died. Then we went to Mel's Diner, I think that's famous too. haha!

Wednesday: We went to Six Flags Magic Mountain! It was great! This is where we went 100mph on Superman Extreme! It's a big anniversary for them...but I think we were early in the season...not everything was open and there weren't many people there. But we had a blast and never had to wait in line for anything. We went on Superman 3 times. A lot of the rides were the same as Great America in Ill...some had different names. Now what did we do Wednesday night...I think we were a little burnt out from the rides...oohhhh yeah. We went down by the Kodak Theater and Mann's Theater! We saw all the famous handprints,
had a snack at Hooters and looked at all the touristy stuff. That night we found a Hard Rock Cafe to eat at...we thought it'd be a happening place, but not so much. It was nice and food was good, but nothing too exciting. So it was kind-of a early night. I think we were still dizzy anyways.

Thursday! This was awesome...my wonderful brother-in-law got us Front of the Line Passes to Universal Studios. Wait for anything, we did not have to. It was great. We had fun here...the Mummy ride was the best! i will not give it away for any future riders, but it's awesome. We went on it twice. And we went on the lot tour, I did not see anyone famous. :*( It just sounds like they shoot a lot of TV Shows there now...but they are setting up for a sequel to Bruce Almighty...it's called Evan Almighty and stars Steve Carrell (40 yr old virgin). So the tour was fun, but seemed to be a 40 minute ad for all the Universal shows of course.

After this we made our way to San Diego! Our hotel (the only place we made reservations for and that was just a couple days in advance) was in Old Town. The first night we went and ate at a Mexican place. We were waiting for a table and I was wearing a Dos shirt, so we got to chat with a guy from Stevens Point area. He's in the service and is in hawaii right now. But he wants to retire in San Diego. So they were able to give us some pointers. we had dinner and then walked around for a bit.

Friday: I think we just drove down to the Gaslamp Quarter and walked around there...we did a lot of walking and saw where the Padre's play...That night we went back to Gaslamp and had the worst dinner of our trip. Do NOT go to Whiskey Girl. I thought it was called Whiskey Grill until I saw the stamp on my bun. ha! Service was eh and the food was pathetic. So we got out of there as soon as possible and found some other places to have fun. Dick's Last Resort, Jimmy Loves, Gaslamp Tavern, Long Yard...it was fun.

Saturday: We went over to Coronado and saw the famous Hotel Del Coronado. It was a very cool place and when we're rich, we're going to stay here. :) we drove around the island and saw stuff. Then we wandered around and went the long way back into San Diego. I'm not sure what else we did...San Diego is kind of a blur...there was a lot of walking and seeing stuff. That night we went to Pacific Beach tho. We had dinner at the PB Bar & Grill...that was good and a fun place. Then we went over to Moondoggies...this place we have just learned is one of the top places that UCSD kids go to. No wonder why I felt old. Haha!

Sunday: Zoo day!!!
And then we had hours to kill until our flight at 10:30 that night. We ended up walking thru Balboa Park for a bit and then found ourselves outside of the Park. We ended up at Gaslamp again and decided to see a movie to kill some time. Greg has been begging to see Silent Hill and I refused to see it, so we had some alone time...he saw that and I saw Ice Age 2. Then we walked around some more and found our way to the trolley depot and hoped on that to get back to the hotel. We waited around and then it was time to go to the airport! And thus concludes our journey...a red eye flight back to Georgia.



It was a fun trip, but we were glad when it came to an end. And now we're home! What have we been up to? Well, putting weight back on Porter, getting back to the grind. Yesterday we went for a drive. There is actually a Hooter's in Savannah. It's out a ways tho. we didn't go there, just wanted to see what the area is like...we believe it is in a area that is going to be growing. There are a lot of hotels...and we found a little outlet mall! yay! And now it's Thursday already! Time flies eh? I think I'm going to walk up to the River today...and I might experiment with the free trolley bus that goes around town. So I'm off! Have a good weekend ya'll!