As promised, for MJ's 16th birthday I took her to the land of her birth. She has wanted to see what CA was like and play in the ocean. She even got to bring her friend along for the ride and visit friends that recently moved there. Sometimes life can't seem to get more perfect than the moment you are in. I was really worried about "June Gloom" while we were there. For the last few years it has been nasty gloomy weather while I've been there in June. I fully expected to be freezing while we were there. Well, MJ must have been extra special because the sun was out and shining the entire time we were there. It was perfect in every way.
One of the pictures must have gotten lost in translation on this photo collage, it just up and disappeared. The M's greeted us at the airport except we walked up behind them and surprised them so it was pretty funny. We've never has someone holding a sign for us at the airport before. We cruised downtown LA one night and then stopped to see the Temple. To make up for the uncoolness of driving a minivan to the beach, we strapped a surfboard on top and, voila, instant cool factor ;o)
There was a whole lotta food consumption on our trip. Miracle of miracles....other than the sunshine.....MJ ate her very first hamburger on this trip. I mean if you're gonna have your very first burger, shouldn't it be from the most famous of all burger places? I'm always on the hunt for good cupcakes and so we tried a few. The one that won CCWars.....sucked. It was so not good. Honestly I haven't had the best luck with winners and runners up of that show having good cupcakes. We weren't disappointed with our east coast cupcake shop that is now on the west coast. The girls had to go to their favorite cheesecake place and I asked (or flirted with) our waiter what dessert I should get and he directed me to the strawberry shortcake. He did not lead me astray, it was delish.
All the girls wanted to do was hang out at the beach, so we did. P kept catching sand crabs and naming them. I wish I could remember the names because they were crazy. MJ got boogie board lessons for E and T. It was so cute watching them try to teach her. She finally made it in on a wave so they were good teachers. Jane made it in too, but she had no idea what was happening until I told her, it was hilarious. One time was enough for her though. The favorite thing MJ and Jane did with T was to rent bikes and ride along the beach. They loved that... probably because they got to take off on their own.
Our big adventure was spending a day at Universal. We again had a miracle and mapped our day out so perfectly that we never waited for more than 30 minutes for anything and the lines were up to 90 min that day. I honestly don't know how we pulled that off, but we did and it was awesome. My hip wasn't loving me and when I came back and told my surgeon about my adventures he just shook his head and told me that I was crazy for doing that with my hip. Oh well, what can I say, I'm stubborn.
The only bummer about the trip was the flight home. The point you reach when you know you've hit home... because it's ugly brown dirt as far as the eye can see. It is pure desolation. I am the biggest defender of this place but sometimes its hard when you go away and are surrounded by such beauty to then come home to what looks like a bomb site because of the amount of desolation. *sigh* Oh well, at least it doesn't take me 90 min to travel 16 miles and I don't have to channel my inner hunter when it comes to tracking down a parking space! Oh, and let's not forget....that state is going to chunk off into the ocean! :o)
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