So, I've been back for a week and all settled back into the reality of living in Salt Lake! Hmmm.... why do I live here! This weekend was a reminder of the punishments winter can so harshly give... for no reason at all! It was freezing, snowing, rainy, windy, and really bad road and traffic conditions...ALL WEEKEND! Blahhhh!!!!!! But Cali was great! We started off on Friday and headed to Temecula to stay with my Ryan and Michelle for a few days.
We drove down to La Jolla and went to the UCSD Aquarium and saw some pretty cool fish!
I loved the life-size statues of the whales and now want to go whale watching! One day I will go!!!!!!
We drove around a lot while we were there... Found this AWESOME neighborhood with ranch style homes with tons of property and horses... so beautiful! It was called Los Rancharitos or something like that! I could live there :) We drove around Fallbrook and thought it was also so beautiful! I just can't get enough of the vinyards and green lush hills. I loved it! So, after a few days in Temecula, Brandt and I finally decided to go to Disneyland! It was a spontaneous thing and we tried to get really cheap tickets for the day cuz neither of us wanted to spend $100 each but Disneyland is always worth it!! But we decided to just head to LA anyways.... the traffic took way longer than normal and by the time we got there, we decided to just hit the beach instead! We set off down SantaMonica Blvd, which was interesting! We drove past famous Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive...and ultimately down to Santa Monica Pier. We started walking to find a restaurant to eat cuz we were starving and tired from driving... we kept walking and walking and walked right into crazy Venice Beach! We had both always wanted to go because we had heard so much about it, but dang.... I felt like I was on another planet or in a mental institution...one or the other! It was CRAZY! There were some weirdo's....and when I say weird.... I can't even describe! It was scary! It's a wonder how some people function in life sometimes!!! We decided to get off the walkway and head down closer to the water and walk the rest of the way back on the sand by the ocean.... which was so much more peaceful and what I needed after CRAZY-ville! We took some pics on the pier and couldn't find anything we wanted to eat, so we headed to Subway! Yep.... Subway became a staple on our trip! Cheap and healthy!!!! :)
After our crazy day in Santa Monica and Venice Beach, and no Disneyland... Brandt had an idea to head up to San Jose to stay with his sister and her family and go to Great America/Six Flags! YESSS!!! So I wrangled a few more days off work and we drove a long drive up to San Jose. He arranged for his sister to do my hair (I'm a blonde again!), and got tickets for the Monteray Bay Aquarium! We got there and found out that Great America was still closed for the season! LAME. But we played wii with his neices and nephews and had so much fun! The Monteray Bay Aquarium was amazing! So many great things to see and learn about.... and the bay was beautiful!
These are Leafy Sea Dragons...kinda like Sea Horses! The coolest things ever!
After the Monteray Bay, Brandt wanted to go to Hollister where he grew up and just check things out. It was really cool. He used to live on this big ranch and had a lot of horses and did a ton of work when he was growing up. His grandfather sold the ranch and some big houses were built on the property in a gated community. We got threw the gate and were able to drive around and check things out. We found the old house he lived in!
Brandt was like a little kid on Christmas day! You should have seen him!!!! We got out of the car and walked through the "long barn" (one out of three-they had nicknames for each barn) and he was telling me all the stories of what happened in this place and what happened in that place. It was really cool!
This was an old piece of equipment that Brandt swears was in the same place when he was a kid! He loves nostalgic stuff like that, stuff that doesn't change! Haha
We saw this horse that was head and shoulders above all the other horses...I'm not sure how many hands high he was, but he was HUGE!!!! I was a little scared of him!
In this picture, you can see the horse in the next stall... see his head doesn't quite come up to the top bar and this guy that I'm petting.... he is so much taller! WOW!!!!
Brandts sister Tanya did my hair! She cut it off and dyed it blond!!
This was our scenery on our way home through Tahoe. It was really pretty, but cold!
We had a good time, but my camera batter was mostly dead the whole trip and I tried to get pics with my phone but the lighting in the pictures kept turning out bad. Oh well... it was a nice trip! Maybe we'll do it again in another couple of years!!!
