Pageant of the Masters!!!

We interrupt the trip to Utah post to try a post from my iPhone.

We went down to Laguna Beach to experience the Pageant of the Masters. I had never heard of this before I moved to Huntington Beach, but it is totally worth going to.

This years theme was Geniuses, they had paintings and sculptures from all the famous artists all over the world. They had Monet, Leonardo di Vinci, Norman Rockwell, and so so many more.
There were real people reenacting all the the people in the paintings or sculptures. It was amazing, the paint and colors they use it is hard to believe that there are actual people there. They all stood so so still, even the kids.

From what our other friends said this year was the best they have been to. I encourage you all to come down this month and go. It is amazing. One thing I enjoyed is some the the paintings and sculptures I have seen the originals before and can picture them.

We weren't allowed to take any pictures of anything so I just found some online. There is one picture of us five girls from the evening. It was so fun.

I didn't know I missed Utah.....

I finally made it to Utah this year.  Utah and I parted ways last summer and I haven't been back to visit.  I always meant to make it to Utah during the school year, during spring break  or one of my long weekends, but I never made it.  I think part of the problem was that I had so many people I wanted to see I just figure if I never went then everyone is equally missing me. 

My one request was to be in Utah for Pioneer Day, so after driving 12 hours or so I made it with 2 hours before July 24th would officially start.  

Side note: After driving across the 80 and then the 15 within almost a week of each other, I am way better at multitasking while driving on the 80 cause no one else is on it and it is really straight and boring.  There are some really awful drivers on the 15 coming back from Nevada.  I have to pay way more attention while I drive.  

With nothing really planned for Pioneer Day, Anna and I drove up Big Cottonwood Canyon and walked around Silver Lake.  

We thought of the most "pioneer" place we could eat, and came up with Ruth's Diner in Emigration Canyon.  

It was great to see all these girls after so long.  After dinner we headed to the white trash/ethnic part of town, the Sonic on State Street, and watched a few fireworks, but gave up before the Bee's finished their game at near 11pm.

It was a great holiday lazy day.  I just really love that they have a Second 4th of July.   

Newport Pier to Pier Swim

On Saturday, I did my first rough water race in about 12 years or more.  I haven't been training much, we swim about 3 times a month.  Not a lot at all, but I decided that was more than enough to embark on a 2 mile race.  I did finish it and I didn't die.  The water was about 64 degrees, so it kept things cold.  I think I got 116 place overall.  Most of the swimmers were members of Masters.  I helped register people, so I could see where they all swam.  There were like 250 swimmers all together so I was just in the middle of them all.

Another fellow Beachwalk Otter swam it with me.  This was his third time doing it and he only beat me by 3 mins.  I feel good about that.  I am really proud of myself though.  I do realize if I want to ever swim Alcatraz, I should probably join a real swim team.  So I might practice a little more often.  

Part 2- Of driving up the 1

Continuing on our trip up the coast.

We made a quick stop at Morro Bay to look at the giant volcanic rock that is in the middle of the bay.  We even drove over to it because I made a wrong turn.  It is pretty there, but not much to do besides look at it.  

And I am posing with my Diet Coke

The next part of the trip has the beautiful Big Sur area.  

It is so pretty isn't it?  The pictures just don't do it justice. 

This waterfall is one of my favorite ever. Its on the beach.  Too bad we can't get closer to it, but we obeyed the rules.  

We stopped to take pictures on Bixby Bridge, in the middle there are benches.  Who would of known.  The rest of the bridge pictures are on someone else's camera, so I can't show you those yet.  

Day 3:

We made it up to Santa Cruz, but we were too late for the Mystery Spot. So that mean I have to go back to the Mystery Spot and visit Santa Cruz again. I loved Santa Cruz because it is on the ocean and there is a state park with big trees less than 10 mins away.  So we did a hike in the trees.

I just really wanted to hug a tree

Take a nice break on a bench

We headed back down the coast to go to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I remember going when I was much younger, but it was nice to relive it again.  I will have to say that after going to the Long Beach Aquarium, in February, I didn't see a huge amount of difference.  Monterey won with the jelly fish and some of their big tanks, but Long Beach won on the Sea Otters.  

The jelly fish were really cool and there were so many different kinds of jellyfish.  After the aquarium, we headed back down the freeway making it a 6 hr drive home.  I always like trying to beat how long the gps tells us it will take.  I shaved 40 mins off the time they told us.  That is including bathroom breaks, gas and dinner.  Think how much faster it would be in I didn't have to pee all the time.

Cruising Up the 1- Part 1

Road Tripping 

We set off from Huntington Beach without a plan besides driving up the 1. We knew we would go as far as Santa Cruz or Monterey, but we didn't have hotels or anything else planned.  We packed some travel books and set off on the trip.  I did basically the same drive last years, so I had an idea of where we were going. 

Stop 1: Santa Barbara

I know I have been to Santa Barbara before, but it has been so long I can't remember, it being so pretty.  There are mountains and ocean together.  Can't ask for more.

We enjoyed the view from the pier.

Mission Santa Barbara was our next stop.  We just looked from the outside.....

Stop #2- San Luis Obispo

We drove up over the mountains from Santa Barbara to San Luis Obispo. I have heard about the Madonna Inn for the amazing amount of pink there is all over the place.  We didn't stay there, but we did wander around the Inn.  I loved it and would of stayed there, but we had to go a little bit cheaper.  

We ate a delicious tri tip sandwich from, Firestone Grill.... There was so much meat on, but it was sure good. 

The next morning we stopped by Bubblegum Alley.  It is cool, but kind of disgusting when it comes down to the fact there is years of gum on the wall.

Happy Independence Day!!!!

Since I moved to Huntington Beach, I have been hearing about the amazing 4th of July Celebrations.  I scheduled my summer around the 4th, so I wouldn't miss out.  And it didn't disappoint.  


The morning started bright at early at 7, with a 5k walk (I think they considered it a run).  We made tutus the night before.  There were about 10 girls in all that had tutus, but I stuck with these girls most of the time. 

I am really tall for this group, that is strange cause I am just an normal height

The rest of the day was followed by the beach, BBQ, Parades, and fireworks. Those events might be reported later.  I am about to go on a road trip up the coast.  We don't really have a plan beside direction.  And coming back on Saturday or Sunday. I am going to try harder to take pictures on this adventure.  

Birthday Egg Drop

One of our good friends had a birthday party last weekend. His birthday wish was for us all to create our own egg drops. I remember doing something like this in fifth grade, but we had way more supplies. He gave each team the same supplies and twenty minutes to create something that would allow our eggs to survive. My partner and I are not very competitive in these areas, so we didn't have much chance. Look at that amazing creation. It has a parachute and a landing bag inflated. Its weird that the egg didn't live.

I blame the height that the eggs were dropped from for our failure. It was a three story building. It just cracked a little bit (and it was exposed partly one side)

Rosorito!!!

Last weekend I got talked into a trip across the border.  I went back and forth like a million times if I should go on the trip.  But in the end I got talked into it.  And I am sure happy I did.  It was a fun, relaxing trip.  If it wasn't for the drug wars in Mexico I would say lets go all the time.  But I am not that brave. 

There were 15 of us staying in a two bedroom condo.  Yes we are cheap...... 

People slept all over the place. The weather wasn't great, but the company was good.

There was karaoke the the bar downstairs

I have never eaten so many churros in my life.  They were soooo good. 

Lobsters and the fight (I have never paid attention so closely to a fight)

We even went for some Mexican church.  I can't say I got much out of it because I was sitting next to English speakers only.  

And they had the most delicious tacos ever.  We ate there three times in two days.  

It was a fun successful trip, made some new friends, hung out with old ones, and made it back alive.  

New Car!!

Meet my new car......

It is a Hyundai Elantra Touring, gray if you can't tell in the picture.   It is a station wagon, not a mini van as someone said earlier today.  

Good Bye Sadie Subaru

This week I said goodbye to Sadie Subaru, after six or seven years together we parted ways at the Carmax in Costa Mesa.  She and I have had some really great moments, but we also had a lot of moments that were very heated.  After a number of heated moments lately, I decided that I was ready to get a new car before putting any more money into Sadie.  I realized I might be spending a lot of money on her cause she was just getting older and older.  Right now I am technically carless, I have been pretty okay the last three days.  Next week I have spring break and instead of going anywhere I am purchasing a new car.  So next week I will have a picture of the new car.  It hasn't been named yet cause I haven't met it.  

Here are some pictures of Sadie the past couple of years. I thought I had some more, but that is all I have found in my five minute search.  

Sailing, Takes Me Away......

 On our list of activities to do in Southern California is to go sailing..... Today we kind of checked that on the list, but only kind of.  


We didn't take a lot of pictures, but I hopefully will go again so I can take more.  Our friend Paul has his own boat, so he offered to take us out for a Saturday boat ride.  


His boat is located at the LA Port.  I was very concerned that I would not be able to use the bathroom for a few hours.  We made a quick bathroom stop at the port bathrooms.  Look at the quality tile work.

 We spent most of our time in the harbor because the wind wasn't that great.  I did learn so much about all shipping that comes into the US.  Like the Port of LA is the 4th largest port in the world.  Look how big those things are....

But in all it was a nice relaxing day on a sailboat.  At least no one expected us to do much cause we know nothing about sailing.  

Whales and Titanic

 For a while I was a little obsessed with Groupon.  We purchased a groupon for whale watching in Dana Point.  Finally we found a weekend that we could all get together. It wasn't the warmest day for whale watching, but we couldn't complain.  The sun came out for our two hour boat tour and we were pleasantly greeted with one little whale. 

Our boat

There were only like 20 people on the boat, all the other boats during the day had like 100 plus people

Stef, Emily, and I looking for the whale

There is a whale down there, can you see it?

There was a lot of Titanic singing to try to get the whales to come to us.

After following our little whale friend we visited with the local sea lions.  

 The whole time we were looking for whales we were looking at these amazing houses.  I think I could handle having a house in Dana Point.  But look at the house going down the cliff.  Aren't they worried about an earthquake, mudslides, or the cliff following down?  

I could totally go whale watching again.  I am happy that we saw one whale, but I would love to see more.  We did get 50% off coupons, so who's in for next time?