The one thing I knew I wanted to do months before we even went to California, was to see a real panda at the San Diego Zoo. Panda's are only in 3 or 4 zoos in the US, and San Diego is one of them. I almost forfeited the opportunity; it was kind of tricky to plan everything to get there. Thankfully, the Saturday(?) before we left, we went :) I took pictures of a lot of different animals but I only feel like posting the pandas.
It was pacing around and around then all the sudden sat up all alert. It was so funny.
Mia got the best picture, this one, on her cell phone.
The next day we went to Los Angeles. It was an interesting drive and even more interesting there. We went to Hollywood Boulevard first. It seemed extra busy, people all over the place. There were people dressed up as certain characters (Spiderman, Tigger, Transformers, the Little Mermaid, Spongebob, Michael Jackson, and a lot more) This guy was dressed up as this terrifying..something. I was literally scared, really scared, as silly as it sounds. He was supposed to be a 'demon' apparently. I was so worked up over getting away from all the fakes that I didn't take too many pictures.
Inside the Kodak Theatre. It was really cool and fun to look around.
Look familiar?
We drove to most of the known places, such as Rodeo drive, which, as only a North Dakotan could, I thought was pronounced rodeO, as in cowboys and horses. Hmm.
All together we saw or went to 4 different beaches. Corona Del Bar, Laguna Beach, Venice Beach, and Santa Monica, below. It was my favorite of all the beaches. A very cool vibe and awesome view!
Santa Monica Pier.
and that concludes my California pictures! I didn't take any on the way home. We had a good trip back though. We flew Jet Blue from Long Beach to Salt Lake city, then rented a car and drove the rest of the way. I highly recommend Jet Blue airlines. Not everyone can say they watched cable tv from 30,000 feet in the air, but I can :) OverallI had a wonderful time and still miss it. I don't think I fully appreciated everything at the time. I adopted the Californian laid back attitude and didn't realize how truly amazing and awesome the things I got to experience were. I was also really surprised at how un-stereotypical it was, at least not in Irvine and Orange. My friends asked me "Is everyone tall, tan, and blonde?" and really, no, they weren't. Of course, I did see a lot of fancy people, but not to the extent that you tend to expect from what you hear about CA. Mia and I would walk places in Irvine, and I (who tends to be kind of paranoid in bigger cities) never felt scared or anything of that sort. Also, the weather, which I expected to be so hot at all times, was so much nicer than ND summers. It was never unbearably hot and it would cool down quite a bit at night. Did I mention the frozen yogurt? Well, they have it ALLLL over the place down there. So many different kinds and flavors, it's amazing. Ice cream is a thing of the past. Anyways, that basically sums up everything!
