Thursday, October 11, 2012

California Adventures

This time two weeks ago I was driving to Becca's house for a weekend of fun and delicious, sugary food. For her birthday we took a little road trip back to her home state/town. It was a lovely affair.

We embarked on the 10 hour trip late Thursday afternoon. It was an epic drive, that's for sure. We almost constantly blared Imagine Dragons, singing along to every song and hanging on to Dan Reynolds' every word. A great number of my friends were seeing ID on Saturday in Salt Lake City so the best Becca and I could do was listen to their songs on a permanent loop.

Dinner Thursday night was from Domino's in St. George. We split a large cheese pizza, covered in parmesan, as we drove through the Virgin River Gorge. At this point it was pretty dark so we didn't get to enjoy its beauty until coming home on Sunday. Besides the pizza, Thursday night really was uneventful, though. I saw Las Vegas for the first time. It's such a strange place. We didn't stop there but seeing it from the freeway was sufficient enough for me. We rolled into Becca's neighborhood around two and promptly fell asleep.
We missed this sort of thing the first time around.

Friday was probably the most chill day I've experienced in a long time. I got up late, did some homework, and ate homemade bread and french toast. After we ate, Becca, her mom, her sister and myself went to some fabric store. Becca's sister is making her a TARDIS quilt. How neat is that?! We spent quite a lot of time debating over what the right blues were; Becca and I take TARDIS blues very seriously. After that . . . I'm not quite sure what we did. I think we just went back to Becca's and bummed around. Becca's dad and brother-in-law had the football game on so I watched that with them until it was time to go to Becca's friend's wedding reception. (It was pretty chill, though I certainly enjoyed the chocolate fountain, as did Lily, and getting to meet some of Becca's friends, people I've heard a lot about but only met on this trip.)


Friday night was probably my favorite part of this jaunt to California. We went and hung out at the beach for a few hours. It was a full moon so everything was lit up. It was just Becca, her friend Jeff and myself, which was really nice. We climbed on the lifeguard stand and sat up there for quite some time, just talking and enjoying the ocean air. It wasn't the least bit cold or breezy. Once we left the beach we drove home on the Pacific Coast Highway with all the windows down. That was awesome and so thoroughly collegiate. It was the kind of careless night you don't get all that often in college.

Saturday was Becca's 21st birthday! We woke up quite late, I think after 10 and maybe almost 11. We immediately went downstairs to enjoy a plethora of German pancakes. Right after that Becca was recruited to help finish up the pulled pork for that night's dinner and I was recruited to learn how to drive stick shift. Becca's dad taught all four of his kids and many of their friends as well. My own brother attempted to teach me about two years ago but things never really worked out. With my little bit of experience I seemed to pick it up pretty fast this time around. It was the first time I actually drove on city streets too! It's exciting to be able to say that I am completely capable of driving a car with manual transmission.

We spent most of the afternoon watching Community and in the late afternoon it was time to swim! I enjoyed that thoroughly, having not been swimming in a pool in a long time. We were there for a couple of hours and then it was time to eat. Becca and I had somehow not eaten since that morning so pulled pork sandwiches, salad, chips & salsa, raspberry lemonade and marble cake was just what we needed. Everything was delicious and I'm pretty sure Becca and I each ate at least 2.5 sandwiches.

That night was the real treat of the day. Becca's friend's Jeff's older brother is a manager at the Disney Hotel and so Jeff invited us to watch the fireworks from the lounge on the top floor of one of the buildings! Pretty epic to say the least. We got free snacks and drinks too!


Once the magic was over, the three of us walked around Downtown Disney for a while. That was also great fun and I almost purchased a $60 hoodie. IT WAS BUZZ LIGHTYEAR FOR PETE'S SAKE.


But I was a good little student and did not. We took plenty of random pictures in the big Disney store, though. Perhaps most importantly, I found out why those random spinning toys are so cool, but that's only if they're R2-D2. Those ones make R2 noises!



Sunday it was time to return to Utah. Becca and I enjoyed a very pleasant drive back. For the first two hours or so we listened to some nice church music, but after that it was basically all Imagine Dragons all the time. We seriously sang for about eight hours straight. We both almost lost our voices. Worth it? Most definitely.

The trip overall was a marvelous thing and I'm so pleased Becca and I get to have such adventures.

Last YouTube video I watched: Disneyland Halloween Party (We missed being at Disney at the same time as the Shaytards by a day! How crazy is that?!)

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