Wow! What an exciting month May was! Graduation, and California! Good times.
May actually started out fairly boring. At least compared to the rest of the month. I hung out with my new friend Sam a lot. She just moved from California at the end of April and I was her first Utah friend. It's a bit of a culture shock for her, as I'm sure you can imagine.
Anyway, she hadn't been able to bring all of her things on her trip here, since she flew, and therefore needed to go back and get them. Unfortunately, due to some medical issues, she is unable to drive. So she either needed to take several plane rides back and forth, or she needed someone to drive her there so she could pick up all of her things.
Cue me! I love to drive and desperately wanted to get out the state for a little while. So we decided that she, another friend of mine, and I would drive over and get her stuff. And so Sam decided to make a vacation of it. She bought three tickets for Sea World, San Diego Zoo, Disneyland, and California Adventure park. We went through AAA and bought a five city pass, so it didn't cost as much as it would separately. After desperately looking around for a car we could take so we wouldn't have to spend $500 on a rental car, Justin's parents said we could use their jeep. so we were ready to go!
But there were a few things to do first. Like go to the midnight showing of Pirates 4 completely dressed up. It was so much fun! The movie is awesome and we all looked AMAZING!
On May 21st, 2011, I graduated from the Medical Assistant program at Provo College with high honors, meaning I got a 3.85 GPA. All of the other students in my class were shocked when they learned that I'd never gotten that high of a GPA before. I was incredibly proud of myself. Especially my 4.0 in one of my terms. It's amazing what you can do when you decide to do it.
Grandma and Grandpa were able to make it up for my graduation, which I was incredibly grateful for. My cousin on my Dad's side was getting married in Richfield at the exact same time, so no one on that side was able to make it up. But the twins and Mom and Dad were there, along with Sam and another friend, Rachelle. It was so great to celebrate with everyone. After graduation, we went to Nicolitalia's for lunch. For those of you who haven't been there, may I suggest it now. It's one of Dad's and my favorite places. So Good! The rest of the day was spent getting ready to leave for California the next day.
And leave we did. We made really good time, making it to San Diego by about 9 CA time that night. And that was after we spent a good two hours in Las Vegas! We went to the top of the Stratosphere. No, we did NOT go on the crazy roller coaster or the see saw that's on top of the building. Nor did we feel the need to jump off. But I did watch a couple of the people who did. Maybe someday I will have the nerve to do that, but not yet.
San Diego was awesome. We went to Sea World on Monday. I enjoyed it a lot, especially the dolphins, even if i didn't get to touch one. That was not for the lack of trying though, I assure you. Next time I go, I'm going to make sure I saved enough money that I can do the "swimming with the dolphins" thing. That looked cool.
The dolphin show was very cool, if a little cheesy. And Shamu was really fun to watch. I was a little confused though. There were three whales. Are they all named Shamu?
Monday night we ate at the Cheesecake factory. Can I just say, YUM! Best pizza I have EVER tasted. Justin enjoyed his meal as well, and Sam was impressed by how they altered her food to fit with the gluten-free diet she has to be on. the manager even came out to make sure he knew her exact restrictions.
Tuesday we went to San Diego Zoo. It was so much fun to see all of those animals, most of which I've never seen in real life before. I know, can you call a zoo "real life"? But it's more real life than pictures or movies, so I was happy. Sam insisted we see the rhinos, as they are her favorite. They didn't look the way I thought rhinos looked, but I guess that's what I get for only seeing them in pictures and movies!
That evening we were able to meet up with my Aunt and Uncle who live down there. It was so much fun to see them! I don't get to nearly as much as I'd like, due to the fact that they live thirteen hours away. They bought us all ice cream and we visited for a while. Then we said goodbye and headed up the coast to Anaheim.
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| Darth Vader was there! They were filming this commercial while we were there. |
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| Rapunzel!!! my favorite princess! |
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| I tried. It didn't work. :( |
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| This is the awesome family we met while we were there! |
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| Check out how cute Sam is in her ears! |
Disneyland was AMAZING! Sam wanted to make sure Justin and I got the full experience, since he'd never been and I hadn't been since I was six. So she booked breakfast our first day at the Plaza Inn. A lot of Characters were wandering around the restaurant, sitting down with the diners and letting people take pictures. Either Chip of Dale (I can't tell the apart) sat with us for a while and wanted to "drink" Sam's chocolate milk. But he couldn't get the lid off without help. So Justin took the lid off and the chipmunk pretended to drink it. We got pictures with Tigger, Minnie Mouse, Eeyore, Geppetto, and more. And breakfast was delicious and filling. It was great.
I can't even remember what all we did that day. Sam had gotten us reservations at a restaurant called the Blue Bayou for dinner. It sits on the bank of the river that the Pirate's ride is on, so you get to watch people go past while eating. That had been the first ride we went on that morning, and she pointed out to us where we would be eating.
The next day we spent most of the day in Disneyland again, hopping over to California Adventure Park for dinner where we had reservations at "Ariel's Grotto". Sam discovered Tapioca bread there, and loved it! She was so excited to find some bread she could have. I had delicious mashed potatoes and steak. After dinner, we got a really good spot for watching the World of Color. It was beautiful! It's a water show.
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| Sam won! |
Both parks closed early that night for Senior night, where all the high school students got the parks to themselves for a few hours. By this time we were exhausted so we went back to the hotel and went to bed – after Justin and Sam had their nightly pillow fight, of course.
The last day we went to California Adventure park first, and went on some of the rides. “Soarin’ over California” was really cool, and the “Tower of Terror” was probably my favorite ride, even if it did put me off elevators for the rest of the trip. I wanted to get a shirt that said “Tower of Terror – I survived”, but I didn’t when we were in the “hotel lobby”. I was thinking it would be at the shop at the front of the park, or even in Disney Downtown. But it wasn’t. So, I guess I’ll have to go again!
Saturday, we went to Disney Downtown to get anything else we wanted, and then headed to LA for a My Chemical Romance concert. It was pretty cool, even if it wasn’t exactly my thing. Justin and Sam absolutely loved it. At one in the morning, after the concert ended, we got back into the car and headed further up the coast for the last stop on our agenda. San Jose. It was a 6 hour drive. I drove most of it, since Justin was absolutely drained, and I had gotten a nap earlier. We got in at about 7 am, only to find that they had given our room away an hour earlier. Luckily, since San Jose is where Sam lived up until a month ago, she had somewhere we could crash until they had a room for us. I was picked up for church, being the only one even remotely awake, and dropped off at the hotel, as they had cleaned a room for us while I was gone.
We were going to go to San Francisco on Monday, but it was Memorial Day and the traffic was insane. So we spent the day in, and went and visited a few of Sam’s friends.
The drive home seemed longer than the one there, and perhaps it was. We got back to Orem at about 1:30, unpacked the Jeep, and went to bed.
And that was the last day of May. Hope I entertained you with my month. I kept myself entertained pretty well. :D
