Saturday April 19
Woke up in Auckland and began a long long long journey to California. An 8:00am flight to Syndey, 1:00pm flight to LA, 12 hours later, 3rd flight to San Diego, then picked up rental car and drove 3 hours to Dana's Point to see our friends; Mike and Lori McCrae who we are vacationing with us for the week in a beautiful condo. It shouldn't have been 3 hours but Lennie didn't have the address and was so tired he screwed up the directions. I kept my mouth shut and just helped with the directions if he asked.
Happy, exhausted, sad from leaving our new friends, but thrilled to be in North America and in California which Lennie wanted to see. We will be driving to Seattle over the next couple of weeks to see my brother then taking the Victoria clipper to see Lennie's brother.
We arrived and went for a great Mexican dinner (my and Mike's favourite).
Sunday April 20
Woke up at 5:00 then 8:00 then 11:30 sweet. I was so tired and really have no idea what time my body thinks it is. Boys went golfing so Lori and I relaxed, went for Starbucks, got some groceries, and hit the pool/hottub. What a perfect afternoon talking and catching up. The boys came home and hit the hottub. Since we had Mexican last night we went for Italian tonight. We found a gorgeous restaurant but it turned out it was French. We had a delicious meal and all we so tired we went to bed.
Monday April 21
Mike's brother is in Cali too so he asked if we would meet him for lunch in Malibu. We drove for 3 freaking hours through yucky traffic but by huge beautiful houses.
We arrived at Mike's brothers place and drove to Paradise Beach for lunch, walked along the sand, and saw surfers.
We left Malibu and headed to Venice Beach where we walked the boardwalk up to muscle beach. A lot of interesting looking people for sure. It was dirty but pretty cool.
We left Venice beach and Mike took us to Beverly Hills. We drove for hours through the streets to look at movie stars homes. Plus we went up and down Rodeo drive. We found Mel's diner and ordered amazing milkshakes.
We drove home late and were pretty tired.
Tuesday April 22
Lennie's turn to drive into town today. 3 freaking hours into LA for our TMZ tour. The traffic here is nuts!!!!!! We got to the tour too late but was able to go on the 12:30 one. It was so fun, we saw the whole crew from America's Got Talent; Howie, Howard, Heidi, and Mel.
Mike got us free tickets to a TV show so we left Hollywood down to the CBS studios and we saw 2 tapings of the Late Late Late show with Craig Ferguson. We saw Cedric the entertainer, Billie Piper from Dr Who, and Billie Bob Thornton. We left the TV show and went to a Dodgers game. They were playing the Phillys and it went into extra innings. They lost. It it was so cool.
We got home really late just in time for the TV show. We saw us on the screen as we were in the last row and they filmed us from the back - cool.
Wednesday April 23
We got up late and the boys had left for golfing. At 12:30 we went to Santa Ana shopping. We found a Starbucks and Nordstrom's Rack. I got my nails done while Lori scoped out the deals. We shopped till 6:30pm oh my. We went to DSW too and I got some awesome shoes.
We got home and the boys ordered pizza and made Caesar salad. We shared our stories from the day and watched hockey. Lori is very stylish so she helped me get great stuff.
Thursday April 24
We were to go to Catalina island today but Lori suggested we go to Disneyland. Lennie has never been there so we all thought it would be awesome for him.
I hate that kind of stuff but I thought I would suck it up for him. We drove another 2 hours into town to the park, caught a shuttle, entered the park and spent the next 12 hours walking around experiencing the adventures. We ate a ton of fair food; a chicken salad and we split a sundae. Later we got popcorn and more ice cream followed by left overs back at the condo.
So exhausting but Lennie loved his day. I went on some rides but not the huge roller coaster. I even caught Lennie and them on the water ride. My gap fingers were greasy from the popcorn I was chopping on :)
Friday April 25
Boys got up really early and went golfing again. This makes me happy because Lennie loves golf and hasn't had a chance to do it for a while. Lori and I went back to the mall and enjoyed a wonderful day including a lunch at Nordstrom's cafe. I found some great deals and we checked out some beautiful house stuff. I am excited to get home soon and do some redecorating and reorganizing.
We returned home, started to pack and get organized, did laundry then went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. Mike and Lori are flying home to Calgary tomorrow while Lennie and I are driving to Las Vegas!!!!!!!!
Wouldn't this look good in our family room? Actually 2 of them would be perfect. Darn you Pottery Barn.
