Road Trip

So last Wednesday afternoon my family and I left on a road trip. We were headed down to California and then over to Utah to check out some colleges for my little sister Keara and her friend Tracey.

The first night we made it down to Redding, California. We stayed with some relatives that I had never met before. Kee, Tracey and I had to stay in a trailer outside the house. We were on a mountain and in the forest and all night we were terrified that a bear was going to eat us :)

On Thursday we made the drive LA. I am not a fan of that city. There are millions of people and it is super smoggy and trashy. Well at least the part we went to. Thursday we spent all night looking for USC and it turned out the college was like five minutes away from where we were staying, kind of funny. So on Friday we went on a three hour tour of USC. The campus itself was really pretty and it seems like a really great school; I know Keara would looooooooooooooove to go there.

It was actually a really weird experience going on this college tour with Keara and her friend and all the other prospective students who were there. It really made me realize that I'm getting older and am just about done with my own college experience. It goes by so fast and I wouldn't trade any of it; it really has been amazing!! I just can't believe my little sister is going into college and I'm pretty much done...what a scary thought!

After that we headed down to San Diego. This part of the trip was by far the favorite for everyone. Keara and Tracey fell in love with San Diego and they have their hearts set of living there someday. I was really excited to be there because the guy I'm dating, David, lives there. So here's the story of what I did in San Diego...

David picked me up when I got there and he took me to this science museum. It was actually really fun! They had all these different exhibits that we played with. Basicially it was us and millions of little kids. Way fun. After that we watched an Imax movie on Mt. Everest...really cool. I love those! The museum was at this place called Balboa Park which I guess is bigger than Central Park. Its huge! So we walked around there for awhile just looking at everything. We worked up quite the appetite doing that so David took me for my first In N' Out experience. It was amazing! That is by far the best burger place ever! By this time it was dark outside so we went to the San Diego temple. It was beautiful with all the lights!! It seriously looks like a castle. It was amazing. After that he took me to this hill that overlooked San Diego and we were able to watch the Sea World fireworks which was really cool. To end the night he took me to Heaven Scent desserts...which was aaaaamazing! We shared this really good fruit tart thing and some chocolate thing. Haha it was delicious.

Saturday was the big day. David came over around 9 that morning and met the fam. It went really well excecpt when he came over Keara and Tracey decided to be flying squirrels jumping from the different beds in the hotel room. So David got to see how weird my sister can be :) Then we all headed down to Mission Beach. When we got there we noticed that there were dolphins swimming in the water! The whole day we swam the dolphins kept coming back and they were so close to us! It was really cool to swim with them! We hung out at the beach for most of the day and boogie boarded. Man the water was absolutely amazing! You could see the bottom and it was warm! So different from the Oregon coast! A couple of David's friends met up with us at the beach so it was fun to meet and hang out with them as well.

David and I left my family at the beach around 3 so I could get ready and head to his house to meet his family. I ate dinner with them and then we all went to the play Wicked. I had never seen it before and I loved it!! It was really cool meeting David's family. We all got along really well and during dinner I got to hear tons of stories about David...that was the best. His family was really nice and I had a great time with them. At the end I was talking with his mom and sisters and they told me if things don't work out between us to come back anyways because they like me so much. David didn't hear that part he only saw me laugh and I told him they had told me a secret and it drove him crazy all night because he didn't know what we were talking about. It was pretty funny.

After the play David took me to La Jolla Cove. We just walked on the beach and sat on the rocks and talked. It was beautiful. I am definitely a fan of San Diego. It was great trip! That night we had to say goodbye because my family was leaving to Utah the next morning. I'm so happy I was able to go with my family and that by this time my mono and tonsillitis were pretty much gone. So I was able to really have a good time. I was pretty plugged up but that wasn't too big of a deal.

The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful. We made it Utah and stayed with some more relatives that I had never met which turned out to be really fun because I was able to hear lots of stories about my Dad that were pretty entertaining. I was also able to see some of my friends who I went to Ukraine with and have lunch with them. All in all it was a really fun trip!!


Me, Tracey, Keara and my mom and USC


David, Me, Keara and Tracey