Califor-ni-a Part III & Conclusion

Day 5: Cabrillo National Monument, Point Loma Lighthouse, San Diego. AND the beach.

Stats: This is a national park area with a light house and a monument to the first Spanish explorer to land in California. Beautiful.




Favorites: We spent the first part of the day touring around the lighthouse and the monument. The weather was cool and the views were beautiful. We also went to see the tide pools in the park.

Then we headed to the beach. The water was soooo cold! But fun!

Day 6: Back to Los Angeles

Favorites: We drove back up to Los Angeles in preparation for leaving to go home. On our last day, Kase had some delicious Chili-Cheese fries at Tam's, a place he remembered from his mission time.

Then we went over to Hollywood Boulevard to catch a movie at Grauman's and people watch.
We had a great time together vacationing. It was fun to just spend time with Kase and go on adventures together.

THE END!

We Now Interupt This Regularly Scheduled Vacation Update

with an important announcement......

MY OVEN HAS PASSED AWAY.

My oven, sometimes known as "Stove" or "the loud rattling thing in the kitchen," passed away in a series of unfortunate events.

Yesterday evening Kase was helping our new neighbors down the street move. I decided I would go over and say hello while dinner was cooking. After my little visit, I came home and checked on the casserole. I realized something was not right. A part of the element in the oven was burning hot orange, with sparks flying out and catching crumbs on fire.

I raced across the street to tell Kase that I had broken our oven. When I got back the burning orange dot had slowly progressed a little farther a long, melting the element along its way. Kase came home to see what had happened. Sure enough. Oven was on his last legs.

We tried to let it cool off. But eventually Kase had to pull the plug.

I heard rumors that it may be possible to keep Oven alive a little longer with buying a new element. But honestly, between you and me, this was not Oven's only health problem. I think it's only right to cut the cord now.

Oven also caused Kase to twist his ankle on his way home to see if the house was on fire, which caused swelling and a bad night of sleep.

Oven also caused me to wake up late, hurry to my car, and find ANOTHER flat tire. Third one in 3 months!!!!!! After changing the tire and putting on the donut, we found out that the donut was flat as well. sighhhhhh.... I am not sure how Oven managed to do this, but I am sure I can find a connection.

So it is time for a new oven. Farewell my warm friend. Farewell.

Now back to your regularly scheduled updates......

Califor-ni-a Part II Plus Our 3rd Anniversary

Day 3: Los Angeles.

Stats: Big city. Still nice weather. Not as nice as I thought it would be. Lots of traffic.

Interests: Hollywood Boulevard (of course) and the LA Temple.

Favorites: Hollywood Boulevard was kindof dumpy. We got up super early and beat the crouds there so we could walk around Grauman's Chinese Theatre.






(Inside of Theatre)

This where they have movie premieres plus where the stars write their names in the concrete with their handprints. We toured the theatre, which was beautiful.




(me with Jimmy Stewart's handprints)

Donald Duck

Someone who works at the Theatre told us that a certain actor (I don't wanna name names) whose name rhymes with "Bad Spit" is NOT a very nice person. Most other actors wrote their names out on the concret blocks, but not Mr. Spit. He scribbled his initials and was done. Noone knew who "BP" was:

Click to see!

Kindof sad to learn he isn't nice, but don't worry. George Clooney and Will Smith are super nice according to my source.



Then we headed to the LA temple. I new it would be pretty, but I was shocked at how big it was. The grounds are very large with beautiful roses. We had a wonderful time together at the temple and I really loved it.


Day 4: San Diego AND Our Anniversary

Stats: Way prettier than LA, even better weather.

Interests: San Diego temple, our hotel, and downtown.

Favorites: We drove down about 2 hours to the San Diego temple. It was beautiful, but a lot smaller than I expected. People there were so nice and we enjoyed spending time there. It was nice to spend our anniversary at the temple.


Then we headed to our hotel in Downtown San Diego. It used to be an old bank but now is a Marriot Courtyard.

(Our Hotel)

We explored the hotel and found the old bank vaults which are now conference rooms. Way cool.

We also walked around downtown and looked at all the shops and restaurants. AND who could resist icecream for dinner? YUM!

Kase, I had a wonderful time celebrating with you. You are an amazing husband. I love you sooo very much. I am so glad I get to spend forever with you.

TO BE CONTINUED....

Cali-forn-i-a Part I

When we arrived in California, I was excited. I had never been to southern California before. Kase served his 2 year mission there, so it would be a return visit for him.

I was shocked by the weather. No humidity and nice! Warm, but you didn't need the AC in the car. So nice. We spent some time in Huntington Beach, Long Beach, LA, and San Diego.

Driving in LA wasn't so bad. They honk a lot there. I am a honker myself, but not to this extent. There was honking if you were too slow to go at the green light (I mean you had better step on the gas ASAP), there was honking if you just felt like honking. I think I fit in pretty well though.

The time difference was also beneficial. It's 3 hours earlier in CA, so we woke up really early there but were still able to sleep in on our time. This way, we beat crowds and traffic. Although finding lunch during breakfast time didn't work so well. I was in bed by 9 California time. Ha ha.

Here's highlights of the trip: (Click on the pictures if you want them bigger. I had issues uploading. )

Day 1: Huntington Beach.

Stats: Nice Weather. Beautiful beaches and fancy homes.





Interests: Kase served part of his mission here so we toured some of his area. We went to church there. We also walked down the pier and watched the surfers.





Favorites: We ate at 2 great places here. I had THE best mexican burrito with guacamole. We also ate at a delicious burger place on the beach. The played loud music there and beach go-ers walked up to eat. A man had his dog, a black lab, tied up to our table while he ordered some food. The dog had just came out of the ocean and was wet and salty. He may have received a few of my yummy fries.

(Burrito)

(Good Burger)

We headed back up to LA and stopped at Signal Hill which had a beautiful view.

Day 2: Burbank, Ca.

Stats: Cute smaller town close to LA.

Interests: We went on a 5 hour tour of the Warner Brothers Studio.



Activities: The tour was fun! We saw buildings they use in sets, props, post-production studios, the studio museum, and movie cars (like the batmobile).

Old Batmobile



New Batmobile (click to enlarge!)





(Mom, this is the church or school house I can't remember used in the Walton's where JohnBoy has his first kiss.)

We were able to see the set of the Ellen show, the Mentalist, and the New adventures of Old Christine. (No Picture taking allowed) We also saw the town of Eastwick, which is a new show coming out soon. We had a delicious fancy lunch right next to the president of the Warner Brothers television division while he discussed a new character they are developing (we may have eavesdropped).

Favorites: Ladies and Gentlemen, Please meet Chuck, we did (sort of):



He is a character on one of our favorite shows called... well, Chuck. Kase and I told our tour guide about our love for Chuck. While we were walking into one of the sound stages, our tour guide whispered to us that the actor who plays Chuck was standing across the street. He had been filming the upcoming season, and was taking a break. Now get this: HE WAVED AT US! (specifically me of course) AND YELLED "HAVE A GOOD TOUR"!!!! Then get this: Kase yelled back "HAVE A GOOD SHOW"! So really KASE TALKED TO CHUCK. That rocked. haha.

Other favorite part: we saw the set of the Central Perk coffee shop from FRIENDS. We got to sit on the orange couch! that rocked too.



TO BE CONTINUED......

Back From Vacation

We're back. In case you didn't notice that we had left, we were on vacation in California. A great vacation. A vacation that wasn't long enough.

But alas... back to the real world.

I will post vacation pictures and stories later. Once I get somewhat caught up on work and such.

Until then here is what I don't like about being back:

1. Having to wake up early and go to work, instead of sleeping in and spending all day with Kase doing whatever we feel like doing.
2. Having to pretend like I am not awake yet so I don't have to get up and let the dog out.
3. Walking outside into the ridiculous humidity and heat.
4. Needing to know what day it is because I have responsibilities again.
5. Laundry galore.
6. Not being able to spend all day laughing with my husband.
7. Did I already mention going to work?

Here's what I do like about being back:
1. Seeing family and friends.
2. Seeing the dog.
3. Sleeping in my comfy bed.
4. Showering in my non-questionable shower.
5. Saving money because we don't have to eat out all the time.
6. Finding on my desk the cookbook my thoughtful co-worker bought me while I was gone.
7. Reading everyone's blogs that I missed for a week.
8. And still laughing with Kase.

I guess being back isn't so bad. :)

Cooking is not my Talent

But I do enjoy baking. Last week, the day before my husband's birthday, I decided I would bake his birthday cake. It would be great. I would bake it and it could cool so the next day I could frost it and create my master piece. (The ultimate goal being a cake that looks like a movie film reel.)



So I mixed and stirred and measured. The bright red velvet mixture was poured into two round pans and ready for baking. Kase (said husband) was upstairs working on a project with his uncle Randy. This was going to be the best cake ever! In only 30 minutes the cake would be done.



So what to do in the meantime? Well, how about a re-run episode of Friends. That's right, yes, that's a great idea. It's one of my favorite shows. Perfect. I sat down on the couch to enjoy some laughter.



And then it happened....


I woke up. I had fallen asleep. It was about 9:30.... "What is that smell?" I thought, trying to remember what I had been doing. OHH NO!


I am not sure how long the cake baked, probably around an hour. I am sure that it was burnt.

I had managed to turn the pretty red velvet into a black crispy kind.


Oops.


After I cried,


I considered changing the film reel themed cake to a hockey puck themed cake.



Kase was kind and sweet. He even ate some of the non burned spots. YUM.

The next day, I managed to bake a non blackened version. It turned out pretty good. Whew. Crisis averted.

(Film Reel Cake. The fruit by the foot coming out of the cake is suppose to be the film.)

Maybe next year, we'll go for a cookie cake.