Vacation Time!!

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

San Diego - Tuesday!

Vacation is over...back to the real world!

Our LAST day in warmth…so sad! Today we woke up at a decent hour, got ready, packed up our belongings, and cleaned the condo. Once the car was packed we browsed the shops in Mission Bay, bought some neat souvenirs and had one last walk (and photo op) on the beach. Then we headed to the gaslamp district in downtown San Diego and ate lunch at the Spicy Pickle before returning the rental car and heading back to the airport for our return flight home. Felicia and I said good-bye to Heather and then we shopped a little in the airport before settling in to wait for our flight. We waited till the last minute to board the plane again and here I sit typing the last blog entries thousands of feet above the ground. The flight so far as been uneventful. Felicia and I have our own row so we are settling in nicely. I made Felicia experience the lavatory (for the first time EVER). During take-off she said: “We are going a lot faster this time! Kayla this plane is more pointy up than on the way here! This pilot took a much faster and steep approach at take-off and then had to do a couple of circles to get us flying in the right direction, which had Felicia grabbing the armrest for dear life. As we were nearing MN, the landing gear came down (which we sat right on top of it) and the noise made her jump and grap the arm rests again! All in all, she did great for a first flyer and didn't require any sedation meds! I sure hope she didn't get brusies on her waist from having her seatbelt so tight :-)

Well, we are about 90 minutes from landing…by the time I post this Felicia and I will be freezing with the rest of you in the Midwest!

Heather and I saying good-bye to the ocean on our way to the airport!

Someone had the bright idea to eat frozen yogurt before lunch...this is a photo of our sinful deliciousness!

The next three pictures is the view I will miss the most...so peaceful!

Yes, not only did I make Felicia try out the Lavatory (hey it was her first time flying!) I also made her photograph it :-)

Hope you all enjoyed reading about our vacation! We were sad to leave 70 and sunny and arrive home to negative temperatures and a car full of snow!

San Diego - Monday

Our last night of relaxing and visiting in the hot tub and Sauna!

San Diego Zoo and a Naked Man?!
After our long (but fun) trip in LA, we slept in a little on Monday. Felicia and I walked along the beach in Mission Bay collecting seashells while Heather got ready. Then we headed off to experience the famous San Diego Zoo and what an experience that was! Tooo neat for words. We were there long enough to see everything (much to my dismay)….I was a little zoo’d out after a few hours. We did get to see some very cool animals and the zoo itself was breathtakingly beautiful! We were all quite glad we had time in the trip to experience it. Then we headed to the store for some meat and went home to grill up some delicious cheeseburgers before we relaxed the night away in the hot-tub and sauna. We headed back into the condo for some fabulous girl talk and then a little after midnight, my phone rang. It was Brady (from LA). I stepped outside our condo to chat with him and midway through our conversation I heard scraping on the wall (all the condos have a door that leads outside to the center courtyard which is gated. It was dark down the end of our outdoor hallway, so I couldn’t see what the noise was. Then, all of a sudden I see a man stumbling about scraping across the door and started walking towards me. I went inside and told Heather and Felicia and locked the door. We watched him for a few minutes and found out that he was trying to get inside his condo. Heather (being the paramedic/firefighter that she is decided she would help the inebriated man in need. So she walked down and started talking to him and well…he was naked all except his tighty whiteys (but they were black!). She came back giggling a little and said…”Ahh he is naked. He needs our help.” So Heather grabbed a flashlight and all 3 of us walked down the hall to look for naked guy’s keys and help him in. He had taken off his clothes to shake them out and listen for his keys and had lined up all his belongings along the ledge. After searching, we couldn’t find them but we did find an open window. Heather climber through the window (which happened to be a window in his shower!) and then opened his front door. He was quite thankful and said, while looking down at his nude state: “I guess we are all friends now”. We went back to our condo and visited some more before we called it a night.

Pics of some of the pretty animals at the Famous San Diego Zoo!

Felicia attempting to ride a wild animal!

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

San Diego - SUNDAY

Sunday....BEAUTIFUL DAY!! We got ready and then headed into LA. We found the Hollywood sign...posed for many...many...MANY pictures. On the way to the sign, we took a windy road and enjoyed the awesome houses and greenery! After we left the hollywood sign, we again took windy roads and Heather (who was driving) got a little sick and proceeded to throw-up on her jeans and then out the car on the side of the road. I kicked her out of the drivers seat when she felt better and brought her somewhere to clean up. We started to head to Venice beach (I was driving) and we passed a Maserati...beautiful black and fast! We chased him to get pictures (of course). We arrived at venice beach and collected sea shells....Felicia did a "Baywatch lifeguard" running move on Venice. I got into a "fight" with a wave fully clothed and the wave won...leaving me drenched from my calves down. We people watched and giggled at the people, Felicia was a tourist that fell for the "Got a few seconds to listen to my demo, wanna buy it?! How about you give me your number mama and I will be doing good" but she didn't buy it and she didn't give him her number. We enjoyed the shops and then went out for some delicious steak and seafood before we headed into Hollywood to walk Hollywood Blvd. We shopped, explored, and eventually met 2 guys (Brady and Keith). We had coffee with them and then went to this posh bowling alley (seriously posh...they had a DRESS CODE!) to play some pool.....we explored until we were tired...too tired to drive home and then I (the worst nighttime driver EVER drove us the 100+ miles home. Well...I can't stay away driving when I am that tired and I started to doze while driving...which resulted in me swerving a wee bit and attracting the attention of a nice CA state trooper. Yes...yes I got pulled over...and he had this crazy megaphone thing and was shouting directions to me on where to pull over, where to turn, and eventually where to park the car. It was crazy. Once he realized we were tourists and that I was just tired he ran my license and let me go. I then made Heather and Felicia stay awake to keep me up...but Felicia couldn't and fell asleep. Heather and I sang crazy songs loudly to keep ourselves awake. It was a PAINFULL drive...but we made it and then slept in on Monday.

Yes, we took a picture in the car while driving to LA :-)

The Maserati we chased down!

Venice beach was really windy at night...

After I lost to the wave at Venice beach...it was a wet and cold walk back to the car to change!

Felicia with her BAYWATCH move :-)

Our dinners...Felicia had live lobster, Heather had crab legs, and of course I had burnt filet mingon (NO PINK!) with baked potato dry :-)

One of the many stars we enjoyed ;-)

Sunday, December 13, 2009

San Diego - Saturday

Nothing beats waking up after a restful night of sleep...at a decent hour (around 7:30AM) and enjoying a delicious cup of coffee with some great girlfirends while watching the sun rise over the ocean. Yes that is how our first full day started! We then made ourselves pretty and headed into Carlsbad to hit the outlet. We found Felicia some amazing clothes at GAP and Banana and then thought about going into LA (we decided to save that for a different day). We then headed home and stopped for manicures and pedicures before coming back to the condo for a wardrobe change and then we headed out for a DELICIOUS Italian dinner. A fun (and long) night of laughter ensued!

Pictures to come in a later post...maybe!

Today the sun is shining...we are having a blast and are looking forward to another fun filled day!

Luv you all!

Saturday, December 12, 2009

SAN DIEGO!

Well...we all arrived yesterday afternoon, picked up our rental car and headed to the condo. After signing the rental agreement we headed off to grab dinner and go grocery shopping. Then we relaxed at the condo and chilled in the hot tub for about 3 hours last night. Awesome girl time, relaxing, and just amazing! We got a good night sleep and are all ready for a fun filled day!

I was quite proud of Felicia. A little pale and deep breaths and she made it through the flight. I had to keep a close eye on her as we navigated the two airports so I didn't lose her :-) Sadly, I could not get her out of her seat at all on the plane...she wouldn't even unbuckle! I told her she MUST experience the lavatory on the flight home. Here are a couple of pics of the weary travelers from yesterday...will post more tonight with pictures of us cute after we slept and got ready!

Felicia on the plane...calming herself down

Heather and I at the car rental place....waiting for our car

Felicia and I waiting for the car

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Vancouver, BC - Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Wednesday…woke up at a reasonable hour…made ourselves cute again, packed bags and headed north to Canada. We made great time on our road trip and made it over the border without any problems…then the shopping began! I FINALLY found someone that enjoys shopping for workout clothes as much as me…and someone that can spend more money when shopping than me! We hit the boutiques on 10th or 4th or somewhere there abouts and then headed to Robson Street for souvenirs and more shopping. I found an ABSOLUTELY delicious and HEALTHY smoothie at one of the shops made with green tea (and I don’t even like green tea!). Jenny and I power shopped like never before and then raced back to the car.

We headed into Stanley Park…and oh my goodness. No pictures or stories can do this park justice. It was breathtaking…huge…peaceful…and just such a happy place! They had: an aquarium, totem poles, at least 2 beaches, pools, waterpark, bike and hiking trails, look-out points, yacht clubs, horse drawn carriage rides, and many more attractions! So much to see…so little time! We stopped for dinner and purchased two deliciously hand-packed ice cream waffle cones (yes that was our dinner)! Jenny was able to justify eating ice-cream for dinner really quickly. I highly recommend a trip to Vancouver, BC and for sure Stanley Park. A day is good, but not enough to do everything…just enough for a happy taste of what this area has to offer.

A hugely surprising thing is how stinkin nice the Canadians are! The Canadians I am use to dealing with are SO RUDE! I was frightened for how they were going to treat us when we were there….they surprised me! The day was awesome and fun! We cleaned out the car, stopped at the gas station for dinner and then I drove us through customs again.

At the gas station, Jenny grabbed a plastic cup of ice to dump her rockstar in…well for those of you who have seen rockstart or any other energy drink you know the color is a lovely gold color…looks a little like alcohol. Well Jenny and I are tired and know we aren’t supposed to say too much to the customs agent…just answer his questions direct. Jenny leans over me to say something to our border patrol guy and well he notices her drink. We had already answered his questions and were about to be released when he goes: “What ARE YOU drinking?!” The man actually thought we were stupid enough to have an open container of alcohol in the car as we were crossing the border. I stumbled over my words a little and said “A Rockstar energy drink” at the same time Jenny said “Redbull”. Yup we couldn’t even say the same thing. Jenny reaches for the empty can to show him as he winks and chuckles a little at our amused and dumbfounded looks and reactions! We drive on and start laughing uncontrollably. I was laughing so hard my stomach hurt and I had tears in my eyes…check out the pictures and judge for yourself.

Well it was a rather late night and we had a couple hour drive home…Jenny and I got a little slap happy and started belting out to songs on the radio. Then we got a little creative and started taking short videos of our lovely musical productions. Lots of laughter continued and the trip went by really fast!

We stopped at QFC for some ziploc bags for me to pack my stuff in. Got back to the apartment and I packed while Jenny worked on her resume with my occasional guidance. I went to bed a little after 3 and Jenny…well she was so distraught with my leaving that she sat on her BOSU and watched me sleep all night…okay that is creepy and not true…she pretended like she was going to watch me sleep but she went in her bed and may have slept for an hour or two before it was time to head to SEATAC for me to catch the flight home!

Got a little later start to the airport than I had planned…halfway through security I encountered my first complete airport shutdown as I was stranded while the Police officers investigated the security breach and finally announce the “All Clear!”. I race to the tram to get to my gate…board the tram and we made it a short distance before we were stranded. Apparently the All Clear wasn’t really an All Clear! It seemed like an eternity but was only about 15 minutes before about a dozen TSA and Police Officers boarded the Tram and then we were off! Made it to the gate in time for the final boarding call…running I throw my bags in the overhead, sit down and buckle up…then the dreaded announcement about an awful delay. We are de-boarded as we are stuck in Seattle for at least 2 hours. 25 minutes after we are all off the plane, an urgent announcement comes over the airport saying that we have the “All Clear for wheels up if we can board the plane in 8 minutes and have wheels up in 17 minutes”! IMPOSSIBLE! It is a mad rush of about 250+ people to the gate attendant while they continue to page the flight attendants and the captain. After all the rush and excitement we took off from SEATAC 90 minutes late.

Of course during the excitement we had some pretty funny quotes again…between Jenny and myself….mostly Jenny.

“Who needs the civil war when we can reenact customs?!” said Jenny
“Kayla you have to drink twice as much water as you drank pop!” The day I decide to drink pop...In Canada...she BUSTS me!

“Having ice cream for dinner is better than not eating. We ARE getting calcium and protein in our ice cream!” Jenny after we chose hand packed cookie dough ice cream waffle cones for dinner.

“Are you putting this back on?” Kayla asked Jenny while picking up the shirt she just took off. “Maybe….if you are lucky!” replies Jenny.

The GPS continued to surprise us on very scenic routes. I had some fabulous and fun-filled days with Jenny. We didn’t really plan much, just flew by the seat of our pants. We both enjoyed the fact that we just kind of did what we want…when we want…and didn’t feel like we were on such a strict schedule that we didn’t have the time to enjoy ourselves. I don’t know that I could pick one favorite part of the trip. It was a fabulous and much needed vacation. I laughed…I cried…I forgot all the problems and appointments that await me when I return to Minnesota. As I sit on the plane for the final 45 minutes of my flight, I am enjoying the final few moments of me time. Tonight, Abbey, Jake, Diane, and Erik are coming over and we will begin digging the footings for my deck!

I hope you all enjoyed my Washington and Canadian adventures…scroll down for the pictures and of course our music videos!

Jenny and I leaving her apartment in Mercer Island for Vancouver, BC