California... knows how to party! Well... if you can get thru traffic first...

So we flew out of to Phoenix on the 14th at around 4:55 in the afternoon. The entire luggage check and security check points are still a huge drag. You’re still required to pass everything including your shoes through a couple of XRAY machines before you’re even allowed to reach your terminal. Aside from the XRAY madness we arrived at the airport and caught our flight without any problems. Once in Phoenix we stopped at this nice bar and grill since Liz and I had not had dinner yet and we felt like splurging a little bit. We’re on vacation after all and money is no longer an issue right? Well, the food ended up being crappy and the service even crappier. About the only good thing I found inside the bar was an electrical outlet and a strong wireless signal for my laptop. I also convinced Liz to start a blog of her own on Google and she’s already started with a fabulous recap of our Phoenix experience. You can check it out here:

http://www.luckielizzie.blogspot.com

In a nutshell, we decided that people outside of Texas are of an entirely different breed. I kind of already knew this being a military traveled brat so it doesn’t phase me the same way it does Liz. I usually try to see the positive side of unpleasant situations and make the best of it. We managed to hop on our 2nd and final plane to Ontario, California and made it in without any issues. When we arrived we also picked up our rental which was originally supposed to be an economical car. Well, once again we splurged and got upgraded to a 2007 Nissan Murano AWD with a Garmin GPS. I’m really glad we got the GPS device because it came in really handy during our LA ventures in Hollywood and some other suburbs I can’t recall their names. The highway system in California is huge and in some ways seems much older than Texas’. The off/on ramps usually have stop & go lights that you have to wait on before entering the highway. I’m not convinced this makes traffic flow any smoother as it forces you to slingshot your vehicle unto the highway to keep up with traffic during heavy rush hours. The entire California traffic scene was a huge mess frankly. It literally took us an hour or two to arrive at any of our planned destinations due to traffic. This really frustrated the heck out of me because I hate waiting in traffic in 100 degree heat, but what can you do?

So we stayed with my father at his bachelor pad in Mira Loma. My father is now 60 years young and has a g/f who is a 40. He was married to my mom for over 30 years and they separated back when I was 19-20 years young. He’s now happily living a single life in his very humble 2 bedroom apartment in a small suburb called Mira Loma. The entire community is made up of senior citizens and my father pays very little for a pretty cozy abode that has everything he needs. We were very comfortable living with my dad for the 7 days we stayed there. My dad and I have always gotten along great so having the opportunity to recapture a lot of our humorous memories from growing up is always a blast. I feel very lucky to have a close relationship with both of my parents and I hope to someday be able to pass on some of their wisdom to my kids. But who knows, Liz and I may decide that having a dog or two is all we need J

Wednesday came and this was our day to visit San Diego. After about a 2 hour drive down South through some more crazy traffic we arrived at our destination the San Diego Zoo. Lots to see and do here and we got to see maybe half of everything. First off, the zoo is located inside what I could consider a huge hill. It’s not really a mountain because you can still see the real “Mountains” in the distance and this hill is basically a baby mountain that traverses through the outskirts of San Diego downtown. At the top of the hill is where you will find parking and the top most level of the zoo. Plants and wildlife are found at every corner and if you look to one side for more than a minute you’ll pass up something else very easily. There are roads and sidewalks that literally go down about 10 – 15 stories into the giant hill and there are all kinds of interesting things to see the entire way there. I know this zoo has been around for a very long time now and the quality and variety of expos impressed me. About the only thing that was disappointing was the fact that half the animals were either 1) sleeping or 2) hiding inside a cave
It was about 100 degrees outside so I couldn’t blame them for wanting to be in the cool or sleeping through the mad crowds of nosy people wanting to take pictures. We enjoyed our somewhat rushed visit to the zoo.

The next planned excursion was the San Diego Wild Life Park. The zoo and the park are about 20 miles apart so once more we had to travel through some crazy traffic and this time we back tracked north and veered off unto the San Diego valley. We arrived at the park at around 5 in the afternoon and had little time to spare for anything. Regrettably the only real attraction we got to enjoy was the main one which was the Safari tram ride. The entire park is laid out as a make shift African savannah and you get to see all the typical African wildlife. Lions, cheetahs, giraffes, elephants, rhinos, gazelles, zebras, wilder beast, and much more. I thought the tour guy was kind of corny but seeing all the different animals in somewhat of a natural habitat was interesting. We all enjoyed it and glad we went. Sad to say this was the only real attraction that we got to experience at the park because the sun was gone and we only had the dim park lights to see with. The park stays open till around 9 in the evening, but we were just way too tired after the zoo and safari trip to try and enjoy the rest of it. Instead we hit up a few of the gift shops and bought some post cards and other memorabilia. I’d like to go back in the future and visit this park for an entire day. There seems to be a lot more to see and do. We finally made it back home around 9:30 and we spent the rest of the evening relaxing and planning our next outing which would be Hollywood and the famous walk of fame.

Hollywood! *queue the famous Hollywood music*

Not at all what we were expecting to see. Well, first let me start off by saying that Liz woke this day with a very sore throat and bad nasal drainage. Later on we came to find out that she was running a fever and this really brought a damper to our plans. Anyway, we left at around 11am Thursday morning and thank the heavens for our decision to get the GPS device. Were it not for the GPS we probably would have been driving around aimlessly in Los Angeles. When we finally arrived to Hollywood blvd. we promptly found some cheap parking inside the mall garage and made it back up to subterranean levels after what seemed a mile excursion into the sub garage levels of hades. Ok, so we didn’t go that far down but to me it seemed pretty deep. We had to take about 5 or 6 flights of escalators back up before we arrived at ground level where the walk of fame and the famous Chinese movie theatre is at. Along the road you get to see all kinds of interesting characters. From the scrawny and 1st generation 50 year old batman to the young African American wearing a leotard speedo selling maps.


Fast forward 2 months and here I am trying to finish this blog.

After a couple of months of inactivity I’m starting to get some flack about not keeping up to date which is good. It means someone out there is actually reading this stuff besides me, Liz, and her brother BT.

So here I am at work waiting to get an important phone call at 4:40 PM in the afternoon and just wanting to get back home. My usual commute from San Marcos to San Antonio is usually about 45 minutes of interstate highway joy. Fortunately, I do take some days and work from home instead and save some money on gas. So let me try and fill in the large blank from the last half of our Cali trip.



So Liz was running at 100+ fever a the time and neither one of us knew it. She just knew she didn’t feel good, but darn it we were in the middle of Hollywood surrounded by al the stars and a bunch of tourists and dressed up maniacs. I have to say this Blvd. is made look much bigger on TV than it actually is. Basically, it’s just a normal looking street with a bunch of fancy shops and a few large stages on it. Neither one of us was very impressed but we can at least say we’ve been here. After about an hour of sigh seeing Liz couldn’t take the 100 degree heat and her fever so we decided to head back home and get her some meds. We were supposed to go out with my father and his girlfriend later that night so we figured it was the smart thing to do.

We went back home, relaxed, and I caught up with my dad while Liz took a long nap. Later in the evening we all went out together and had a nice dinner at the Cheese Cake Factory near some port in Los Angeles. It was too dark to see anything recognizable in LA so I had no idea where I was. My father’s g/f Mary Ann is a very sweet lady and I can see why they get along so great.

The rest of our vacation was spent pretty much hanging out with family. We got the opportunity to go to a really expensive casino and do some gambling. One of my aunts ended up hitting a big jackpot and went home with like $5000.00 and spent about $20.00 to get it. Liz and I weren’t so lucky. Being the high rollers that we are we spent about $50.00 and made back about $10.00. The buffet there was very extravagant and we were treated out to this buffet by my family.

I could add more details here and there but I’ve promised to try and condense these blogs to a more manageable size and hopefully have more updates.

To wrap up the trip – We found out that Liz had strep and got some meds while we were there. She survived. Seeing family you see every several years can be a lot of fun. And 1 week is just too short of time to really vacation in California. You need to have an additional 2 days just to get through traffic there.

Here’s to updating this blog!

-Me

Note:

This blog has not been proofread in over 2 months. Tough!