i'm baaaaaaaccckkkkk!
california was amazing. i wish the trip couldve lasted longer then a few days.
we left a wee bit late on saturday, around 5:30ish and blazed towards san diego. we stopped for gas in the ghetto ghetto of vegas. so instincts were to bring all of my valuables with me inside the gas station. which included my camera of course. so i ran inside the bathroom and past all the pedophiles, and put my camera on top of the toilet. i finished doing my bidnis, and there i am pulling my big girl panties up and i hear a "plop". and in about a millisecond, like lightening my hand is in my own urine, fishing out my camera from the toilet. then i panic. i start running around the bathroom, pants at my ankles tripping towards the paper towels so my camera doesnt melt in my own hands. i popped the battery out, and dried it off as fast as i could, pulled my pants up, and ran out to the car. once in the car still panicking, i'll admit, i started to cry. i felt like i had just drowned my own child in urine. i didnt want to freak katie out by crying over a camera so i just begged her to take me somewhere to get some rice. rice sucks the water out of ANYTHING, so i was hoping and praying to the camera Gods that it would save my little child. and plus, i needed to wash my hands, since they were still dripping from the toilet. mmm. urine hands, my favorite. we went to another gas station, i cleaned up, got some rice, stuck my camera in it and off we were. for those of you who dont really know me. my camera is practically glued to my hand. i take it everywhere. i even take it when i check the mail, just in case i see something worth capturing. i'm constantly thinking of cool ideas, or cool places to take pictures and use my handy dandy camera. and when the news came up about going to california, all i could think about was how many different amazing pictures i could take there. so to have my camera die halfway there, i wanted to jerk the steering wheel and kill myself.
we passed through a bug station as we came into california. (a bug station is like border patrol for fruit, since california will only allow certain fruits into their state) the old man who was clearing us through, asked the routine questions and then looked us each in the eye and said.. "any roses or peaches besides you two?" my cheeks instantly rose, and finally a smile bursted from in between my lips. my grief over my camera began to melt away, but i pouted until the palm trees started to pop up. i'm glad katie didnt get annoyed with me screaming "palm tree!" in a british accent every time my little eyes found one. we rolled down the windows and i could actually smell the salt water in the air. i was as giddy as a school girl and surprisingly my camera was in the back of my mind. i've been to california many many times, but never this south! i swear the further south you get, the prettier it gets. when we got out of the car to fill up again, the warm air brushed my cheeks and i instantly felt like a homo for wearing long sleeves and pants in this whether. katie was running around in short sleeves, gouches, and flip flops, and there i was covered from shoulder to fingertip, hip to toe.
after church on sunday, we couldnt resist but hit the beach. nothing had ever been so beautiful as the warm beach in january. i was getting hot in my cardigan and dress, and as the waves came crashing into the shore i was so angry at myself for drowning my camera i was more then tempted to sink myself into the pacific. thankfully katie let me barrow hers, but still. i was missing an arm. theres so many little boutiques all along the shore so we began to explore. my favorite store, "heavenly couture", had the cutest clothes ever. and get this, everything was $15 and under. YEAH. that's no typo... $15 AND UNDER. they weren't dinky little clothes either, it was more of a fancy forever 21. i've been in a love affair with forever 21 for years, so you can imagine that i was running around the store like a crack head at 3:00AM on black friday. and i successfully found the cutest floral tunic :)
we were starving, and katie knew of the cutest little italian restaurant right up the street. it was called "cio bella" and the servings were just as big as olive gardens, only ten times better and $10 cheaper. i waddled out, stomach full, and may or may not have left my number for our waiter, who was a vinny look a like. we ran around the beach the rest of the day, strolled up and down the streets of ocean beach, and got a butt load of vitamin d. we ended the day with a beach bonfire and my favorite, some frozen yogurt.
since every camera shop in san diego was closed on sunday, monday was the day to try to bring my camera back to life. i wasn't sure if it was just the battery that was ruined, maybe it short circuited once it got wet, or if my entire camera was done for. the rice hadn't of worked, and i knew if i was going to find a sony store anywhere that could help me, it would be in california. so i made it my top priority before we headed home. after a few phone calls we ended up as fashion valley, which is a glorified version of the gateway. like chinese tourists in seattle, i was gawking at every store. we got to the mall before it even opened, and i stalked the sony stores doors until they finally opened. an asain man came up to me first, and my first thought.. "score. an asain. he'll know exactly whats going on with my camera." and he did! the whole thing was ruined. and i almost started to cry again in the store (pathetic i know), so he went to go talk to his manager. he came back with good news, and bad news. i always hate when they do that in movies. someones wife, son, daughter, or dad is lying on his hospital bed, the doctor comes out to the family, and lets them know that there's good news, and bad news. total damper on the good news part. so i prepared myself. he told me i could send my camera in to the sony headquarters and they would fix it. it would take two weeks, and would cost about $115. i was confused about if that was the good news, or the bad news. but then he told me i could buy a two warranty right then and there, which was $50, and i would walk out of the store with a brand new camera. the whole. "good news bad news" mix up was then clear as day. i bought the warranty and did a happy leprechaun skip out of the store.
katie's boyfriend, gunner, then took us to the mormon battalion. coolest. place. ever. way back in the pilgrim days, after joseph smith was martyred and brigham young was in charge, the military was recruiting lds men from the ages of 18-48 to join the mexican-american war. they were ordered to make a 2,000 mile march from iowa to california, and to kill whatever came their way. they tell you the entire story in the mormon battalion, and how they do it is awesome. you start in a room, with picture frames of ten main people who were recruited and traveled to california. a missionary starts to tell you the story, and then bam! the picture frames are animated, and the people start introducing themselves in their own quirky way. then you travel room to room and theres screens on the walls of every room, and there again are the people, telling you their story. my favorite part was in the desert room. you sat on box like chairs, and as you're watching the film, a stampede of something starts coming towards the camps of the lds men, and they start yelling at their families (they actually got permission for their families to travel with them so they wouldnt be seperated and could settle in the west.) to get into their wagons, and you see the men getting their guns ready. then your seats start to vibrate and shake, like a disneyland ride, and you feel like you're actually there. i had to remind myself that i wasnt actually there, so i wouldnt try to run out of the room and not get trampled by animals. at the end of the tour, they have raw artifacts from the battalion. old book of mormons, journals, guns, jackets, and pins. the mormon battalion was the only battalion to reach california without ever actually battling the enemy. all through out their 2,000 mile trip they were never confronted once, and beside the long march and deaths from illness, the march was easier then they had all imagined. and worth it. once they reached san diego, they befriended the mexicans and they built a city together.
after that little flash back to 1846, we hit the open road back to utah. katie, i don't know if you read my blog or not, but word to the wise. don't you ever ask me to drive, and then critique my driving and tell me to speed up in a dark, icy, windy mountainous road again. i will punch you in the back of the head.
i already miss it. coming home so snow was bitter sweet, but i was eager to get back to provo and sleep in my own bed again. weird to think i refer to this place as home now. forgive me mum.
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