Aquarium: We found a half-off deal for the Long Beach Aquarium around memorial day. It was something that we found on the lists of things to do while here that previous groups left. It was a fun Aquarium. Very busy with the deal, but once we got into the exhibits a bit the crowd dispersed. There was an a caged in area where they had lorikeets. There were signs that sign not to pet them because they m
ay bite. Well, something outside made a loud bang (It sounded like a fire cracker) and all the lorikeets went crazy. They were swooping down in groups and flying back. We all ducked low and they were still way too close for comfort. One of them grazed Jonathan's shoulder. Thankfully, that was all. The rest of the trip was less stressful. Long Beach was super cool. It was the first time I had been there. Where we were, right at the Ocean reminded me of Duluth.Holly's Trip to MN and my Long week at SFMC:
Holly's cousin was getting married so she went back to MN for a week. She had a couple of job interviews, which ultimately led to her getting the job in the Pediatric ICU! My week was a long 4 day stretch at SFMC. Tuesday and Thursday were skills fair days and I covered assignments for hours at a time. It was unexpected and tiring. Ultimately, I made it through the long week. Not that exciting to read about, but it was a crazy enough week that it is worth mentioning.
LA Pride:
LA Pride came and went. It was awesome. Jess, Adrienne, Meaghan and I went to the W
est Hollywood park for the festival on Saturday. Unlike Minneapolis, LA Pride Festival has an admission fee. It wasn't terrible and it was worth it. We saw lots of vendors, got lots of freebies, spun wheels and jammed to some music at the outdoor stage. They did have more variety of things to do than Minneapolis, but their layout just wasn't the most user friendly. Typical of LA, the weather was gorgeous. That night Adrienne, Jess and I went out in West Hollywood, which of course was PACKED. We started at the Abbey then moved to the East West Lounge, which was awesome and slightly less packed. It was a great night. It ended with Jack in the Box and use prepping the dining room for Jonathan's Birthday.
Premiere: It wouldn't be a time in Los Angeles without seeing some celebriti
es. Well, I already saw Josh Duhamel and Fergie on the plane at Christmas. Earlier this year we saw Corey Monteith and Mark Salling at a bar in Westwood. Unfortunately, it was lost on everybody because nobody watched Glee. We only knee because Jess heard other people at the bar talking about it. Anyways, I went to do some Celeb Sighting at the Green Lantern Premiere with Jess and her cousin. We got good spots on Hollywood Blvd and waited for them to arrive. We saw 0Ryan Reynolds and a bunch of other people I didn't know. I got Ryan Reynold's Autograph for the person standing behind me (I didn't particularly care and I didn't have paper of any sort....didn't think that one through). I got my picture with Max Adler, who is another Glee cast member. I took other pictures of people I was vaguely familiar with. It wasn't something that I would do all the time, but I had fun and I am so glad I did this very, very LA thing.
Jonathan's Birthday was pretty mellow, but it did involve a trip to yogurtland. That guy loves his yogurt....more than the rest of us and that's a lot! We had a big party right before Laura's birthday which was also a party/BBQ for all of our friends and co-workers to attend. We didn't have the epic turnout we'd expected, but we still got a good number showing up. Ruthi, Corina and Marylou came from St. Francis! It was awesome!
A week earlier than expected the parents rolled into town. We went to Griffith Observatory after showing them St.
Francis the first day. The next day we rented a car and hit up Santa Monica Beach and got to experience LA traffic at its finest. I'm very impressed neither of them freaked out. We did a lot of driving around just so they could see a good sized chunk of LA. The following day I took them to Hollywood Blvd which included the Chinese Theatre. They got to see the Hollywood sign. I took them for a short driving tour through Skid Row, which was very mellow as it was a Sunday Afternoon. They got to experience some fine tastes of LA including J & S drive in (twice), YOGURTLAND! (twice), The Hat's world famous (and HUGE) pastami and Thai food. Yes. My father was willing to get adventurous. He appreciated it for what it was. I was very happy. On the morning of their last day I led them out of town. I had the rental car. Each of them was on their bikes. I took them on surface streets to the 5 to the 134 to the 101. Let me just say that traffic wasn't terrible, but I've never, ever been so on edge driving. Ever. It's hard enough leading someone in a car in traffic. It's another leading not one but two motorcycles with your parents! As I signaled them to break away and head up the 101, Ma hit her kill switch and had to pull over and regroup. It took us about 20 minutes to get in contact with her. Let's just say it was nervewracking to the the least. Everything turned out all right thankfully. Neither Holly nor I worked that day so we went and soaked up some sun at Will Rogers. It was a nice bit of relaxation after a busy weekend and a stressful morning.
America Party: We had a 4th of July party on the 2nd of July. Why not the 4th? The answer should be explained shortly. It was a fun party that involved a lot of jello shots. Some of which were in citrus wedges crafted by Alli and myself! Check them out!
The ones in the lime are indeed lime, but instead of using vodka, we used tequila and triple sec.
On the day of the fourth Meaghan and Becca from Boyle Heights House got together with our house for an all day trip to Huntington Beach. We took two cars. The first left at 4 am to secure a fire pit as the beach opens at 4:30. Apparently the beach got swarmed at 4:30. We shared a fire pit with an incredibly nice family. I was in the car that left at 9 with the majority of stuff including the table and cooler. Everybody was settled in around 11am. We spent the day lounging in the sun, reapplying sunscreen, playing games and playing in the ocean. The ocean was perhaps my favorite part of the day. When the sun went down we started the fire and made more bonfire food. The fireworks went off at 9. To the dismay of many, the finale was lost in the smoke created by the previous fireworks that was consolidated by the shifting winds (They could have just waited for about 5 minutes, but that didn't happen). It was an epic departure from the beach. It took us less than an hour to get there over 2 hours to get home. We had a good walk to our car and slow street traffic to the 405. The other car was just stuck in a lot for about one hour. Gross.
Our final retreat is this weekend. Holly leaves next Saturday and the rest of us shortly thereafter. Time is winding down fast. I'm going to stop blogging as I'm up to date AND I need to continue with my job search.
Holly's cousin was getting married so she went back to MN for a week. She had a couple of job interviews, which ultimately led to her getting the job in the Pediatric ICU! My week was a long 4 day stretch at SFMC. Tuesday and Thursday were skills fair days and I covered assignments for hours at a time. It was unexpected and tiring. Ultimately, I made it through the long week. Not that exciting to read about, but it was a crazy enough week that it is worth mentioning.
LA Pride:
LA Pride came and went. It was awesome. Jess, Adrienne, Meaghan and I went to the W
est Hollywood park for the festival on Saturday. Unlike Minneapolis, LA Pride Festival has an admission fee. It wasn't terrible and it was worth it. We saw lots of vendors, got lots of freebies, spun wheels and jammed to some music at the outdoor stage. They did have more variety of things to do than Minneapolis, but their layout just wasn't the most user friendly. Typical of LA, the weather was gorgeous. That night Adrienne, Jess and I went out in West Hollywood, which of course was PACKED. We started at the Abbey then moved to the East West Lounge, which was awesome and slightly less packed. It was a great night. It ended with Jack in the Box and use prepping the dining room for Jonathan's Birthday.Premiere: It wouldn't be a time in Los Angeles without seeing some celebriti
es. Well, I already saw Josh Duhamel and Fergie on the plane at Christmas. Earlier this year we saw Corey Monteith and Mark Salling at a bar in Westwood. Unfortunately, it was lost on everybody because nobody watched Glee. We only knee because Jess heard other people at the bar talking about it. Anyways, I went to do some Celeb Sighting at the Green Lantern Premiere with Jess and her cousin. We got good spots on Hollywood Blvd and waited for them to arrive. We saw 0Ryan Reynolds and a bunch of other people I didn't know. I got Ryan Reynold's Autograph for the person standing behind me (I didn't particularly care and I didn't have paper of any sort....didn't think that one through). I got my picture with Max Adler, who is another Glee cast member. I took other pictures of people I was vaguely familiar with. It wasn't something that I would do all the time, but I had fun and I am so glad I did this very, very LA thing.Jonathan's Birthday was pretty mellow, but it did involve a trip to yogurtland. That guy loves his yogurt....more than the rest of us and that's a lot! We had a big party right before Laura's birthday which was also a party/BBQ for all of our friends and co-workers to attend. We didn't have the epic turnout we'd expected, but we still got a good number showing up. Ruthi, Corina and Marylou came from St. Francis! It was awesome!
A week earlier than expected the parents rolled into town. We went to Griffith Observatory after showing them St.
Francis the first day. The next day we rented a car and hit up Santa Monica Beach and got to experience LA traffic at its finest. I'm very impressed neither of them freaked out. We did a lot of driving around just so they could see a good sized chunk of LA. The following day I took them to Hollywood Blvd which included the Chinese Theatre. They got to see the Hollywood sign. I took them for a short driving tour through Skid Row, which was very mellow as it was a Sunday Afternoon. They got to experience some fine tastes of LA including J & S drive in (twice), YOGURTLAND! (twice), The Hat's world famous (and HUGE) pastami and Thai food. Yes. My father was willing to get adventurous. He appreciated it for what it was. I was very happy. On the morning of their last day I led them out of town. I had the rental car. Each of them was on their bikes. I took them on surface streets to the 5 to the 134 to the 101. Let me just say that traffic wasn't terrible, but I've never, ever been so on edge driving. Ever. It's hard enough leading someone in a car in traffic. It's another leading not one but two motorcycles with your parents! As I signaled them to break away and head up the 101, Ma hit her kill switch and had to pull over and regroup. It took us about 20 minutes to get in contact with her. Let's just say it was nervewracking to the the least. Everything turned out all right thankfully. Neither Holly nor I worked that day so we went and soaked up some sun at Will Rogers. It was a nice bit of relaxation after a busy weekend and a stressful morning.America Party: We had a 4th of July party on the 2nd of July. Why not the 4th? The answer should be explained shortly. It was a fun party that involved a lot of jello shots. Some of which were in citrus wedges crafted by Alli and myself! Check them out!
The ones in the lime are indeed lime, but instead of using vodka, we used tequila and triple sec.
On the day of the fourth Meaghan and Becca from Boyle Heights House got together with our house for an all day trip to Huntington Beach. We took two cars. The first left at 4 am to secure a fire pit as the beach opens at 4:30. Apparently the beach got swarmed at 4:30. We shared a fire pit with an incredibly nice family. I was in the car that left at 9 with the majority of stuff including the table and cooler. Everybody was settled in around 11am. We spent the day lounging in the sun, reapplying sunscreen, playing games and playing in the ocean. The ocean was perhaps my favorite part of the day. When the sun went down we started the fire and made more bonfire food. The fireworks went off at 9. To the dismay of many, the finale was lost in the smoke created by the previous fireworks that was consolidated by the shifting winds (They could have just waited for about 5 minutes, but that didn't happen). It was an epic departure from the beach. It took us less than an hour to get there over 2 hours to get home. We had a good walk to our car and slow street traffic to the 405. The other car was just stuck in a lot for about one hour. Gross.
Our final retreat is this weekend. Holly leaves next Saturday and the rest of us shortly thereafter. Time is winding down fast. I'm going to stop blogging as I'm up to date AND I need to continue with my job search.
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