for the love of food and my father: California part 1

This would be waaaay too long of a post to be all included in one, so it's broken up in segments. Also some of these pictures may have already been up, never hurts to see them again!

Where to even begin? I had been counting down the days until this trip since we booked our flights, a week in California, who couldn't resist counting down, even if it was over a month away? As we got into the teens and single digits, I could not contain myself, I was so checked out of school and everything else, I was ready. After a snow day Monday (the first in 15 years!!) followed by a slow, painful Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday of classes and a midterm Thursday afternoon (the only real thing getting in my way of being home) and the basketball team bringing home a W, it was finally 3:00 and I was headed home.

Packing to pack is quite a difficult task let me tell you. How would I know just what I wanted to pack for vacation? What if I left something at school? Normally, I am packed weeks before the trip in anticipation, this time around it was much more difficult. I finally just threw everything into my bags hoping I had what I wanted. Once I got home, packing did not lend itself an easy take either, as I filled my bed with countless piles of clothes to rummage through, I frequently quit and walked away. I knew I couldn't do this all night for the alarm clock was going off bright and early so we could start our venture.

Up and out the door we were at 7:10 Friday morning, not before we received a phone call from Mrs. G informing us that California had a tsunami warning, grrrreat, just our luck. Since we hold a "you're fine, it'll be fine" policy in my house, off to the airport we went anyway. After an accident on the express and a detour taken we finally made it to the airport, low and behold we were about the only people there. After we said goodbye to daddy, off to security we went. The two of us were greeted by about 5 security guards, needless to say we moved along quite quickly with all that assistance. After we got our Dunks, we headed down to the gate to sit and wait, wait and wait some more, due to our promptness. While we were twiddling our thumbs, daddy was busy changing a flat tire he got on the way home from dropping us off, better the way home than the way there! As we waited, and waited, still no plan, so we killed some time taking pictures of flat Teddy getting ready to start the trip of his lifetime! (Flat Teddy is a project for one of mom's classes, you will see him pop up from time to time.)

After a quick and painless flight to Philly (I think I slept most of the way), we yet again had time to kill so off to lunch we went. Dad recommended a restaurant, but we couldn't find it so off we went to Legal Seafood for some lunch, figuring we wouldn't be eating for at least 8 more hours, and we all know a hungry-Meli does not bode well. We split a lobster roll and clam chowder, yum, yum, yum! Finally it was time to board and take on the five hour plane ride. I was no expecting a 5 hour plane ride, I knew it was 5 hours, but in my head I think I tricked myself into thinking it was not. Well, what a rude awakening for me when it was indeed 5 hours. I got to spend a lot of quality time with my book, Heart of the Matter by Emily Giffin which I definitely recommend, I've read all her books thus far and they are worth it! Since we were trekking cross country, we got to fly over some pretty cool things, like the Rocky Mountains.

Thank goodness that was the extent of snow I'd be seeing for the week, and it was from a very large distance. A million hours later, or so it seemed (I may be a little dramatic at times..), we finally landed! I didn't think we'd ever see ground, I was so anxious to finally be there and I also needed an update on the Syracuse game from my father. We learned that the Kindle reading boy next to my mother was a fellow Syracuse-goer that lived in LA, small world. As we headed down the escalator we were greeted by a sea of men holding signs collecting their passengers and right at the bottom was our chauffeur, sign and all. After he collected us and lead us to the car, a mere twenty feet outside the airport, we were off. What a great uncle, waited patiently and even had the car parked nice and close!) This is when we got our first taste of LA traffic, what a drag! But, finally we arrived to Newbury Park and vacation began. We were greeted with hors oeuvres (I obviously knew the spelling of that off the top of my head...) and drinks before we sat down to some dinner. After getting a tour of the house, my mind doesn't recall back to the days when I was 5, it was already time for bed, technically we were eating dinner at midnight and by the time it was 10 o clock there, bed was calling, that and we had a busy day ahead of us tomorrow!

Slightly confused when I woke up, not in my bed at school or home then I remembered it's vacation, you're in California! After some breakfast and getting ready off to Santa Barbra we went.

Here, we got lunch on the pier, I tried Shark! I enjoyed, it tasted like a white fish of sorts. We just walked around, took in the views which were so cool. It was so neat that if you look one way there is the ocean and if you look the other there were mountains. I never new how mountainous California was until this week, man did we see a lot! When we got home from there mom and I walked over to the nail place and got a pedicure. 1. It was so nice just to be able to walk to the nail place, not have to drive. 2. We could walk and not freeze to death!!

Sunday we headed to Malibu and Santa Monica. Talk about mountains and hills and canyons, oh my! We drove through the canyon and saw so many hills and mountains and houses in the most bizarre places. Why people would build houses in the middle of a mountain or the top is beyond me.