My friend Adam (also a midwesterner by trade!) convinced me to join him and his friends in a trip to Disneyland....and who can refuse one of the happiest places on Earth?! Granted I took some convincing to go as I didn't want to intrude on his posse of peeps, but ultimately, I gave in - am I'm glad I did! We had a great time and the weather was perfect! Unlike last time, it didn't take us 6 hours to get down to LA! We got super lucky with all the rides and our lines weren't long at all. I couldn't convince them to go see the Michael Jackson Captain EO tribute (to which only Laura and Emily know the true glory of from the previous Disney trip) and I'm pretty sure i embarrassed everyone with my rousing (and loud) public rendition of Aladdin's "A Whole New World" - but hey :) That's just who I am!
Stupid hat time!No pictures for this next part.... But I got to see 2 shows at the SaveMart center here (equivalent to Van Andel over in GR!) I saw Cirque du Soliel, Alegria and Star Wars in concert! Sounds cheesy, yes, but they were soooo much fun! I felt incredibly unathletic after watching Cirque (Mom - why didn't you put in in gymnastics as a child!? hehe) and Star Wars was just flat out entertaining! It's cool to hear an orchestra that sounds just like the movie you forget they're even there! Definitely a step up from all my band memories in High School (which by the way, mom and dad, thank you for sitting through all those concerts because, compared to this, we sounded awful!)
June 11-13 I flew into Milwaukee for an interview there at the Chldren's Hospital. In attempts to sneak around my current job to be all hush hush - I took a red eye flight in. Man was that rough! Why is there ALWAYS a crying baby? I mean really? It's bad enough to have them on midday flights, but c'mon parents... a 3am flight where you know people are trying to sleep? Why does it seem like only stupid people procreate? Anyways. Lots of coffee later, I dazzled my interviewers and finally got a well deserved nap! Nick came in to explore the city with me to see if Milwaukee would be a good fit for me ( a must as I feel like I didn't get to explore Fresno when I interviewed out here and that may have definitely swayed my opinion...*please review former posts about the charms of Fresno as a reference). We went downtown to the Riverwalk where we hunted down "The Bronze Fonz", we went to a MLB Brewer's game, and we sent to the SafeHouse spy bar (quite possibly the COOLEST place ever built!). There's a secret entrance and exit and little tricks hidden all around the bar (such as nude Tom Selleck in the women's bathroom! ooh lala!) I took the job in WI - so when you all come visit me (which I know you will as it's significantly closer than CA) I'll take you there!
Nick and the Fonz
At the game! I didn't get the "wear Brewer's blue" memo.
It started raining on the game - so they shut the top cover! Kinda cool to see happen! The Brewer's lost :( But I guess people don't care as long as they're drunk!
Here I am making my way through the hidden exit of the Safe House!Phew - still going! I never got to officially see Yosemite (as it was all smokey the last time I tried to go up and didn't quite make it all the way to the Valley) so my friend Bryan took me up there so I could see it before I left. It was very crowded, but I could see why! It was so beautiful! Definitely worth seeing at least once in your life (and pulled on my heart strings when I remember my decision to leave California behind! But then I remembered, there are beautiful places all over the world and that is just one of many stops along the trip of my life!) Here's some photos of that!
Me and the "classic" view of Yosemite - It looked just like a painting!
This is by Lower Yosemite Falls. It's amazing I didn't trip on all the wet rocks and break my neck!Finally this weekend - as it was my last real full weekend in California, Adam and I d=took a road trip down to Six Flags! Our day looked like it was starting out rough as a few coasters broke right as we got up to the front of the line...but it turned out to be ok and we rode everything we wanted too! Six Flags is a bit of an advertisement overload, but they had some GREAT coasters! Our favorites were the new X2 - which was complete with individual speakers for music, flames, and fog as well as the seats rotated and pitched 360 degrees independant of what the main track was doing! It was crazy!!! And then Tatsu which after you sat down it hoisted you back so you were belly down and "flying." So worth it! It must have been intense as I felt jostled by the end of the day and I'm normally a hardcore coaster fiend!!!! The next day, since we were down there, we went to Santa Barbara and the coast. It's a very cute coastal town (like most of them out here!) but it was a bit cloudy so we didn't get the "lay out on the beach" day we had hoped for. We ate some seafood and drove a bit along the Pacific Coast Highway on our way home. Overall, I can't complain - it was a fun-filled way to end my time here!
Cloudy Santa Barbara from the pier - if we take a trip down memory lane, we'll realize that most of my coastal photos are cloudy! California - you have some explaining to do!?! Land of all sunshine my ass....
Cloudy Santa Barbara from the pier - if we take a trip down memory lane, we'll realize that most of my coastal photos are cloudy! California - you have some explaining to do!?! Land of all sunshine my ass....The rest of this week includes packing - them my trip home to GR starts Friday night (another red eye flight..... ugh). I'll spend a few days of my trip to look for an apartment in WI before I head back out here for my last 3 days of work and final packing countdown! Wish me luck!!!! See you all soon!
