CA Part 2: It Was the Best of Times.

By this point it was about 2pm and we hadn't done anything that we'd planned on yet! And, we were starving. Enter In-N-Out Burger. Hooray! Nothing like a good burger and fries to drown some frustrations. Another reason to love In-N-Out: they have Dr. Pepper. I don't know why I felt the need to have it every day of this vacation, but something about all the stress just made me think that I needed caffeine. Katie's introduction to In-N-Out was a success, whew! (not that there was really ever any doubt)

Then we decided to go check in at Paradise Point and hit the private beach outside of our little cottage room. It was just like heaven. Not exactly the 'beach' that we'd planned on going to, but we walked out the patio of our room right onto the beach. You can't complain about that! It was on Mission Bay, so it wasn't the "real" beach but it was very sunny, we were the only ones there (except for the couple in the sailboat in the water trying to figure out how to sail the boat without falling in...it was good entertainment!), and we could just relax and take a breather from everything that had been going on! Finally.

Then we got ready for the baseball game. Just before we left, there was a knock at the door, where we were met with a tray of champagne and two glasses. Thanks Sandi for taking care of us ... ;)

I was glad that Jason told me not to go all the way to the ballpark to find parking, but to get off near his office and find street parking - which is exactly what we did, and we ended up only a few blocks from the stadium. Perfect! Friday night was 80's Retro Night at Petco Park.

The Padres wore their 1982 vintage uniforms. All the concessions workers wore mullets. We even got some ourselves. A former Braves pitcher, Greg Maddux pitched for the Padres, and Daisuke Matsuzaka (affectionately known as "Dice K") pitched for the Red Sox. The game was great - the Red Sox won 2-1 ... which you may think would be hard to take since we were on San Diego's home field ... but at least 80% of the stadium were Boston fans. I really felt like I was back at Fenway! Everyone right around us was from Boston, accents, beer, and everything. There was a huge Asian contingency behind us, complete with a Japanese flag and everything. The drunk Bostonians kept turning around egging on the "Dice Guys" to get them riled up. Boston fans are great. It was hilarious. I took a little video to capture some of the craziness - though I am not really sure it does it justice! I'll try to post it. We ate the "Padre special" pizza - buffalo chicken, and the guy who sold it to us kept asking what kind of perfume we were both wearing because he wanted to buy it for his wife. Funny. After the game, we walked through Downtown San Diego past lots of cute shops and restaurants - and plenty of drunk people at bars. Then we went back to our cozy resort and crashed.











Saturday morning we got up and went to the San Diego temple. I'd been there to do baptisms but never for a session yet - it is absolutely stunning! Katie's college roommate Des was being married that day, but we didn't know what time, so we kept our eyes out for her. Imagine our surprise when she and her fiance were sitting in the celestial room when we walked in! We chatted with them for a few minutes and then a temple worker came over to us and told them that the sealing room was ready and told Katie and I to take the two empty seats ... um ... Des & Lars welcomed us if we had time, so we went to their sealing. Random? Yeah, kind of ... but also kind of cool. We saw them coming out of the temple after we'd grabbed a bite to eat in the cafeteria, and waited around to take some pictures ... there were tons of weddings, so we had to wait for awhile before the crowds dissipated!

Then we were off to La Habra, where we were lucky enough to stay with Kristin & Kurt (thanks guys!). Traffic wasn't bad once we passed the accident on "The 5" (as Californian's call their highways) and we made it there in enough time to relax a little before heading for Downtown Disney where we met up with Jeanine, Nate, & little Beckham. We chilled outside for awhile, before our table at the Rainforest Cafe was ready. It was so much fun to see everyone again and catch up! Beckham is soooo cute - he was having fun crawling around and entertaining us. Once we made it to our table and decided on what we were going to eat, the waiter laughed when 5 of the 6 of us ordered the fajitas ... they just sounded so good and its always bad when you think something sounds good but you don't order it because everyone else is and then when your food comes, you really wish you would have ordered it! Anyway ... after dinner we walked around and found ourselves stopping at Haagen Dazs to get ice cream. Yum! Nothing brings back good memories of college quite like ice cream does :) Hanging out with Kristin & Kurt and Jeanine & Nate made me wish that I lived closer to them so we could do it more often!

On Sunday morning, Kurt made waffles for all of us before we went to Sacrament Meeting with them. Afterwards, Katie and I packed up our stuff and headed to Anaheim ... to Angels Stadium. I have never been to a baseball game on a Sunday before, but since that is the reason we went to Cali in the first place, and things hadn't quite gone according to the plan, we felt like it was ok! It was an absolutely perfect day for a game ... we walked around the stadium to pick up our tickets at will call, and then headed inside for the fun. The Pittsburgh Pirates were the visiting team, and it was a good game. The stadium itself was nice, and had lots of entertainment around the perimeter of the field. I think they had more food choices than any other ballpark I've been to! Katie had California Pizza Kitchen and I had Panda Express. And of course we had to continue the ice cream trend with chocolate milkshakes from Ruby's Diner. The Pirates tied it at 3 in the top of the ninth, and when the Angels couldn't score in the bottom of the inning, they sent it into extra innings. The Angels hit a ground roll double in the bottom of the 10th to score the runner on 2nd base, and won the game. And with that, stadium #20 on my list is officially checked off :)

So now its about 4pm and we're not really sure what's going on the rest of the day until we have to return our rental car and check in at LAX for our red-eye flight back to DC (what were were thinking taking a red-eye flight anyway?!? I am not 22 anymore!) ... we sat in the parking lot for a little while looking at maps trying to figure out what we could do before we had to head back.

My friend Mike and I had been texting off and on throughout the day trying to figure out if/when we could meet up ... we talked and planned on meeting in Newport, but then Katie & I got concerned that it was too far away and we wouldn't have time to make it back to the airport in time. We were paranoid about missing another flight!! Mike was nice enough to come meet us ... we decided to head towards each other and meet somewhere along the way ... which ended up being a random parking lot in Diamond Bar. ha ha Luckily, he had a GPS that actually worked (amazing what a charger will do!) and we found a park just a few minutes away that we went to. He's really into photography (he photographs weddings with his dad and brother-in-law), so he brought his new camera for an impromptu photo shoot.

I'm going to have to get those pictures from him so he can't blackmail me with them! I actually met Mike when he and his sister Karly were in DC on vacation a couple years ago, so I guess its only fitting that I saw him in CA when I was on vacation! Since we hadn't planned anything ahead of time (and he didn't want to skip church to come to the game with us, ha ha), we didn't have much time, but it was still fun to catch up a bit with him while we were there. Next time we'll have to plan a bit better!

Off to the airport we went ... we dropped the car off and got on the shuttle and headed for LAX. It was busier than I'd anticipated it would be at 9pm on a Sunday night, but we had plenty of time. We checked in, waited through security (which was very slow - I thought they'd have more than 2 lines at a huge airport like that!) and went to our very crowded gate. I asked the agent if it was a full flight, he said yes. I asked him if it was overbooked, and he said yes. I asked if they were looking for volunteers to be bumped, and he said they might be. He took our names and we waited. We weren't quite sure if that meant we'd just given up our seats or not, but when we went to ask he reassured us that we'd get a choice. Well when they informed us that they had overbooked the flight by 16 passengers (doesn't that seem a bit high??) he gave us our options of flights we could take on Monday ... when he threw out First Class on a non-stop to Dulles, our eyes got a little wider. First Class, meal vouchers, hotel vouchers, and a voucher for a free round-trip on United. Sold! We collected the vouchers and boarding passes and were on our way.

The meal vouchers had to be used - and the only place still open that would accept them was McDonald's. The vouchers were $15 each. That's right folks, we had $30 to spend at McDonald's. GROSS. We each got some food and then started racking up other things on the bill ... 2 bottles of water, 2 bottles of orange juice we could have in the morning, 2 more bottles of water, a hot fudge sunday, and 2 more bottles of water. We didn't quite hit the $30 mark but close enough. So we took our bag of drinks and sat down to eat! What else are you supposed to buy at McDonald's after a weekend of eating crap and not really being hungry? What is it about free food that compells you to eat what you otherwise would never even touch?!? I haven't quite figured that one out yet.

Off to the Crowne Point Hotel we went. But not without a near-fight on the shuttle from a woman yelling at the driver ... and then her husband got involved and they sent security to take care of it! I wish I would have taken a video of THAT! The whole shuttle clapped and cheered as we pulled out of the airport ... it was hilarious. We checked into the hotel and went up to our room. Of course our luggage was already on its way to DC, so all we had were our purses and magazines for the plane. The hotel gave us little toothbrushes, toothpaste, and combs, but other than that we were pretty helpless. It did feel good to just relax though and get a good night's sleep. Unfortunately my first First Class experience would be done in yesterday's clothes, with a wet ponytail and very minimal make-up (thanks to Katie who had a little in her purse) ...

We went downstairs to the little restaurant at the hotel to use our vouchers for breakfast. I ordered the french toast (might as well start and end the trip the same, right?) and Katie ordered the waffle. When they brought it out (after I went up to our room to get our oj's), Katie's strawberries had a bug on them ... gross ... so she sent it back to the kitchen and they made her a new meal. Then we waited for what seemed like an eternity for the shuttle to pick us up to take us back to LAX. We met Mike, a pilot for Midwest Airlines, and he helped pass the time. Of course United was the very last stop on the shuttle, and I was a little worried about the upcoming security line we'd have to wait in ...

Just about then is when I realized that I could really get used to flying First Class. You have your own entrance. You have your own security line. You even get on the plane through a different line. Yeah, it was pretty nice. We were right at the front of the plane, so I was able to watch first-hand as the flight attendants warmed our mixed nuts in the oven before bringing them to us in little glass ramikins. Drinks in glass tumblers, with refills without asking. Tray table covers (like mini tablecloths), hot towels, a choice of meals (just after they announced the $5 snack purchase items to the main cabin), and pretty much anything else you wanted. I ordered the teriyaki chicken rather than the lasagne, and a few minutes later the flight attendant asked me if I was set on it, because another passenger had allergies. Sure, that was fine, I'd trade. Later she offered me a bottle of wine for being so accomodating! 2 bottles of wine in one trip ... not too bad ha ha! The food wasn't that great, but how nice is it to hear "I hope you saved room for ice cream!" when they clear your tray? And then a few minutes later a cart with little bowls of ice cream comes down the aisle, and you are asked if you'd like hot fudge and whipped cream on it? You can't complain about that! The movie was "Shooter" which I'd wanted to see when it came out but it was rated R ... I love airline-edited movies! It was a very entertaining movie - both the story and Mark Wahlberg!! The rest of the flight was non-eventful, which was fine by me. We didn't have to wait for our bags since they'd been there since 6am, so we just grabbed them and hopped in Jenny's car and got away from the airport as fast as we could! I have never been so glad to arrive back home in my life - back in my own house, sleeping in my own bed, showering in my own bathroom, dressing in my own clean clothes ... I didn't realize how good I really have it!

I think I'll wait awhile before I cash in my free flight on United so I can recover from this trip! I am already plotting where to use it though ... at the moment, Seattle is at the top of my list ... a trip to Safeco is in order! We'll see though ... I am going to Detroit next week but after that I don't have any trips planned. I'm not sure how long that will last!