We recently invested in a "travel club," similar to a time share, but a little different. Since we haven't taken a break in nearly a year, we thought we'd take a much needed trip. We went to California, and it was great! We were gone for a week, no work, no "kids," no house cleaning. We got off to a later start than we wanted, but we made it down in pretty good time. We were planning on having Sadie stay with a co-worker, but that didn't work out. So, we took her to PetSmart's Pet Hotel. (She really had quite the posh place.) On the way down we stopped in Las Vegas and had lunch with Dave's cousin Lexie and her husband Mike. They weren't able to be at our wedding, so it was nice to meet them. We had a good visit.
The place we stayed at was Beso Del Sol in Sunset Beach, CA. It was only 300 ft or so to the beach. We had a small kitchenette and to our surprise a hot tub, which we used several times. Ironically, we didn't spend all that much time on the beach, but we did make it out a couple of times. The first day we were there, Dave and I went for a walk on the beach. Unfortunately, there was some crude oil that found it's way onto the bottom of Dave's foot. We ended up buying some Goo Gone in the paint section of Wal-Mart to get it off
We spent a couple of days at the happiest place on earth...Disneyland! We don't have kids yet, but we love it. We rode a lot of rides and saw a few of the characters. It was really nice because we only had to wait 20 minutes at the most to get on any of the rides. We even saw some of our neighbors while we were there. One other thing we did while at Disneyland was have a charicature drawn of us. That was an experience in and of itself. It's an interesting feeling having people stop and stare at you when you're not supposed to move and to see their expressions. I thought the lady did a good job on me, but Dave didn't really look like Dave. It was still fun though.
After 2 days of Disneyland fun we went to Knott's Berry Farm. Neither Dave or I had been there before. It was fun. They had some shows, some shopping, and some insane rides. We braved a few, but sadly have to say that we're getting old! In our defense however, they had a roller coaster that reached 60 mph, one that went 200 ft 90 degrees up and 90 degrees down, one that had maybe 12 corkscrews, and a water ride that had a 70 degree drop that was longer than splash mountain at Disneyland. We got our tickets about 40% off and we still had fun.
The last couple of days we took it easy and just kicked back. On Thursday we went to Burbank and had a BBQ with my Aunt Linda and her family. My mom and her other two sisters were in California the same time we were; so we got to see them as well. Friday was going to be a beach day, but we ended up going to Hollywood. That was the mistake of the trip. I had been there before, but I don't think we'll go again. It used to be fun to go and look at the "stars," but now it's something like walking the strip of Vegas. We ended up taking a 2 hour tour of Hollywood. Again, we should have gone to the beach. The good thing about the tour though is that Dave talked the guy into giving us a 2 for 1 deal.
All in all, we had a great time. We were ready to come home by the end of the week. It was great to get away, but nice to come back home. We did miss the little ones, and they missed us. Dave and I are both doing a "healthier you" program at work. We did a lot of walking, and we got a lot of sun. Another good trip behind us, and lots more to go. The next trip I think will be Hawaii or Florida. Oh, the places we'll go!
The next thing we worked on was a step stool. We bought it used and Dave refinished it and I re-stained it. I think it turned out pretty well. Below are some progressive pictures.
