California fun

Now that a month has passed (where does the time go?) I'm finally ready to tell you about my trip to California for my little brother's wedding. Except this post is only the first half...

On June 14 I flew to LA, where Ryan and Lauren picked me up with my parents following behind. But since LAX is crazy even at 10pm on a Sunday, it took forever for them to pick me up, and then a while to get out of all that traffic. But at last, we were all safely in California ready to have fun.

Monday my parents and I went to Catalina Island. We took a boat from Long Beach, and the ride was about an hour. First we sat outside, but the wind made it pretty chilly and uncomfortable, so we moved inside. That was also when my dad decided we needed to relax a little more with some wine. Good idea, Dad.

Our boat.

Cheers.

When we got to the island we walked to a little Mexican place for lunch. Then we got on a glass-bottomed boat for a 45-minute tour to check out some fish.

Glass-bottomed boat.

Fish!

Fish watching.

Fish-feeding selfie.

After the tour we walked around the little town a little more, and got some ice cream. Apparently there are wild buffalo on Catalina Island, which my dad neglected to tell me ahead of time, and we didn't have enough time to see them. Next time.

Front-seat boat ride back to Long Beach.

Later that night Dad and I walked from our Anaheim hotel to meet Lauren and Ryan for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. Then those two came and stayed with us, and the next morning all five of us walked to Disneyland!

Naturally when we got to Disneyland we started with Tomorrowland, and apparently Ryan loves the Astro Orbitor (a simple ride like Dumbo, but with rockets) so we rode that first. Then we rode a bunch more. Mom rented an electric scooter because of her bum knee, which meant we got to skip a bunch of long lines with her. It was awesome.

Squeezed into a rocket.

Ready for takeoff!

Blastin' aliens. Dad steered while Mom and I shot. (Ignore the score!)

Ready for a drive.

Attempting to steer in Autopia.

Say cheese.

We ate pretzels for a late-morning snack, then had a nice lunch in New Orleans Square. I got us some popcorn later on, too. And all day long I kept saying I eventually wanted to eat a Mickey ice cream on a stick, which finally happened right before we left.

Yum.

It's a Small World.

Family ride selfie.

The castle is smaller than I remembered...

Ready for Splash Mountain.

"Arms up!"

We got pretty wet. I was soaked.

Jungle Cruise pistachio sighting! Right there on the seat!

Cruising the jungle.

Shootin' stuff.

Thunder Mountain.

Finally.

The only major ride we didn't go on was Space Mountain, because it was closed that morning. Lauren and Ryan and I were going to do it at night before we left and even got in line, but we decided we didn't care enough to stand in line forever after a long day. So we went back to Ryan's favorite rocket ride instead, and our flights coincided with the fireworks show and Tinkerbell flying to the castle. It was the perfect way to end a fun day at Disneyland.

The next day my parents and I visited the Huntington. When we arrived we ate lunch outside at the cafe, then we walked around the gardens, checked out some art, and took a spin through the library exhibits. The place is impressive and I could have spent a lot longer there.

Taking time to smell the roses.

Bonsai garden!

Chinese Garden.

I couldn't get over how high the mountains were!

That night we had dinner at a Mexican seafood place. We ordered several things and shared them all. It was delicious.

The shrimp cocktail was my favorite.

Thursday we drove to Simi Valley, where the wedding would be and where we stayed for the rest of the trip. We had a fun all-you-can-eat sushi dinner with Lauren and Ryan, and later that night Sunni (who had just flown in) and I helped Lauren assemble wedding favors late into the night.

Now stay tuned for the wedding post in part two...