I flew into Seattle a day early so I could hang out with my best friend, Kaeling, who recently moved there for her job. We hadn't seen each other in 2 years and it was a sweet reunion. It was also a great irony that she knows the city of Seattle much better than I do (I grew up in a suburb 30 minutes south) and gave me a tour of what is now her city!
It was a GORGEOUS day and the Seattle blossoms bloomed before DC's did. We met up for brunch at the charming Rusty Pelican Cafe. I was starving cuz I missed my bus and ordered 2 dishes haha, ate about 3/4 of it - corned beef hash and french toast. Mmmm
Then we went on a walk through the University of Washington campus (my 1st time). We were both impressed with the landscaping and architecture :)
Afterwards, we drove to my hometown and I got to take her to my favorite place - the boardwalk at Redondo :)
When we got back to my house, Steph (who introduced me to the Church in 11th grade) came over :) I was SO happy to have 2 of my closest and oldest friends with me!!
But Steph had to go and couldn't join us for dinner at my family's "2nd kitchen" (a Pho place down the street). It was fun to have my family and Kaeling get to know each other while showing her an important part of my upbringing :D
We started driving to [southern] California right after dinner - for 19 hours through the night. It was brutal. Got to my [step] brother BJ's house Saturday evening and unloaded/rested. The next day was the huge Easter party at my cousin Melanie's house. This was not your typical American Easter - my [step] Dad's side is from Guam so it was mostly Pacific Islander food.
Alot of my uncles, aunts, and cousins (all on Dad's side) live nearby and they all came, along with their family members.
The kids got their egg hunt and we played alot of fun games like Water Pong (haha!), Left Right Center (dice game of chance), and Spoons.
We also celebrated BJ, Ryan (Melanie's husband), and Ellie Kate's (cousin Melva's daughter) birthdays by eating cake, singing "Happy Birthday" and spraying them with silly string haha.
Monday - we drove about 5 hours to get to Hollywood. We finally got to The Strip and went to Grauman's Chinese Theatre first.
It was surreal for me, an abiding Old Hollywood (1920s-60s) movie buff, to see the hand/foot prints and signatures of so many of my favorite stars. I took tons of pics but here are my 2 favorites - Doris Day and Judy Garland :)
Then we walked up and down the Hollywood Strip - went in the theater where they host the Academy Awards, pretended to have my own Oscar award ("World's Greatest Dancer", what else?) in a souvenir shop, had BBQ for lunch, and took pics of some of my favorite stars on the Walk of Fame.
Then I convinced my family to go into Madame Tussaud's wax museum (they ended up loving it too). I've been to the one in DC (see blog post) and had so much fun posing by all the figures hehe. These were only a small portion of their collection. My favorite pic is the one with Michael Jackson. Can you name all of these celebrities??
We stayed Monday & Tuesday night in a motel in Hollywood so we could save on driving time.
Tuesday - The whole day was devoted to Universal Studios Theme Park!! I last visited on our family vacation in 2000 and I enjoyed it way more than Disneyland. It turns out this is their 100th anniversary! :D
My 2nd cousin Paul has a premium pass (his family goes all the time) and was a great tour guide. Had a blast on the studio tour - lots of special effects and rides along the way. Also saw the sets for various movies like The 3 Amigos, Grinch, War of the Worlds, Jurassic Park, and Jaws.
We went some fun rides & shows - Jurassic Park, Waterworld, House of Horrors (didn't like that one; I don't like being scared), Special/Visual Effects, and The Transformers (My favorite!! Even tho I had never seen the movie haha)
Universal Studios is really cool at night. We ate at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company for dinner; my family & I are huge fans of the movie Forrest Gump haha.
Paul gets all the theme park pics for free :) Here are the best ones -
Wednesday - Went on a Warner Bros. "VIP Tour" where we saw the sets for lots of movies & TV shows such as Hart of Dixie, The Music Man, James Cagney's gangster movies, Annie, Spiderman, Friends, etc. Turns out this is the studio's 90th anniversary!
I have to admit - seeing all these sets that look so plain in real life stripped alot of the Hollywood glamour for me, which made me kind of sad :( We also saw where they build & store some of the props -
On the way back to BJ's, we got a flat tire. Thank goodness for the Good Samaritan who helped us fix it!!
Thursday - We were all tired of driving so we mostly chilled at home. I indulged in Jerrianne's (BJ's wife) Food Network magazines muahaha. Then we went to watch The Croods - a fun and very creative movie. See my other blog for my analysis :)
Friday - my awesome parents & brother BJ woke up at 5 a.m. to drive me to the airport. It was great to catch up with family and explore Hollywood but I was so ready to get back to what finally feels like "home" in DC. Here are some final thoughts on the trip:
- LA traffic is as awful as they say. I estimate we spent about 1/3 of our trip in the car. See flat tire above for proof!
- My favorite part of the trip was bonding with my little brother Chris, like during the many hours driving in the van and random moments like when he wanted to show me a cool song on his iPod :) He makes me laugh like no other and he's growing up way too fast!
- After seeing NYC (see blog post), Seattle, and LA, I realize that DC is definitely the city for me right now in my life. NYC is glamorous and exciting but too expensive/dirty/big/noisy/busy...at least it seems so now. Seattle is beautiful and clean but doesn't have the career/education/marriage (aka young single LDS population) opportunities I need right now. LA has amazing weather but I hate having to drive forever to get anywhere. In comparison to all these cities, I have a whole new appreciation for DC (see reasons in last blog post).
- In other MASSIVELY EXCITING NEWS, I got into GW's American Studies masters program!!! Also, I have hated the Higher Education Administration masters program since I started last fall and got my withdrawal approved by the dean! I found all this out late Tuesday night and screamed like a Justin Bieber fan at his concert. My life is about to change majorly, and so much for the better! I was going after my Plan B because I was too afraid to fail at my Plan A. But true to this year's theme of being true to myself, I am finally taking a risk and pursuing my passion. I'm excited for school again :) and that's the way it should be.
Yay!!!! That's all I have to say. :)
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