This past week, from July 3-9, I was in hot, sunny, and dry California livin' it up with Jo, my cousin extraordinaire.
She had been in California for about a month living with her Grammy, my Great Aunt Lois. Thanks to the generosity of Aunt Lois, I was able to come and have a nice vacation.
We had a blast hiking, swimming at the beach (with sharks...), watching fireworks, and making lemonade, among other things. On July third we kicked our fun off with fireworks at Moore Park and a super creepy Elvis impersonator.
We watched fireworks with our Klotzle cousins. The fireworks were HUGE. Needless to say, they were more impressive than our small town show. I think their grand finale alone was the size of our whole show in Wolcott.
They also play patriotic music during the show, which is such a good idea! Sadly, they forgot Chicken Fried. I mean come on...a little bit of chicken fried, a cold beer on a Friday night, a pair of jeans that fit just right, and the radio uuuuuuupppppp...what is more American? Well, lemonade might be, but that comes later.
Of course we had to stop for some In-n-Out, a fast food place that the Midwest is sadly void of. Actually, it may be good that we don't have them around! It is DELICIOUS. And cheap. Can't go wrong there...
On the fourth we made lemonade. We picked lemons off Aunt Lois's tree. It was the best, most fresh, most sugary and delicious lemonade I have ever had. EVER. YUM.
We may have gotten a bit too carried about taking pictures. We even tried to get a video of me in my patriotic shirt (thank you Momma) saying "There's nothing more American than lemonade!", which only led to lemonade coming out my nose. In case you were wondering, lemons burn your nose. Really terribly.
After spending a few hours on that, we went to Jo's Aunt Heidi's and Uncle Tom's house. We had a delicious dinner and some fun fireworks/sparklers. It was a fun evening! On Saturday we went to a bridal shower and then to the beach.
We found out at the end of our long swim that a juvenile great white had bitten a swimmer just a mile or so down from where we were. I was swimming in the same area as a GREAT WHITE. How cool is that?! It's the kind of cool that is also creepy. Not as creepy as Elvis, but creepy ;)
After frying nicely, we headed back for dinner. I even wore sun screen and I fried!! Oh well, it just made me look more a-peel-ing later. <--- mwahahaha. See what I did there?
On Sunday we went to church, and then to dinner at the house of some dear friends (who also happen to be family). Monday we went to California Pizza Kitchen (YUM) where we split a pizza. I forget what kind this was, but, man, was it delicious.
Then we went shopping, but most importantly, we went to See's Candies. If you don't know what I am talking about, you need to get on the internet and order a box. Yes, it's kinda expensive, and yes, it is the best chocolate you will ever taste. That's just my opinion, but you can trust it, since I have tried about everything they sell :)
The lady at See's gave us each a big handful of their little lollipop chips, which prompted me to exclaim, "I love See's people!" Then we couldn't stop talking like Gru from Despicable Me. Just say "I love See's people" in a Russian accent and you will (hopefully) understand.
We love our See's so much that we took them to Trader Jo's with us so they wouldn't melt in the car. Ok, ok...we didn't want them to be lonely. Chocolate has feelings too, you know!
Tuesday we met my cousin Laurie for lunch. Sadly, we couldn't spend much time with her, but at least I got to see her briefly!
We ate at Corner Bakery (YUM) and then walked around Kohl's for a little while. I sound a little food obsessed in this post, but there are so many delicious restaurants out there that we don't have here, and only so much time to get to them! Yeah, I'm a foodie :P
And to continue with food, on Tuesday evening Aunt Lois treated us to dinner at a yummy fro-yo place called Cherry on Top, a place once again not found in the Midwest. Thanks Aunt Lois!
Jo and I both took their name quite literally, and put several cherries on top. SO GOOD. WHY IS FOOD SO GOOD?
Another thing we spent a lot of time doing was hiking! Every morning we got up decently early and walked around Altadena. All of the days, except for the first day, we hiked in the canyon back to a waterfall. Despite the drought, there was still some water! We took soooooooo many pictures and videos, so I cut it down to these collages.
These are only my pics...Jo has most of the videos! On Wednesday morning, the morning we left for home, we got up really early so we could see the sun rise. We still didn't get up early enough though, because we missed it! It gave us more time at the waterfall, which was a ton of fun. We climbed up on some rocks that we hadn't attempted yet. We took off our shoes and socks, waded, slipped around, sang some songs, and then I fell face first into the water. >_<
I was already wet because I couldn't find a good way down from the rocks and pretty much stepped into the waterfall. Then I slipped. Just call me Grace!
We walked back barefoot in the creek bed. That was my favorite morning, and a memory I won't soon forget. As you can imagine, we had quite a few laughs as we took turns trying to climb with bare feet up slippery, smooth rocks. I wish I could be back there right now, if even just for an hour or two.
And that was our week! Laughter, good company, and fun times. It is a blessing to have a friend and cousin like Jo, and it was such fun to be able to spend a week of fun with her in California.
Thanks to Aunt Lois for her hospitality and willingness to have me there and Jo for coming up with the great idea!
