Road Trip: California - Everything Else

This summer has been incredibly busy this year. I'm just going to mush everything into one blog. I know, I know, you're clearly disappointed since you care so much about the trip I've taken. The following isn't in order because I've lost track on what stuff I saw on the drive down and drive back. And some days we didn't do any sightseeing, which no one wants to read about.

This is a Sea Lion

The ocean was breathtaking, as always. It's my new desktop background. I saw elk for the first time, and let me tell you, they're huge! I mean, I wasn't even that close to them, but they were huge! They were just standing around while people took pictures of them. Not only were the animals fascinating, but the people were as well. The "clicks" are cameras, just in case you didn't know.

"Honey, look! The elk just moved his left hoof!" *click* *click* 
"Oh, that one's walking!!" *click* *click* *click* 
"Dear God! The two elk are WALKING TOWARD EACH OTHER!" *clickclick* *clickclickclick* *click*

Just think, those reactions are when the elk don't have babies.

Anyway, the elk were nice. We also went to the Trees of Mystery. It's rather hard to explain without sounding boring. It's big trees on this long trail. Talking about it to others, they just look at you like "That's it? No explosions or hot chicks? Count me out!" But trees have never been more extraordinary. Let me tell you, if you ever want to feel insignificant, walk around some redwoods. That should do it for you. 

Ocean World was fun as always. They have this little show with a seal. This time is was their newest seal, Cora. Cora is also the name of a baby I know of. Interesting. Now every time I see Baby Cora, I wonder why she doesn't have a ball on her nose.

I recorded a video of the whole thing, but I realized that day that my phone's video recorder has terrible sound quality. So, you won't see it. After seeing the show, however, I started to question whether Charlie was actually a sea lion. He looks more like Cora. Not Baby Cora, because that'd just be silly. 

The last place we stopped at before reaching the convention was the Mystery Spot. Basically, it's one big optical illusion. Complete with a tilted house. It was interesting to say the least. It would have been cooler if everyone hadn't been really out of it. Or at least I was. I was still recovering from watching two elk walk toward each other.

Finally, we reached the convention. We mostly go there for the association, because we can't understand hardly anything. It was reassuring to know that most people were in the same boat as you. If someone said a joke during one of the talks, I heard about ten people laugh. And I think half of them were faking.

Arabic drama

But we did break an attendance record for Friday!
 It's nice to see Arabic groups forming so quickly and growing so rapidly. Want to hear some Arabic? This is during the "half and half" talk. A member of the Governing Body came to give the last talk of every day. What you hear first is English, and then the translator says it in Arabic. Don't ask me what they're talking about, I don't know the context at all.

I recorded some of the baptism too. But it didn't turn out very well, so I'll leave it out. One of the people getting baptized was a converted Muslim, and they didn't want any pictures or videos taken of him because he could be seriously hurt or killed if Muslims from his country found out. I thought it was cool that they took that into consideration.

On they way home we went to Universal Studios. I won't explain what's there if you've never been, but I will write about the Stalker Frankenstein's Monster.

So, no one in a costume that walks around is allowed to touch you. But Frankenstein's Monster would walk around like a zombie and act like he would grab you, but then "miss." He would walk up behind group of people, and then when someone would say "Turn around!" he would walk the other direction like nothing happened. It was so funny.

Mystery Spot tilting house

One day while we were eating lunch, we were near the room where the people would change costumes. It was really a room, more like a wooden fence around a small space. Someone tall enough could just peak his eyes over and see all the tables. Frakenstein's Monster took advantage of that. We were eating when I look up and see him staring at me. Well, not at me, really, but at us. I started laughing because it was so funny to look up and see this black pair of fake eyes staring at you. I look down to get my camera(phone) and when I look up, he's gone. In that room, all you have to do is step to the side and you're out of sight. Eventually, my whole family had seen him, because after a couple minutes he would come back and stare. We tried multiple times to get a picture, but he'd always disappear as soon as we get the camera out. It was the funniest thing!

Oh, I also got a caricature of me done. It's a little odd looking. But I guess that's the point.

On the way home, we saw a gorgeous mountain whose name I forget, and get the car washed. Yay for road trips!

And to think, I saw two elk walk toward each other.

Road Trip: California - Day 2

Did I say tomorrow? Here's the thing. When we reached a hotel, I entered the SS stage of exhaustion (Sleepy and Stupid) as you could tell from my previous post in which I said a lobster was 8200 years old. He was not. He was 80 to 100 years old. I have changed it, but really, what was I thinking?

At the wax museum, there was a figure on Johnny Depp.
Apparently people love touching his face. So control yourself...Anna. ;)

Anyway, I'm going to do the day by day breakdown as planned because there's too much for one blog post. I'd lose you. If I haven't already.


Day two was Newport, Oregon to Crescent City, California. This was mostly sightseeing. First thing to note about Newport is that there is a lot of fishing going on. I am not a fisher, so the smell of fish and ocean makes me want to gag. So the first step out of the car was pretty brutal for me. We got tickets to see three things: Ripley's Believe it Or Not Museum, Wax Works Museum, and Undersea Gardens. All were cool, and pretty dark so not many pictures.
Undersea Gardens isn't all that interesting. And it's hard to capture fish in the dark.

Next, though, we went to the Sea Lion Caves in Florence, Oregon. Totally awesome. And I mean awesome as in I was practically in awe. It was miraculous! All these sea lions in their completely natural habitat. The cave was there naturally and people just built an elevator and little fence-thing so we could see the sea lions without slipping on the rocks or charging toward the Sea Lions, attempting to kill them all.

Double-Eyed Guy. Sounds like a superhero...or a tongue
twister.

Another cool thing about the Sea Lion Caves is that I saw my first whale. A whale. Now, I don't want to hear it from those people who see whales every day. Just let me gush. It wasn't even up close. We were up really high, walking to the elevator. Beside us was a majestic, vast ocean view. Then my mom, a fan of whales, looks out and sees a gush of air spew out of the ocean. She says, "Is that a whale??" And it was. True, all we could see was the spouting, and it never breached or anything like that, but it was breathtaking nonetheless. Keep your bragging to yourself. If you're reading this, I've probably heard it before anyway.

After the elevator ride, there were two things I noticed. One, it's almost chilly when you're this for underground. And two, sea lions are not a pleasant thing to smell. I'm not even sure what I was expecting to smell. Cool, brisk air I suppose. But no, I smelled sea lion manure. And a lot of it. But after that initial "yuck" the next thing that overtook me was the sound. Sea lions are quite loud. Not so loud that you can't hear yourself think, but loud enough. They were chatting, bickering, shouting, all that good stuff. Reminded me of high school. Only, not as smelly. But only slightly.

Here's what it sounded like:

That was pretty much all that happened that day. Oh, but while we strolled through the gift shop of the Ripley's Believe it Or Not/Wax Works gift shop, we stumbled upon Charlie (left). Charlie is a very cute stuffed sea lion. I'm sure he would have loved to sea his family members, but we had to leave him in the car. At least, I think he's a sea lion. That's what the tag said. But after visiting Ocean World (next post) I'm not positive. But let's just call him a sea lion and spare his feelings. Oh, and that's a Swedish Fish in his mouth. No, he did not come with it. Naming him Charlie was actually my brother, Finn's, idea. I don't normally name my many stuffed animals (anymore) but Finn looked at him and said, "He looks like a Charlie." And so he be named Charlie. Later I found out Finn actually named him Charlie after Charlie the Unicorn. Nice.

Road Trip: California - Day 1

One day of driving accomplished. We are settling in a hotel in Newport right now, listening to the ocean. But let me start from the beginning.

Ok, we were all up at 4:30 AM, left around 5:30 AM, ate breakfast at McDonald's and went on our way. The road trip has begun!

The funny thing is, is that road trips always result in me looking at the world differently for a short time. I always forget what Washington really looks like. I always forget about the pretty parts. Here are a few pictures of the drive before we reached Oregon.

That little white thing in the distance is Mt. Rainer.
My cell phone doesn't do it justice.

Then we reached the part of Washington that no one likes to talk about. The clear cut parts. The land that used to be beautiful, but was torn down to build more houses for people. All stumps and saplings. It's sad to look at really. I mean, sure the loggers plant new trees. But they aren't going to wait fifty years for the tree to get as tall as the original one was.

As we drove past all those cleared areas, I started to wonder how many animals were there originally, and where they are now. Probably roaming through people's yards, looking for a decent garbage can. Then everyone freaks out and shoots the animal, not understanding why it was there in the first place. Car conversations revolved around that for awhile.

But then we reached Oregon and forgot about all that.

At the border!

Seaside (kinda looks like 1st street, doesn't it? For my
Snohomishians.)

Since it was nice out, Seaside was very touristy. We stopped at Pig N' Pancake for some food, and then went to this little aquarium that was nearby. Seal pups were born just last month. And they filled my heart with adorableness.There was this gate around them and they wouldn't stop moving, so pictures were difficult, but I snapped a few. I'm not sure if it's pictures of the babies or not, but it's cute nonetheless.

The rest of the aquarium was interesting.

Wolf eel: The most depressed sea creature

"Mommy, I found a star fish!"

"Maybe if I remain perfectly still...they won't see me...."

This is (was) Victor the Lobster. Someone tried to kidnap
him, and when they tried to catch the guy he dropped Victor
and left. Victor died later. He was about 80 to 100 years old!!

More driving, and driving. This mostly consisted of passenger-sleeping and/or music listening. My music of choice was Basshunter (obviously), The White Stripes, Sara Bareilles, and then one song each from various other artists. This went one for a couple more hours. We got out occasionally to stretch and whatnot, but this part of the journey consisted mostly of space-out time.

Then we got to the ocean! I always forget how gorgeous the ocean is. Always.

This is the view from our hotel. U jelly ;)

Now, we're all just resting in Newport. That's all for today. Everyone's kinda zonked out right now. Although it'd be nice to go swimming, I don't want to be falling asleep in the pool. I think I'll just crash for now.

More tomorrow. Stay tuned.