California Holiday Blog

Great America

2005-08-02T20:12:00.000-07:00

Today was SO cool!!! :) :) :)

Natasha and I went to this themepark called Great America. They had loads of sweet rides, and best of all, there were Nickolodeon charachters there!!!!

I got my picture taken with SpongeBob, Patrick, Cosmo and Wanda and Jimmy Neutron!!!! - It was so much fun!!!

I'll get the pics up later, because i took them on the disposable camera :)

Laterz...

Zoo and Oakland

2005-08-01T21:20:00.000-07:00

Ok, the zoo was cool on wednesday, and on thursday, i hung out at the house and then mark took me to huntington beach to get a skate deck, and check it out.
it was pretty cool, and i also got my haircut, which was nice although maybe a little short.

The Johnson's have been such great hosts, and they have shown me some really cool stuff in Southern California, and I cannot thank them enough!!! I just hope Sianna has such a great time in England next year :)

Friday, i left for Oakland, and the flight was fine. When i got into oakland airport, i couldn't see Jackie anywhere !!! It was a while before we found each other because she was at a different terminal!

At the moment, i'm staying with Jackie (my dad's cousin), Jim (her husband) and Natasha (their daughter). Their house is really nice and it's cool to hang out with natasha and her friends.

On Sunday we went sailing on a 30ft boat which was really fun. We saw the San Fransisco bay and the Bay Bridge and the city itself form afar. Here is a pic of me and natasha on the boat.

We got some cool views of the city:

We did get a lot closer, but i couldnt find the camera at that point :(

LOOK, a boat :

Ok, that was yesterday, Today, i rose at around 12ish!!! and Natasha and I cycled to her friend - Jamey's house. He has a pool, so that was really cool. We hung out and then came back. It was cool and Relyn came a bit later, but none of her other friends were around.

Until next time...

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday

2005-07-27T21:42:00.000-07:00

On Monday, we went to Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. This place was amazing !!! They had literally tons and tons of fish, sharks, and jellies (jellyfish). It was really interesting, and i got loads of pics :

They had these really cool rock pool things that you could touch that were cool -

A Fish :)

Another cool part was where you could feed the lorikeets, and a few landed on my hand, here is one such bird:

On Tuesday, we went to Beverly Hills, Studio City and Hollywood. I got to see al the sights, the tars on the floor, and the handprints etc at Grauman's Chinese Theater. Here are some shots from Hollywood :)

Me at a side street just off of Rodeo Drive:

Michael Jackson's star on the Walk of Fame:

The Hollywood Sign - used to be the Hollywood Land sign by the way ;)

Finally, we passed many studios and here is the Disney studio in Hollywood:

On Wednesday (today), Mark and I went to San Diego Zoo. that was really cool, and i'll get pics up and some more info in the next post.

Until then ...

Volleyball Tournament and Disneyland

2005-07-25T08:43:00.000-07:00

Saturday

Ok, on Saturday, we had to wake up at 6 to get to a volleyball tournament at 7 !!! That was well too early for me, and i was tired in the morning!!!

Anyway, on the way to the tournament, we stopped at McDonalds to get breakfast. Being too tired and not very hungry, i went for a parfait - a strawberry and yogurt combo, with the crunchy stuff you get in museli. It was delicious to say the least!

When we got to the tournament, we set up camp outside of this massive warehouse that had been turned into a sports hall.

During most of the stay there, I chilled outside, watched a few of the volleyball games, and got a fair way through "The World According to Garp" - which I must say is pretty interesting!

Sianna's team "Long Beach Poly" got to the semi-finals, and were beaten by a team called Edison - just if anyone wanted to know. We left at about 6:30, and went to a mexican place to celebrate one of Sianna's friends birthday's. I tried some mexican food - an enchilada (which for some reason I had serious trouble pronouncing) and a beef taco, which was tres bon - I don't know any spanish :-(.

Sunday

Today, we went to Disneyland :):):) !!!

It was Myself, Sianna, Kathryn and Carolyn (Sianna's friends). We went to both Disneyland and California Adventure and went on all of the good rides. The only one a didn't go on was the teacups, because I didn't want to throw up everywhere!

Carolyn seemed most up for going on all the rides, and we all had a fun time! At the park, I tried out some new food: a Churro - Deep fried dough, coverd in cinnamon and sugar (very nice), and a pizza, that had a barbecue sauce instead of the regular tomatoe one. That was pretty good too!

I took the disposable camera and got a few pictures, but we'll have to wait and see until then...

In the mean time, here are some pics I took when we were out at Downtown Long Beach :

Long Beach Blvd:

An American School Bus:

An "In-and-Out" Menu - (best burgers ever !!!)

Myself aboard ye olde Queen Mary

The Queen Mary:

I should have climbed the riggin' me hartey! - Another shot of our good friend the Queen Mary:

There we go, i'll try and take some more photos when i'm out and about :) - It's really interesting to see all the differences from back home.

Au Revoir...

Friday

2005-07-22T23:43:00.000-07:00

Ok, so yesterday, Mark and I went down to Huntington Beach, and chilled out on the sand. The water was so good, and much warmer than back home. I did a bit of bodysurfing which was fun, and we played some catch with gloves and a baseball. That was super fun, and then we came home.

Recently, in the spare time i have, i have taken to playing Tiger Woods Golf on the Playstation :) - I'm becoming pretty good at it and it's a very good game. (I'm not trying to endorse the product or anything wink, wink).

Today, Gina took me to Downtown Long Beach, where we went to get a free trip around the Queen Mary, which is docked there. I remembered my camera this time :). and I took loads of pictures of Long Beach and some American stuff :).

Later in the evening, we went to a tight (means wicked) music gig, somewhere inland. It was really good, and i got to meet loads of new people. It was so fun, and the music was pretty good. The highlight was a local band called "Change of Heart".

Tommorow is Sianna's volleyball tournament, so wait for the next update with news on that. Also, I might upload some more photos, when i'm not too tired :p.

Laterz...

Tuesday

2005-07-20T11:48:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was cool :)

Once again, I got some more hours under the sun, met sianna's neighbours, had a philly cheese steak, and watched sianna win her volleyball :)

Laterz...

Baseball

2005-07-18T23:31:00.000-07:00

Today was pretty cool:

Started off by having some donuts for breakfast (i know they're unhealthy) and then had some sushi for lunch :) - It was my first time at a sushi place, and like the rookie I was, I ordered a non-fishy dish - Beef Teryaki. Anyway, I mastered the chopsticks after a few minutes and raged on with the meal. Not to spoil the fact we went to a sushi restaurant, I did manage to steal some raw fish, which to my surprise was actually quite delicious.

After this interesting meal, I lounged around the house for a bit, getting in some hours under the sun, whilst finishing off "The Watchman" by Chris Ryan, and starting a book by Stephen King. During this, I played with heidi the dog :)

Heidi:

Mark and I then went to go get a Subway sandwhich before we headed to the baseball game. the match was between one of the big local teams - The LA Angels, and another California team - The Oakland A's.

As usual, I forgot to take the digital camera, so we picked up a disposable one. I got a few snaps, and the game was a good one. The Angels won 5-2, and tde atmosphere was pretty cool :)

In further news, plans have been put in place for a trip to Disneyland, which to me sounds like its gonna be wicked awesome :):):)

That's that for today, so, unsurprisingly, until next time...

Next...

2005-07-17T22:29:00.000-07:00

Ok, so it's been a little while since i updated, because its been pretty hectic, and i havcen;t had the chance to get on the computer much.

Anyway, on Thursday I went to watch Sianna play volleyball in a high school called "Woodbridge", which was massive compared to the schools in England. She lost :( but it was kind of only training, so not too bad. I went with Lindsay, one of her friends who also had a bonfire thing planned on friday night :)

So, Friday was a really good day. I started off by getting up a bit late, but it wasn't too bad, and I managed to go round to a neighbours house to go in their pool, which was quite a relief, as it was getting pretty hot. At about 5ish, we headed down to the beach for Lindsay's party at Huntington, where we had a bonfire and had a good time. I met loads of people, and it was really easy to meet them due to my "fascinating" accent - well i wasn't complaining :)

Then on Saturday, we went to some other place with a Spanish name, to pick up Sianna's cousin - Richard, who is staying for a couple of days. Anyway... we ended up going outr on a 30ft sailboat which was good, and I got to meet some more of Sianna's family, and try out her grandmothers awesome meatballs - they were GOOD!!! By the time we got back home, I was very tired - I still haven't fully adjusted to the time difference.

Today (Sunday), we went to have Breakfast at Hof hut's. It was pretty good, and then Sianna, Richaed and I met up with Sianna's friend, Catherine and we went shopping. I bouight some nice stuff, and also a few of their sweets which were pretty good too - they seem to have mastered food over here !!! When we got back, we watched a couple of films and had a pizza, and now I'm writing this :)

So far, this trip has been great fun (especially the bonfire at the beach), and also i've learned a lot about America.

I plan to take my camera out a bit more, so I can get a few more pics of this place :)

Again, until next time...

The Beginning

2005-07-14T11:52:00.000-07:00

Ok, I started this Blog whilst sitting at a desk in Long Beach, California.

I travelled out here yesterday on an Air New Zealand flight, on which i fortunately got to sit next to Matt and Dave form St. Albans, who were going all the way to Auckland!!!

Matt and Dave:

A shot from the plane:

The flight went well, but as was to be suspected, the food was pathetic, except for the delicious desserts!

It's the first real day of my holiday to California, which at this point in time, consists of 2 and a bit weeks in Long Beach, and another week in Oakland, staying with my dad's cousin and her daughter.

I'm staying with Mark and Sianna at the moment. Sianna is playing a volleyball match at the moment, and i have run of the house. The house itself is wonderful, with a jacuzzi and about a 5' tv screen!!!

That's about it for now, so until next time...