Weekend Road Trip 9/16/11

Right after work Friday, I drove down to Camarillo for another weekend getaway. My sister's apartment is turning into the weekend party place and I love it!

As soon as I arrived, Kelsey and her roomie, Lindsey, were ready to go to dinner. We drove back up to Oxnard and met my mom and nino who came separately. Our wait was almost 1.5 hours just to get seated! BJs is the place to be on a Friday night! While we waited for a table, we took some pictures...

When our food finally came, we were disappointed to find out that they made my sister's order wrong. They took her pizza back and offered to buy us dessert! Of course we got pizookie!

I love my sister's roommate. When the desserts came out (we decided on sharing two pizookies) Lindsey was like, "I always feel like it's a competition when you're sharing a dessert." Hahahaha... Judging by the photo above, Kelsey was in it to win it!

Kelsey drove us back to Camarillo and we had another fun photo shoot/dance party in the car.

Back at the apartment, we just relaxed and had a fun little slumber party!

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By the time I woke up the next morning, my sister had cooked us all a delicious breakfast! Such a little Martha Stewart! We all took our time getting ready. By 10:30 I was back on the road with my favorite little travel buddy. <3

I drove down to Torrance to meet up with my friend, Michael. He just moved back to California after attending grad school in Virginia. Yay!

We ate at El Torito Grill. It was so nice to just catch up on each other's lives. Mike actually drove back to California from Virginia and turned it into a road trip. It was a baseball theme road trip where he and his friend stopped at various baseball stadiums along the way! Sooo cool!

I thought the tortilla looked kinda funny...

After lunch, we were soooo stuffed! Mike suggested that we go shopping! We drove to a nearby shopping mall which was half indoor and half outdoor. As I was walking around, I started recognizing some of the places. I realized that I had actually been to this mall before!

They had this cool used book/CDs/video game store. I bought a Sheryl Crow CD for $5.

We tried to take a picture of ourselves to send to Sarah, but it was really difficult because Mike is like a foot taller than me. We eventually took a good pic that included most of both of us.

Then, some man offered to take a real picture of us. :)

Hanging out with Mike made me really miss my college life. I'm so glad he's back in California, but it's kinda depressing because now Sarah has left the state :(

Anyways, I had to leave so that I could drive to Culver City to drop off my Auntie Julie's cane (she left it at our house during Labor Day weekend). When I got to her house, we chatted for a bit. I was disappointed to find out that I had just missed my cousin, Miki. She left for work right before I showed up. I told my Auntie that I would have liked to visit Miki at work, but I didn't have a GPS and I didn't want to get lost. Auntie Julie was so cute, she was like, "Want me to show you how to get there?!" So we hopped in the car and drove to the grocery store Miki works at.

One cool thing was that my Auntie had a handicap parking thingy so I got to park right in front! We said hi to Miki, but she was super busy so we just walked around the huge store. Auntie Julie pointed out the Jamba Juice, Starbucks, bank, pharmacy, florist, bakery etc. (the store was huge).

After that, I dropped Auntie Julie off at her house and was back on the road again.

I drove to Krispy Kreme where I bought 3 dozen doughnuts. Yum!

Then, I drove to Camarillo to drop off doughnuts with Kelsey and Lindsey. Lindsey was at the gym, so I just waited around for her to come back so I could say hi. I left about a half hour later.

On the drive back home, I blasted my new Sheryl Crow CD and I just felt happy. I love making little road trips. I love getting away. I love visiting old friends. I love spending time with my family. And I love Krispy Kreme doughnuts. <3

Day 8

I shot up out of my bed at 3:00 a.m. after only 3 hours of sleep. I had been tossing and turning all night worried that I would sleep through my alarm clock. I tried to go back to sleep, but my heart was racing. I wanted to get started with my long journey home. I decided to go ahead and get going with my day.

I had arranged to have a taxi pick me up at 4:00 am to take me to the airport for my 7:00 am flight. But I was ready to go by 3:30 am. So I sat and waited in the dark lobby.


At 10 minutes til 4:00 am, the taxi driver dressed in a dark suit came into the lobby and loaded my things into the sleek Skoda car.

When we started driving away from the hotel, I told the driver "I'm so sad that I have to leave, I love it here." I don't think he understood what I said because he didn't respond at all.

I arrived at the airport a little early so I bought freshly squeezed orange juice and read my magazine. My first flight of the day was from Prague to Amsterdam. Our flight was 15 minutes delayed which sucked because I only had an hour between arriving in Amsterdam and departing to LA. I had a great seat next to the exit with lots of leg room. Unfortunately, this was only for my short flight.



When I landed in Amsterdam, I had to run from one end of the airport to the other. Luckily, I had printed out a map of the Amsterdam airport which I was able to study on the flight. I arrived at my departure gate just in time to board! Phew!

My flight was loooong. Ugh.

I was so happy to arrive in LA. It seemed like I couldn't get off the plane fast enough. JR picked me up. I was happy to have someone carry my luggage! We stopped in Ventura and Santa Barbara on our way home. I ended up at home around 5 p.m. and was happy to take a shower and relax for the evening.

Day 1

(I wrote this while waiting for my flight at LAX.)

Ahhhhhhhh... this is soooo stressful, I'm glad we came to the airport not 2 but 4 hours early!

OK, I hate myself! I left my debit card in the hotel we stayed at last night. I'm soooo dumb. I had a credit card, but decided to leave it at home. And I distinctly remember pulling my checkbook out of my suitcase and saying, "I never use this, why sould I pack it?!" I thought all I'd need was my debit card to get euro and then some cash to keep just in case. Ahhhhhh!!! I'm so mad. So before I found out that my debit card was at the hotel, JR came back to LAX and gave me his debit card and all the cash in his wallet. My stomach hurts and I feel like crying and throwing up. :(

Now, after converting my dollars to euro, I feel like I lost so much more money! Ughhhhhhh. This sucks! But what can I do now? I just gotta watch over what I do have and hope for a smooth trip from now on. This is one way to keep me on budget!




Other than that whole fiasco, things have been ok. I woke up before 7 and ran 3 miles on the treadmil at the hotel, then swam, then sat in the jacuzzi. I was trying to get tired so that I could sleep the whole way to Europe.
We left the hotel and drove to LAX which was also an adventure because our GPS turns off randomly about every 30 seconds.

Here's a picture of me with cry-face. I was scared hahaha.




I got my boarding tickets, checked in my luggage, said goodbye to JR, then went through security. It all went sooo smoothly. Then I decided I would splurge and buy wifi for my long wait. When I went to look for my debit card to pay for it, I realized it was missing. I called JR who was already on his way heading towards the 405. He checked my car for my debit card but couldn't find it. He drove back to LAX and gave me his debit card and cash. I had to go through security once more and here I am.


(I wrote this last night)

Next time I blog, it'll be Day 2 because of the long flight and time difference.