We made it!!!!!

Chris and I made it on our vacation! Yup, we made it down to California. I must say this was the first vacation where I had decided to "wing it," and just kind of see where we would end up. Now would I recommend this... Umm... depends. I like to know where I'm going to sleep at night, so to be driving at night hoping to find a clean place to stay was a smidge bit nerve-wracking. We initially stayed in Seattle and then the second day we managed to make it to Crescent City, which is the northern tip of California. If you have never heard of it it's probably because it's not a place I would wish to go back to. That was the one spot where I was excited to wake up and leave, quickly.

As well, I have finally figured out how to use the GPS in my car!! Now this came after I messed up with it a little. The first day when we made it to Seattle we wanted to find a Holiday Inn as we have found them to be clean which is essentially the most important thing to look for on a road trip. So I decided to set the GPS and felt quite proud of myself for doing this, as I found a Holiday Inn. To get there we realized we had to turn around and start driving backwards. Ok, no biggie it's probably a few exits back north. As we drove for 10-15minutes I saw in the bottom corner of my GPS that the estimated time of arrival was over 9hrs away. Hmmm... now the first thing I thought was should I mention this to Chris? Sadly, my lack of “savviness” with the GPS got us in a slightly pickley situation. Over a year ago I drove to Radium Hot Springs and had set my GPS, however what I didn't realize was that once you reach your destination you need to delete that trip. Therefore, what this meant was that I had set my GPS to get to Radium from Seattle. Let's just say Chris was not totally impressed with my navigation skills. On a positive note, I did figure out how to finally use my GPS after two years, yaaay to that victory.

Day three we decided to stay in San Francisco for the night quite simply because we love San Francisco! We had a lovely seafood dinner at Scoma’s which I would recommend to anyone visiting this city as they had deliciously fresh seafood. The next day when we left we knew what highway we had to get to, but despite my new “savviness” with the GPS we couldn't figure out where to turn off which led us to drive over the Golden Gate Bridge four times before we finally saw the turn off. We drove along the coast through Santa Cruz and Monterey until we hit Carmel. Carmel is a small city that would be easy to miss, but by far one of my favourite places we visited! This place was simply picturesque with the most adorable little boutiques, and the most unique and gorgeous houses. Let's just say I could happily live there. We stayed in Carmel overnight before deciding to leave the next day. If you have never been to Carmel, I recommend going!!!

As we drove along the coast the stretch that was the most beautiful was between Carmel and Big Sur. We pulled over in a bunch of spots for pictures because the backdrop was surreal! Some pictures didn't even seem real because it was so perfect.

After the gorgeous scenery we decided we wanted to finally make it to Anaheim as we wanted to go to Disneyland despite Chris' temporary "handicapness." Therefore, we drove and drove. We both had a role: Chris would drive like a mad man and I would keep my eyes out for any troopers. If we got pulled over I would pretend like I'm sick and that's why we were in a rush. Oh yes, we had planned this out! Initially we thought about stopping In Santa Barbara for the night, but we ended up getting our minds set on Anaheim and Disneyland. Well, we made it to Anaheim at 10pm and we felt proud of ourselves for driving so much that we made it to a destination where we could finally unpack for a few days. Of course things didn't quite end up as planned. When we found a hotel and went to check in they told us they had nillo availability. Alright, so off we went to hotel number two, nope no availability. Ok, number three would be our lucky number! Nope, nothing! We asked why it was so hard to find a hotel and they told us there was a convention in town, some YouTube convention that had sold out most the hotels. Now Anaheim is a decent sized city so we thought let's just look up hotels on our iPad and things will be peachy. We sat there for half an hour at night looking and sure enough every hotel in Anaheim was sold out!!! This is where the pre planning would have been nice but after a while we decided to move on from Anaheim and accept the fact that Disneyland was not meant to be right now. Chris could barely walk and his knee was super swollen so it wasn't like we could have really enjoyed it anyways, right??? Therefore, I decided to pre plan and book a hotel for Palm Springs that night even though we would get there after midnight. I found a nice hotel that looked relatively luxurious and off we went. No "happiest place on earth" for us, desert instead.

We made it to Palm Springs around 1am and couldn't be happier. As we checked in they told us of the pool party for the weekend. Firstly, I don't care for crazy, drunken pool parties so I was a bit disappointed to hear this but thought whatever. I love the heat more than anything, but the one thing I found on this trip that bothered me was the fact that I had serious issues sleeping. Now one of my fabulous "alternative," leafy therapies I use, can't be taken across the border which is a story in and of itself because I could ramble for hours regarding how much this infuriates me, but whatever. Therefore, after days of pure crappy sleep with horrendous hot flashes I was left quite peeved off when I realized that during the weekend this resort was filled with young, wild, party people. Let's just say my type of "people" are the elderly. They're quiet, sweet, and go to bed at a decent hour like myself. Well, that night I would be awakened to girls screaming in the hallway, doors slamming constantly, and the smell of smoke in a non-smoking building. By the time it was morning and time to check out I was furious and utterly exhausted! We ultimately got a discount because I was not a pleasant person and I let them know about it!

After we left Palm Springs our destination was Las Vegas, more specifically Lake Las Vegas in Henderson which has always been my go to place. I'm familiar with this city as I am with Calgary and I consider it my second home. Once we got there it just felt right. We had an amazing condo with a kitchen and I was excited to cook my own food, so we stocked up at whole foods. Best part was that my sister wife, Lexer, happened to be in Vegas with her mom at the same time, and so we met up for dinner and an evening that was filled with non stop laughter! I'm pretty sure people thought we were intoxicated, which we were not!! We spent four days in Lake Las Vegas with a heat warning the last two days as it got up to 47degrees. I loved every minute of it! However, the last couple days I also got sick. Some sinus head thing, and my lack of sleep just got worse and I woke up with a fever and feeling like total crapola. Now this upset me because I was on vacation and I refused to let this ruin my trip. I steamed my head a couple times and then told Chris I'm going to the pool. Chris looked at me and told me that the lady at the front desk told him to avoid going outside due to the excessive heat. I looked at him and said you would need to tie me down if you think I'm going to stay inside. Going outside probably didn't help with the fever, however I had made my mind up to enjoy myself, which I did. It wasn't until the last day that I finally bought NyQuil and I slept!!!! It was the best thing in the world, and I had wished I would have taken it every day of my trip.

Overall, we had an amazing couple of weeks. I learnt how to finally use my GPS, realized that I like to pre plan, and wished that certain laws would be different so that my alternative therapy "meds" could have come along this trip and I could have slept. As much as I enjoyed myself I must say it’s nice to be back home. It was lovely to have a couple weeks where I could just not think about my reality, so for that I am grateful. All in all, things are going well and I hope this momentum continues!!

Chris and I in San Francisco. We tried our best to get a bit of the bacground in the pic so it actually looked like we were on vacation!!

 

 

How perfect is this!!!! California coast

California coast

 

 

California coast

 

 

Chris and I along the coast somewhere

 

 

California coast and me

 

 

California coast and me

 

 

There were squirrels everywhere here, and they were super friendly! Of course there's nillo squirrels in the pic and make me seem like a liar, however I swear they were there. Must be camera shy.

 

 

Somewhere in the desert, just north of Palm Springs

 

 

Lex and I in Vegas!!

 

 

So that's Chris, me(top of my head), Lex, and her mom. Honestly the flash on Lex' camera threw me off everytime, and hence this was the result.

 

 

Ok, this requires some explanation. Lex' mom had this scooter and kindly let me try it. Prior to this, she tried to show me how to go backwards, but she pressed it to go forward and ran into some chairs almost knocking a man off his chair as he played the slot machine, bahahaha. I must say it takes a bit of skill to figure this out as it really has some good speed to it.