The Many Adventures of a Thede

I'm back from California! What a great trip! What's weird is I still can't believe I actually went. It's like a dream. My decision to go was so last minute, I didn't even have time to anticipate and plan. I just...went. But it couldn't have gone better even if I did have more time before the trip.

My trip started with a six hour direct flight from JFK to LAX. I've never flown coast to coast directly before. I felt just like P Diddy. Anyway, after my very long flight (in flight movie: Horton Hears a Who. Review: 2 complimentary pretzel bags up), I took my first shared ride airport shuttle to my friends' house is Placentia, California (near Disneyland). It wasn't quite as bad as this:



A guy did give me his number on the shuttle. He was a pretty nice guy, but I didn't call him. Oh, well. I guess I'll never know how that would have worked out.

So, I arrived to my friends' house where I met up with my friend Jona from Albania! I hadn't seen her in about 4 years, so it was a happy reunion. We spent that first evening talking and catching up. The next day we ran some errands with our host, and then we were able to go for coffee just the two of us, so that was nice. That evening we went with Stephanie (a girl Jona knew but I had never met) to Downtown Disney for dinner and shopping, which was pretty fun. Then the next day, Thursday, we actually went to Disneyland! Going to Disneyland with someone from Albania is like going with a 3-year-old child in that to her, everything was amazing and magical. She had never seen anything like it. So, for someone who has been to Disneyland more times than I can count, it was like a whole new experience. Friday was my last day with Jona. We got breakfast and pedicures in the morning, and spent the rest of the afternoon getting her ready to go. Adam and his girlfriend Katie arrived late afternoon to pick me up. It was a tearful good-bye, and of course, now I want to go visit Albania as soon as I can! Maybe next summer...

So Friday evening Adam, Katie, and I went to Laguna Beach. It wasn't exactly like this:



I mean, the beach is gorgeous, but we just weren't surrounded by beautiful angsty teenagers. Anyway, Adam and I have vacationed on Laguna Beach before...back when we lived in Vegas, long before MTV made a TV show about it! We were really excited to go back. It was a lot of fun and just as great as we remembered it. We did some boogie boarding, had dinner at Pomodoro and then called it a night. On Saturday, we went to Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade and the Santa Monica Pier, where we did a little shopping, eating, and walking along the beach. Then, Adam and Katie drove me to LAX and I was on the long flight back to New York.

What a great trip it was! You can look at photos on my flickr page! Click the badge on the right.