Vacation Recap

I have officially been back from vacation for a few days already, but my body clock is still 2 hours behind Chicago time (we went to California) and getting myself back in the groove of things hasn't been easy.  So, here's a late recap of vacation.

Tuesday 7/12/11 - We landed at LAX airport and went to pick up our car rental just to find out that Thrifty fucked up.  They booked our rental, but didn't take out the payment made at an amazing deal that was found at the time of booking the rental back in April.  So, Thrifty demanded we had to pay for the car then and the final total ended up being more than $200 more than we originally booked it at.  Total bullshit!  We basically said screw them and took a cab to our hotel to check-in and get situated.  After some internet searching and phone calls (not on my part, so I can't take any credit for it) a rental was found that would be available to us by 9:00am the following morning and at an amazing deal with no catches.  Perfect!  The day was working in our favor.  Since we were without a car that first day, we hoofed it for lunch and dinner and just took it easy by the pool.

Wednesday 7/13/11 - We picked up our car early in the morning and grabbed an AWESOME breakfast immediately afterwards.  We then made a Target run (yes, even on vacation Target is amazing) and then cruised around a bit and ended up hitting up Santa Monica Pier.  We walked around there, took in the beautiful beach view, and then hit up Yummy Cupcakes to get some delish and unique cupcakes.  We then hit up our hotel, had some chill out time by the pool, and ended it with dinner at this amazing restaurant called Gladstone's in Malibu where we ate the best seafood I have ever had and our table had an ocean view.  That was one of those moments that you want to freeze in time.

Thursday 7/14/11 - This day we pretty much took it easy.  My boyfriend and I cruised around a little by the beach to check out the beautiful scenery and afterwards made it a lazy pool day.  Later that night we all hit up a pretty yummy Mexican restaurant.  I don't know if it could be considered "authentic" since it tasted awfully similar to the Mexican restraurants here in Chicago (I've been told by some California friends that have had Mexican here in the Chi that we're too far from the border to have truely authentic Mexican food), but it was still good and kept me full and satisified.

Friday 7/15/11 - We woke up early, had breakfast and hit up Knott's Berry Farm.  So much fun!  It was pretty damn hot, but we did some fun shopping around the park (we even picked up homemade jam) and rode on a few rides.  I even had funnel cake!  This was by far the best part of the amusement park.  I'm not saying I didn't have a blast the rest of the day, but funnel cake is like this fatty amazing goodness that words can not describe.  Definitely my favorite part!  After Knott's Berry, we went on a random whim and hit up this Body Art Expo.  It was a completely out of the air sort of idea, but it was fun.  A lot of interesting people there.  3 out of 4 of us got inked there (I got a sea turtle on my foot!), with the exception of my boyfriend.  We were there until about close, which was at 11:00pm and then went for a very late dinner.  Granted, it was fast food, but it was still dinner.  Besides, not much is open that late on a weeknight.

Saturday 7/16/11 - This was the day we hit up San Diego Zoo!  I LOVED it!  Definitely the best zoo I have ever been to.  It was no only HUGE, but it had some more unique animals than some of the zoos in our area.  The sad news is that my camera's battery died only like a quarter of the way through the zoo, so I had to use my boyfriend's camera to take the remaining pictures.  Not that there is anything wrong with his camera, but he's bad about uploading pictures to look back at later.  I may have to convince him to make an exception for me on this one.  We did so much walking on this day though that my feet were killing me and my calves were sore and had that charlie horse feeling (you all know what I'm talking about).  I accepted the pain though because the zoo was a blast and I'm a huge animal lover, so it was a great day for me.  If you've never been and decide to go, where comfy shoes and expect to do a lot of steep hill walking.  After the zoo we had a simple dinner at the restaurant attached to our hotel and then got some shut eye after the long day of walking.

Sunday 7/18/11 - We woke up and got lunch (slept in too late for breakfast) and then hit up Target again (Sorry, this store is awesome!).  We headed back to the hotel for a lazy day and later that evening my boyfriend and I got dinner with 2 of our good buddies that live in California.  It was an awesome restaurant with yummy cocktails (I got a Bikini Tini...no joke!), delish food, and amazing desserts.  The view was to die for as well.  Another ocean view!  So beautiful!  We ended up being there for almost 4 hours just talking and catching up.  I had a blast!

Monday 7/19/11 - Our last and final day in California.  We went out for breakfast and afterwards filled the rental with gas and dropped it off.  We took a cab to LAX and ended having to hangout there for about 5 hours.  Our flight was at 5:45pm and we got there shortly after noon.  We pretty much just checked out the stores at the airport and strolled around.  We eventually grabbed dinner there and then relaxed in the terminal for a bit prior boarding and heading home.  We didn't get back to Chicago until almost midnight, which was exhausting.

All in all, we hit some speed bumps on vacation, but overall I had a blast and saying it was both fun and relaxing is an understatement.  I loved checking out so much of the different areas withing the southern part of California and the weather was perfect.  Coming back to Chicago to temperatures that were over 100 degrees with the humidity was pretty shocking, but I'd rather it be hot than cold, so I'll take it.  I'm still relaxed from vacation and that's after being back to work for 2 days already.  I guess that's a sign that vacation did exactly what it was supposed to do...relax me.  =)

Oh...since I can't find the cable for my camera, I couldn't upload any of the pictures.  I ordered a new cord and hopefully it will be in soon.  Once I get it, I will try to post some pictures...granted I figure out how to that on here. LOL!