California With Friends

 When Dave and I met, I already had two kids, so dating involved a lot of trips to Chucky Cheese Playland and we didn't have much of a honeymoon. So, in February of 2007 we used our tax return and took our first Adults Only trip. We invited our friends Josh and Karly to come with us. This was the trip that made Dave and I realize that we REALLY needed and enjoyed alone time. We have taken at least one Adults Only trip every year since. It is amazing how little stress there is in life when your on a vacation with the love of your life, and without children.    

    

Dave @ Fort MacArthur

Tonja @ March Air Force Base

   

With our friends connections we were able to stay at Air Force Bases in Southern California. We stayed at Fort MacArthur in San Pedro California for a few nights and then at March Air Force Base in Riverside California for the rest of the trip. I was really, really excited to stay at March A.F.B, because that is where my grandparents met. Also, Riverside California is where I grew up and I was very close to home. 

               

Dave had not ever been to Disneyland so, we DEFINITELY had to take him there and show him a good time (even though he is not a big fan of roller-coasters). We spent two full days at Disneyland, one in the original park and one in California Disney. It was a bit chilly and it rained at night but the lines were not too long and we had a great time. Space Mountain is still my favorite ride but, the big roller coaster in California Disney was a lot of fun, Dave liked Indiana Jones and the Rodger Rabbit rides.  I think he had enough fun there that he would even go back to take the kids.

 We spent an afternoon in Hollywood, wandering around the Chinese Theater, shopping for souvenirs and finding the names of our favorite stars immortalized on the sidewalks. We finished our day at the Universal Studios Stores.

 One of our best days was spent at the Santa Monica beach. We rented tandem bikes and rode up the beach to have lunch at Bubba Gumps on the pier. This was another first for Dave. Being an inland mountain kid, he had never been on a big pier. He spent a couple of hours just watching the waves and taking in the entertainment from the buskers. I was pretty sad that it was too cold to swim although I did love just being near the ocean, breathing in the air and tasting the salt.

    

For Karly's birthday we had dinner at Medieval Times. Our knight didn't win but, he was a hottie and we had a lot of fun!

 I have to say that one of the things that I most looked forward to was going to Vince's Spaghetti House and having a Full Size plate of spaghetti, garlic bread and a root-beer. Vince's is a restaurant that my grandparents have been going to for over 50 years. When we lived in California the whole family would pile in my grandpa's truck. Dad would drive, mom would ride in the passenger seat, Pop, Gram and 5 of us kids would ride in the bed of the truck and play "my bug" (which is slug bug without the slugging). We would drive the hour to Vince's and stuff ourselves. Grandma would always bring pennies and give them to us kids to put into the M&M machine. We would fill little brown paper bags with the colorful candy and eat them the whole way home. 

I knew that my family back home would be jealous so Dave and I bought $100 worth of Vince's spaghetti sauce, put it in our cooler and took it to all the Vince's lovers in Utah.



 Bond Street House



Shaker Drive House



 



 





One morning at the end of our trip Dave and I got up early to drive by the houses that I grew up in. I showed him the school I went to and some of the places that I loved to hang out. (Like the Canyon Crest Golf Course).  We drove by the Bond St. house which is where I lived until 1st grade. The house on Shaker Dr. is by far my favorite place of all the houses I've lived in. I was there longer than I have ever lived anywhere. We also stopped to take pictures of the house on Timberlane, where my grandparents lived until they moved to Utah to be with us.



Timberlane House