Livin' It Up in LA

What an amazing time we had in Los Angeles! We've been here a few days, and as expected, our days have been packed trying to get in as much as we can. We are staying at an amazing RV park called "Orangeland" where there is a citrus tree (oranges, grapefruits, lemons, limes) at every site. Resort guests are free to pick fruit that is ripe. Oranges are in season right now and we spent our first afternoon here picking them. Picking oranges is not like picking apples, which we imagine our friends back home in Syracuse are doing right about now, where the ripe fruit is easily pulled from the tree. You really have to tug at the branch, hard, to get the orange to drop. We used a "picker" that they had in the office to reach the high ones. We devoured at least a dozen oranges and made some juice as well. It was delicious!

We spent our first full day at Knott's Soak City Water Park, as the temperatures here are in the 90's this week. Everyone found something to enjoy, and they practically had to pull us out of the water when they closed at 5 pm. That night, we sat around and compared notes with a very nice family from Virginia that is traveling the US in an RV like we are, with roughly the same route. It is amazing how similar our route has been, and how we've seen many of the same sites, but many different ones as well. It made us all realize just how much there is to do and see in this amazing country, and how fortunate we are to have this experience. Though six months seems like an enormous amount of time, we are just scratching the surface of what is unique to see and do in the US.

On Adam's 5th birthday, we spent a day at Legoland. The kids had another wonderful day and Adam felt so special as they gave him a big birthday button to wear throughout the day, and everyone who saw it made a point of wishing him a happy birthday. The park was nearly empty, so the kids didn't have to wait long to hop on to the different rides. One favorite was a speedway where the kids drove mini Volvo's (made from Legos) and had to drive on an open course. If they followed the rules of the road, they received official Legoland driver's licenses. All the kids were successful, but we are glad there are many years before they are old enough for real ones. The day ended with a special "LEGO" cake for the birthday boy. He really appreciated all the calls and emails he received on his special day, so thanks to everyone.

From the start of our planning for this trip, if you had asked Lauren what she was most looking forward to, she would have told you without hesitation, "HOLLYWOOD!" Well, today she got her wish, as we spent the day touring some of the major hot spots of Los Angeles. We started with Grauman's Chinese Theater, where the main attractions for the kids were the crazily dressed characters hanging out front to pose for tacky pictures with tourists like us. We walked to the Kodak Theater next door with our head down, checking out all the stars on the "Walk of Fame". Ascending the stairs to the courtyard by the Kodak Theater, we caught a great view of that famous Hollywood sign up in the hills. Next, we headed for Beverly Hills and Rodeo Dr. to check out multi-million dollar mansions and take guesses as to which stars might live there. Lauren got a map of the movie stars homes and unfortunately, Miley Cyrus doesn't live in Beverly Hills... We did get to ride the huge ferris wheel at Santa Monica Pier, which Lauren saw featured in the Hannah Montana movie, however, and from the top, we were treated to an outstanding view of the beach and city behind us. We also walked along Venice Beach for a bit, but were disappointed with the seedy nature of the vendors and beach residents, so we left pretty quickly. Tomorrow is time to move on, south to San Diego, for a visit to the famous San Diego Zoo and hopefully, one last chance to spend a day at a classic California beach before we head east again, back toward home.

Sep 22, 2009

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