Well, I'm still in vaca mode hanging out in LA. It's been a blast so far. The trip out here was harder than I expected it to be. I left last Monday for my Dad's in St. Joseph, MO. The first part of the trip was fine. I got to St. Louis around 12:30 and decided to hang out and check out the Arch since I hadn't been there since I was in first grade. It was pretty cool. Inside is a free museum (sa-weet!) And you can also go up in the arch for a small fee ($10). I decided to be brave and go up in the arch. (I am so afraid of heights!) But surprisingly, my fear of heights did not come into play at the top of the arch. I was kinda shocked. But even looking out the windows I had no sense of vertigo. That being said, I am not claustrophobic, but if you are, beware, because the top of arch, and the pods used to get up there are SMALL. And they like to cram as many people on the top as can fit. I left the Arch around 2-3pm and headed to St. Joe. Longest 5 hours of my life! It seem to take forever. I felt like I would drive an hour, and only get 30 miles. It wasn't that busy for the most part. Major cities aside. But for some reason time just drug on and on and on that day. I finally got to my Dad's house around 8pm.
Tuesday I just hung out at my Dad's and got to spend some with my oldest niece, Mac, who I am going to be living with, but hadn't seen in 2 years, so I was pretty excited to see her. We decided to go to this mini water park thing by my Dad's. For the price we paid to get in, it was a pretty awesome little park. And I got sunburned. On my legs. And they're still white. Awesome. Because of flooding north of St. Joe, I wasn't able to go visit my friend in Omaha. So I got up bright and early Wednesday morning and headed south/west-ish to pick up 40 in Oklahoma City. Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas were really hot but super windy! It was odd. For the night I stayed in a little town called Tucumcari, NM. Wednesday I planned on driving all the way to San Diego. Mostly because I just wanted to get it done with. That was the plan, until I got to Albuquerque. Within a half hour of driving past Albuquerque, I got hit in an intense migraine, followed with some Major dizzyness and nausea. I get those symptoms often enough on my own, but out of where like that it was a bit odd, even for me. I passed a sign sometime while all this was started that said "Elevation 4500 ft." or somewhere around there. So I googled elevation sickness. All my symptoms fit. The best part though? Most people get "altitude sickness" when they are at 8000ft or above. But really sensitive people can be affected at 4000ft. Ga-rate. Also, the best part really, is the only way to really alleviate your symptoms is "to get off the mountain". Since it normally affected skiers and mountain climbers. Well, I wasn't on a mountain, and the entire state of New Mexico for the most part seemed to be 4000ft above sea level and higher. So, I really had no option but to keep driving till I got below 4000ft. Which wasn't until a place called Kingmen, AR. I ordered pizza and went to bed about 7. The next morning I felt so much better! And I was only 6 hours from San Diego! I started driving and about an hour into my drive I got to the Cali border. And there was a border check. It was interesting. When they found out I was coming from Ohio they said they needed to check my car. Which consisted of them looking in my trunk, which was so packed with stuff, they didn't even bother to remove any of it. Then they gave me a paper saying my car had been inspected and I was in Cali! The desert was really pretty, but my favorite (and scariest) part of the drive was when I got on 15. It was all downhill (err---mountain?!) The mountains/hills were beautiful! but you couldn't really take time to look at them, cuz like I said. It was all downhill, the speed limit was 70 (but you had to break practically the entire time) and it was lunch time so it was rather busy. Oh, and this wasn't a straight downhill road. No. Well, a few hours after that, I finally made it to San Diego! Granted, I was only there one day before coming to L.A. but it seems pretty awesome so far.
It's going to take some getting used to. Everything is so different from small town Marysville. (and even big-ish city Columbus) For one, Jay walking is a big deal here. Which I guess makes sense considering most roads are a least 4 lanes wide. It's just odd, considering people don't bother to use cross walks in Marysville. They also have traffic lights on on-ramps to regulate people getting on the highways. Crazy! They also clean to streets. And you have to get your car off the street, otherwise you get a ticket. Again, strange. I know they (occasionally) clean the streets in Marysville. But they move around the cars.
The beach is by far my favorite place so far. We checked out Hollywood. It was interesting. Really crowded. Um, Oh, I know another thing that was interesting/different from Ohio. You know how downtown Columbus has tall buildings, and that's downtown, right? and you don't see tall buildings like that till you get to the next major city that is at least an hour or so away. Well, there seems to be a least 2 or 3 clusters of tall buildings in the L.A. area.
Next week starts my "normal" life in San Diego. :) Can't wait!
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