LA

Shortly after the wedding, we flew out to LAX in preparation of a big family event.  Although it wasn’t quite a “honeymoon”, it was a very nice vacation.

California is the state of sunshine in my heart (screw Florida), and it felt great to be hangout out in the dry climate with the warm but not overpoweringly hot sun.  Highlights of the trip included:

Rental Chrysler 300 – I loved this car for the bold looks, but it’s like a house cat’s muscles on a tiger’s body.  The cheap plastic interior also came as a surprise with its luxury exterior and price tag.  In less than five days, we drove this big kitty over 700 miles and gained an understanding of LA’s amazing size… and its notorious traffic.  Most of the freeways that we travelled on were easily wider than the widest interstate on the East Coast, yet they weren’t wide enough to accommodate all the cars in the region.

One among many beaches:

Santa Barbara & Beverly Hills: highest concentration of expensive cars I’ve seen!

San Diego Wild Animal Park: niiiiice zoo!

Aquarium of the Pacific: um, an aquarium.

South Coast Plaza: wheehee… I couldn’t name a ridiculously luxury store that it didn’t have.  It’s like having the entire higher end of Fifth Avenue packed into a corner of this mall.  I mean seriously?  You need two stores within the same building to carry Mont Blanc stuff?

Downtown Disney: this was around the corner from our pit stop, and happened to be a nice detour to kill some time.

In-N-Out: had to try it.

Grandma’s birthday party: so nice to see the entire family together.