January 2, 2006 - End

What an interesting year. Not necessarily good or bad, I could say the 19th year of my life was one of indifference.
However it did end on a positive note. My parents got a sudden urge to make up for 5 years of lost vacations due to ahem dance programs *cough*, so we went to sunny California with fabulous palm trees:-).
It's quite a lovely story. In short we went to Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

For a longer more detailed version read on.
We left on Tuesday Dec 20 around 9 pm. Not any major problems except one whiny little kid who cried a lot on the flight. We got there around midnight LA time. All the baggage showed up except mine. The airlines representative said simply that security must not have liked the bag, so they didn't send it along. uhhhh ok. but we got it the next day, so it was ok.
We went to my uncle's house in Brea, CA. I have not seen this uncle in 13 years, I've never seen his wife or his kids. It was like 70 degrees there! Couldn't believe it was the middle of December. We visited my cousin's elementary school. It was so different from the ones around here. Their classroom doors open to the outside and we just waltzed in. There was no front office check-in and getting a visitor sticker. [I have just been informed that since it was a party day, they were waiving this process, so scratch that hehe]

Then we went to Las Vegas. It took 6 hours instead of 3 because we hit a lot of traffic. We moaned and groaned in the car ride, but it was definitely worth it. Las Vegas is amazing! One cannot put it into words. Where else in the world would you find a city of lights in the middle of the desert that consists of many hotels where you just gamble? Unfortunately, I couldn't gamble as still not 21 :-/. But the hotels, frickin awesome!! Everyone should go once in their life and at least see the Bellagio fountains and inside all the hotels . Beeyootiful:-).

Then we went back to Brea and visited in Chino Hills one of my dad's old friends from Telco. He had a daughter my age that the last time I saw I think I was three. We talked and we are so similar! It was cool:-). On Christmas day, we drove to LA and walked on Hollywood Boulevard. I took a picture with Zorro (for you Sharmeen)!

My aunt and uncle (mom's cousin) in Brea have a daughter who apparently is my 'clone' and a 2 year old son who must have powerful lungs since he is an excellent screamer hehe. Then we went to Universal Studios! That was coool, I loved seeing the Studio tour where they shot all these famous movies and how they do special effects! It rocked:-).

Then we flew to San Francisco and drove to Santa Clara, where my main-mama (hehe mom's own brother) lives with his wife and adorable 1.5 years old daughter. She talks soo much and just everything she did was cute:-). We saw the Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman's wharf, China Town, Lombard Street (literally crooked!), The Mystery Spot, and the Mystery House (in San Jose). The streets of San Francisco are scary...all those hills!

For this trip, I would like to thank the portable GPS system that my dad bought for saving us from getting completely lost. There were certain things that I will point out later about this trip, that stand out in my mind.

Another note, I read Life of Pi and it was really really good. An interesting perspective that I'll talk more about later.