06.02.07

Spring Break in the “South Land” – better late than never!

Posted in California Life, Holidays, Vacations and Trips at 5:50 pm by mathagat

Thank you for your patience on this posting! Lindsey has had it written, but I just recently got the photos picked from the large lot of them. I took tons of pictures on this trip, 663 of them to be exact. I did my best to narrow them down to a selection to share and archive. Below is Lindsey’s original post.

Spring Break 2007

Vacation!

Spring break finally arrived and Matt and I took advantage of it with a week long vacation to southern California. We started out with an amazing Easter worship service at Saddleback Church in Lake Forrest, CA. Saddleback is a huge church that provides an amazing worship experience. Matt and I enjoyed drooling over the campus and participating in the worship service. Visiting Saddleback started our vacation off on the right foot. I really enjoyed hearing Rick Warren preach in person and visiting a church that I have studied for the past 10 years.

On Easter Sunday Matt and I spent the day with Mickey and his friends. Disneyland was amazing! Everywhere you look there is something decorated, dancing, acting…I don’t know…it was just the “happiest place on Earth”! I really enjoyed the fireworks display at the end of the night. The techs who put the show together are amazingly talented. Who knows…maybe one day I’ll go to work for Disney!

San Diego

After enjoying a great day at Disney Matt and I headed further south to San Diego, CA. Our first stop was the world famous San Diego Zoo. We enjoyed the beautifully landscaped zoo as well as its amazing variety of animals. Some of our favorites were the Panda Bears, Giraffes, and Hippos. The San Diego Zoo is one of the 6 zoos in the US to have Pandas. We took tons of pictures for my friends at Whispering Pines. After enjoying the zoo we headed even further south – all the way to the border. I had scouted out an outlet mall for Matt and I to visit. It was exciting to be so close to Mexico but we did not have time to venture across the border.

On our second day in San Diego we enjoyed viewing an Annie Lebowitz exhibit at the San Diego museum of art, visiting the rose garden on the museum grounds and eating lunch on the San Diego beach. Annie Lebowitz is famous for her photographs of many celebrities in magazines such as Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone. After the exhibit we walked across the street to the rose garden and admired the HUGE roses. Each rose was so beautiful, they even had maroon (Whoop) roses! Finally, it was lunch time and although it was a little chilly we enjoyed admiring the bright blue water and white sand on the pristine beaches while eating our picnic lunch.

After having 2 fun days in San Diego we headed back upstate for Los Angeles.

Fun times in LA

Matt and I enjoyed spending time with his cousin Ryan and his fiancé Kiley while we were in LA. They were so sweet to let us stay with them in their apartment. We loved getting to hang out with them and Matt had a great time catching up with Ryan.

On our first morning in LA Matt and I headed for Hollywood Blvd. to see the walk of fame and Grauman’s Chinese theater but first we dropped by a nearby Starbucks. While in the Starbucks we stood in line behind Jennifer Coolidge (Stifler’s mom in American Pie). Matt realized who it was way before I did but it was fun to have a “star sighting” while in LA. Walking up and down Hollywood Blvd. was very fun. We enjoyed looking for our favorite stars names and hand prints. We also took some time to look at the Hollywood sign and take a few pics. After playing at the mall we set off for the Getty museum. On our way to the Getty we cruised down Sunset Blvd through Beverly Hills and the Sunset Strip. We looked for the Brenda and Brandon Walsh’s house but struck out in the 90210 zip code. Maybe next time we’ll have to buy one of those maps to the star’s houses.

The Getty museum was absolutely beautiful and we have already made plans to go back and visit again when we have more time. My favorite was getting to see Van Gogh’s Irises in addition to the beautiful gardens and amazing architectural details that create the museum.

After fun time at the Getty we enjoyed a bonfire at the beach with Ryan and Kiley. Although it was extremely windy the boys were successful in creating the biggest fire on the beach. We had a nice time watching the sunset and the huge waves roll in. We look forward to visiting the beach again when it’s less windy and a little warmer.

On our last day of vacation Matt and Ryan enjoyed a few games of tennis before we headed over to Santa Monica to meet up with our friend Tom. Matt was able to tour Charlie Company, the design company Tom works for, and talk with some of his co-workers and one of the company’s owners. After an excellent lunch at Tacos Por Favor with Ryan and Tom, Matt and I started to head North back towards the Bay Area.

Our vacation was a great time of fun! We have already started planning our next trip. I can’t wait to hit the road again!

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