I want to move to California... well kinda.

So we spent part of last week in California. It was Lynne's birthday and she wanted to go to the "Pageant of the Master's" in Laguna. Ok why not? Sounds like a few days in California. "Maybe I can find some cool art for my house," I thought while boarding the plane. Um... no. No I can't. I figured $100 might get me a cool vase or a small painting. And yes it would've gotten me a SMALL painting. But really who wants to display something the size of a postage stamp. I mean you'd have to be like 3 inches away to see what it was. Don't get me wrong. There were some very very VERY cool things there. The cheapest of the things I would've liked to bring home was hovering somewhere around the $800 mark. And trust me, there are about a dozen million things I'd rather spend $800 on right now.

Ok how about onto the part about I want to move there. Hello, 75 degrees the whole time. I mean it dipped a little lower than that late in the evenings and Thursday when it was over cast. But think, it's July. It's touching the 100's at home in Utah and it's only 75 in Cali. Love it. Want it. PLEASE?! The downside? Holy expensive. We went to brunch on Balboa Island the morning we got there. My 3 slices of french toast, scrambled eggs, and 2 slices of bacon was $12.95 BEFORE tax and tip. Now add up brunch for 7 people. Ouch... And that is brunch. The least expensive meal of the day. We went to birthday dinner at the art festival before the pageant Cory and I paid $10 to split the Pork chops. Delish! But the extra $10 was the cheap option to a second $25 meal. I think the hefty price of California helps keep the AC going all summer.

The trip home was quite the adventure. We fly standby to most of our destinations (Lynne retired from Delta giving the fam a few benefits). Well because of this, if flights fill up or people with higher priority come along, we get booted. Which we did. 3 times. After the 3rd boot, we decided to explore some other options. Buying tickets would cost a whopping $500 a person (here's a tip: buy your tickets as early as possible. Last minute flights are expensive). Ok there are 6 of us still here (dad took the only open seat on the earliest flight cause he had to be back for work) 6 x's $500 = way too much money. Rent a car. Hey we can do that with a military discount for less than $200 + gas. Ok keep that on the table. We can wait for the next flight which has lots and lots of open seats, but it leaves in 4 hours. Ok keep that on the table too. Too bad we left the terminal to check on rental cars. So it's back to check in to get new tickets and back into the terminal. As we are about to check in, the lady behind the counter says something to the effect of, "You won't get on. Looks like a few flights just got canceled." This means our empty flight will be filled with frustrated travelers who's flights got canceled. Rental car it is. To the dismay of Danaca who had a date scheduled for the evening. So we got in a very nice Chevy Tahoe and headed home. Stopping once for lunch, once for a bathroom break, once for fuel, and once in St George for some dinner at my aunt's house. 12 hours later falling onto my bed and being asleep before my head hit the pillow.

What an adventure. If getting home from California was such a mess I'm super excited to see what it will be like trying to get home from Florida in October. DISNEYWORLD 2011!!! WOOOOO!!!!