Part IVb. I’m going to Disneyland!

Ok. So it’s not tomorrow. So sue me. (I'm doing this to cheer you/me up, and also so I can have the complete story done by tomorrow. Though Tracie wants me to edit some, rewrite and add more details, but I'll do that when I get back.)

Tracie and I don’t remember the exact order of this trip, but we remember it was fun. It was honestly some of the most fun I have ever had in my life. We were at the serious part of our dating, (serious meaning we thought we would probably get married, not serious like unfunny. Hopefully we’ll never get there. Shudder.) And we decided to go on a trip to California. We took time off work and loaded up my old faithful Neon and drove. I learned quickly that 12 hours is a long time to drive when the longest you’ve ever driven before is about 2 hours. First we went to Northern California to visit with Troy & Jen,
Tracie’s brother & sister-in-law, and their kids, Maddie & Eric. I think it’s a rule that to be our nephews & nieces, you have to be cuteness incarnate. Maddie and Eric fit the bill. (Though, admittedly, they weren’t yet my niece & nephew. Yet.) We had a fun visit with them, it was nice to get to know them better & have fun in Madera. Not the funnest town in California, but Troy & Jen & kids made it awesome.
We then ventured south to my grandparents in Stevenson Ranch, California. (Near Valencia). We went to Carpinteria Beach, not the prettiest or coolest beach, but my family has been going there for YEARS, and it was fun. We built the biggest sandcastle I’ve ever built or seen. We didn’t get sunburned, except on our lower backs. Apparently, we forgot to put sunscreen on the smalls of our backs, probably because they’re so small. Also, we were leaning over most of that day because of said sandcastle.
The next day we drove down the Coastal highway, it was a beautiful drive, except I got lost somewhere in Ventura. But, obviously, we found our way back and went to the J. Paul Getty Museum, probably the coolest museum ever. We saw an exhibit of Rembrandt portraits, the $50 mil. Van gogh “Irises”, and other beautiful works of art. Of course, the most beautiful sight for me that day was Tracie. Aw. How sweet. But it’s true. So there.
The next day we went to… DISNEYLAND!!! Definitely the most fun I’ve ever had at the Magic Kingdom, (sorry, Mom. The time you & I went is second). Tracie found this program online called “RideMax” that has all this data of what rides are busiest at what times from all these matrices of years of people going. So, you type in what rides you want to go to, when you want breaks, and it figures it out for you. In one day, we went on 21 rides, the longest wait was 31 minutes, the average wait was 5 minutes. We also had a 3 hour break for shopping, a lunch & dinner break too. It was a blast and a half. No. Two blasts. Loved it loved it. Plus, I got to spend it with my future wife! (She didn’t know it yet, but I did.)
The next day we went to Magic Mountain. (which I’m glad we did, as I heard the park closed down. What???!!) It was a lot of fun, though Disneyland kind of spoiled us. But we still loved it.
The following day we went to Santa Monica, stopped at the temple, I told Tracie that was where my dad proposed to my mom (hint hint) and left it at that. In retrospect, I hope I freaked her out a little bit. Then we went to Santa Monica beach, a little nicer than Carpinteria, but not by much. I think we just wake & boogie boarded there, got a little sun, & buried each other in the sand. Oh, and we collected shells. No, that was at Carpinteria.
The next day we drove home, I again was grateful for cruise control, as well as a girlfriend who was fun & easy to talk to. There’s our California trip.