Lake Tahoe

On Sunday, we drove to Wells, Nevada with a stop for dinner in Wendover.  We stayed at the Angel Lake RV Resort in spot 29.  We drove around town before we went to bed.

On Monday, We ate breakfast at McDonald's. We drove to Lake Tahoe, with stops in Elko, lunch in Winnemuca, and Carson City.  We stayed at Zephyr Cove in spot 139.  I finished reading the book, Bossypants by Tina Fey.

On Tuesday,  Dad made us french toast for breakfast.  I finished reading the book, Fairy Tale Blues by Tina Welling.  My cousin Tina called my mom to tell her, Tina's brother, Gary, had passed away.  He was 54.  We drove up to Emerald Bay.  Then we went to K-Mart and Raley's for breakfast.  We went and walked around the shops at the Village Center and The shops at Heavenly Village.  Mom bought some slippers made of wool of Alpaca.  We ate dinner at Grand Central Pizza and Pasta.  We watched the movie, RV.

On Wednesday,  Dad made us eggs, bacon, and toast for breakfast.  We drove to Carson City. I went into Raley's, while Mom and Dad went into Kohl's.  We stopped at 7-11 to get a Slurpee.  We then drove up to Virginia City.  We walked around the shops.  Dad bought some unusual taffy flavors, including some Maple Bacon.  Dad pulled up to a field and used his metal detector, while Mom and I waited in the truck.  We saw an iguana and a snake.  I finished reading the book, Lost by Gregory Maguire.  We ate lunch at Wendy's in Carson City.  Dad made us tacos for dinner.

On Thursday, Dad made us pancakes for breakfast.  Mom had me go collect pine cones to make a wreath, since they had so many big ones.  I then walked down to the beach to take pictures, while Dad was using his metal detector.  We walked around the Horizons, Harrah's, and Harvey's casinos.  We ate lunch at Chevy's Fresh Mex grill.  I had the chicken Caesar salad.  We watched the movie, Safe Haven.  We went for drive up to Regan Beach and Tahoe Keys.  When we got back to the campground, the people in the RVs across from us, told us there had been a bear who had walked near our trailer and down into the woods.  Dad made us some hot chocolate.

On Friday, we drove back to Wendover.  We stopped in Carson City to get gas and Dad hit the left side of the trailer against a pole and dented the aluminum.  We ate lunch at Burger King in Wiinemuca.  We stayed at KOA campground in spot H-1.  We ate dinner at the Cafe Milana at the Peppermill, at the Seafood Extravaganza Buffet.  We went to Smith's to get some groceries.

On Saturday, it was the third anniversary of Patches's death,.  We ate breakfast at the coffee shop, Primo, at the Rainbow hotel.  We then drove home.  I finished reading the book, Love Anthony by Lisa Genova.  When we let Daisy outside, she jumped down in both of the window sills.

Monkey

Layton Park

On Saturday, we went and walked around the duck pond at Layton Park.  I haven't been there in like 6 years.  It brought back a lot of memories of school field trips and family reunions.

Demi

Duck Pond

There are three duck ponds near my house that I have gone to.  One at the university and two at the local parks.  They each haunt me with memories.

The one at the university, is one I have walked past several times by myself, on my way to class, while I was a student there.  I walked by the pond as I walked from the social science building to the art building.  The pond involves several water fountains and a zig zag path leading to a round about sidewalk.  The sidewalk is covered in duck feces, which is pretty gross.   The sprinklers are usually on around the grass during my visits, so I had to choose certain paths to walk around it.  My grandparents and my mom took my brother and I to feed bread to the ducks when they were alive and I was little.  The pond seemed bigger when I was a kid.

The second pond is at Layton park, my hometown.  The park is a cross the street from my high school.  This duck pond is more like a river with rapids, than a quiet spot.  We move down the path in a south direction like the water does.  I spent many Saturdays walking around it with other kids while my brother had baseball games in the park.  I had a science field trip in junior high, where we had to walk around the pond and collect leaves for our notebooks.  There was two old benches with a waterfall made out of rocks, which has severly become decrepid over the years.  I had a art field trip in high school, where we had to take elements from the park and turn it into an art piece.  I chose a tree and I collected some flowers and grass and stuck them into the tree branches and into the knot on the tree.  My theme was Like flowers, life blooms.  My teacher took pictures of all of our projects and turned them into slides.

The third pond at Pioneer Park. I didn't go to this one a lot, because it is kinda far away.  I went there with my family and some of my cousins.  Another time on a field trip with my elementary class.  This park has a giant hill overlooking the pond, where you can sit and watch people paddle in their boats.  The park also has a carnival attached to it, with games and a ferris wheel.  This ferris wheel was featured in the movie, Charly, where a dying Charly gives her husband, Sam, tickets to ride with her when he gets to Heaven too.

Las Vegas

We drove to Las Vegas on Monday, with the RV and the cats.  Our cat carrier blew upside down in the back of the truck, so Dad had to go put it in the trailer.  We ate at Subway in Cedar City for lunch.  We stayed at the Oasis RV Resort in spot 126.  We ate dinner at Dickey's Barbecue Pit.  We went to the Disney Character Depot, where Mom bought Dad a Grumpy Hat.  We went to the Premium Outlets South, to the Disney outlet and the VF Factory Outlet.  We drove down the strip to look at the lights.    

On Tuesday, Dad made us french toast for breakfast.  We went and got groceries at Walmart.  We went to the Paris hotel and walked over to Planet Hollywood.  We walked through the Miracle Mile shops and ate clam chowder in bread bowls at Lobster ME.  When we got back over to Paris, their fire alarm kept going off.  We went to the Town Square Mall and ate dinner at California Pizza Kitchen.  We went to the Gold and Silver Pawn shop, where they film the show, Pawn Stars.  

On Wednesday, Dad made us blueberry pancakes for breakfast.  He left the cupboard open to the sink and Daisy jumped up on the second shelf and down under the sink, so he had to rescue her.  We walked around the shoppes at the Venetian and the Palazzo.  We ate the Bellagio Buffet for lunch.  As we were exiting the buffet, we saw a man with a backpack being escorted out by four security guards.  We walked around the bridges to the Fountains, but the show never came.  Dad was setting up the satellite and left the screen open on the window.  I had to grab Daisy as she tried to jump out the window.  We went to Target and Kohl's.  We went back to The Premium Outlets South to finish shopping.  

On Thursday,   Dad made us french toast for breakfast.  We went to the Meadows Mall and ate lunch at In & Out Burger.  We walked around the clubhouse and pool of the RV Resort.  We went to Fremont street and watched the zip liners.  We went to the Forum Shops.  We ate dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, sitting in the patio, and were able to watch the Atlantis show from our table.  I got Banana Cream and Mom and Dad shared Red Velvet.  

Strawberry Patch

Sunset Beach

On Wednesday, we flew to Long Beach, California.  We tried the Popcorners popcorn chips, which are made out of kettle corn, as a snack.  When we got to Long Beach, we went and got our luggage, which had a stop and go system.  We rented a car from the airport and drove to Sunset Beach. We stayed at a house in Sunset Beach.  We went to El Torito for dinner. 

On Thursday, we got some fruit at Grower's Direct and went to the South Coast Plaza, where we went into Sears and the Disney store.  We ate chicken at Mrs. Knott's To-Go in front of Knott's Berry Farm, got a cookie from the bakery, and walked around the shops in the marketplace.  For dinner, we went to the Crab Cooker in Balboa.  For dessert, we got a butter toffee ice cream bar at Dad's Frozen Bananas. 

On Friday, we went to Bella Terra in Huntington.  We drove up to Disneyland and went  to Downtown Disney.  We ate lunch at the Jazz Kitchen Express, having shrimp po boys and mint juleps.  We went into the World of Disney, where I bought some pins and Mom bought some antenna toppers and jewelry.  Mom bought a bag of Kettle Caramel Corn as we walked back to the car.  I read on my ipad, while Mom took a nap.  For dinner we had crepes at La Creperie in Long Beach.  We went and walked around the Irvine Spectrum Center.  We had shakes at Ruby's diner for dessert.   I finished reading the book, Every Day by David Levithan.

On Saturday,  we drove up to Hollywood and went to Universal Studios.  We walked through City Walk to the entrance of the park.  We had to wait in line for 30 minutes to get our annual passes.  It was 20 dollars cheaper to buy a season pass than to buy one day's admission.  We saw the Special Effects show, where they showed us stunts from King Kong, Creature of the Black Lagoon, and The Mummy.

We went on the Studio Tour tram.  We saw King Kong 360, where you wear 3D Glasses, watching King Kong fight the Dinosaur, and it shakes the tram.  We went past the Bates Motel from Psycho and Norman Bates chases the tram with a butcher knife.  I took a picture of Jaws right as the shark squirted water all over my face.  They replaced the fisherman with a scuba diver as his victim.  We went through Earthquake which shook the tram.  We saw The Mummy sand avalanche and both Mom and I had to shut our eyes.  We saw the vehicles from Jurassic Park.  NCIS and The Mindy Project were filming on the back lot, when we went pass.  We saw the plane wreckage from War of the Worlds.  We saw Wisteria Lane, where all the ladies lived on Desperate Housewives.  We saw the cabin from The Great Outdoors.  We went through the parted waters and my socks got all wet.  We saw the drained lake with a giant blue screen, where they filmed Inception and Revenge.  We saw the cars race and dance from Fast and The Furious.

We ate lunch at the International Cafe, having soup and sandwiches.  We went through the House of Horrors, which is a spook alley.  I had a hard time pushing mom's wheelchair, because it was very dark and there were a lot of mirrors.  They had actors dressed like the mother from Psycho, Zombies, Wolfman, Dracula, Beetlejuice, Frankensten, pop out and scare us.

We had to take an elevator and a van to the lower lot.  Ryan, Sara, and I went on the Jurassic Park and got soaked.  My whole left side and my face were dripping wet.  We went to the NBC Universal Experience and saw costumes and the car from Back to the Future and figurines from the movies, Coraline and Paranormal.

We took the van and the elevator back up to the Upper Lot.  We went and saw Shrek 4D, an animated film that rocks your seats and squirts water on you.  We went through the shops.  We saw the Waterworld show, with explosions and splash zones.  We went through the Studio Store and Mom bought a stuffed beanie from E.T.  We ate dinner at Wolfgang Puck in City Walk,  I had a magherita pizza, lemonade, and flat bread chips.  We watched the skydivers at IFLY. Then we drove back to Sunset Beach.

On Sunday,  we went to church.  We took a drive to Laguna Beach and back.

On Monday, we drove to Long Beach Airport.   We had lunch in the food court, where I ate a chicken pita from George's Greek Cafe and Mom got some soup and a Banana Muffin from Sweet Jill's. Mom and I flew back to SLC.  Dad picked us up from the airport and took us to the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner.  Our cats were so glad to see us and kept wanting us to scratch them and hold them.