Its been a while since I updated this and I thought I’d better do it now, because after this week I may not get another chance as we are off to Guatemala for a week tomorrow. I was hoping to get this completely up to date before we left but I’m lazy and so the next edition will include Xmas, Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon.
At the end of November, we had our first Thanksgiving. Tamsin’s boss Kelly invited us to her place for Thanksgiving dinner with her family and friends. We were both very keen to see what this Thanksgiving business was all about – i.e. eat the food. It was good, but I’d say its not nearly as good as a traditional NZ Xmas dinner. Most of it is quite sweet which seems to be the usual for most food here.
As Thanksgiving is always on a Thursday, the Friday after is a holiday too. They call it Black Friday as it is the shopping equivalent of Boxing Day in NZ. This year a temp security guard at a Walmart in New York state was trampled to death as people broke through the shop doors before he had a chance to open them and two guys in a Toys R Us in California shot and killed each other over who would get the last Hannah Montana doll. We skipped this retardedness and went up to Magic Mountain north of LA with Joanna from my work and her boyfriend Saurabh. Magic Mountain has some of the tallest and fastest rollercoasters in the world, including one with an 80 m drop into an underground tunnel (no chance I was trying that), the world’s first 100 mph rollercoaster and the world’s first rollercoaster with a 360 degree loop. Tamsin thought it would be a good idea to start with a water ride as that way we would have more time to dry off during the day if we were to get too wet. We remained wet for the rest of the day and into the evening. We moved on the mild and moderate rollercoasters, then later in the day Joanna decided she wanted to try some of the extreme ones. I thought I wouldn’t be able to go back to work if a 5 foot 3 Polish pixie went on one of them and I didn’t. Saurabh and Tamsin weren’t so threatened and played the arcade games and won soft toys while we were in line for the Batman ride. The last time I had been on a “proper” rollercoaster was when I was about 7 at Rainbow’s End and I was not impressed. Neither were the people behind me, as the tears streaming off my eyes and hitting them in the face were apparently unpleasant. Batman is described as “floorless coaches suspended beneath an overhead track whip around steeply banked turns and five inversions.” So I was slightly apprehensive. It was all for no reason though as it was so much fun I decided that it would be a good idea to go on the Riddler’s Revenge, the world’s tallest, fastest and longest stand up roller coaster. As we were climbing the first hill of it and I saw the Batman ride way down below I was really wondering if this was a smart choice. I discovered that the thing about rollercoasters is once you realise the thing will be over soon and there’s a 95% chance you’ll survive its much more fun.
After Magic Mountain we stayed up north of LA at a place called Somethingorother. The next day we went up to a town called Solvang which was apparently settled by Danish people and so had a Danish theme. This was done with all the grace and style you’d expect from Americans trying to replicate a Scandinavian village without actually going there – essentially a Danish Disneyland. No museums, no historical information around the place, just a whole bunch of the same shops you get everywhere else in cheap knockoff Scandinavian style buildings. I was not impressed. While we were there we also visited the Santa Ines Mission which was actually there several decades before a handful of Nords turned up yet whose architecture was apparently not in consideration for the town’s theme. We did a tour around the old Mission which had a lot of stuff on the history of the California Missions and the early settlement and exploration of the state. We couldn’t go into the actual church because there was a quinceañada going on in there. This is a Latin American tradition similar to the American Sweet 16, but it is celebrated when a girl turns 15 (or has her second child, whichever comes first). Apparently it has a religious component as well and it looked a lot like a wedding as the girl’s male and female friends are dressed up as pseudo groomsmen and bridesmaids. Upon returning to our car to leave Niflheim we found that someone had knocked our drivers side mirror off. Apart from the Mission, this was actually the highlight of the trip to Solvang as far as I was concerned. Fortunately Saurabh and I managed to duct-tape back on and this lasted all the way back to San Diego. I was so proud of our feat of engineering that there is still duct tape residue on the car today (if anyone knows how to get rid of this without stripping the paint, please let me know).
That night we stayed near Santa Barbara. We went for a walk around the waterfront there the next morning and had some breakfast on the pier. There’s not a lot to do in Santa Barbara, although it seems that’s the point. Its a nice quietish place in close proximity to LA.
The view from the Santa Ines mission
Fog rolling in at Santa Barbara
Someone’s protest/memorial on the beach in Santa Barbara. They put up one cross for every member of the US military killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. We found this very weird.
A slightly more traditional style of monument in Santa Barbara.
My fantastic moustache/sideburn combo earned a whopping $250 for Movember, which I’m sure you’ll agree is at least what its worth.
1 comment:
Campbell like the extra hairy bits you grew :-)) cheers Pam
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