We have sort of a long layover in Colorado Springs, so I thought I would get caught up on the rest of our vacation adventure–
Wordy & Jessica’s wedding was great. The location was beautiful, the food was phenomenal, and we had a great visit with all of the guests. Their ceremony was exactly what I would have expected; it was colorful, and had their collective personality. We were both very happy to have been able to attend, and we’re looking forward to visitng again as soon as we can.
Earlier in the day on Friday, we took a ride to Zuma Beach with the Poquettes and Lorch. It was a really nice spot, but the water was COLD. I guess it is the ocean. I didn’t swim much, but preferred to stay on the beach soaking up the sun or throwing the football. Michelle renting a boogie board and boogied hard for a couple hours. I don’t ever remember seeing her more delighted for such a sustained length of time. She had so much fun, she barely noticed that her skin was getting red from the cold water…
We finally hooked up with Devin after the beach, when we went out for lunch at a place called Islands. It was a sit-down burger joint. I had a ‘Bleunami’ and it was pretty tasty.
Saturday, we slept in, seeing as we’d been up until all hours the night before. When we finally got up, we decided we wanted to take a ride to a beach further south, like Santa Monica, so we could check out some different sights in L.A. Michelle wanted to do a little more souvenir shopping in Hollywood before leaving town, so that was on the docket as well. Lorch wanted to go with us and catch lunch at In N Out, so he rode along.
Leaving the hotel at about 11:45am, we followed the Garmin to the In N Out it instructed us to drive to, about 8 miles north on the 101. That seemed like a long way to go for a burger, but we were all hungry. When we arrived, some 25 minutes later, the restaurant was not there, and we bought some gas instead. We decided to proceed south, avoiding the freeway, which was PACKED. We thought we could just eat lunch some where along the way…
The drive down the 1 to Santa Monica took us nearly 2 hours. And this was about a 25-mile trip. We did make a short pit stop at Topanga Beach, but we quickly discovered that one was for surfing and not swimming (what with the rocks and lack of sand). We finally pulled into a parking garage off the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica at 2:39pm. We hadn’t eaten or done much with our day other than ride in the car up to that point. We were all a little annoyed at how our Saturday was turning out, but we tried to make the best of it. We had Mexican for lunch, strolled around the Promenade a little, then walked down to the Santa Monica Pier and the beach.
It was amazing how much warmer the water felt, less than 30 miles south along the shore. Michelle and I went in, but Lorch hung out on the beach, wanted to avoid exposing his severely sunburned back and chest for a 2nd consecutive day. It was a lot of fun “swimming” around as much as we could. There were SO MANY people at the beach, it was hard to do much other than sort of float or tread water and ride the waves as they rolled in. Still had a great time.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t any time left for other things with all the traffic that day. After the beach, we headed back to the hotel, on the freeway this time, and we arrived back at about 6:30 or so. Lorch left for the airport within an hour (his flight was at 11:30pm, but the south-bound traffic looked awful), and Michelle and I ended up having a quick dinner at California Pizza Kitchen just minutes before they closed at 10.
We were up bright and early on Sunday (about 4:30), and left the hotel shortly after 5. Our flight left at 8, and we were both surprised that (A) there was not a lick of traffic that time of day, so we got all the way to the airport (about 35 miles) in just over a half hour, and (B) checking in and going through security at LAX took a grand total of 20 minutes. It wasn’t even 6:30 by the time we arrived at our gate. We were able to have a relaxing breakfast before getting on the plane…
Once again, keep an eye out for pictures! I haven’t had time in the last day and a half to sift through all the shots I took, but I’m planning to do so this evening. It was another great vacation. Michelle and I always have a wonderful time on our trips, seeing new things and visiting with old friends. We’re looking forward to doing it again soon.