California Day #1

Warning: Long posts ahead with a lot of pictures. Feel free to skip!

Anyone who knows me knows that I love my family. A whole lot. I think we're the funnest, funniest, and greatest family out there. Dysfuntional beyond belief? Yes. But we do have a lot of fun together. Everyone thinks its weird that I am so close to my extended family, but my aunts and cousins are like extra mother figures/sisters to me.

Everyone also knows that our family has a slight obsession with Neil Diamond. We have been to his last few concerts in Salt Lake and when we saw he was touring again this time, we were heartbroken that he wasn't coming to SLC. Knowing that he is you know, up there in age, we decided it was worth it to travel to see him. So, we picked out date way back in the fall of last year and bought tickets. The months of anticipation almost killed me, but we finally made it to mid May and our trip out to see Neil!

We had the most fabulous time. My only regret is that we didn't get to stay longer.

So, here's day #1:

The night before we flew out, we all stayed at a hotel near the airport because our flight was leaving at 7 am. We all thought that getting up at 4 am to leave by 5 seemed a bit ridiculous, but luckily we listened to Mari Ann, who always knows best. We dragged ourselves out at that horrible hour and made it to our flights without any major issues, but with not a ton of time to spare.

We were a bit of a tired crew on the flight over...

When we landed in LA, we were all eager to get started with our day. However, someone (absolutely not naming names) had made car rental arrangements at a rather questionable looking place that no one had ever heard of. It didn't bode well when we walked into the garage to pick up our 15 passenger van (YES!) and there was hardly a single car in the place, let alone a monstrosity of a van. Ugh. It took more than an hour for the people to come up with a van from somewhere (no idea where-- again I tell you, questionable!) but they did give us a discount, so we went on our merry way.

We stopped for our 2nd breakfast of the day at a place that Yelp highly recommended. It did not disappoint. Too bad I can't remember the name of or I'd recommend it to you too.

When this large baby came squealing into the garage, it was a joyous moment. There just aren't words. It was a beaut.

Somehow Mari Ann and I were the designated drivers. I think it's because we are clearly the most responsible of the bunch (or me because I am the one who booked the rental car. Perhaps. But Mari really is the most responsible.) My mom was a nervous wreck every time I drove. Her oft repeated phrase was "Shhh, everyone quiet! I am trying to focus!" What she was focusing on, I am not sure. Anyway, I am not biased in any way, but I am pretty positive I was a better driver than Mari Ann. See exhibit: Curb Story below. 

 Breakfast at that really great place:

I now apologize for the sheer number of selfies that will accompany this photo documentary.

After breakfast, we headed to our rental condo. This place was amazing! I must thank my co-worker for telling me about it. I don't have pictures, but here is a link: www.suiteescapes.com. It is just a few blocks from Disneyland, super cute and modern, and space for 10+ people. They also had everything ready for us- soap, shampoo, strollers (not that we needed those, but you know, if you go with your family!), laundry, a full kitchen, etc. etc. Super great place and good price. Definitely recommend!

We changed into our amazing Neil Diamond t-shirts (always a must with this family) and then headed down to San Diego for the day.

One additional fact you may have noticed about our family is that there is a slight addiction to caffeinated beverages (specifically diet coke unless you are Carlie) in 100% of us. So, on our way, we felt the need to find a McDonalds for a little beverage. We pulled off into a little coastal town with a Mickey Dees. I wish I had the video of this event, but fortunately for you, Che' has it. Anyway, as Mari Ann hauls into the drive through, the crowd of us all screamed in unison as we took out a sign and then ran over a curb before bouncing to a stop in front of the order screen. It was classic. Nobody could stop laughing long enough to get our orders out, so there's Mari Ann shouting from the front "How many!? HOW MANY?!" while we all just laugh on. At about this time, our 40 month pregnant lady, Cortney (actually 34 weeks, but you know) decided that she needed to go to the bathroom really bad, so she hopped out right then and there and made a run for it. It was a zoo. The McDonalds workers were not amused, to say the least. From then on, we avoided all drive throughs with the massive van.

Gosh, the van pictures never get old, do they? That's my eye in the right corner, in case you are interested. Hahaha..

A good driver needs a good navigator. She even kicked our 84 year old grandmother out of the front seat to do the job. That is until we figured out that the back is a whole lotta bouncing around and that may not have been the best for dear Grandma. Then she got the front every time after that.

Oh yeah. Extra classy t-shirts this time. Hashtags on the back.

And we had to have a few versions of the pictures on the front because there were just too many attractive ones to choose from. Neil-he's just so fancy. It made it nice though, because then everyone had at least one Neil buddy automatically. So when we needed a head count, or to pair up, it was just an easy "Find your Neil buddy!" You wouldn't think that grown women would need that system, but in this family we do.

After the McDonalds incident, we were on the road again. San Diego is just beautiful. We arrived and met up with my cousin Kaarin, who is a San Diego native. We had her show us the ropes. We spent the afternoon at the marina, right near the USS Midway. We wanted to tour the Midway, but it was closed by the time we got over there, so we toured a pirate ship and a submarine instead and of course took a bajillion pictures. We even found some nice lady who loved our Neil shirts so much that she wanted to take a few photos of us as a group. She posed us this way and that and told us how to smile and when to cheer. It was fabulous. Just what we needed. :)

I love this crew. In case anyone wants a visual of who is who: Grandma Donna, Lisa (mom), Sue-Dawg (that's her preferred name), Hailie, Cortney (40 months pregnant), Che, me, in front is Kaarin (the long lost cousin from San Diego but don't worry we brought her her own t-shirt), Jen, Mari Ann, and Carlie.

 

Submarine tour. I don't know about you, but submarine living is definitely not for me. Man, it looked miserable! 

Loved seeing this famous statue. No idea what it's called? But it was neat.

The USS Midway. Even though we didn't get to tour it, it was really cool to see.

We had dinner along the pier while we were there at a seafood place. I think our shirts gave away that we were going to the Neil Diamond concert :) There was a waitress who kept running over and singing little snippets of Neil songs to us while playing her air guitar. She made dinner pretty entertaining. 

The Neil t-shirts really helped us make friends everywhere we went. Or at least they were a good conversation starter. haha...people all have good Neil Diamond stories that they want to tell and they know we'll appreciate them! We made friends with these people behind us at dinner for that very reason. 

After dinner, we made our way over to the concert itself! It was, in a word, AMAZING! This is the best I have ever seen Neil (and remember, I have seen him a fair few times). He was witty, he was engaging, he was personable, he was oh so great at his singing and performance...oh boy. I could go on. And let's be honest-- the main in his 70's has far more stamina than I do! He was so, so great. It was extra awesome that we were by far the youngest people in that arena. I have never seen so many jazzys in one place in my life! We had to sit down for the majority of the concert, which is not our way, but we had so many old people behind us that we knew would not see a thing if we stood the entire time. I wish I could play you some of the video clips from the concert to demonstrate just how great he was, but really all you hear is us screaming in the background. Oh, well. 

The weirdest/funniest thing happened at the concert. We had one seat left in our row and we were pretty sure it would not be filled. But, we were wrong. It was filled, by a kid in his early 20's I'd say, who came all alone. He said that he was treating himself to the concert for his birthday but then went on to say that he doesn't know very many of Neil's songs. So weird. I think we completely showed him a new side of crazy. At the end, he asked us where he should go to join us for the after party. He was completely serious. I am sure he thought that we must have been drunk to have that much energy. Little does he know that us non-drinkers can have fun, too. :)

Oh, the van. We had to park the beast at the very back of the parking lot even though we were hours early for the concert. It didn't fit anywhere else. It reminded me of Vacation where they all go running for the amusement park and their car is the only one in the lot. Yep, that's us. It did not serve us well to be parked there, because we were pretty much stuck and the last ones out of the parking lot too. 

Suffice it to say that Neil was amazing. Highlight of the trip. We drove back to our condo in LA that night and did not get in until 2 am their time, so 3 am our time. Yep, that means we had been awake for nearly 24 hours. My poor grandma. She had a few cat naps during the day in the car (and she's so cute-- after a little nap, she woke up and said "I love these little naps! I go to sleep for a few minutes and then I wake up vibrant!") We had to park the van in some sketchy neighborhood because it did not, unfortunately, fit in the condo garage and then trek back to haul ourselves to bed. We made plans to sleep in a little the next day before going to Disneyland, but that did not happen...

Oh and photo of the day: 

Not because it is yet another photo of Che' and I (mysteriously, we were Neil buddies too and had the most attractive Neil...go figure) but because Sue has such a great photo bomb. She's funny.