Vacation by Land

We have arrived back safely so I thought I would fill you in on the rest of our vacation.

Like I said before, we got off the ship on Friday morning and headed to our hotel by LAX to get settled in there. We then headed to the Getty Museum on Friday evening. It was a really neat place. It had several gardens, a lot of neat works of art and a great view of the city.



After visiting the Getty we headed down to Santa Monica to see the pier and beach. It was a really cool area. They have an amusement park on the pier and lots of little shops and restaurants.



On Saturday, we headed to Hollywood and Beverly Hills. We walked down Hollywood Blvd. and looked at all the stars in the walk of fame. We drove around the ritzy neighborhoods and looked at the huge houses and got a great view of the Hollywood sign. We also drove down the famous Rodeo Dr. and looked for famous people but unfortunately did not see any.



That evening we drove up to Malibu and checked out Pepperdine University, which is an AMAZING campus!! The views from the school were breath-taking. We also ate dinner at a local seafood restaurant.



On Sunday, we got up and went to Knott's Berry Farm Theme Park. According to them it was the first theme park in America. Whether or not that is true, I don't know. It was a lot of fun and they had some great rides.



Sunday evening we went to downtown LA and attended a service at the Mosaic Church. It was really an amazing experience. This was honestly one of my favorite things from the entire trip. Mosaic is doing some great things in the greater LA area. It was such an awesome thing to be able to worship with all the different of people that attend that church.



On Monday, we had our first day of sunshine and we were so excited. We drove down to Newport Beach and spent several hours just hanging out there. It was still a little chilly but we had fun and got a little bit of sun.



That evening we went to Anaheim to watch the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim take on the Detroit Tigers. It was a great game that stayed tied at 0-0 until the 12th inning when the Angels won on a walk with the bases loaded. I was rooting for a walk off grand slam but at that point anything to get the game over was ok with me. Since it was Memorial Day we got to watch fireworks after the game was over and I am like a little kid when it comes to fireworks, I love them.



And today we headed home. We flew out of LAX and into Austin and then drove home from there. Here is a view of the California coast from our airplane.



We did see one more famous person at the airport in Austin, William H. Macy. It was a fun way to bookend our trip, seeing two famous people.

We really had a great time and are so glad we were able to take this trip with our dear friends, Eric and Sarah. We feel so blessed to have friends like them. We look forward to the day when we can take another trip with them.