San Diego, Los Angeles, and Hearst Castle

Two blogs in one day, look at me go!
After eating a scrumptious brunch at the Luxor, we made our way to San Diego.  It was a LONG drive.  When you drive through the desert, there isn't really a lot of distraction, so we didn't really stop a lot.  The biggest surprise was the temperature.  In Vegas, we spent a lot of time by the pool drinking fruity frozen drinks, so we were able to cool off.  About half way though our drive, we looked at the temperature, and noticed it had climbed to 111 degrees.  Poor car!

Ignore my dirty display...

Around this time, we saw a sign for a "early man archaeological site."  It said it was open to tourists, so we drove down a very bumpy dirt road (for 2 miles) to get there.

We got all the way down the road, only to find that the gate was locked, and it was (apparently) closed.  Don't you hate when that happens?

Anyhow, we got to San Diego, set up camp, and went to bed on the early side.  In the morning we got up to explore the city.  Since it was the fourth of July, we knew we definitely wanted to see the fireworks.  The only year I missed fireworks was when I visited Paris with my cousin, (who will, coincidentally, be joining this trip in two days) so fireworks are kind of a priority for me.  After attempting to find a parking spot in Coronado, we gave up after about an hour.  We finally found a spot on the Bay side of things, and hung out by the water until the sun went down.  There were tons of other people there, and it turned out to be a great July fourth! Happy fourth of July, guys!

San Diego

Fun on the fourth.

S'mores.  YUM!

After San Diego came Los Angeles.  LA is huge.  We did a lot of driving though the various neighborhoods so Eric could see the different places.  We then did the traditional walk down Hollywood Boulevard to the Chinese Theater.  It was fun to see all of the footprints and stars on the walk of fame.

HARRY POTTER!!!

We spent our evening in Santa Monica.  We went out to the pier to go on the rides.  It was as ridiculously  as the boardwalk at the Jersey Shore.  As usual, the Ferris wheel was the best--awesome views!

This is Eric's favorite picture.

The next day, we made our way up the coast.  We were fortunate enough to see a sea otter in the ocean.  It was so cool!

This morning, we visited Hearst Castle on our way to San Fransicso.  It was one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen.  The view was amazing.  I really can't describe it, so I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. 

Now that's a pool.

Our last stop on the coast, and probably the coast, was the Elephant Seal viewpoint.  I love animals!!!!  You can all make fun of me, but it was super exciting!!!!!  The end.

This road was crazy.