Sat, July 5, 2008
Today I practiced only a little bit of my instruments. Then we went to the airport. My friend’s dad drove us to the airport.
When we went to the lounge, we spent too much time there. We almost missed our plane!!! I took a Gravol since I normally get airsick before going on the plane. On the plane I slept for 1 hour, then woke up, then went back to sleep, and so forth. Amazingly I didn’t throw up at all. I haven’t been in a plane for a long time without throwing up.
Then we went to Thrifty to pick up our car. It was a Dodge, but it had manual windows and lock, it was soooo annoying. We went to eat dinner with my mom’s best friend’s family. When we drove to and from the restaurant, we had to take to trips because my friend’s family didn’t have their car with them and we couldn’t fit all of us into one car.
Sun, July 6, 2008
Today I woke up at 2:00a.m., went back to sleep then woke up again at 5:00. That was because of jetlag. We went out to eat breakfast, but it took us a long time to find a good place to eat at. We didn’t do much this morning. We were trying to go shopping, getting the GPS to let us there, but it kept leading us to churches. We got good laughs out of that, we joked around about how God was trying to tell us to go to church instead of going shopping.
At 1:30 we went to Disneyland. We didn’t go on rides. Overall Disneyland was okay. We had dinner with my cousin and her husband. It was good to see them again. We hadn’t seen them since they were married last year.
Mon, July 7, 2008
Today we went on the cruise. I felt sick on the cruise. I got a headache on and off. It all started during dinner. Us 4 kids were mostly watching TV and playing DS in our cabin that we shared.
Tues, July 8, 2008
Today the cruise stopped over at San Diego. We went to a big shopping mall called Westfield. I bought jean shorts at Gap. I left my jacket there accidentally in the fitting room. We realized I forgot it when we were about to leave. It took a long time to walk all they way back to get my jacket.
I got another headache during dinner (because that is when the cruise starts to move) only this time it made me feel like throwing up, so I slept over in my parents’ room. We went to a singing and dancing show in the theatre and so happened to meet up with the cruise director in the elevator. Turns out, he’s from around where I live.
Wed, July 9, 2008
Today, I felt better. We went to Catalina Island. I bought a sweater/jacket. It was striped and had the words Catalina Island on it.
I felt okay at dinner today. My friend kept making us laugh so I didn’t get a headache. Today is the second last day on the cruise.
Thurs, July 10, 2008
Today we stopped over at Ensenada, Mexico. We went on a small tour that drove us to a shopping place, kind of like a flea market. I bought a bracelet with my name on it, not Bears. It was handmade in front of my face in 3 minutes. My friend got one too with her name on it.
Tomorrow we have to wake up at 5:30 to get ready to get off the cruise. We also couldn’t fall asleep for a while. My friend kept making us laugh, everyone (my brother and I) kept talking and was unable to fall asleep for longer than our friends.
Fri, July 11, 2008
This morning we woke up at 5:30. My friends’ mom kept calling us and calling us on the phone. We didn’t answer and later she came to our room to wake us up.
We went to an outlet mall. We bought a lot of stuff, especially from Nike. We bought a basketball size 7 since out basketball at home was leaking air so we had to keep pumping air into it.
We drove to Las Vegas for 4 hours. We were reviewing our Chinese and we kind of went crazy! I hope everything will be okay here in Sin City. We will only go out of the hotel in early morning or late at night since it is very hot, almost 40 degrees. We were staying in MGM Grand, the theme of the hotel was movies/shows.
Sat, July 12,2008
Today we went swimming in a swimming pool called Lazy River. It isn’t really a swimming pool, but a river. There is a current going around like a river. The whole thing is really a big circle only there is some squiggle. It was quite hard going against currant.
We had to go to a laundry place and all of us had to fold our clothes so we could leave faster. Then we went shopping.
We say this cool fountain show near our hotel. It did cool things to match the music being played.
There were people preaching on the streets, they were saying Jesus will come again soon, but the Bible doesn’t say when Jesus will come again. It even says the angels in heaven don’t know, so no one on earth would know.
Sun, July 13, 2008
Today we went swimming in the Lazy River again. Then we went to an outlet before lunch. I bought another pair of shoes. I bought some other clothes and a swimsuit. After we walked through a few hotels. The Luxor, which is a pyramid, Excalibur that is a castle and another hotel. Just three and we got ice cream, and then we went to the arcade for 30 minutes. I amazingly beat my friends and my brother in basketball, I got 34 points, which means I shot 17 hoops, and I got 42 tickets. I was surprised I won.
Mon, July 14, 2008
Today was an okay day. We went to the arcade to use the rest of our tokens. We got 1056 tickets. I got a sand frog, which is like a stuffed animal only filled with sand, two happy face stickers, and a jumping frog.
We ate lunch then went to look at Caesar’s Palace (a hotel). It had a lot of statues of people. Caesar’s Palace has escalators that are curved. It was sooo fun to ride it.
Then we went to Circus Circus, kind of like an arcade, but you pay each person, and you win stuffed animals. We kept playing this water gun game. You aim at the clown’s nose and fine the gun. Then your teddy bear will go up until you reach the top, and then you win a prize depending on how many people there are. I won two elephants. I gave the blue elephant to my brother and I kept the purple elephant. My dad then played a few more times and won two more elephants, then my brother played two times and won one elephant, then we traded in 3 elephants for one bear with a t-shirt that says: Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada.
After we looked at some other hotels, Venetian which has a canal that is like Venice. We looked at Palazzo, which my dad stayed in before. It is one of the newest hotels and is 5 stared. Then we looked at the hotel Wynn. It was just a shopping center. Then we saw a show at Treasure Island.
Tues, July 15, 2008
Today we saw my friends for the last time this year. They were driving home and we were staying a few more days before going home. They live in British Columbia and us in Ontario. I can’t believe our trip is almost done!
We drove to Hoover Dam, a really big Dam that if it broke, the water would cover all of California. It was sooo hot and sunny at Hoover Dam that I thought I would get a sunburn even with sunscreen on! There was this plate on the wall saying:
Hoover Dam
Named in Honor of:
Herbert Clark Hoover
31st President of the United States
Then we drove for a long time to the Grand Canyon. I expected it to be a big hole, but it wasn’t. It was like a line, a very long line, but the line wasa deep hole. It took forever to drive back and we are staying in an Inn.
Wed, July 16, 2008
Today while we were driving from Arizona, Day’s Inn, to Los Angeles, I felt homesick. I was slouching down in my seat and looking through the window at the sky, I could see us driving home. Then I would see rock mountains and I snapped back to where I was. I just wanted to go home!! I missed my home! (especially my computer. I miss talking to my friends too, on MSN and e-mailing people.)
We drove from Flagstaff to LA for 7 hours. We were going to go eat when we decided to go to my cousin and her husband’s house. We rang the doorbell and were about to leave when my cousin’s husband opened the door. Soon after we explored their house, my cousin came home. We went out to dinner together, then went to the store, Target.
We were staying in Westin. We only had one night/day left in the U.S.A. before going back to Canada.
Thurs, July 17, 2008
Today we took 2 hours in a violin store to buy a violin for my brother. He bought a full size professional violin; it was very, very expensive.
We also went to the Ronald Regan Library Museum. The Air Force One for Mr. Regan is in it too. I learned something interesting about Mr. Regan; he loved Jelly Bellys (jelly beans). He had them in the Air Force One. In the museum, there was an oval office (then office in the white house where the president works). In the oval office there were many duplicates of the actual office. Mr. Regan also had another jar of Jelly Bellys there. In the Air Force One, there was a cake on board. A lady there told us that Mr. Regan always had a cake on board incase anyone flying with him had a birthday that day. In the oval office the man there told us that the desk had to be raised two inches so Mr. Regan could put his knees under his desk. There was also this part about Nancy Regan. They had a lot of different dresses there that were collected from the 60s ever since Mr. Regan was a governor. Mrs. Regan would label her dresses, so that when the King of Spain came, and another king came to visit, she wouldn’t wear the same dress. Amazingly enough, she and Mr. Regan were actors!
We were planning to go to an outlet but didn’t we did do a little bit of shopping at Target, though.
Fri, July 18, 2008
Today we woke up at 5:35a.m. We had to get ready for our 8:30a.m. flight. We were finally going home! At the airport I wasn’t feeling well. My stomach was hurting. I used the washroom, but still felt bad. Later on, I threw up, my barf was green! Light green! I had eaten blue cotton candy and it came out green! Later when my family was eating, I didn’t feel so good. When I didn’t want to eat I didn’t want to smell or look at food, or else I feel sick. So I threw up again. Then we had to go through tons of security. The security was very tight for some reason. On the plane, I slept a lot. When we landed, my friend’s mom picked us up. I realized I hadn’t eaten breakfast or lunch when I was eating dinner. We ate at one of my favourite restaurants for dinner. Overall my trip was fun. I bought 4 pairs of shoes and some clothes. I’ll have to wait till next year before I go on another trip, or maybe before I see my friends again. They arrived back in British Columbia the day we arrived home.
