A Magical Realist: Trip in Pictures

I'm back! I'm recounting my trip to California in pictures. On Wednesday, we (me, my brother, and his girlfriend) flew out to Los Angeles. We drove up to the observatory where we took photos of the Hollywood sign, climbed to the roof to look at the view and the huge telescope, and ate ice cream. Then we found our hotel room, got a TON of Korean food, and stuffed ourselves silly before going to bed.

In the airport.

On the plane.

The drive from the airport.

Interesting graffiti.

In front of the Hollywood sign.

At the observatory.

Observatory roof.

Observatory telescope.

Eating ice cream.

At the hotel.

Korean food.

Thursday we went on an all-day bus tour of LA - the kind where you can get on and off whenever you want. We saw all the stars with the celebrities' names, played around in a costume shop, drove by lots of famous people's houses, saw Beverly Hills, saw the San Andreas Fault and the La Brea Tar Pits, saw a piece of the Berlin Wall outside the museum, lunched at the farmers' market, saw the sunset strip, etc. After that we chilled in the hotel for a bit to recoup, then I dragged everyone to the local Guitar Center with all the famous rock stars' handprints in the sidewalk and Elvis' blue suede shoes on display inside. At which point I felt violently ill so we went next door to the Sunset Grill (the same one Don Henley wrote that song about) where I had water and a place to sit. Then I drove us back to the hotel where I proceeded to be sick for the rest of the night.

Graffiti on the way to our bus tour.

Me in the costume shop.

My brother in the costume shop.

Me pretending to be famous.

On top of the stars.

Bus touring.

Me in front of Beverly Hills.

Us on a bus tour stop.

La Brea Tar Pits and Museum.

Random bagpiper because of St. Paddy's day.

In front of a weird map fairy statue.

House graffiti.

Brother at guitar center rock walk.

Elvis display containing the infamous blue suede shoes.

Brother with orange juice at the Sunset Grill.

Friday was spent sick. We drove from LA to Malibu, and when I wasn't driving I was lying in a hotel bed or being sick somewhere. No good. There are no pictures from this day. Only sadness.

Saturday was the wedding. I still felt a bit ill but I decided that since I was on vacation I'd push through it anyway. We started the day by going on a drive in Malibu and then I checked out El Matador State Beach while my companions hung out at the picnic tables because the walk to the beach was too treacherous for them. Then we went to the wedding, which was lovely. I danced a bunch and got to see my lesbian aunties (yay for queer relatives!) and was pretty much overjoyed for the occasion because my cousin is awesome and so is her new husband. It did make me a little sad for myself, since the wedding reminded me of how happy I'd been at my wedding and how shitty it was to see things end the way they did, even if I know there wasn't anything I could have done to save that marriage. But oh well. More pictures!

In front of the mountains on our drive.

Steep and scary path to the beach.

Cliff edge.

Cliffs.

Neat rock formations.

Me in front of the rocks.

Rock formations.

My toes in the water.

Ready for the wedding!

My aunts in their seats.

Flowers.

I do.

Married!

Toasting the happy couple.

Brother and I.

Group shot.

Aunties and me.

On Sunday it was fairly clear I had overdone it the day before since I woke up feeling sick again. But it was also the last day of vacation so I was determined to deal with it. We drove to Santa Monica for the day and hung out at the board walk, went to the aquarium, and ate Mexican food (so tasty but such a bad plan). Then we headed to the airport, with at stop on the way for me to be violently ill again. Sigh. At the airport, we discovered that due to snow our flight had been canceled. Much frustration and much waiting later, we flew a different route which had us going to San Francisco and then to Boston. Got no sleep and wound up home far later than anticipated. Which meant instead of going to work as originally intended, I came home and crashed because I was both sick and tired.