Cali Or Bust!

Ok, ignore the ridiculous delay it took to post this. I've been on nocturnal schedule for over a week and it has been putting me behind in just about everything. More about that later though! For now, my trip to...

California! It started with a long 8-hour car ride with James, another summer intern. His destination was LA while mine was Irvine, to visit my dear friend Elaine! Once with her, we planned on tripping down to San Diego to visit Eric, who just graduated from IU and is going to grad school at UCSD. After leaving work early, we began the long and dry excursion across 500 miles of I-10, all the way from Tucson to LA.

Wind Farm in Palm Springs, CA on the way to LA.

We arrived in LA around 9pm or so, and went straight through to Manhattan Beach to pick up James' friend (whom he was visiting). James then drove me down to Irvine and dropped me off at Elaine's apartment. Hooray! :)

I suppose I should preface this story with the fact that the weekend we decided to visit LA and the surrounding area was the infamous Carmaggedon event that you've surely heard about. And I'm sure you also heard that nothing really came out of it since everyone stayed off the roads. Lucky for me!

Anyways, the next morning after sleeping in a bit, Elaine and I headed to the Irvine train station and took a train down the coast to San Diego.

The view from the train, stopped at a stain on the way to SD.

The train ride was really nice, and followed the coast all the way down to SD. Once there, Eric and his girlfriend Tess came by and picked us up. We explored the shorefront for a bit before sitting down to eat at a seafood joint on the pier. It was pretty scenic. :)

Elaine, me, and Eric! :)

After eating, we took the bridge over to Coronado Island (the bridge behind us in the photo above!). Coronado Island is a totally snooty and rich place. It was entertaining enough watching all the posh houses fly past the window.

Nice house on the beach. Not a bad life...

We headed down to  the beach, which was huge! The Pacific was pretty cold, especially since we were there in the latter part of the day. It was still lots of fun and nice to see water for once.

Elaine, Eric and Tess!

Next we went over to La Jolla, where Eric lives. We went to La Jolla beach to watch the sunset. To say it was nice is an understatement.

La Jolla beach sunset with surfers.

Afterwards we went to the Pacific Beach strip (I think? there are too many beaches) for dinner and exploring. It's a trendy little area where all the 20-somethings go. Lots of eclectic shops, bars and restaurants. We ate dinner then took a quick stroll down Pacific Beach (what a generic name). Then we went to Eric's apartment and sat on the porch for good company :) 

Elaine and I spent the night at Eric's, then headed back to Irvine on the train. Incidentally, our train turned out to kill someone. We still don't know how or who it was (suicide or accident on the tracks?), but it delayed us a few hours and is just bizarre. Go figure that the one time I take a CA train... But anyway, we got back to Irvine where James picked me up again and we repeated the long Tucson-LA journey once more! All in all, a great weekend spent with my good friends in California. 

PS- I'm officially in love with that state!