Now for the second part of my spring break! After arriving home in Huntington Beach at around 3 a.m. my friends and I drug out bags inside and passed out. We had wanted to go surfing around 6 a.m. that morning, but that plan definately fell through when we all woke up around noon. Not wasting any more time in the day, we suited up and drove down to the beach for a few hours to try and get rid of our nasty goggle tans from the mountains. Over the course of about 4 hours, my friends and I bodysurfed, bodyboarded, took naps, went back in the water, fell back asleep again, and got sunburnt. Finally, it was too cold to be in the water, which was already frigid, so we headed back and warmed up in the jacquzzi at my house.
The rest of the night consisted of relaxing with the hopes of being awake at 6 a.m. Wednesday morning to go surfing. However, we still did not wake up nearly early enough to go surfing. Instead, we decided to go have some fun at an indoor rock wall!
None of us were very good, but we still had a blast until our fingers were just too sore to hold on to the holds. After driving home, we decided to suit up and go walk around downtown since it was St. Patrick’s Day. The Adams and I explored the shops and restaurants downtown for a few hours. We finally wound up back at my house around 11:30 p.m. and went to bed, once again with the hopes of waking up for a surfing session at 6 a.m.
Thursday afternoon rolled in on us before we knew it, and we once again missed surfing in the morning. The weather proved to be warm and sunny, like usual for socal, so we hit the beach for the afternoon. The water was just as cold, but this time we had a surboard and skimboards with us, so we didn’t have to spend as much time in the water. I taught both my friends how to skimboard, and now I know how funny I must have looked when I was first starting out! While we were gone, my neighbor asked if I would want to go see Alice in Wonderland in Imax 3-D later that night. We didn’t have any plans still, so it was decided that we would take him up on the offer. The movie was great, and the Imax 3-D experience was phenomenal!
When Friday finally rolled around, we were trying to figure out what to do to pass the time. We had been to the beach a few times, gone rock climbing, and gone hot tubbing, all of which were awesome. Still trying to decide where to go, we decided to pull out some of the beach cruisers at my house and ride over to 7-11 and grab some slurpees. Still not being able to find anything to do, we decided to drive up to UCLA and look around at what college life was like there. After getting lost a couple of times, we finally found the heart of the campus and what a shock it was. There were students left and right, shops, restaurants, bars; and that was just the campus village. Not even a block away we discovered the residential area and Greek row. What an experience it was to see huge two-story houses with greek letters worn proudly as we passed each residence!
We drove around in the neighborhood looking for a place to park until we finally found one. After getting out, we set off for the Sigma Pi house, since I am a brother here at Embry-Riddle. When we found it, it was a glorious sight. Yes, it was somewhat dirty and unkempt, but it was the first real fraternity house I had seen and it belonged to my brothers! We set off to the door and were met by a brother at the UCLA campus, who gladly let us in and gave us a quick tour of the house. Unfortunately, most of the brothers had left earlier that day, because they had finished finals the day before. Even so, the Adams and I mingled for a bit with the remaining brothers and just enjoyed hearing stories about living on campus in such a huge city and attending a large public school.
At about 1 a.m., we said our goodbyes and headed towards the village to check out the social life aspect of UCLA. Unfortunately, In-n-Out was closed by the time we got there. Luckily enough, Taco Bell was still open and thriving! We ordered some food and since all the tables were taken, decided to eat outside and people watch for a bit. It might not sound like fun, but it was a blast! We all admitted that we felt like we had become part of the campus just by being there for a few hours. When we got home around 3 a.m. we had to hit the hay a.s.a.p. because we had to be up and on the road by 8:45 later that morning for our last big adventure: Disneyland!!
Fortunately for us, we woke up on time for the first time in the week and got up to Disneyland at about 9:40 a.m. My friend Josh was waiting for us to help us get in for the day, since he works there. Being a Saturday, the park was starting to get busy fast, so we had to grab fastpasses for Space Mountain right away. Also, one of the Adams had never been to Disneyland before, so we had to make sure and give him the full experience! We went on the Autopia, the Astro Blasters (which I got a score in the 700,000 range on that day XD ), Star Tours (which we found out is closing in May or so to be remodeled and upgraded!), Space Mountain, Pirates of the Carribean, and the Winnie the Pooh ride.
After that, we decided to head over to California Adventure. We hit up the Mission tortilla factory a few times for free snacks and the sourdough bakery for the same reason. Then, we watched the Bug’s Life show, went on California Screamin, and ended with the rapid ride 3 times in a row. Soaking wet and tired out from the long day, my friends and I went to McDonald’s and headed home. Tired, but still functioning, we decided to drive down to San Diego and hang out with one of my friends who attends San Diego State University. After getting down there, we found out that she couldn’t go out, so we were on our own. We drove around and just explored the city for a bit until we were getting tired and needed to head home before we passed out.
Sunday morning rolled around and we woke up at around 9:30, so we decided to get one last day in at the beach before heading home to Embry-Riddle. My sister wanted to tag along with us, so we took her surfboard and found a beach that had some waves, since the surf was pretty dead that day. Also, the marine layer had hit hard the night before, so it was a pretty dreary looking day. Regardless, we enjoyed just being at the beach again.
When lunch rolled around, we left the beach and went home to change because my family had invited us to go to Ruby’s on the Huntington Beach pier. We all had a great time eating and talking, until the Adams and I needed to head home and pack up out stuff since we would be leaving for Embry-Riddle in only a couple hours. It was a sad moment leaving home once again, but what was even harder was leaving the beach and Southern California in general. Spring break had come and gone in the blink of an eye, but thanks to the memories of that week, we will remember it forever!
