Eight Isn't Enough: Tim's 18th Birthday California Trip

Tim put in the captions for this post since I was not there. I'm so glad they had a wonderful time together!

Day 1
Thursday

I was excited to be the one to take Brandon to see Cali for the first time.

Listening to The Magic of Thinking Big on the road to LA.

We loved to watch the desert gradually turn to green hills.

As soon as Brandon passed the Arizona boarder he said "It doesn't look any different."

We had to park further away from the hike's start than we thought, though
we did enjoy the view of the residents at the base of Hollywood Mt.

On our way up to the Hollywood sign I saw the roots on the

edge of the path and couldn't fight the urge to climb it.

We made it to the top just above and behind the sign.

View of LA behind the Hollywood sign

We still wanted to take the other path that would take us

to get as close as we could to the front of the sign.

Walking back to our car.

We especially liked this house because it was huge!

Beautiful Prayer Lilies!

There were some pretty odd shaped homes.

Just keep walking, just keep walking, just keep walking,
walking, walking🎵

Brandon thought that the roofing on the house we
parked by was cool and weird at the same time.

There was an open house and I wanted to see what
a home in this area looks like, but it was closed.

First look at the Chinese Theater

Cool Chinese lion thingy
(Aunt Kathy says it's a Foo Dog)

I thought that the Rock's hands would
be a lot bigger than it was.

💕

As we were walking back to the car we tried to just focus on
the stars on the floor so that we didn't weren't scared by scandalously dressed, strange people and did not accept items from crazy street performers.

Hey look! A gym!

We made it to our room!

Day 2

Friday

Our trail to Sacred Cove

The Ocean!

Stroll'n

This is what we acted like the whole way there.

We liked how the trail was so different from what we had seen before.

Love, love the flowers!

We made it!

Wowow!! There was 5 seals basking in the sun on the rocks.

On the search for sea shells.

That looks interesting.

I walked up to the cavity in the cliff expecting it to be bigger, but it was still cool.

Seaweed jump rope

There is a tunnel in the cliff that leads to the other side.

The waves were pretty vigorous.

Brandon found a crab!

Tidal pool critters

Model status

After we were done with the Cove we wanted a more traditional beach.

Brandon practically baptized himself in the ocean.

Brandon wanted me to go in too, but I refused

because it was cold out and windy.

What is better than making a Brandon out of sand at the beach?

Base layer of my sand sculpting.

Someone walked by and said in Spanish "Jesus?"

We covered Brandon's face so he didn't get sand all over it.

Beached Mermaid!

Brandon is a hot Mermaid!

Sun set on the Santa Monica Pier.

On the end of the Pier

We loved the Beach!

Day 3

Saturday

Yummy breakfast at the hotel.

We're entering Six Flags!!

We were hyped to get on Brandon's first roller coaster Tatsu!

Brandon got motion sickness from riding Viper and Tatsu, but Dad and I were type X!

The website describes X2 as: Your 360-degree seats extend on wings far off the track. So while you are careening down the rails at 76 miles per hour through an unreal assortment of dives, flips and twists, as well as two ultra-rare “raven turns” — half loops that change their minds midway and become sheer drops—your body will also be flipping around 360-degrees over and over again. Quite simply, you will be spun into another dimension.

Having fun waiting in line for The New Revolution virtual reality roller coaster!

The website describes it as: In partnership with Samsung Gear VR and Oculus, The New Revolution is equipped with wireless headsets that, while wearing, allow you enter a virtual world with high-resolution imagery and 360-degree views that synchronize to the action of the coaster.