Two months late-but a memory of my first real Vacation.

Of course I've taken time off for myself before, but never like this. Up until May, I haven't really gone out of state [Nevada doesn't count, that was for a work party and it was bleh]. If I took time off, it was for in-state things like Anime Banzai and certain concerts. There aren't very many bands even that I would go out of state for-unless it'd be for the GazettE/Coldrain.

The trip to LA/Anaheim was spontaneous, the minute I bought tickets for the GazettE concert back in January my brothers and I started planning. I was so anxious. I didn't want to fly at first, but now that I think about it I'm glad that we did. It was my first time flying, and it wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be. I was surprisingly calm the entire ride.

On the Second of May we flew out to LA. We left pretty late in the morning, but early enough to make it to Cali by noon. When we arrived at the airport we had to go get our rental car [my brothers didn't make me pay for it, since I wasn't driving. I did give money for gas though.] After that it was an hour drive to our resort in Anaheim.

I was thoroughly against staying in Anaheim at first. As I said, it was an hour drive [two hours if the traffic was super horrible]. I wanted to be near the concert venue, I was even adamant about it for the longest time. However, Jeff insisted that we stay in Anaheim because he wanted to go to Disneyland, which he ended up doing when I went to the concert. [It all worked out in the end, oh well.]

view from our hotel

When we got to the resort we hung out for a while, walked around the area and looked for things that we could possibly get as souvenirs. Granted, I didn't really find anything FROM California that I wanted, I ended up just buying for my family. The only thing I got from the trip was my RAD Jacket and a few items from Reida.

That night was I supposed to meet Reida, we had originally planned to eat at a Korean restaurant. We drove back, hung around Korea town for a while [all the while I'm searching for the venue]. It was a little while away from the venue, but we walked to the Wiltern and that's when I met Reida. We nearly ran across into oncoming traffic to hug each other. My brother Paul had to be like "Ashley" before I realized I couldn't cross quite yet.

I still laugh at the guy, but snagged this photo.

Meeting Reida was fun, since we've been talking for almost two years at that point I believe. We always talked about meeting, I even had made plans [that sadly failed] of going to Seattle for the fun of it and meeting her. I never really thought that we'd be able to meet like this however. When I was asked my both my Mom and brother why I didn't choose to Dallas show, I simply said I based my decision off where my friends were going. Which most of them were going to LA, but I ended up only meeting/talking to Reida.

We went out for Korean BBQ, which I already forgot the name of the Restaurant that we went to. It was one of those restaurants that you had to cook your own meal, and since I don't know much about Korean food [other than the one near my work] I was a bit nervous. It was still good food however, and it was nice to hang out with Reida and talk to her a bit.

I don't remember much of what we talked about, but we simply talked about GazettE and the concert the next day. After that we gave Reida a ride to Little Tokyo to meet up with her hotel mates [?] and went back to Anaheim to go to sleep after that. After we dropped her off though, my brother said he needed to go to a restroom so we stopped at a nearby Mcdonalds and the area was sort of shady so we were nervous.

Ended up having to pay to use the restroom, which I never heard of. Also, some guy tried to sell him his cell phone. [?]

I surprisingly went to bed easily that night.

I was first to go to sleep, and first to wake up! Not gonna talk about the actual concert, that was in another post before this one. I arrived there at around 9 in the morning, got breakfast [which was the only meal I had all day] and hung around until the concert started up.

That night I couldn't sleep. I was so hyped up after the concert, that I went to 'sleep' for two hours and woke up at 4 and stayed up the rest of the night. I ended up staying out in the balcony so I wouldn't bother my brothers with anything. I listened to the GazettE while looking out at the night and pondering the concert.

At around 8 I woke my brothers up, I seriously needed an actual meal in my stomach and I needed it soon or else I was gonna die. [Okay I wouldn't die, but]

We didn't really have a plan for that day, but I really wanted to see the Ocean. So we decided to head out to breakfast, then get ready for the beach. I didn't pack any swimwear, which I wish I had-at the same time though it wouldn't matter. It was too cold to go into the water. We had originally planned on going to Venice beach, but decided on Newport as it was closer and we didn't want to deal with LA traffic again.

Balboa beach was really REALLY pretty. I felt at peace there. I didn't even have time to have post-concert depression because I was so happy here. We didn't do much other than stick our feet in the water, find a restaurant with some good seafood in and shopped around. I got my dad a hoodie, and my mom some trinkets.

I forgot what I had gotten my sister though, but I got Harley a seashell that he could hear the ocean from.

I can't really think of anything else to say about the trip, other than the food was REALLY good and I miss it. Surprisingly the best meal I had the entire trip was at the LA international airport. We only ate Asian food too! We found a local Filipino restaurant and she made us homemade Pork Adobo....mmmm...

I also got to try bibinka for the first time.

Salmon

Pork Adobo and Bibinka

 The next way we went home!

And that's about it for my Cali trip!