AMERICAAA

I still have the second part of my vacation to write about.. But totally cbb right now. I think the many pictures will suffice. Took a hell of a lot more photos during the east coast trip then in our stay in SoCal.

Highlights of East Coast Trip:

• Florida minus the humid icky weather.
• Orlando DisneyWorld-Teacup rideee *wooo*
• Universal Studios and Island of Adventure FL- more rollercoasters
  
• Roadtrip and all the places we stopped by ie. North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia
  
• Washington - standing in front of Whitehouse! OBAMA
• Lincoln Memorial and other momuments
  
• New Jersey - driving through the ghetto neighbourhoods, SIX FLAGS (again)
  
• Statue of Liberty
  
• NEW YORK - Times Square, Madison Square Gardens, Empire State Building, Pedicab ride through the streets of NY, whole NY atmosphere (literally the city that never sleeps)
• NEW YORK STYLE PIZZA ! ohh man *drools*
  
• Meeting Family and friends for the first time

Downside though, during the trip Dad lost his (recently bought for the trip) SLR Camera. At least it was during the second half of the trip. Lost it after a day in Universal Studios FL. Luckily we still had the pictures we took during our Disneyworld trip. Sucks though--the people at Universal Studios we're absolutely no help. Dad was smart enough to upload the photos the night they were taken so we didn't lose too many photos except for the ones taken on that day. Rest of the trip was documented with my trusty little cannon camera :)

After our two week trip up and down the east coast we made our way back to SD. We came back with almost double the amount of luggage than when we left, with all the shopping we did.

During our last day our uncle took us all to the San Diego Navy Base where he was situated. A lot of people from our family in SD are either in the navy or marine corp, or married/related to someone in the navy or marine corp. Sal (husband of newly married cousin) is also an ex marine so we got a lot of freebies like discounted and tax free shopping, and free tickets to local attractions. But yes uncle took us to the base where he showed us around, and we even got the chance to watch new recruit navy guys training in a simulated situation where they had to try and escape a room that resembled the inside of a submarine whilst it was being filled with litres and litres of water. It was pretty interesting and not to mention a couple were pretty damn good looking lol. We walked around some more and ran into a few other army/marine (can't distinguish) men who continued to salute uncle everytime we were greeted. We realised that the whole recruitment in the army was a big thing in America and something that was encouraged by many families. After the base we went to a local Vietnamese joint and had some lunch then headed back home where I went straight to bed bloated and knackered by the recent days travelling.

Later that night our older cousin Eden left work early to spend our last night with her. She took us to our other favourite food joint Laulita's (spelling?) to try our favourite mexican dish Carne asada fries. It's a popular dish in SD and apparently is the best tasting the closer you get to mexico, and since SD is only an hour away, the dish tastes soooo legit-ly delicious! It's basically french fries topped with sour cream, hot sauce, lots and lots of cheddar cheese, guacamole, hot sauce, topped with beef strips--im salivating yet again!
After filling our tummies we headed to Eden's work downtown were a couple of her colleagues were still hard out at work despite it being late in the evening. She showed us around then we headed back out towards Belmont Park--an amusement park located right next to the beach. We rode on a few rides that had our stomachs turning and ready to chunder all the yummy food we had, but of course we didn't because that would be such a waste haha. Grabbed some ice-cream and walked down the boardwalk to check the place out. It was a really beautiful place, to me it epitomised Coney Island with all the kids off on their summer break hanging by the beach at night having fun. It was such a chillaxed and beachy atmosphere. LOL also on the way back to the carpark we saw a couple having sex on the beach--no pun intended. Clearly they didn't care that there were still a few people walking up and down the boardwalk and that they were still visible despite it being late at night. Either that or they were off their face and didn't care haha.

We got back home and presented Randy with the Birthday gift we bought him. He liked the recorded voice message we left on his card with our exaggerated aussie accents! Spent the remainder of the night and early morning chatting with Randy and sharing scary stories which he had a lot of. Had a lot of laughs and trying to make the most of our remaining time. Woke up early the next day to say our goodbyes to Eden and Randy before they left for work...sad. Had lunch, took more photos, finished packing our bags which was now 8 altogether and made our 2hr drive to LAX airport which we finally had our last goodbyes before we flew back to SYDNEY!

I LOVED LOVED LOVED every bit of our vacation. I got the chance visit places that I used to only see in movies and met a lot of people who I'd never met before including relatives but there were also a few places I wished we spent a little more time to sight see and go to ie. New York, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Francisco but no worries I definitely want to go back after im 21. Ahh I miss them all ! They made sure that we had a great time and we did. Huge thank you to all of them. Can't wait till they make there 13+hr trip here one day :)