Excursion 2: Santa Monica

The balmy winter temperature of 30 ish degrees (hows summer Wellington?) had the beach calling our name.  When we first touched down in California way back in December it was foggy and bleh in Santa Monica. So we made the most of the glorious weather and jumped on a bus out to the pacific!!

coolest dog on the pier 

BIGGEST DOG EVER!

hot firemen. nuff said.

this was going to be a really cool touristy shot with the ferris wheel in the background. instead we have a great shot of the back of that guys head. its not even a good photobomb. thanks guy.

Excursion 1: SoCal

Our first excursion was one out of necessity. We had a giant box of clothes at a friend of Glen's in Southern Cali, and two more bags of stuff at Kirsten's Aunt's in LA so we got a car and made a day of it.

Laguna Beach! exactly how you think from the TV show, only no bitchy teenagers that we could see.

Newport Harbor was very very pretty. (also like the tv show... sensing a trend here?)

We were running out of daylight so we did a drive by past Huntington Beach, grabbed some dinner and then ventured to Mulholland Drive to check out the view... and may or may not have stumbled upon Benjamin Bratt. outside his house. not stalkers at all.

All in all, great adventure; and it was like Christmas morning rediscovering all our clothes again!!

An Overdue Update...

ok ok apologies... we haven't been very good at updating this thing since we finished officially travelling... and by 'not very good' we mean we haven't updated it at all. SORRY!

When we last left you, we were parting ways with the lovely Costa Rica headed for Los Angeles.

Good news! After spending two months putting off thinking about it, and then a week freaking out about it, we had absolutely no issues re-entering the US. we sailed through immigration without a care in the world! re-entry success!!

the next two days were spent in what we look back on now fondly as quarantine. Kinda like what animals go through when you move them overseas. Still being very sick with the Contiki Cough *thanks to Sarah for that one* we were in a hotel close to the airport, sleeping, doing washing, and trying to expel as much mucus as humanly possible. yummy.

Fast forward a few days, and we were jumping out of the taxi at "Mansfield" our new temporary home. Literally a lifesaver, Laura's mothers cousin (aka second cousin aka Emma) lives and works in LA and offered us her guest house until we get sorted. It is very cute. and WAY nicer than what we can imagine living under the 101 would be like.  A studio apartment type set up, we have our own kitchen, bathroom, and a comfy bed!

  

We have been here almost 3 weeks, and although we would like to boast about our glamorous Hollywood lifestyle, its really not that. We lined up at the Social Security office for an hour so we could get our number. that was exciting. We also got a bank account. These kind of errands give us reasons to put pants on. Other than that we generally spend each and every day searching for jobs.

Of course there are a few perks, we are a short walk away from The Grove, so wander down to get a coffee or celeb spotting fix every now and then. We get to play cars and hang out with Casper, Emma and Harry's 2 and a half year old son. ADORABLE. And were pretty centrally located for all other excursions.

Short entries to come all about our trips to Laguna Beach, New Port Harbour, Santa Monica, Venice, Long Beach, and our real life David Duchovney encounter. But its Tuesday night, and this is the BEST night on television over here so bear with us. babysteps people. x

Costa Rica Day Four

Up for breakfast at 8.30am today, but then Andi couldn’t hack the early hour so went back to bed.

Meanwhile Laura opted to spend the morning chillaxing by the pool lying in the sun until it got too hot at midday. With Andi still sleeping, it meant more time out in the sun/shade/sweating up a storm for Laura (but whatever, we were making the most of the chill time of our vacation!).

The result, Andi is well rested, and Laura is no longer transparent... a little bit pink, but the kind of pink that goes brown.

Stomachs rumbling, we jumped on a bus (getting the hang of this) and went down to Quepos where get this, they have a SUBWAY! One delicious lunch with all the English/American tourists this side of the island later, and we hit a variety store to grab a cheap bag we could stuff with some stuff to check in on the plane as we have lots of bag allowance on this flight home!

Grabbed some food for dinner later on and went back to the hotel.

At 3pm is the sun has gone down a teency fraction so its a little less hot. – by a little we mean its still hot enough to sweat like a maniac, but you can sit in it. So we lay by the pool for a little bit and just tried to soak up as much of the island sun as possible on our last day of vacation.

We spent the evening repacking our suitcases (for the last time!) and watching the Grammys.

AND freaking out about the bugs in the bed/on the floor around the bed and spraying our insect repellent as our only form of bug spray and defence against the bugs under the bed. Again. worst two people to be in a hotel in the rainforest ever.

Costa Rica Day Three

With our bodies still needing more sleep time, we flagged breakfast this morning and slept until midday. At which point we dragged ourselves out of bed and out into the hot hot sun and bussed down to Manuel Antonio to have lunch and a browse round the little touristy shops.

It was hot. Very hot.

We attempted to spend some time on the beach. But it was hot.

Back at the hotel later that afternoon, we dipped our legs in the pool and sat in the slightly cooler sun for a little bit before retreating to our airconditioned room for some job search googling and dinner, then we watched The Hunger Games and went to bed. AFTER we had housekeeping change the sheets because we found ants on the bed. *worst girls to be in a rainforest ever.

- Not very exciting, but this was dedicated relaxation time.

Manuel Antonio National Park

Who were the idiot girls who had spent the last 2 weeks living on pure adrenaline and minimal sleep then opted for a 7.30am pick up on day 1 of the relaxing part of the holiday? US.

And those same girls managed to sleep through several alarms and wake up at 7.28am. serious fail.

We threw on the first items of clothing we could find, then Laura ran up to reception to find our tour guide and ask him very nicely to wait 10minutes, while Andi threw some things into a bag and we made a dash to the restaurant to grab breakfast to eat in the car on the way to the park. Luckily Freddy (tour guide) was lovely and found it hilarious as he had slept in also.

** sidebar: everyone in Costa Rica is called Freddy **

We arrived at the park and met up with another couple who would be joining us on our hike and set off on our animal adventure!

We saw so many cute animals!! Deer, hummingbirds, Bats, turtles, crabs, spiders, iguanas, and of course SLOTHS! Two toed and three toed. So. Cute.

The hike took us down to the best beach on the island, but it was so hot we took a couple of photos and hid in the shade for a drink before we headed off on our return loop.

Freddy dropped us off back at our hotel and we crashed. Very little sleep lead us both to spend the rest of the afternoon napping and googling/facebooking because WE LOCATED THE HOTEL WIFI. Hashtag thirdworldproblems.

In between sleeping and googling we ate some dinner and watched whatever we could find on tv that was in English and then went to sleep again for the night.