ten years in the making.
Beware: Marathon blog post. Maybe grab a cuppa first if you’re going to be in it for the long haul.
This month, we have been married ten years. It feels like we always have been. I can’t remember or imagine life without him. He is my other half in the truest sense of the words. I am the most blessed woman in so many ways…but I am especially blessed to be his.
One thing we are not good at as a couple is holidays. We have never taken a ‘big’ holiday together; our honeymoon was on the Gold Coast. We had always talked about doing something special for ten years, but time was rapidly approaching and nothing was organised. We originally wanted to go to Canada but being the avid sports fans that we are 
we didn’t realise Vancouver would be in full Olympic spirit by then and all costs would double. We then looked into one of the beautiful islands up north…but we just couldn’t get excited about it. Neither of us are lay-on-the-beach-all-day kinda people.
Then…California came into the equation. Suddenly, we were both so excited and we booked it all. Ten nights, an RV and no schedule. We couldn’t wait. Finally the time came, we kissed our precious two goodbye and left them to the spoiling of Nanna and Pa. Twelve hours and a lot of movies and bad food later, we were there.
I know none of my close friends would believe it, but I actually came up with the idea of the RV. Because we were there for such a short time, the last thing we wanted was to waste any time checking in and out of hotels and packing and re-packing bags. We had no idea what it was going to be like, but I’m so glad we did. It was awesome.
We rented a small one as it was just the two of us. We picked it up, unpacked our bags and off we went. Or rather, off we went at a snails pace, on the wrong side of the road and with a very jet lagged driver. Full kitchen, bathroom and heating – what more could you want.
Disney. I’ve been before as a kid and to be honest, I was worried it wouldn’t be what I remembered. I was wrong. It was better. We ran around like two hyper kids; we just had the best time and decided we make great tacky tourists. The effort they go to, the detail of everything will never cease to amaze me. There is a magic to Disney that sucks you right in and we absolutely can’t wait to take the kids back next time.
Last time I went to Disney there was only Disney. Now there is also California Adventure and Downtown Disney which has turned the whole area into what I refer to as Disney City. California Adventure is home to a whole lot of rides and one mighty huge roller coaster – California Screamin’. Steve loves thrill rides; me not so much but I agreed to go on this monstrosity of a coaster. I figured it would all be over quickly. Wrong.
We entered the coaster from one side of the pier – the side where you couldnt see the start of the coaster. We got on, it ambled it’s way slowly around a corner and stopped. I looked at Steve and started to say, “ummm…what is goin…” when I hear this:
“ALLLRIIGHT SCREAMERS!! HEAD BACK, FACE FORWARD AND HANG ON!!!! FIVE…FOUR…THREE….TWO….ONE…..”
Um, no. I did not sign up for this.
We blasted up the first hill at speeds no human body should ever experience, then whilst my stomach and my lungs exhanged places we careened down the other side at a 160 degree angle. My scream resembled someone being stabbed to death in a dark alley. All Steve could do was hold my arm and say “it’s okayayayay….” as we launched into the next death defying drop. The whole thing lasts around five minutes…it’s not your usual 45 second coaster so my terror was wonderfully extended. Steve basically had to carry me off the ride but was gentlemanly enough to wait until I was sure I wasn’t going to spew before he went to line up to go again.
Here’s a daytime photo showing the sheer size of this evil equipment – it runs the entire width of the park.
We spent this first day and a half at Disney then headed off to San Francisco. Such a beautiful drive through the mountains and due to the overcast weather, we saw some amazing skies. When the sun came out and bounced off the mountains…well, photos just can’t do it justice.
My beautiful friend Erin flew over from Texas to visit us in San Fran. In total, we have spent about three days together since we first met in person last year, but I feel like I grew up with her next door. It’s likely a lot of time will pass without us seeing each other throughout our friendship, but she’s the sort of person that makes you feel no time has passed at all. The only thing missing was our Stace who couldn’t get away from work 
Our first morning in San Fran we headed down to the pier and the Musee Mechanique; a museum for all things of vintage penny arcade origins. There were machines from the late 1800’s in there – it was just fascinating. We had an absolute ball and spent two hours using up quarters with abandon and laughing ourselves stupid. Most of them you just had to put in a quarter out of sheer morbid curiosity to see what the thing would do. Our personal favourite was the french execution – the curtain went up, a little figurine scene played out someone being decapitated then the curtain went down. I guess quality family entertainment in the early 1900’s was hard to come by. Note the one of Steve watching the XXX rated movie. If ladies from the 1920’s in corsets and petticoats get your motor running, then he can highly recommend it.
Now for a bit of everything San Francisco – the standard landmarks and the not so standard…such as Kate’s Kitchen, where the locals line up outside to wait for pancakes the size of a dinner plate. In all these photos of me, my core body temperature was minus five. It. was. freezing. I survived on Starbucks (Krysta, I know you’re proud!) We found all the tours to be fascinating as they give you so much history. Even with average weather, it’s hard to miss what an amazing city San Francisco is.
We spent a few days in San Francisco then drove back toward LA. We decided to make total tourists of ourselves and do a LA/Hollywood/Santa Monica/beaches tour and it was well worth it too. The guys that run these tour buses just amaze me – they know everything. If you ever came up against them on Who wants to be a Millionaire, you’d be toast.
A few explanations for the following photos…
The boobs. I have never seen a mannequin with bad boys this size before. Obviously Hollywood has it’s own set of measurements for silicone.
Mel Gibson. They’re pushing his new movie on every second billboard. Thinking maybe dumping his wife and shacking up with a Brazillian may not have been the smartest move for the box office.
Seven Eleven. I have it on good authority this is where Hugh Grant did the dirty with the working girl. Eight million per movie and the best place he can think of is a seven eleven carpark. The definition of money not buying class.
The doctor is…not in.Venice Beach is full of “doctors” ready and waiting to give you a perscription for marijuana – it’s legal in California. Just walk along Venice Beach and you’ll injest enough third party smoke to keep you going for a while. Let’s just say I held very tight to Steve’s hand while we were at Venice.
Wow. When I was looking through all the photos I was amazed to see the cross in the foreground to the Hollywood sign – the only other noticeable landmark in the photo. I didn’t see it when I took the picture.
And a few favourites. I snapped these few walking along the Santa Monica pier. Steve loves making fun of me when I’m trying to be arty and was making rude gestures in our shadows. That’s when I took the one of him with his best cheeky grin.
For those that are blissfully unaware, I am a huge Eagles fan. Our tour guide was telling us about how the song Hotel California was named after this hotel and I was almost falling out of the bus trying to get a picture out the window. He kindly pulled over for a few seconds so Steve could get one of me. Now all I need is a photo of me standing on a corner in Winslow Arizona and my personal groupie album will be complete.
Our last couple of days were spent hanging around Los Angeles, having our photos taken by the great Nate from Image is Found photography and sleeping in. The day we left we met up with Dee who happened to be over in LA as well. Dee used to live in LA so we were spoilt with our own personal guide and driver for the afternoon. She took us down to Hermosa Beach where I got some photos of the Californian girl herself…and doesn’t she play it well.
Then she tooks this one of us just before we left for the airport. We were happy, relaxed and ready to see our babies.
One more thing…
I know I have said already how much I adore my husband. But wait, because you’re about to adore him too.
On the morning of our anniversary I was feeling a pretty blah. We’d woken to a very wet day which was going to get in the way of our plans. Steve said he had a present for me. He got out the laptop and played our wedding video. The wedding video I have never been able to watch because it was recorded on some fangle-dangled high quality tapes and had never got put onto VHS, let alone DVD. So on the morning of our tenth anniversary, we sat on holiday in our RV and watched our wedding for the first time.
What do you reckon – should I keep him for at least another ten?
xoxo
