Ever since my mother had me she always talked about California and how she used to live there and how much she loved it there. She was always talking about going but we never got around to it. During my freshman year, about one week after the second quarter ending and over four years of planning, we decided to go. Our plane left from Minnesota at 5:35 AM so my dad and I just stayed awake because we were leaving our house to go to Minnesota at one. It was the longest car ride of my life because I was so anxious to get on that big of a plane.
After arriving we waited at the airport for a good hour or two until our plane left as soon as we boarded the plane, I saw my seat and it just so happened to be a window seat. The only other person in our family that had a window seat besides me was my mother. While flying, I was constantly looking out of the window at the big white clouds. It was a four-hour plane ride and it was extremely boring because I had nothing to do. When we landed at LAX we saw all of the palm trees and it was 90 degrees outside since just coming from Minnesota in the middle of the winter we were surprised on how hot it was.
When I say it was hot, I mean it was HOT. Like very sunny and nothing like the weather we had just left back in Minnesota. Within ten minutes of landing at LAX my mom and dad already saw someone famous, I still don’t know who he is, but he was a tattoo guy with his own TV show. Then it was time for my moms brother to come get us. When we landed my moms brother Matt came and picked us up from the airport and took us to our hotel where we were staying until we went to Disneyland. After the whole Disneyland trip we went to Hollywood and walked on the stars and met tons of cool people.
The next day we went to Long Beach and swam in the ocean and collected seashells. On our last day there we went to see the Queen Mary and when I first saw it, I just remember how big it was. It was easily bigger than our school, it was just immense and I remember thinking about how they even managed to make a ship that big back then. I remember driving on a highway that went right in between the Angels stadium while a game was going on and the Honda center where Katy Perry was currently performing.
I recall rolling down the window and hearing the roar of the crowd at the baseball game and also hearing Katy Perry singing. I believe that song was Dark Horse because it had just been released. Then I had my first time eating and In-n-out burger. It was one of the best burgers I have ever had in my life and I wondered why they didn’t have any establishments in Iowa. After eating there, we sadly had to go back to LAX to catch our flight back to Minnesota. On the runway about to take off | remember not wanting to leave the people and just wanting to stay there in California.
I could tell that my mom really didn’t want to leave either mostly because she was raised in California. If I were to be ever offered to go back id say yes in a heartbeat. It was one of the longest plane rides ever because of not being able to stay there in California. While landing back in Minnesota I took one step outside in the 30-degree weather and realized that the whole trip was over. It all went by so fast and a week there felt like 2 days and it was almost impossible to take it all in with just one trip.
But the best part was, when I got home and finally got to sleep in my own bed for the first time in over a week. As soon as I had gotten home the first that I did was lay on my bed because I was jetlagged and exhausted from the plane and the car ride from Minnesota. I will never forgot the sounds of the city such as cars, buses, taxis and police cars blaring their sirens at almost every hour of the day. I will never forget the day that we went to Disneyland and seeing all of the characters in real life for the first time. Also, riding all of the rides was really fun too.
On my first day back to school from California I was surprised on how many people were asking me about my whole trip and complimenting me on being oddly tan for the middle of the winter in lowa. I could hardly tell the difference but you could apparently tell how much more tan I was than all of the other kids. The only part that I didn’t like about the trip was how long we went. If we were to stay an extra day or week, that would have been amazing. I just absolutely loved the environment there and how open and nice the people were while talking to people like me that came from half way across the country.
