kev & mal brower: california is cool

We recently got to go to Carlsbad, California just for fun. I grew up going here with my extended family, and is (alongside Lake Powell) one of my favorite places I will continue to go to. It is always a treat for me to go here, and it never changes. We started the trip off with staying in Las Vegas with Kevins' sister Natalie and her husband Jeremy. They just recently moved here for work so we talked them into walking the strip with us for their first time. That place is crazy. And a total let down. I remember going their when I was little and all I remember was the Coke factory and the M&M factory. I told them all the treasures that were to be found there: free coke, fountains made of coke, coke from all over the world, a coke bottle that was an elevator that made coke sounds, and all the M&Ms you could ever need or want. They all didn't believe me but humored me and joined me in my quest. When we got there it was nothing like I remembered. It was just a cheezy, vegasy, souvenir shop. There was no huge fountain made of coke, no free coke, and the elevator made no sounds of a coke bottle being opened and poured. The M&M store was a let down as well. No free M&M's. Well even though It was let down, it was still a lot of fun to hang out with Natalie and Jeremy and they were so hospitable to us. Thanks guys!

Before we could go to California, Kevin had to make a skim board. This was just the first phase of making it; when he finished it looked really good.

We watched a fountain show at the Belagio. They did the show with the main song from Titanic. It was weird to see water be so...dramatic...and elegant. It was awkward. As well as this picture. Jeremy left the picture and Natalie wanted to too.. So its just Kevin and Natalie trying to leave the picture.

My Arabian husband trying to not get sunburned.

Newport Beach

Kevin took this picture at Balboa to show his dad the boat he thinks he should purchase next.

My favorite eatery in Carlsbad. Harbor Fish. Its right on the beach and oh so tasty. This is my favorite shrimp cocktail. It was only recently that I found out that it was $8.00 for each cocktail. I only figured this out with Kevin because it was my first time paying for it. All the years before that I came with my family, I would order one of these and meal. Thanks dad for paying for my expensive taste all those years.

The best fish and chips you will find. And the biggest.

On the cloudiest day (and a Friday) we decided to go to Knotts Berry Farm. Not a good idea. We pulled into the park, as well as 15 million school buses filled to the rim with kids. We should have just turned around then; but we had driven 70 minutes to get there so we really had no choice. We cringed as we heard all these kids screaming and yelling. What were we thinking? We still tried to have a good time though. Every ride was an hour or so long wait, and I know I know that is not unusual for a theme park, but being around 500 million mexican fat kids swearing makes it twenty times longer. We were definitely the minority. No one would sit by us on rides (which was fine by us). We actually used it to our advantage on our favorite ride. Many of you know of the pirate ship ride that is at every carnival, well we went on this one 3 or 4 times and we were determined to get the best seats every time. When a kid stole our favorite row, we just scouched on in with him and he quickly got out the other side and found another row. We were so happy. We also noticed that theme parks are chalk-full of fat kids. They are everywhere. We saw 3 kids get kicked off rides because they were too big. One kid was just laughing the whole time while the lady was struggling to push the protector down. We couldn't help but join him. The lady finally yelled at him and told him to help her. It made our day so much more enjoyable. Well we lasted until 3:00pm which is pretty good for us. Last time we went to Disneyland we only lasted until 2:00pm.

Our favorite pirate ship ride. Kevin loved to watch me so he tried to get a picture of my funny faces. What I really think he caught was the funny faces he makes. Oh he is so cute.

This was the coolest beach house we saw. It was in between Balboa and Newport Beach. It had cool designs on the side, the front opened like some sort of garage door so the whole front room and kitchen was in the open air, and kevins favorite part- the patch of green grass in front of it. You never see that paired with beach houses. It was very classy. Oh and also this was the beautiful skim board that Kevin made. Professional huh? Sadly, later in the trip it snapped in a big wave.

Because my dad owns a timeshare at Carlsbad Inn we got to use his VIP card (or so I call it) and got to live the resort life, with the Motel 6 price. See we stayed at the Motel 6, but only for the night. During the day we pretended we stayed at the very nice Carlsbad Inn. We got to hang out in the hot tub, use their towells, bugee boards, beach chairs, and beach shower. These bugee boards were fun until they helped you eat it hard. Thats how they worked with my anyways. The waves were pretty darn big. So we would have to go it alone in the big waves and ditch the boards sometimes.