Family Fun on the West Coast
July 3rd & 4th, 2008
Happy Independence Day to everyone! I would also like to say that I am so glad to be on the west coast finally, I feel like I starting a whole new chapter of my trip or something, good bye desert hello beaches! Also today marks the first day of visiting my family on the west coast. I took a roundabout way from Phil’s and ended up on the coast and I got to see the pacific for the first time ever! It was amazing, I got to the coast at just the right time as the sun was setting, and there were tons of people getting ready for the big weekend with their motor homes and all at the beaches. 
The beaches and the waves were awesome. Seeing the pacific was such a relief, I was so glad to have finally made it all this way from coast to coast! There are two things I realized after being in southern California, A.) there is a fair shair of traffic and B.) everyone has really nice cars here, oh and C.) you can lane split! Not knowing exactly what lane splitting is I learned after phil told me. Apparently since it gets pretty hot here motorcycles used to overheat while stuck in traffic so a law was passed in California which allows motorcycles to drive between the lanes when traffic is moving slowly this kept bikes moving so that they would not overheat. Well being my first time ever on a southern California freeway and being stuck in traffic I started lane splitting but keep in mind I have a lot more on my motorcycle than the regular little sport bike, and all I could think about as I was riding between traffic that one of my boxes is going to knock off some expensive Mercedes side mirror. 
Luck have it I didn’t bump into anything and I made it through the traffic to the coast. So I rode down the Pacific Coast Highway for about 20 miles from about Seal Beach to roughly Newport Beach I then cut inland to my Aunt Barb and Uncle Mike’s. I was really looking forward to finally getting to the west coast to see all my aunts and uncles and cousins out here. When I got to Barb and Mike’s they had pizza and beer ready and waiting, just what every weary road traveler could want. It was really great to just relax and talk with them and chill out on their amazing backyard patio with a grill that could be featured on HGTV!
In California, backyards are like second living rooms, it is just so nice outside that you just can’t pass up the awesome opportunity to relax outside, plus Barb and Mike have a really great patio overlooking a really great skyline. The next day I awoke refreshed and ready to take whatever the 4th had coming for me. Barb and Mike took me to a really fun lake slash pool party at a place called Lake Forest. It was like a big neighborhood party and I got to meet all their friends and there were plenty of frosty beverages there as well. My uncle Mike and I enjoyed a lot of carnsade tacos, which were really tasty and something I never really had before. The fireworks were also very awesome to watch; they floated this huge barge out into the middle of the lake and launched tons of fireworks. 
The next day I had to sadly leave Barb and Mike’s it was great to see them however there was one more thing we had to do before I left, and that was go to In and Out Burger, which really hit the spot. I was so glad that they took me there and it was just as good as I had anticipated it to be, we all got Double Doubles which is two patties with cheese and all the toppings and stuff, but you can get as many patties as you want on an In and Out Burger. I also picked up a nice new In and Out bumper sticker for Maverick. After a great lunch it was time to hit the road again. Barb and Mike suggested I go through southern Laguna Beach which was great because it really was a cool beach town to drive through, I really liked all the cliffs and beaches and houses precariously perched on the cliffs as if they could topple into the ocean below at any second. Any description I could write here about the beaches and the cliffs of Southern Laguna would not do it justice, nor would any picture I put up. 
To say the least California has an amazing coast line down here. So I rode the Pacific Coast Highway for a ways through all the different beach towns and I made my way to Seal beach where I turned inland again to my Aunt Nancy and Uncle Kurt’s. Now my uncle Kurt has a garage of garages, something I really was not prepared for. He has every tool you could imagine, and as my aunt Nancy says, he even has tools to fix tools. Mav also had some company in the garage, because there were two other motorcycles, a 400 cc Honda dirt bike and a perfect condition 80 cc 1972 yamaha enduro which my uncle completely restored. 
We got the powerwasher out and hosed down maverick, which I haven’t done in a long time, or come to think of it ever! We also cleaned out the air filter which to my surprise was not as dirty as I through it was going to be. I really thought I had done some harder riding which was not indicated by the almost clean air filter. Tomorrow Mav is going to get some more TLC and my uncle and I are going to work on tightening the chain.
The beaches and the waves were awesome. Seeing the pacific was such a relief, I was so glad to have finally made it all this way from coast to coast! There are two things I realized after being in southern California, A.) there is a fair shair of traffic and B.) everyone has really nice cars here, oh and C.) you can lane split! Not knowing exactly what lane splitting is I learned after phil told me. Apparently since it gets pretty hot here motorcycles used to overheat while stuck in traffic so a law was passed in California which allows motorcycles to drive between the lanes when traffic is moving slowly this kept bikes moving so that they would not overheat. Well being my first time ever on a southern California freeway and being stuck in traffic I started lane splitting but keep in mind I have a lot more on my motorcycle than the regular little sport bike, and all I could think about as I was riding between traffic that one of my boxes is going to knock off some expensive Mercedes side mirror. Luck have it I didn’t bump into anything and I made it through the traffic to the coast. So I rode down the Pacific Coast Highway for about 20 miles from about Seal Beach to roughly Newport Beach I then cut inland to my Aunt Barb and Uncle Mike’s. I was really looking forward to finally getting to the west coast to see all my aunts and uncles and cousins out here. When I got to Barb and Mike’s they had pizza and beer ready and waiting, just what every weary road traveler could want. It was really great to just relax and talk with them and chill out on their amazing backyard patio with a grill that could be featured on HGTV! In California, backyards are like second living rooms, it is just so nice outside that you just can’t pass up the awesome opportunity to relax outside, plus Barb and Mike have a really great patio overlooking a really great skyline. The next day I awoke refreshed and ready to take whatever the 4th had coming for me. Barb and Mike took me to a really fun lake slash pool party at a place called Lake Forest. It was like a big neighborhood party and I got to meet all their friends and there were plenty of frosty beverages there as well. My uncle Mike and I enjoyed a lot of carnsade tacos, which were really tasty and something I never really had before. The fireworks were also very awesome to watch; they floated this huge barge out into the middle of the lake and launched tons of fireworks. The next day I had to sadly leave Barb and Mike’s it was great to see them however there was one more thing we had to do before I left, and that was go to In and Out Burger, which really hit the spot. I was so glad that they took me there and it was just as good as I had anticipated it to be, we all got Double Doubles which is two patties with cheese and all the toppings and stuff, but you can get as many patties as you want on an In and Out Burger. I also picked up a nice new In and Out bumper sticker for Maverick. After a great lunch it was time to hit the road again. Barb and Mike suggested I go through southern Laguna Beach which was great because it really was a cool beach town to drive through, I really liked all the cliffs and beaches and houses precariously perched on the cliffs as if they could topple into the ocean below at any second. Any description I could write here about the beaches and the cliffs of Southern Laguna would not do it justice, nor would any picture I put up. To say the least California has an amazing coast line down here. So I rode the Pacific Coast Highway for a ways through all the different beach towns and I made my way to Seal beach where I turned inland again to my Aunt Nancy and Uncle Kurt’s. Now my uncle Kurt has a garage of garages, something I really was not prepared for. He has every tool you could imagine, and as my aunt Nancy says, he even has tools to fix tools. Mav also had some company in the garage, because there were two other motorcycles, a 400 cc Honda dirt bike and a perfect condition 80 cc 1972 yamaha enduro which my uncle completely restored. We got the powerwasher out and hosed down maverick, which I haven’t done in a long time, or come to think of it ever! We also cleaned out the air filter which to my surprise was not as dirty as I through it was going to be. I really thought I had done some harder riding which was not indicated by the almost clean air filter. Tomorrow Mav is going to get some more TLC and my uncle and I are going to work on tightening the chain.July 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th, 2008
Time with family is always time well spent. So the past couple days have been absolutely amazing! I got to spend the past few days catching up with all my west coast aunts, uncles and cousins, and needless to say I sure do love it out here in California. 
There is honestly more things to do out here than I could fit into my schedule, so looks like I’ll be coming back this way again. So to give you a step by step of the past few days would take me forever but I will give you the highlights. So Maverick got a lot of good attention while I was at my Aunt Nancy and Uncle Kurt’s, I don’t know if I already talked about it but their garage is absolutely amazing, every tool I could imagine was in there. Mav had been running pretty rough and I knew I had to tighten up the chain so Kurt and I were doing some chain maintenance and we noticed that the chain was binding after we tightened it and then after further inspection turns out the chain was missing some of the rollers which was a big no no. So the next day Kurt picked up a great new fresh chain for Mav along with a new spark plug. In the mean time I got to spend some quality time with my cousin Christy and her friends which was awesome. She showed me all over southern California. 
For my first adventure Christy, her boyfriend Tommy, and her friend Chrissy, took me to Venice Beach which was quite an experience. Venice if you’ve never been or heard about it, well I don’t even think I can describe it. To give you an idea of what Venice is like I am going to have to take an excerpt from my trusty ‘Let’s Go, Road Tripping USA’, Venice’s main beachfront drag is a seaside circus of fringe culture. “Street people converge on beaches, evangelists drown out off color comedians and body builders pump iron at muscle beach”. Yes that’s right people muscle beach, I went there, with all of its glory and overly tanned bodies. On our trip to Venice we also made a stop in at the Venice Freak Show, where I got to pet a boa constrictor, and a five footed dog, and I even met the famous Wolf Boy from the Guinness book of world records who’s entire face is covered in hair. 
We watched a bunch of the street performers, and I saw a guy literally jump over eight people and do a flip in the air, it was quite a site to see! After an awesome dinner of real Ramen for once courtesy of Tommy, we went to Beard Papa which was equally amazing, we got these pastries which had vanilla cream in them and Tommy and I devoured them. The next day Christy took me to Huntington Beach with Tommy and her friend Jenn, where we watched the surfers got some rays. 
We all grabbed lunch on the Huntining Pear at Ruby’s which was again amazing. I got a cheeseburger on a grilled parmesan roll with an avocado, and did I mention Ruby’s has unlimited baskets of fries! That evening we all went to a comedy club and even though we missed most or all of the show we did laugh a good amount. 
I was rather sad to be leaving the southern California area the next day because I had so much fun seeing all my family! And I cannot thank all my aunts and uncles and cousins for everything they did for me this past week! I can’t wait to come back and see everyone again!
There is honestly more things to do out here than I could fit into my schedule, so looks like I’ll be coming back this way again. So to give you a step by step of the past few days would take me forever but I will give you the highlights. So Maverick got a lot of good attention while I was at my Aunt Nancy and Uncle Kurt’s, I don’t know if I already talked about it but their garage is absolutely amazing, every tool I could imagine was in there. Mav had been running pretty rough and I knew I had to tighten up the chain so Kurt and I were doing some chain maintenance and we noticed that the chain was binding after we tightened it and then after further inspection turns out the chain was missing some of the rollers which was a big no no. So the next day Kurt picked up a great new fresh chain for Mav along with a new spark plug. In the mean time I got to spend some quality time with my cousin Christy and her friends which was awesome. She showed me all over southern California. For my first adventure Christy, her boyfriend Tommy, and her friend Chrissy, took me to Venice Beach which was quite an experience. Venice if you’ve never been or heard about it, well I don’t even think I can describe it. To give you an idea of what Venice is like I am going to have to take an excerpt from my trusty ‘Let’s Go, Road Tripping USA’, Venice’s main beachfront drag is a seaside circus of fringe culture. “Street people converge on beaches, evangelists drown out off color comedians and body builders pump iron at muscle beach”. Yes that’s right people muscle beach, I went there, with all of its glory and overly tanned bodies. On our trip to Venice we also made a stop in at the Venice Freak Show, where I got to pet a boa constrictor, and a five footed dog, and I even met the famous Wolf Boy from the Guinness book of world records who’s entire face is covered in hair. We watched a bunch of the street performers, and I saw a guy literally jump over eight people and do a flip in the air, it was quite a site to see! After an awesome dinner of real Ramen for once courtesy of Tommy, we went to Beard Papa which was equally amazing, we got these pastries which had vanilla cream in them and Tommy and I devoured them. The next day Christy took me to Huntington Beach with Tommy and her friend Jenn, where we watched the surfers got some rays. We all grabbed lunch on the Huntining Pear at Ruby’s which was again amazing. I got a cheeseburger on a grilled parmesan roll with an avocado, and did I mention Ruby’s has unlimited baskets of fries! That evening we all went to a comedy club and even though we missed most or all of the show we did laugh a good amount. I was rather sad to be leaving the southern California area the next day because I had so much fun seeing all my family! And I cannot thank all my aunts and uncles and cousins for everything they did for me this past week! I can’t wait to come back and see everyone again!
posted by Nick @ 1:27 PM
0 Comments
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home