day 4

pics: santa monica pier!
the view from our hotel balcony at marina del rey
us at the field of flowers
us saying goodbye in san diego. we love our solara convertible!


well, sadly, it was time to leave san diego on monday morning. we had another great lola carmen breakfast and packed up our stuff. auntie caroline had an emergency she had to go in for a patient (she is a dentist). when she got back, we drove around to some of the model homes-but they were all closed until 1. but they were SOOO nice. did i already mention we want to move there. my parents have already boycotted the idea saying they would keep our children if we did so. haha.

we got on the road and started our trip up to LA. we stopped in carlsbad and checked out the field of flowers my aunt suggested. not many were in full bloom yet, but it was still very pretty!

we then continued up north. i wish i took a pic, but i didn't realize how the sun was beating down on me. i got sunburn with the seatbelt strap mark showing where it was. how lame!!!!! no amount of bronzer was fixing that mess.

we were welcomed to LA with a ton of traffic at 2pm already. yuck. we drove to our hotel in marina del rey. we found it on priceline for a really good price, they then upgraded us to a bay view room upon our arrival. sweet. the room was cozy and very nice. we were hungry and decided to check out some cool cafe everyone was raving about. we got there and it was closed. ok. it was on a park on the bay, so we walked around for a little bit. very peaceful, lots of boats, gorgeous weather.

we then decided to just drive around. we headed up to santa monica. i have always wanted to go to the pier since i was little. we drove through venice beach (which is way past its prime which was probably in the 80's). it looked like a junky ocean city, which if you know ocean city you know that is not all that great. it's one of those places you love because you grew up going there and the memories are great-not the facilities or town itself!

santa monica pier was ok. it wasn't crowded, so that was nice. we ate at bubba gump shrimp. it was fun and relaxing just to gaze at the pacific ocean. we walked around and then drove back to our hotel. we went to bed. hello, LA.