Vacation time!

Fred writes:

 

Heya peeps!

Long time no post, but things have been hectic. This week, though, we took a bit of a break and aniki took Tia and me with him on a vacation to California.

 

The trip there was so long. Tia doesn't travel well, so kept having to stop and let her "get a breather". But the worst was when we got near to California and got into traffic. Like, oh my god! We literally spent 40 mins trapped on the interstate to go three miles!!! It was ridiculous! I don't see how all these people live in California and deal with this all the time! But luckily, we got through the traffic and aniki took us by a few used Japanese bookstores which were cool. He found manga, graphic novels and artbooks that were cool. I read a couple of them on the way to the hotel. The hotel was noisy. There was this guy who was SO loud next door that we had to ask several times to quieten down.

 

The next day was so cool! We went to Universal Studios.

They had a lot of cool rides, a lot of them with 3D stuff in them. I really liked the Mummy ride and the Jurassic Park ride where I got soaked. The studio tour had this really cool plane wreck set and they made it rain in another part.

 

 

Amazing what they can do! Aniki said he really liked the Simpsons ride which was pretty good.

 

 

They also had actors playing the characters off and on throughout the park. Though, we kept getting there right as they were leaving, but aniki finally managed to get a good shot of the one playing Bumblebee from Transformers.

 

 

 

Tia wouldn't even go on many of the rides cause she's a scaredy cat, so mostly just waited on us. Aniki said that since Aya and Zoe were in particular were "butt-hurt" about not getting to go, we'd better get them souvenirs from our trip, so we picked out some from one of the stores there.

 

Aya loved hers:

 

 

But Zoe seemed a bit pissed off about hers:

 

 

We had supper at a restaurant called Bubba Gump Shrimp which was based on this old movie that aniki likes. They did have good shrimp though. Not Tia-level of good, but still, I was stuffed. After that, we were all pooped from the long day and not getting tons of sleep, so we went back to the hotel and watched TV for a bit before crashing. Luckily, the loud guy wasn't there that night.

 

Finally, we got up and went to Volks. I wasn't too thrilled to go as I don't like dressing up and all that stuff, but aniki said I needed to go. So, we went and it wasn't that bad. It was a bit creepy at first as the ladies there was all staring at me and saying that they had never seen a "Mickey" before. Aniki later explained that they were talking about a Japanese pop star named Miki that I look a lot alike, but it was a bit creepy at first. Aniki found a few clothes and things for the others. Tia and I were occupying ourselves in their waiting area which was set up to look like a Japanese garden type place.

 

It looked like a nice place to do a bit of batting practice. One of the ladies there was jumping up, yelling and waving her hands, so I thought she was asking me to hit it towards her.

 

 

Aniki stopped me and I figured out that she was telling me not to do that in the shop. My bad.

 

 

Tia had brought along some snacks, so set up the table there with a nice spread.

 

 

Including oh so yummy doughnuts!

 

 

 

She tends to burn easily, but luckily there was a fancy umbrella nearby for her to use.

 

 

She really liked the Sakura blossoms. They seemed to relax her a lot.

 

 

I have to admit that they were pretty cool:

 

 

After we finished snacking, she picked up the leftovers for our trip back.

 

 

While I found this little guy. I asked aniki if we could take him home, but he said that we already have enough oni at home already.

 

 

After that, we headed back home. Aniki owes the swear jar about a bazillion dollars after we ran into yet more traffic on the way out. It wasn't as bad as the way in, but still was bad at times. But we made it back home ok!

 

Anyways, gotta go, but wanted to pop in and say hi while I had the chance.

 

Later all,

Fred

Looks like you had a great trip!

 

That mini Oscar is adorable!!

Looks like a lot of fun! Though I take it that there wasn't a "Scary Beyond All Reason" award for Zoe. Fred looks pretty good in that green wig even if it could use a bang trim. It's nice too that Tia got to go sans-M, even if she probably felt a bit weird about having fun without her master there.

LOL! "Drama Queen"! Who'd a thunk that Zoe would be there in time to get that particular award?

Awesome review on Kalifornia's ongoing traffic/asphalt condominium project!

 

Fun aside, glad you and a couple of your kiddos shared a cool trip!

From Fred:

 

Aren't they, archangeli? Aniki and I saw some half-sized replicas in the store window, then looked around and found these. They're actually refrigerator magnets.

 

Hey, Poof! Zoe isn't scary! She's actually a very nice person. Aniki was already a bit cross with me 'cause I cut it off that much, so I don't know if I can get away with it any shorter. I think he wants me to grow it back out. Tia deserved a good vacation. You can't believe how hard she works each day.

 

Batt, you wouldn't believe how bad it was. I mean..seriously, why do people go through that every day? It wasn't even rush hour..it was 10:30 am on a Thursday morning! What do they do at rush hour? Walk home?

That looks like one fun vacation! Universal looked extremely cool, it's been ages since I went to the one in Florida. And those DD sized Oscars are so awesome! Very fitting for the girls you gave them to.

 

And the pics of Fred and Tia at Volks were nice too. Seeing Fred playing baseball works so well, it totally fits her personality and style. And of course your number one maid looked great too, she seems to have had everything she needed to make your trip a good one.

 

 

Billy