California trip and friends!

A couple of weeks ago we took a vacation to California with some friends and family. On Wednesday afternoon, David's sister Laura and her husband Mason flew into Las Vegas. They did some Vegas-y things during the day while I worked and then the next morning we drove to California. We rented a house in Anaheim and after we got there we met up with Dadoo (Andrew), Mandy and Lowe (Nate). While we were waiting for everyone, we went to Huntington Beach for a quick visit. The house had a nice backyard with a grill and table and chairs, so when everyone was back we grilled up steaks for dinner.

David's brother Michael drove up from San Diego the next morning and we all went to Disneyland and California Adventure. I had never been to California Adventure and I liked Tower of Terror, the rapids ride, the roller coaster, and the new Toy Story arcade ride. Disneyland was a lot of fun too. I went on all my favorite rides and we saw the fireworks show at night.

On Saturday we went to Universal Studios. There weren't as many rides to go on there, but I liked the Simpson's ride and the Jurassic Park and Mummy rides.

Michael, Laura and Mason left that night to go back to San Diego and the rest of us headed back to Las Vegas on Sunday afternoon. Before we left, we went to L.A.'s farmer's market where David and I had some really good crepes. We also stopped in Olvera St. which is like an old Mexican town. We had some taquitos and churros filled with caramel there.

As we were driving back, we stopped in Baker, CA for gas and went to a Greek restaurant there and also saw the giant thermometer.
On Monday, Mandy and I went to the spa to relax for a while. For dinner we ate at the Carnegie Deli in Mirage. They have giant sandwiches, as you can see below.
That night we all went to see the show Le Reve at the Wynn. It's a water show done on a circular stage and there are acrobatic and aerial elements, diving, synchronized swimming, and ballroom dancing. It was a pretty cool show-I even caught a swimming cap someone in the show threw out at the end (well, not so much caught as got hit by).
The rest of the time our friends were here in Vegas was mostly centered on food. We ate at David's favorite pizza place and got a stuffed pizza and we went to a buffet and had lots of crab legs. At that buffet, they would saute the crab legs in your choice of butter, garlic, onions, cilantro, tomatoes, or hot peppers. I got mine done with butter and garlic-they were good.
It was a fun vacation and it was good to be able to hang out with our friends and family.

Here are some links to more pictures:
Disney and California Adventure:
http://picasaweb.google.com/schmelode/DisneyCaliforniaAdventure?authkey=kyR9gjdIHGk#
Universal:
http://picasaweb.google.com/schmelode/Universal?authkey=fZcHhVU_S9Y#
Other CA pics:
http://picasaweb.google.com/schmelode/OtherCaliforniaPics?authkey=2FQzu8fwHhc#
Vegas pics:
http://picasaweb.google.com/schmelode/Vegaspics?authkey=JK9iQzHnuRk#