American Dream...

image via cherry blossom girl

Okay, so I have been back for three weeks now. three weeks today actually, but i just have not found the time to blog! my best friend amanda, as well as others, have been pestering me to do a new post for agesssss. and amanda is very disciplined in her posting. so i am aspiring to be more like her!

well, it was the most amazing trip ever! better than i could have ever imagined :-)

we arrived at LAX at 4:30 in the afternoon. yes, there were the legendary palm-tree-lined boulevards; the whole time we were in Los Angeles it felt as though we were on a movie set. we stayed right on santa monica beach in a little holiday apartment that overlooked the santa monica pier (which is simply beautiful at night, and also where they filmed some of the hannah montana movie! haha).

the second day we were there, dad woke us up, much to our dismay, early in the morning so that we could get ready for disneyland! i think i slept most of the way there. we hired this huge yank tank, a toyota something-or-other that we don't have down in Oz because it probably wouldn't fit on the road! and dad had to learn to drive on the wrong side of the road, whilst sitting on the wrong side of the car.

WAIT! i almost forgot to mention something of utter importance; the night we arrived there, we actually drove around for HOURS (and i am not exaggerating!) looking for the place we were staying, and therefore didn't get around to filling our very hungry stomachs until 11:00pm! (aeroplane food is disgusting, and i hate it). Butttttt...we did happen to find a lovely little organic caffe called "Urth Caffe" for some yummy little delights :-). we felt right at home, and our organic needs were well catered for. every morning we were in LA we got a delicious latte from there. there packaging was really cute too, check it out:

Okay, I think that if i keep this up, i am going to be wayyyy too descriptive about everything. so im just gonna give you the highlights with some piccies :-)

Disneyland was pretty amazing...it really is where dreams come true (soooo cliche!). we had toffee apples, took a tour of mickey and minnie's houses, and watched the street parade and the fireworks show; it was all very magical. i bought some mickey mouse ears, and minnie mouse ones for my lovely friend mini, which we actually wore for our school photos just the other day.

we also had the pleasure of going to an LA dodgers game at their homeground stadium, right near hollywood, which was pretty cool. and we went for drives up and down the boulevards, ate lunch and admired multi-million-dollar celebrity homes (such as katie holmes and tom cruise) in beverly hills, and of course did some serious shopping :-) mum and i especially loved the shopping at third street promenade. we followed the star walk down hollywood boulevard, and passed the hollywood wax museum where i got the most amazing vintage Wizard of Oz bag! it is just great!

We also hired bikes and rode along Santa Monica beach.

we went shopping at a shop by the name of "anthropologie" and it has officially become my favourite shop in the world. it was so whimsicallll (i love that word) and i liked every single thing in the shop! they decorate the shop so well, and they had a wall of vintage cameras which was just amazing. this is it:
the shop was just gorgeous:

the yellow school buses were ultra cool :-)
as were the newspaper dispensers!

we got to eat at some really nice places, but this place called "shutters" right on santa monica beach was one of my favourites!

We spent 6 wonderful days in LA, and then drove up to San Fran via the coastal drive which was just stunning. there was so much wildlife; we stopped to spot a HUGE group of elephant seals and they make extremelyyyy weird noises! we also saw little squirrels, a deer and its faun (aww!) and some real big eagles. it was really quite awesome :-)

San Fransisco was really nice too, but a lot different to LA. it was really foggy there and just had a really different vibe. We stayed right in the heart of the city and drove over the Golden Gate Bridge. My little brother posed quite a valid question; "why is the Golden Gate Bridge not golden, kelse. why is it red?" i said he should google it.

We ate at the coolest diner while we were in SF; called Lori's diner. it had an old blue mustang, black and white tiled floors, piccies of Marilyn and Audrey, red seating booths and the best choc malt milkshakes in town. it was so cool :-) here's a picture of it, courtesy of google images:

i also bought my formal fabric in SF :-) which was so very exciting! i can't wait til mum starts making it!

Well basically that is a very short summary of my trip :-) i hope you enjoyed. xo