California!

BALBOA:

A giant bird!

MISSION INN:

CASTLE PARK:

We're in California! 

I grew up in California and Brenden and I have never been here together so we have spent the past few days visiting the places where I spent my childhood and visiting with family. 

First, we visited Balboa Island! I spent summers there as a youth and  some scenes from Arrested Development (Brenden's favorite show) were based in the area. We rode the ferry, ate frozen bananas and discussed how spoiled we were by the beach in Hawaii.  I love Balboa Island.  I'd probably never swim at the little beach there again but it is still the cutest town and I would love to stay there again.

The next day we drove out to Riverside to see my old neighborhood.  We drove past my old house, high school, one of my elementary schools and then stopped downtown to visit the Mission Inn.  I spent a lot of time at the Mission Inn when I was younger... I shared some stories with Brenden about the silly things my friends and I used to do there. He was in shock that we did those things at this very historic place that his favorite president visited.  But really we didn't do anything that terrible, we were just being kids. 

After exploring the downtown area we drove out to Castle Park (the best miniature golf course ever) to play a round of putt putt. Brenden was amazed at the fact that I had a miniature amusement park at my disposal as a child and wanted to go on all the rides. We ended up just playing a round of golf  but it was amazing! Castle Park is the best. 

We have a few more days left in Cali as we wait for our car to arrive and then we will be driving across the country!