Road Trip in the Golden State! (Journal Entry)

San Francisco! I see the gleaming red Golden State Bridge as we get closer to Pier 39. Pier 39 is one of the most famous seafood attractions around the world! I hop off one of the famous Gondolas as we start walking to the Pier and see many interesting things around us. I read the small brochure about San Francisco and am startled by all the surprising facts there are. I actually didn’t know that The city is built on more than 50 hills, or that San Francisco has the largest Chinatown in the world! As I approach the seashore, I see the towering Golden Gate Bridge above me. My feet wade into the water but Marvin pulled me back and said there were man-eating sharks in the water, but after some research, I realised that there are actually NO sharks inside all of the waters of San Francisco, it’s just very cold! We had a feast of fresh oysters and crab at a small restaurant near the seashore. The oyster was so juicy! After the delicious meal, we headed towards the Golden Gate Bridge and decided to walk half way because Marvin complained that it was too hot. I was so shocked to find out that more than 1,600 people have perished due to them jumping off the bridge to end their misery. We were lucky to be able to hail a taxi on the bridge when we started to walk back to the far end of the bridge. “Lombard Road” I said happily, “Drive up from there! I want to see how it looks like!” “Um, did you not know that Lombard Street is one-way, and you can only come down, not up?” Marvin sighed, “Oh” I said unenthusiastically. “However, we can always drive up another road and come down again!” The taxi driver said. We all jammed to our favorite radio in California, 99.7, and enjoyed the trip upwards. Once we got to the top of Lombard Road, my heart skipped a beat as I saw the view down the road. Small trees dotted the road down, but the ocean glittered in the afternoon air like a million diamonds reflecting a bright light. When we got off to take picture, I overheard the man next to me talk about how Lombard Street used to be actually straight before it was destroyed! I actually couldn’t imagine how it would look like if it was straight! Luckily, we had time to catch a game in Oakland, which was about half a hour away. I saw The Golden State Warriors go against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Such a awesome time while we watched the star player, Stephen Curry, shoot three after three! With a cheerio in my hand, I jumped up and down as I watched The Warriors defeat the Cavaliers! Surprisingly, I even got to shake Stephen Curry’s hand! What a lucky man I am! The day was finally over and we decided to go back to our parked car and headed to the City of Angels!

When we finally arrived in Los Angeles, Marvin and I caught a long glimpse at the far-famed white Hollywood Sign on top of the luscious green hill. After visiting the Hollywood Sign, I asked a local where to find all the celebrities in the tabloids and magazines. He gave me directions to the place where we would definitely see more than five celebrities. When me and Marvin arrived at the destination we got out and the first thing we saw was “Hollywood Forever Cemetery.” It seemed like a joke but the expression the man’s face before was dead serious, on the other hand the celebrities that were buried there were drop-dead gorgeous. So Marvin and I just decided to pay our respects while we still had the chance. After the visit we decided to go to Santa Monica because we felt “humored” enough after visiting the “celebrity” hotspot. Wow! Santa Monica was actually one of the coolest places in my life! There were sandcastles and drawings all over the place but the real view was ahead of us! Out there at the shore there were people surfing with colorful boards as if a rainbow decided to split up and go all over the place. I then decided to try surfing but as soon my board touched the water I trip and dived head first into the sand and water and got up with a loadful of salt water and sand it my mouth. After tripping I bruised my forehead by hitting a seashell, but luckily it wasn’t the sharp point. While Marvin just stood there laughing at me and memed it. I just sat down and watched the sun going down towards the horizon turning the sky orange, pink, magenta, then finally violet. The scene was so mesmerizing that I almost forgot about going to my hotel which we got a good view of the Theme Building of Lax. For those of you who don’t know what the building is it is basically a dome without eighty percent of it gone, and in the middle parts of the dome is arching towards a short cylinder, with colorful colors always changing. As soon as I reach my room a gust of cold air reached me and I felt relaxed. I took a hot bath and played with my yellow rubber duckies. After putting on my clothes I jumped onto the bed, but that is when disaster struck and my head hit the ceiling. The bad news was that I will have a major bump on my head, but the good news is that I will get to fall asleep easily, something like a knockout. When I woke, I seemed to have forgotten everything and just packed up, signed out, walked out, then hailed a cab. However, Marvin had a major headache and couldn’t join my adventure to Disneyland. The cabbie driver gave me a quizzy eye when I told him to drive me to Disneyland. On the way there I got an awesome view and a free tour and commentary from the cabbie driver. When I arrived there I paid the cabbie drive an extra thirty U.S dollars and left the cab. The castle looks so fantastic just like a lot of castles in Disney Movies. As soon as I went in, I bought a ticket I then entered the park then took a picture with every characters in costumes I could find. I rode nearly every single ride there at least once even the merry go round which was mortifying, and humilliating but I still did it. The Water ride got my clothes soaking wet and I had to go to the bathroom to change clothes. But then, as soon as I got to the restroom I wondered where my suitcase was. “Stupid Cedric”, I muttered at myself. I suddenly realized that I had forgotten to retrieve my suitcase from the trunk of the cabbie I drove to Disneyland. I reached inside my backpack for my phone to call the cabbie’s driver number but then my luck have gotten a whole lot worse. My phone’s battery is at one percent. I quickly tapped the phone icon and called the driver but as soon as the driver picked up my phone turned black. What sucks the most is that my charger and power bank is inside my suitcase. I am stuck in L.A…… for now. I waited at Disneyland’s entrance just in case  the driver would comeback to deliver my suitcase. I couldn’t just ask anyone to call someone because I don’t know the cabbie’s driver phone number, I only had it in my phone. At the moment I was still soaking wet. I have no idea if some deity is messing around with me because I checked the weather today in the hotel’s telly, and it said there is a five percent chance to rain. As if somehow the percentage just changed to a hundred because it was suddenly pouring down hard on me. So far I hated my trip. My day just got a little better because someone handed me a disposable umbrella. I turned around and instantly my face lit up and smiled, but I couldn’t get my hopes up too high. It was a cabbie driver holding an umbrella in one hand and, wait, was that my suitcase. It was my suitcase! I thanked the cabbie driver and gave him a hundred dollars which was unfortunately wet. The driver accepted it nonetheless and got into his car. When he sped off the rain finally stopped. Which made me think of the quote, “Everybody wants happiness, nobody wants pain, but you can’t have a rainbow without a little rain...”