USA 2009

Okay, I just love the States. It was an amazing trip. It was nice seeing family and friends that I haven't seen for four years! (That's a long time). At first we were in Washington D.C and saw all these historical things. After leaving Barb's house in the morning we drove to Mount Vernon, George Washington's old house. That was interesting, but the weather was horrible! It was hot and humid (but they say that it is worse in august, I don't even want to think about that). After that we went to our hotel in Silverspring, a couple miles north of Washington D.C, and had a great dinner! I love fajitas! And for desert, Ben & Jerry's, yum! So the next morning we woke up early and went to the gym, the whole family! That has never happened before.  Then we took the metro in to Washington D.C and walked around the capitol, and Washington monument and the white house. But the majority of the day we spent at the art museum, where we managed to smuggle out a bottle of water! That really made the day. When we got back to the hotel we crashed, mom and I first and then Emelie. When Dad woke us up at nine or ten and asked if we wanted dinner we weren't too excited. After breakfast the next morning we drove to Washington and parked the car and walked around the whole mall with all the monuments and we also walked to Arlington cemetery. That was a lot of walking. My favorite that day was the paddle boats. After that we drove back to Barb's house. And I got to charge my iPod, hallelujah!


The next morning we headed for New York City! Awesome! We took the boat to Ellis Island and the statue of liberty. But we didn't get off at the statue of liberty because we didn't have time. We had to return our rental car, which was quite an adventure. We were there in good time at first but we couldn't find a gas station so we ended up getting the car back with only minutes to spare. But we made it! Then we took the train in to New York City, where it was pouring. Not raining, pouring. But we managed to get a yellow cab and get to the hotel fairly dry.  That night we had dinner with Diane and her daughters and that was really nice. The following morning we took a double-decker tour bus and saw down town Manhattan! We saw ground zero and went in to the chapel that was right next to it. That was really cool, I mean that chapel wasn't damaged at all. We also saw Times Square. But my favorite was SoHo where I bought a Nikita sweatshirt and a t-shirt.  That night we took the night tour and saw the New York skyline during sunset. LOVELY! The bus took us downtown and then over to Brooklyn. Emelie wasn't feeling too good so she didn't go on the night tour. The next day we took the uptown tour and saw where the famous and rich people live. We also saw Harlem and the sides of Central Park. After that we went to lunch with Barb and Diane, mom's second cousins. Next stop was Radio City Hall, I thought it was kind of boring even if it was an amazing building. But everybody else seemed to like it, and we got to meet a rockette. When we finally got out we went to the apple store because Emelie and I had decided to buy a travel charger for our iPods. And before we went to dinner we went to a huge toy store (if you've seen the movie Big, it is that toy store and mom and I tried to play the piano) and also a huge candy store.  Our last day in New York we spent most of our time in MoMA (Museum of Modern Art). I discovered that art is really not my thing, but it was raining and it was better than being outside. Then we went back to the hotel and that evening we saw The Lion King on Broadway! It was awesome! It is hard to describe it but it was everything that made it so spectacular, the lights and colors, the music and the feeling was amazing! And when you saw Times Square at night, you couldn't really tell that it was night if you didn't look up and saw the dark sky.


California was our next destination. It felt so good seeing grandpa at the airport and when we came to grandma and grandpa's house and everybody was there, my uncle, aunt and cousins and grandma. It felt almost like coming home. The days when Mark and Leigh were there really flew by. Sunday, the day after we got there, we went to church first and then to Mimmi's café for breakfast to celebrate father's day.  I have a hard time remembering in what order we did everything but here so I'll just say what we did but probably in the wrong order. Emelie and I went to Disneyland with Mark, Leigh, Hannah and Sam and we were there 16 hours. My feet ached so badly when we got home, but it was totally worth it. We also went to the batting cages, and to an Angels game (baseball). Too bad they lost, but it was fun anyway.  Another thing we did was going to eat at In-n-out burger a (fast food chain), it's almost become a tradition. The girls (me, Hannah, Emelie, Leigh, mom and grandma) and the boys (Sam, Mark, dad and grandpa) went shopping in two separate groups. We had a good lunch at Nordstrom's and had a great day. The last evening we went to the beach and brought dinner there. It was so nice, and I love swimming in the ocean even though I'm not that good at it. The next morning we went to church and Grandma made a good brunch. After that it was time for Mark and Leigh and the cousins to leave. It always feels so sad. The days that followed were very quiet. Mom and Dad went to San Diego to celebrate their 25th anniversary and Emelie and I had the grandparents for ourselves for two days which was nice. Grandpa took us to the batting cages and we must have done something else I can't remember. For the 4th of July we went to the movies and saw The Proposal, a really funny film. And in the evening we went to watch some fireworks and they were really good (but Disneyland's are better and to think how good they are, man it is awesome!).


The last week went really fast, it was almost scary. Tuesday we met with mom's friend Laurie and her kids Leslie and Alex for lunch at Watson's drugstore in down town Orange. That was really nice and we had a good time. In the evening dad went with grandpa to meet some of his car friends. So the girls (me, grandma, mom and Emelie) went shopping. Emelie grandma and I discovered this christian store that was really cool, but I didn't buy anything there, didn't buy anything that evening but it was nice to be just the girls. Wednesday we went to see La Sol, a women's professional soccer team. They played St Louis and lost, but I was happy. We had great seats and it was a good game. I got to see Hope Solo play (the goalkeeper for the American national team). In the evening we were invited to grandma and grandpa's neighbors for dinner and it was nice even though it didn't start to well. Grandma fell and cut her finger and scraped her knees. Thursday we went to breakfast in Laguna Beach (an absolutely gorgeous place) and then mom, dad, Emelie and I went to the Sawdust Festival. It felt very, how should I put it, bohemian maybe. But it was fun, but my favorite part of that day was the beach at Chrystal cove, beautiful water and big waves! (Swedish standard, American standards I guess they were somewhere in the middle, not huge but not small). Our last day, Friday, mom and I went for a short shopping trip and then grandma and I baked chocolate chip cookies (yum!). We packed and we had dinner at Moreno's a Mexican restaurant we always go to. It was a beautiful evening on the patio with music and everything. Desert was waiting at home, lemon meringue pie that Emelie and grandma had made. After that it was sleep.

We left for LAX at four in the morning and flew home. The flight was okay. Then when we got home I saw Petra but unfortunately I wasn't to good company because at two a clock (Swedish time, we landed seven thirty at Arlanda) I crashed.


So, to get rid of the jetlag I decided to first go to Uppsala and see Anna L and then sleep over at Anna Z. Next day I went to Stockholm with Anna Z to se "Allsång på skansken" with some confirmation friends and then only sleep one hour. We watched three Harry Potter movies, the first, fourth and fifth and sat in a Jacuzzi outside at two in the morning. Really nice days I must say.


That was basically the whole trip, I might have forgotten some of the things we did but I think I got the most of it. It was really nice seeing my family and just hanging at grandma and grandpa's house. I should really tell my family how much I love them and how much I appreciate seeing them. Anyway, it was a really good trip. Have a good one!


Kommentarer
Postat av: Uncle Mark

Hey Jo-



Great entry! We miss you, sis, and your mom and dad. Take care and let us know how the school year goes.



Mark

2009-07-20 @ 04:24:19

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