OUR CALI TRIP

Was quite the adventure.

It all started out with a drunk driver.

No not us! Come on.

OK let me backtrack. We left Saturday morning at 3:20am...which is precisely when all the "crazies" are out. We drove from St. George clear to Vegas behind a insanely drunk driver. He was swerving ALL over the road, coming extremely close to cars in front of him as he passed, at one point drifted off the side of the road almost into a ditch with dirt blowing everywhere, and then over-corrected missing the guard rail by an inch. I am not even exaggerating any of this- it was scary. I called 911 and reported this drunk driver. Did any cops show up!? Nope. We never saw one. We were left driving behind this guy, biting our nails, watching his every move...the whole way until he finally got off an exit in Vegas. I was highly disappointed in the law enforcement system at this point.

So eventually, we got to Disneyland.

All of Jordan's family was there, including his brother and sister-in-law from Alaska. It was my first time meeting them, finally! They were pretty awesome. I love Jordan's family and am so grateful for how loving and accepting they are towards me.

Disneyland was fun...except we spent 3/4's of the entire day waiting in lines. Seriously...there were a million people there. But we did go on several rides, minus Splash Mountain (it was closed!!).

Anyway, still a fun day.

The next day was kind of a relax/beach day. We first went with Jordan's brother and sister-in-law (Nathan & Dana) to a reptile store. We were in awe with all the bazillion different lizards, snakes, and turtles. Interesting I know.

These turtles were pretty cool. I was mesmerized by them.

After that store, we decided to go to another pet store just for the fun of it. And from there, we almost got Chico a friend. The dogs were SOOO dang cute. I wanted to take them all home. The hardest thing ever is leaving all those sweet puppies in the glass cages with their little eyes starring at you, begging you to take them home. Ahh! I can't handle it. I wanted them all.

 We finally reached the beach. Jordan and I decided to look for seashells...so that took up most of our beach experience. We ended up under the dock, getting demolished by the huge waves while we raced against time to grab the shells we saw before the waves overcame us.

Monday was THE PRICE IS RIGHT!! This is where more of our adventure took place. We all got up in the morning, got ready, and headed out to Hollywood to the CBS studio. This studio was 45 minutes away from our hotel. We got there just in time to get in line with the rest of our family. Then the rumor started that we needed our I.D.s to get in. The rest of Jordan's family knew, everyone except Jordan and I, and Nate & Dana. Mine was back in the car, but Dana left her whole wallet at the hotel. We weren't too happy that we were never told that we needed them to get in. The security guards said if we could make it back by 3:30 with our I.D.'s, they would still let us in. At this point it was around 1:00. Another race against time.

We rushed rushed rushed back to the hotel (me driving of course) to get Dana's wallet. Driving around L.A. is insane, especially if you're in a huge hurry. We finally made it back and was able to get in!

Our shirts say "Carey Me Down to the Price Is Right".

After seeing the actual show in person, my whole perspective of it changed. If you don't want YOUR perspective of it to change, stop reading beyond this point...

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First of all, the stage is a LOT smaller than I thought!! On camera it looks like a huge stage all setup- not the case. Big backdrops come up and down from the ceiling, and of course there are cameras everywhere. Where the contestants first stand to bid, is also a lost smaller than I thought. The whole ROOM is smaller than I thought!

Next, the show seems so short. They play the game and when it goes to commercials, it's almost like they are just "going through the motions". I don't know, it was different.

Third, Drew Carey pretends he's smoking a lot. He must have been quite the druggie back in the day (or maybe still is). But he did seem nice. He talked with all the audience during the commercial breaks, getting to know us and everything. He referred to our group as "the Mormons" because he was talking about some movie called The Book Of Mormon made by the creators of South Park. When he said "Book Of Mormon" we, of course, all shouted and screamed with pride. The announcer guy also was really nice. He spoke to us a little more after the show. He is full of personality.

Another thing I learned is that different things they show (such as introducing the showcases, the models showing off items, etc.) is not always perfect the first time. They do it over and over again until they get it good enough for national tv.

At the end of the show, we all got a Criss Angel magic kit and an Elvis cd (those were the main topics of that show). Pretty cool!

Our air date is JUNE 7, don't forget to watch!!

We are the big light blue group on the left side.

So there is my novel about our trip!

It was fun...which makes it hard to get back to reality.