America Day One

Newport Beach & The Go-Gos

Found it really hard to sleep on the first night, even though we'd been up for almost 24 hours, I didn't sleep much past 5am! Breakfast at the motel was awesome. They have a waffle iron! You pour in the batter, close the lid, and voila, 2.5 minutes later the perfect waffle. Just chop up a banana and pour over some maple syrup, and heaven. I was planning to take a picture, but was having trouble getting all the pics of my camera to make space.

It wasn't too hot when we left, granted it was only about 8am, but I was a tad disappointed for my first morning in California. We decided that we'd spend the day chilling on the beach, so headed off to Newport. I couldn't believe how full the car parks already were at this time of the morning! I decided they probably knew something we didn't. We managed to find a space on the side of a main road (not too easy to get out of the car in once piece), and found a short cut to the beach about 50m away. There was a car with the number plate BEVRLY which got me on so many levels.

We needed some change for the parking meter, so I went off and got a drink. I remember once having this pink lemonade Snapple when I was about 8 in Gabriel's Wharf, so I had to get it. It did not disappoint. And as if things couldn't get any better, there was a fun fact in the lid, a height related fun fact, i.e. my favourite kind of fun fact. Apparently Abraham Lincoln was the tallest US president at 6'4. Yay, someone's taller than me!

Cheekily showing off my nail polish ;)

Walking onto the beach was incredible, there were miles of white sandy beach on both sides, and it was quite a bit of a walk from the beginning of the sand to the sea. We walked along the beach for about an hour, struck by the amount of surfers and the strength of the waves - I couldn't wait to get in. We found a nice quiet bit of beach to settle in, away from the crowds by the car park and shops, and I was straight in. By this time it had warmed up considerably, so the cool water was a relief. Walking out into the sea I realised I had underestimated the size of the waves, and was subsequently wiped out by one almost double my height. I have to admit, my life did flash before my eyes as I was being thrown around under water, not sure which way was up, but my survival instinct, or rather my 'I will not die without going to Comic Con' instinct kicked in. After I'd got used to the strong current, I had an awesome time at the beach.

Dad taking pictures of barnacles. Classic.

The next bit is one that I don't particularly want to relive, purely due to my own stupidity. Lying in direct sunlight with about 30 degree heat, and only putting suncream on my calves - today I'm feeling the pain.

Don't know why this looks so grey,  but at least you can see the surfers.

We stayed at the beach until about two and then decided to head back to get ready for the OC Fair where my dad had booked us tickets to see a band called the Go-Gos. Classic me, I fell asleep and we didn't end up leaving the motel till about 6.30. We made a pitstop at Walmart to get some things we'd forgotten, as well as a monster bottle of aftersun.

Walmart beauty.

As soon as we got to the fair I wish I'd just stuck it out and not had that nap, because it was awesome! There were about 50 different food stalls, including the World's Biggest Outlaw Grill, not 100% sure what that means, but it was big, and smoky. There were all kinds of stalls, from people carving your name into wood, to a live butterfly walkthrough and a beekeeping exhibit. On the other side of the fair was the funfair bit, with a massive wheel and loads of other things. It reminded me of the end of Mighty Joe Young where he has to climb up the wheel to save a lil' boy. Awww.

Misread this a few times. SO. MUCH. MEAT.

Considering I'd never even heard of the Go-Gos, I really enjoyed their set. It was 80's pop-punk, and as an all female band, what's not to love. The crown was at least three quarters female, all seemed like pretty die hard fans dancing and screaming and singing along. The only downside was how darn expensive everything was, I paid $5 for a lemonade, granted it was a pretty big lemonade, but it was still about £4, and for me that's a lot. My dad paid $12 for a beer! I don't think everything'll be this expensive, it's just because it was already a fair and then a gig inside the fair, so they've got you. 

Came straight back after the gig as we were both ready to pass out. We found this really good program on the TV, it's called Bar Rescue or something, and this really angry guy fixes peoples bars by changing the menu, drinks, set up etc.

Day one was a good start to the holiday all in all. All except the burning.