This post used to contain pictures, but due to new storage limitations from WordPress, I had to fix the problem and decided to create a new blog that works as an archive for all the posts from my two years in California. This full post can be found here.

The first day in Las Vegas is at its end. It’s very late and we kinda just got home from a night tour with the most important things to see here in LV. We saw the Venitian, the Volcano show outside of the Mirage, the Freemont Street Experience (a super big LED screen as a roof over the whole street which shows a show every hour) and the Bellagio fountain. It was a little stressy so we didn’t really get a good look at everything from outside but I guess we will have plenty of time for that tomorrow after the Grand Canyon West Rim Tour.

Our day started with a bus tour from Los Angeles to Fashion Outlets of Las Vegas and then to Circus Circus. I didn’t expect me to buy anything at the mall but I couldn’t resist, so I  bought two pair of new jeans shorts, Levi’s and American Eagle Outfitters. And after all the walking in the heat I’m glad I bought a pair of a little bit longer shorts. Even though we’re not walking especially much it hurts more in this heat when my thighs are rubbing together.

We arrived at the hotel at 3pm and we had three hours until the night tour. We decided to take a walk and first look around in the hotel. I had no idea how big the hotels here are. We were walking around for two hours just looking at everything! There is a big amusement park in the pink dome outside our window, who would have known? There are a lot of games to play for kids and of course the casino. It looks exactly like it does on the movies, a lot of one-armed bandits and poker tables. I want to try something tomorrow but I have no idea what. And I don’t know how to play cards, so I guess that narrows it down a bit.

Then we went on the tour and it was as annoying as the busride here. Almost everyone on the bus were Asians so the guide spoke in bad English and some kind of Asian language. Since I’m used to how Americans behave and how nice they are it was hard trying to keep up the good spirit when all the tourists behaved like stupid tourists. But I mean, it’s common sense to apologize when you step on someone’s foot or push them into the spinning door… Just two more days and then we’re on our own in San Francisco, can’t wait!

Tomorrow we will be getting up at 5am to see the amazing Grand Canyon, and which we have to pay $80 per person extra because of some stupid scam thing or whatever. The tour is called: “3-day tour to Las Vegas and Grand Canyon from Los Angeles”. It should be included…

The weather today has been a little unusual. The temperature has been higher than it usually is and it is gonna be hotter these next three days. Today it was 113F (45C) which I thought was okay as long as I didn’t stay outside for too long but they are telling us on the news that it will be 117F three days straight. I hope it will be 118F tomorrow, that means I will be part of history since it never have been warmer than 117 here in Las Vegas!

The Mojave Desert. Believe it or not, under this dome is a big theme park! Part of the Circus Circus casino. The Venetian. Inside the Bellagio hotel. The Bellagio pool.

The roadtrip has begun and we just arrived at the hotel in LA after a horrible busride from Oceanside. First of all the bus was 1,5h late, the seats were really uncomfortable and it smelled like pee in the bus. First and last time I’ll ever go with Greyhound.

But now we’re here and tomorrow morning at 7am the tour bus will take us to Las Vegas and I think the hotel Circus Circus. I can’t believe I’m gonna be in Vegas tomorrow.

We had a very calm day today. We went to the library and printed some things and then we spent three hours reading at the pool. It was a very hot day but when we were waiting for the bus it was cold instead. The weather is weird here.

This post used to contain pictures, but due to new storage limitations from WordPress, I had to fix the problem and decided to create a new blog that works as an archive for all the posts from my two years in California. This full post can be found here.

After my second hiking trip up Mt Woodson Trail to the Potato Chip Rock I’m barely alive. I definitely had better clothes on today, shorts and very comfy sandals. But it was horrible anyway. It started with a blister on top my left foot under the leather strip. I tried putting on a band-aid but in 90F it fell off pretty soon thereafter. But as soon as the broken blister got full of sand it stopped hurting so it was okay. But when we were like 50m away from our goal I felt another blister break on my right foot and I couldn’t walk in my sandals at all so I actually went barefoot for a while but the sand was too hot so I bit my tongue and kept going anyway.

On our way up we stopped a lot of times and took a ‘fika’ consisting of water melon, Singoalla and graham crackers. We got new energy but it soon disappeared again. I didn’t have as much trouble with the heat as mom and Moa had. I actually really enjoyed it almost all the way up tp the top. But then it just went downwards… First the blisters and then my balance decided to give up and I stumbled on a rock and almost faceplanted. Fortunately I saved myself with my hands so I didn’t hit the face in the ground but my left leg is all messed up and it started bleeding from the knee. Now I can’t bend it properly and it stings like I don’t know. I think there is a lot of sand in there still, but I couldn’t get it out in the shower.

Almost at the bottom again, after nearly 6 hours, it started burning under our (at least mine and moms) feet. So I don’t think it matters if you have Converse, sandals or comfy tennis shoes, it still hurts after an 8 mile long hike up in the mountains.

Mom got pretty hurt as well, but in her ribs. When she was climbing down from the rock she needed help but she hit the ribs right into a rock and have some serious trouble walking now. I feel sorry for her and hope it will be better soon!

After the hike we all three went to my house, took showers and then me and Moa went grocery shopping for the bbq tonight. We bought a piece of marinated beef, potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots and corn cobs. The dinner was delicious and for dessert we had bananas with chocolate and vanilla ice cream which was way better than expected because we found chocolate that tastes almost exactly like Marabou!! I’m not sure if that is such a great thing though to be honest ;). It was me, mom, Moa, Kristel and Jessica and we had an awesome evening with really good food!

Yesterday we spent at Las Americans Premium outlet mall. We saw the Mexican border, a Swedish family (and I think we’ve seen and heard Swedish people almost every day since mom got here. It really is vacation times now. I just bought a $10 tank top from Levi’s and a tiny soccer ball to the boy. His birthday is coming up (in a month) and I think that would be a good b-day gift for him since he loves soccer.

After the shopping I wanted to show her Coronado Beach but that was a really bad idea. It was windy like crazy and instead of having a nice afternoon at the beach we got sand everywhere. It was sad because that beach is usually very pretty.

We drove home and then had dinner at Famous Dave’s. I love that restaurant, the food is amazingly good! We shared a ‘Feast for Two’ and now we have so much leftovers in the fridge I can’t believe it. That plate was like four dinners. Don’t know when we are gonna have time to eat it since we are leaving for Los Angeles and Las Vegas tomorrow.

I’m gonna bring my computer but I’m not sure how often I will be able to update the blog during the trip. If I don’t have access to Internet I will post everything when I get back to San Diego next Friday!

Good night!

The Mexican border at Las Americas outlet mall. Another disturbing thing at the beach yesterday was these planes circling above us. There also were like 7 helicopters. I think it might have been a drill of some sort.  Lake Poway Mom on Potato Chip Rock. It doesn’t look like much but it really hurts and I have a really big and long graze under the bleeding on the knee. Stupid mountain :(.
All of us were covered in dirt after and my shoes completely changed color from black to brown.

This post used to contain pictures, but due to new storage limitations from WordPress, I had to fix the problem and decided to create a new blog that works as an archive for all the posts from my two years in California. This full post can be found here.

This day was amazing! I love animals and I love sea animals more. SeaWorld was definitely a place for me. We came there at 11am, left at 8pm and saw everything. We didn’t go on any ride except the Skytower but we saw all the shows and after this day I’ve changed my mind again about what I want to be when I grow up, a Sea World trainer! They must have so much fun at work.

When I was going to buy my Funcard (rest of the year for free) the line was at least 45 minutes long… They had some land animals too, like this armadillo. There was a show with trained animals, so adorable! The show Blue Horizon included bottlenosed dolphins and pilot whales. The dolphins were jumping super high and soaked everyone in the Soaked Zone. I love dolphins! The dolphin is not lying on the bridge, he is jumping from the water… Pilot whales jumping. I want to learn how to surf like this! “Goodbye and thanks for watching!” Beluga whale. A humungus walrus! Penguins that live in warm climate. Unfortunately we didn’t take any pictures of the emperor penguins. It was too dark in the exhibit, but they were really cool! Two types of puffin birds. Some type of shark. A tiny hammerhead shark. Nurse shark. Sea lions at Sea World and in the wild sunbathe in the exact same position. You could feed the sea lions if you bought fish and this guy was waiting for a very long time for someone to buy food and throw in his mouth. This show was amazing, Sea Lions LIVE! First it was a SLSI (CSI) where the sea lion was a crime investigator catching “the otter guy”. This guys name was Seamore and first he had the ball on his nose, then he jumped in the water, swam with the ball still on his nose and then jumped over a bar, still with the ball on his nose!! How can you train an animal to do that? And how can he do that?? Dancing with the sea lions was another sketch. And of course they did the Gangnam Style dance. That was just too funny!! The show One Ocean with the famous killer whale Shamu and his 5 friends (this isn’t Shamu, he has a bent fin). They are big, and they jumped pretty high! So amazing! People in the soaking zone were soaked. It looked like they had taken a shower with their clothes on. We didn’t sit in the soaking zone, it was a bit too cold and mom had her fancy camera. In February this year one of the killer whales got a baby. They were swimming in a pool next door. Here’s Shamu, and I can’t help but to think of the movie Free Willy where the killer whale also had a bent fin. Is she unhappy? The Skytower looked like the Lisebergstower in Gothenburg in the winter. A very funny turtle. Don’t remember the name but he looks like a pig. Black Nemos.

It was a really awesome day and the next time I’ll go, I’m gonna swim with the dolphins :).

This post used to contain pictures, but due to new storage limitations from WordPress, I had to fix the problem and decided to create a new blog that works as an archive for all the posts from my two years in California. This full post can be found here.

Now I’ve finally seen the sea lions in La Jolla. It was such a wow-experience. I don’t think I’ve ever even seen them at a zoo before. But that was in the afternoon. In the morning me and my mom sat down with my computer and booked everything for the big roadtrip. It took many hours but at last at 2pm everything was done and we are ready to leave on Thursday evening.

First we are going to Las Vegas and Grand Canyon combined in a $100 tour. So we have two nights in Las Vegas and a tour from there to Grand Canyon South Rim.  That’s a three day tour and we will go back to San Diego on Sunday just to stay the night at the house. From Monday morning we have a rental car and we will drive up to San Francisco along Highway 1. We are gonna stay in SF 3 nights and while we’re there we will go to Yosemite National Park for one day. We have also planned on seeing the Redwood and maybe Alcatraz, we’ll see about tickets when we get there, online they’re sold out :(. Back to LA on Thursday to spend the night there and see a few things there before driving back to Carlsbad on Friday. It’s gonna be so fun to see everything and after we still have some days here in San Diego. I’m really excited! $1300 for everything is a reasonable price.

At 3pm we drove down to La Jolla. It was amazing to see the sea lions lying there on the cliffs like dead seals. I’m thinking about going back to snorkel there, that would be cool! There were also a lot of pelicans and squirrels. I know they are pests, but they are cute! When we had walked a long time along the water we decided to return to the car and when we did we saw dolphins out in the water. There were a lot of them! And I saw one jump high above the water again. Unfortunately mom missed it because she was taking pictures but I guess we will see plenty of jumping dolphins tomorrow at Sea World.

We had dinner at Stone Brewing in Escondido. The food was really good, don’t know about the beer since I was driving. It’s really nice atmosphere there and I kinda wished we would have gone a little later when it was dark. They have a big garden outside where you can sit down amongst a lot of lights. Last time I saw it, it was so pretty. But I had a nice time anyway. But I have to admit, I am exhausted, I’m not used to this tempo when it comes to doing things. I’m having fun though and can relax rest of the year :).

These were pushing eachother off the cliff all the time. Mom got to see wild dolphins after just four days here in California!

This post used to contain pictures, but due to new storage limitations from WordPress, I had to fix the problem and decided to create a new blog that works as an archive for all the posts from my two years in California. This full post can be found here.

The summer continues and every day so far has been filled with fun stuff to do. This morning started with beach volleyball as usual but this time my mom was with me. She didn’t play but enjoyed hanging at the beach for a few hours. At noon, when I felt like I was done playing for the day we drove to the phone repair shop and they had found what was wrong with it. One petal inside the charge hole was completely broken off. They ordered a new piece to fix it and they would probably get it by Monday and hopefully to a not so expensive price.

Back home, had a small lunch in the backyard and then did some planning. We have a lot of things to see and do this upcoming week, like Swedish midsummer celebration, La Jolla Cove, Sea World, Potato Chip Rock, Julian and barbecue. And on Thursday it’s time for the big roadtrip. First we are gonna start with a three-day trip to Las Vegas and Grand Canyon from LA and then drive up to San Francisco and Yosemite and then back to Los Angeles and San Diego. We are gonna make all the booking tomorrow morning before Balboa Park. This vacation is going to be the best ever! I hope mom doesn’t get totally worn out.

We had a little ice cream in the backyard and then drove to Del Mar to San Diego County Fair. When we got there and were one of a million car we realized it might have been a little stupid to go there on a Saturday evening. We got a spot in the very back of the parking lot but we were inside by 7pm and started the night with a pig race show. So cute!

Then we just walked around, looking for something to eat. There were too much, it was so hard to decide. I was boring and had a pizza slice. Some more walking and for dessert I just had to try the deep fried ice cream. The kids have told me so much about it. I liked it, but I thought it was gonna be better than it was. So next time I’m gonna skip it and maybe try the deep fried cookie dough ;).

The fair was huge and there were so many food stalls and attractions. I had no idea how big this thing was. But apperantly it is Americas fourth biggest fair and during that one month they have more than 1.5 million visitors.

At 11pm we drove home and now I’m so exhausted I can’t see straight. A good and long night of sleep before another eventful day tomorrow. Good night everyone!

I didn’t try any of these weird American things… Bacon is good, cotton candy is good, but together? I find that very hard to believe! I think it was Big Time Rush playing. That would make the young girls’ screams make sense. Deep fried ice cream.

This post used to contain pictures, but due to new storage limitations from WordPress, I had to fix the problem and decided to create a new blog that works as an archive for all the posts from my two years in California. This full post can be found here.

This day was great too! The summer’s been here for three days now and I don’t think I ever will get enough. I’m living in paradise!

The day started at Moonlight beach for a few hours with Moa and Mom. Everyone was in the water except Moa and I’m proud of mom, she is a really big “badkruka” and never goes into the water. I don’t know how many degrees the ocean is here but it’s not too warm. It is the big Pacific Ocean. It is very nice anyway and I love being in the water even though it stings in my eyes. But I think I will get used to it eventually.

After a little more than three hours it was too much for mom. She is not used to this strong sun so we moved on to eat some Froyo. We said goodbye to Moa and then drove to Torrey Pines State Reserve. We parked at the bottom of the mountain and walked up and when we got there we realized we could have parked at the top. But I’m glad we didn’t, if we did we wouldn’t have taken that nice walk at the beach on the way back.

The trail was about a mile long and that was perfect. My feet didn’t hurt, even in my tiny sandals. The rock formations were pretty and the ocean was always in our view. We didn’t see any sea lions though. I think my LCC told me there were sea lions there. Äh, Doesn’t matter. I will see them in La Jolla soon enough anyway.

I couldn’t take any photos at all today so mom took them all with her super awesome (and big) camera. My phone broke yesterday and didn’t want to charge again. So I left it at the repair shop but they couldn’t pix it this time. It is there over night and they are gonna look more into it tomorrow but they’ll probably not find a solution. So I think mom has to leave her old phone here and I will buy an adapter so I can use my micro SIM card. So typical; I’ve never had any troubles with my phones and now, when I bought it on Amazon (it was a new one) last year without warranty, well of course it breaks! I want to buy a new one but I don’t think the deal with my dad is still on. He usually buys me a new phone and takes my old one…

Right now I’m borrowing mom’s new phone so I am reachable, but I still feel naked without MY phone :(.

For dinner we had leftovers and then watched The Best and Exotic Marigold Hotel and ate chips and dip. I really hope the foodbaby will disappear till the beachvolley tomorrow morning, haha! The movie was a real feel-good movie and very good.

This post used to contain pictures, but due to new storage limitations from WordPress, I had to fix the problem and decided to create a new blog that works as an archive for all the posts from my two years in California. This full post can be found here.

My first day with mom is already over and it was a really nice one. The weather was perfect and we did a lot of things. First we went to Carlsbad outlet mall where we both got a pedicure, so now my feet are super pretty again. We also did a little shopping. I bought a beach dress from Tommy Hilfiger and mom bought a pair of sandals.

Directly after we drove to Fashion Valley to have a late lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. We didn’t have any cheesecake after which was fail, but I was so full! Then a little more shopping. Mom had forgotten her bikini top in Sweden so she needed one like right away. First she found one at Macy’s but then two way better at H&M. So now she is ready for a few hours at the beach tomorrow.

Todays big thing started at 7:10 pm and it was tough driving in the middle of the event in downtown San Diego but I did it and we only missed the 1^st inning. Right when we sat down in Petco Park someone behind me said my name. Who at that game would know me? I turned around and a man and his wife looked at me asking me if I was Alexandra. When I said yes he showed me a note on the back on my set with my name on it. Inside it said: Congratulations! You have won a free gift!

It turned out to be a big t-shirt, a perfect sleep shirt. What are the odds of being one of 30,656 to get a free t-shirt? And on my first baseball game ever?

We didn’t understand much in the beginning of the game, but we were guessing a lot and in the end I was really enjoying the game and understood when something good happened and I understood what would happen depending on how the pitcher threw. I think I will study the rules and go to another game, it was fun!

After 3,5h it was over and Padres won by 6-3 and did a homerun! It should have been two, but I don’t understand why one of them didn’t count. The dodger player complained that the ball got stock in the fence and couldn’t get it out. But isn’t that kinda the same as when it goes out of the field and in the audience?

Then we took a short trip over the bridge to Coronado to see the skyline of San Diego. It was foggy tonight so it wasn’t as beautiful as it usually is…

It’s been a long but nice day, and I have almost three more weeks of this. Awesome! 🙂

Mom’s camera didn’t feel like cooperating or something so it put whole of San Diego downtown on fire. I really liked the pictures though!

I feel like a little girl! I met my mom for the first time in 163 days (5 months and 12 days) and even though I know she is asleep in my bed downstairs I still find it hard to believe. And it is so weird seeing her here, my “old” life mixing together with my new one. When I was driving off the freeway at exit La Costa Avenue and she was there beside me, oh my god it was weird. But I’m so happy. I want to show her everything at once, all the pretty clothes I’ve bought, my souvenirs so far, I want to show her a lot of places and tell her all about my new life here. I want to introduce her to my new friends and all the beaches. I really feel like a little girl again and I love that! I’ve missed her so much and these three weeks are gonna go by so fast, and I can’t wait for all the fun things we are going to do and see!

The fun begins tomorrow with a pedicure after a long good night of sleep. After that, and if we have time I might show her the pool and then we are gonna have an early dinner in San Diego and then watch a baseball game!

My day was awesome. It started at the gym with Moa and I got a lot of free help from my PT since he thought I had another session after the last. He is so nice! Then we took her car and drove to Ponto Beach where we spent the rest of the day. It was a wonderful day, blue sky, a cool sea breeze and around 75F. We went in the water and it was as much fun as Sunday. But before too long we saw seagulls picking in Moa’s bag eating her crackers so we had to rush up and scare them away. We both were super tired after the gym so I just played one game of beach volleyball (really badly too) but I was a personal coach for Moa and taught her the basic of a bagger and finger set. She is gonna go far this year ;).

I am super tired now, but at the same time too excited to go to sleep. So I think I will just stay here in bed watching a movie and eating Swedish candy!

…but not forever, just for a month.  The Big goodbye isn’t schedule for another seven months, luckily. I just said goodbye to the kids and even if I knew it was only for a month they almost made me feel like it was forever. So many hugs, kisses and I-love-you’s. It’s gonna be so weird not being with them for so long and I’m gonna miss them so much! But I’m not gonna lie, it’s also gonna be very nice with some vacation. I haven’t had more than two weeks in a row for at least two years! And the au pair job is harder than it looks.

Today was a really long day, twelve hours of work but it included a lot of variation so that was nice. It started with a little shopping for the girl, she wanted to buy a pair of Converse and we found a very cute dark blue pair at the outlet mall. After that a trip to the library to return all the books we borrowed last week. Then I drove the girl to a playdate and me and the boy were outside in the afternoon. He was playing with the kid next door. And later in the afternoon he went to a short playdate with his best friend. Soon thereafter I had to pick up the girl and her friend from soccer practice, drive the friend home, pick up the boy and then drive home.

Now I am so tired and will go to bed right away!