California and Back

I know it's been forever but here I am with the California story. Sam and I went out to LA on the 22nd of Feb. Jill kept our kids for a week. The kids like being there so that was good. Things were exciting. We landed on Thursday and stayed in Riverside that night with Sam's Aunt Peggy. The next day we went to San Diego.

I took Sam all around Imperial Beach and Chula Vista, the two places I served in. I couldn't find where I had lived. I couldn't find the grocery store. I couldn't even find my favorite Mexican restaurant. But I did find Papa John's pizza. We spent most of that day in Old Town, the original part of San Diego. There is a ton of history there. Did you know that the Mormon Battalion built the 1st brick building there in San Diego? There is a visitor's center there and we went to it. That was good. And we went to Coronado beach and Sam brought home a seashell for each of the boys. We also got to go to the temple that night. That temple is like a castle. It's amazing. I love the stairs and the little glass garden at the top of the temple between the 2 spires that looks up at them. It was amazing.

We went to Balboa Park the next day. We saw an air and space museum and a science museum (w/ and IMAX theater) where we watched a show about dolphins. Sam had to go because of the theater. We also went to the USS Midway, an aircraft carrier in the Navy. Church on Sunday was at a different chapel. The ward is huge. They had 70 baptisms last year. Holy cow! And it looks great! All of the classes are crowded which means that people are staying for more than just sacrement meeting. I was dissappointed that I only knew 3 people. I guess that's expected after 10 years. We went back to Riverside after church.

Here comes the excitement. The Price is Right films on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. We had heard that we should be at the studio before 5:30am. We planned for 5am. When we got there we were still far away when the tickets ran out. There were probably about 100-150 people in front of us. And there were 2 shows filmed that day, thus 2xs the tickets. We were standing by this couple who had come from Iowa. We decided to meet there at midnite so we could get in the next morning. There were people in line at 6pm when we got to the shopping center by the studio. We got in line about 8pm. We were by a family from Ohio and a brother and sister from Seattle and N. Carolina. Sarah and Jamie (our friends from the morning) came in around 10:30 or so. So there we sat by the side of the road waiting for a ticket to the Price is Right. Around 12am it started to rain. I think it stopped about 4:30 or 5am. During all this time there were people all around us prepared in different ways. There were 2 tents in line in front of us. The people in one of them had a BBQ. There were sleeping bags (Sam and I had some to keep us warm) and lawn chairs. There was a store across the street that rented chairs. It was funny. We had snacks and some people brought pizza. There were some girls just down from us who were asleep and their mom yelled because she saw a rat by them. It went into the hedge behind us. About 6am we got our order of arrival #s that would become our ticket #s that would finally let us in, some of us. I think about 125-150 of the people on the street got in. It was crazy. But Sam and I got in. And we got some new friends too. We got to yell and scream out prices. The best thing was that the lady who was at the front of the waiting line (she had been there since 2:30pm Monday and I think probably since Sunday evening before) won the showcase. If you want to see us on TV watch the March 29 show. Sam and I are wearing bright blue shirts, in the center section about 5 rows up. So when Bob says it is so easy to get on the show, don't believe him. It takes alot of conviction.

When we went back to Riverside we slept for about 12 hours straight. It was crazy. But before we left that night we went to see the Hollywood walk of Fame. I had no idea that it was so long. And we saw the Chinese theatre where the people sign their names and have hand and foot prints. We also went to the Kodak theatre. It is a major shopping mall. I had no idea.

We flew out at midnight and saw our children again the next afternoon. I was so excited to see them and so happy to be home. Journeys are fun, coming home afterward is better.