California Vacation 2015

The fourth and final day of my adventure here in California has come and gone in the blink of an eye. They say that time goes by fast when you are having fun! I cannot stress how true that statement is considering a two hour drive seems like an eternity! We only had one primary objective for the day, but it would become an activity that would occupy the majority of our day. We traveled to the one and only Universal Studios Theme Park. It is like a city within itself. They had every shop that you could possibly think of, ranging from souvenirs, clothing, food, and even magnets! Yes, magnets. All of these shops were arranged before a person even gained access to the park! We found a gift shop with all sorts of goodies, but we decided to hit it on the way back so as not to lug all of our loot with us all day. So, we walked on and on toward the theme park entrance. Remember how I mentioned how potent the sun is out here? Well, today proved to be especially true. I was covered pretty well, but within a few minutes, I could feel my skin boiling. I tried to stick to the shade as much as possible. So, when we got to the main gate, I walked upon the red carpet that leads up to it. It was as close to feeling like a star as I will probably ever get. We got in, and we referred to the directory to see what to hit first. My bold, daring, and adventurous sister decided she wanted to hit the rides first. I had promised that I would do the rides as well, even though it would make me sick for the rest of the day. We went on the "Revenge of the Mummy" ride first. My father decided to be a rebel and offered to separate so that we might jump to the front of the line via the "Single Rider" line. The plan worked, and we went from a forty minute wait to a ten minute wait. The Mummy ride was very short, but it contained high speeds, sharp turns, and steep drops. Enough to make my head spin. The second ride was the "Jurrassic Park" ride, and all it consisted of was a boat that dropped you into some water. Naturally, I got soaked, but so did my phone and wallet. Thankfully, they are both ok, but they do not want to go back to the water any time soon. Soaked and miserable, we skulked around like a deranged penguin, waiting for the powerful sun to work its magic. We came across the "Transformers" ride, and it turned out to be the best one of them all. The wait was a bit longer, even in the single rider lane, but it was well worth it. It played out like we were being evacuated from an underground bunker, and the bad guys (a.k.a. the decepticons) were after us. Optimus Prime and his autobots helped us to get out of the city. Basically, we sat in a vehicle, and it tossed and turned us according to the 3-D screen and what was playing across it. For example, if Megatron attacked us, we could feel the vehicle move, we could feel the breeze from the open air, we could feel the heat from the blast, and we could see the shrapnel from the exploding debris. It was thrilling enough to make us go on it a second time! After that ride, we moved on to the upper levels. There, we hit a few more gift shops, ate some lunch, and went on the tour of the actual Studio. We saw some of the sets they used for the biggest blockbusters, such as E.T., Jaws, Bruce Almighty, Captain America, Spider Man, and several other big names. Steven Spielberg has some strong ties to that place, so we saw a lot of what he contributed to the design specs. We saw the Western sets, we saw Amity Park from Jaws, we saw Little Europe, and we saw the Big Apple, all within the confines of one Studio Park. It was amazing. I continued to keep hope that I might see a celebrity walk out of one of the individual studios, but to no avail. Once we were done with the Studio, we traveled to the Walk of Fame in Los Angeles where the streets are covered with Stars with the famous celebrity names. I found Kevin Costern, Tom Cruise, Forrest Whittaker, Matt Damon, and many others. My mother was just after Kevin Costner for obvious reasons. After that, we followed the trail to find Bevery Hills, and we hit that for a while. We did not get out, but we just drove around to see some of the bigger shops and elite housing for the celebrities. It was quite the amazing sight. After that, we decided to make the hour long trek back to base. However, this hour turned into two and a half hours. Needless to say, by the end of that trip, I was hurting pretty bad from motion sickness, a bad headache from the rides, burning from the sun, and mental exhaustioin being the cherry atop my Sunday. Having just got back not too long ago, I have to say I am worn out once again. Who knew vacation could be such an exhausting thing? I certainly did not! (Ha Ha) Anyway, I am going to finish my blog in exchange for sleep. This will be my last blog for my trip. Tomorrow will be little more than traveling home, and that does not need a blog. I thank you all, whoever you are, for keeping up with me and for encouraging me to continue documenting my travels. I have to say it is something that I could get used to. But, for now, I want to keep my feet planted in the flat lands of Nebraskan soil. Farewell!