Santa Monica

I woke up early this morning to go to LAX and pick up my favorite sister in the whole wide world from the airport. YAY! I'm so glad she came to visit me!! :) When I got back to the house, Heather and Abrams were all ready and we headed out to check out Santa Monica. We walked along the beach, went to the pier, got funnel cakes, watched some cool street performers...and we were freezing! It was unexpectedly cloudy all morning so we were pretty cold. We decided to get away from the ocean breeze and check out the Promenade which was also really cool. Abrams' friend from high school, Dylan (who moved out here 2 weeks ago to be an actor) met up with us. My friend Sara (who is my Telecom Co-Chair in Cicerones and is out in LA for a few weeks doing a Film program with USC) also met up with us and brought her friend Chris. So, we turned into a group of 7 enjoying the shops and sights along the Promenade. Noteably, the monkey who would shake your hand for a dollar. Then he bit someone. It was fantastic.
Around eleven the sun came out in all it's California glory so we walked back to the water. We got lunch on the pier then rode the famous Santa Monica Pier Ferris Wheel. The view from up there was beautiful! You could see where the ocean met the mountains and the HUGE beach with all the crazy 4th of July-ers setting up camp. It was really rad. We saw some break dancers perform and watched the trapeze school practicing before walking back along the beach. The group hung out at this really cool jungle gym they have on the beach. It's hard to explain but it's a massive area of every piece of equiptment imagineable. We just went on the swings while we watched people on gymnastics equiptment and all sorts of fancy things. Abrams tried to climb the rope (yes, like 90's gym class style) and got totally schooled by Heather, Amanda and a bunch of little girls who tried later haha. But it was a noble effort. I later got equally roasted on the monkey bars by a little boy so that's that. We sat on the swings and the sand and watched the people and the pier and just talked for a few hours before splitting up and heading home. Santa Monica was a lot closer than I realized so I'll definitely be heading back there. It was really cool meeting Dylan and getting to hang out with Sara! They're cool people (if nothing else, by association because we are, of course, the coolest).
So we headed home (a little sunburnt) and after a short Lady Gaga dance party in Amy's room, we showered and went to a fancy dinner at a really nice Italian place. The food was delicious and we had a great time laughing and telling stories. Poor Amanda was exhausted from waking up so early for her flight so we hurried home (deciding against the optional fro-yo run). In honor of the U.S. of A (since we saw no fireworks) we did a few poppers, courtesy of Shaia, in the front yard. Then it was off to bed for Amanda while Heather and Abrams and I played some cards. We watched a little of Knocked Up with Amy and Shaia and now I'm hitting the sack as well. I have to wake up at 5am to take Heather and Abrams to the airport. I'm so sad they're leaving!! It's been so much fun having them here and we've done so many awesome, cool things. I wish they could stay longer. :( I'm going to miss them!