Belmont Park Roller Coaster

                This weekend we decided to cross another item off our San Diego bucket list. With all the rain it was difficult to accomplish much, but the sun came out on Sunday and we headed down to Belmont park. Not much of a carnival park, but it is home to a very old, very wooden roller coaster. I don’t think I’ve ever seen more than five people riding this roller coaster at one time, and I’ve definitely never seen a line for the ride, but San Diegans must have been excited about the sunshine because the place was pretty crowded. We got in line for our tickets; feeling slightly out of place being older than 12 and not yet having kids ourselves. Being at this dingy little park reminded me about how much your perspective changes from when you’re a kid. The rides that seem lame and boring to us now, seem like the world’s greatest adventure to them. One boy ran up to the top of the line where the measuring stick was and proceeded to scream and dance with excitement that he was just barely a centimeter over the line and therefore able to go on any ride he wanted. The screaming was a little irritating, but the sentiment was cute. After we got our tickets and waited in line we climbed into one of the cars and off we went. I absolutely love roller coasters and I am not at all afraid to be on them, but this roller coaster was the ride from hell. Well, that’s a little extreme, it was still fun, but I think I suffered a concussion in the process. I was getting thrown around and my head was killing me. Luckily we hadn’t gone out the night before because riding that coaster hung over would not have been a good scene. Not something I’ll do again anytime soon, but I guess you can’t live in Mission Beach and not ride the roller coaster. After we got off we decided to walk around and indulge ourselves in some terrible carnival food. Not exactly on the Cabo Spring Break diet, but oh well! It was fun to act like a kid again and to take a break from our normal Sundays filled with homework and studying. Another item checked off the list and one step closer to feeling like I took advantage of every moment I have left in San Diego.

Vegas, Strippers, and Hot Tubs...Oh My!

At the end of my long winter vacation at home I was ready to get back to the California sunshine. I would have been content with just getting back to our cozy life on the beach, but my friends had something a little different in mind. Jess’s brother was in Vegas for work and her cousin lives right off the strip. With a place to stay and Jess’s brother paying for our tank of gas, we decided to kick off the semester with a weekend trip to Vegas. Now I will say that I debated blogging about this because as we all know..What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas, but I decided with a few ommisions it was acceptable. So here is what happened to me in Vegas. We made the 5 hour drive out on Friday and planned to return early Sunday morning. When we arrived Friday Andrew (Jess’s cousin) cooked us an awesome steak dinner and we started our night of drinking and debauchery. Andrew had invited a few of his friends over and after a good amount of pre gaming Jess, Tori, and I headed to Jess’s brothers hotel before meeting everyone at the new Cosmopolitan Hotel. Travis (Jess’s brother) gave us each $20 to play roulette with. I think he saw that decision have a different turn out, but Tori and I quickly lost our money and Jess pocketed hers. After that failure we moved on to Cosmo. The hotel is beautiful, elegant, and over the top in every way, which includes their drink prices. The bars were packed and seats were impossible to find. After a few drinks and pictures we decided to take our Vegas night in an even classier direction…to the strip clubs we went! Apparently one of Andrew’s friends had a connection and organized a party bus to pick us up. The bus was complete with stripper poles and some members of the group decided to give us a little show of what was to come. Not a pretty scene! We got into Sapphire with no cover thanks to the connections they had and were ushered into the largest strip club I have ever seen. The guys had quickly ordered bottles and lap dances and I was left to sit back to take it all in; a learning experience I guess you could say. Travis decided it would be a great idea to take our experience a step further and ordered Tori and I lap dances. One awkward experience I could live without. One positive that came out of my 5 uncomfortable minutes was getting exercise advice. Leave it to us to discuss work out tips while being surrounded by naked women. Jess also learned that her boobs were naturally great and implants should not be in her future. After a while at the strip club I started to notice that Andrew’s friends were starting to get a little combative and a little more aggressive. Maybe I should have seen where the night was headed, but I ignored it and we all went back to Andrew’s to end the evening. Everyone decided that the hot tub was necessary and jumped in. Things went from a little weird to bad pretty quickly when Andrew’s friends continued drinking, while Tori and I had stopped. Tori and I, being the brilliant drunks that we are, had planned ahead and had purchased queso and chips earlier in the evening and decided it would be better to end our night with queso dip then continue to be surrounded by increasingly sketchy guys. I think what sealed the deal was when one guy asked Tori to “feel the air bubble in his shorts.”… Ummmm what? We escaped the hot tub, but we were followed inside where the guys demanded we share our snack. Not wanting to be around these guys any longer than we already had, Tori and I grabbed the food and ran for our room, barricading ourselves inside. Not going to lie, it was the perfect ending to this weird night.  The next day, well afternoon when we finally woke up, we realized some of the guys were still there, one in particular who wouldn’t leave Jess alone. We decided we had to get out of there so we called Andrew and Travis and decided to meet them at Margaritaville. By this time we were all starving and the food was amazing! What does it say about me that my Vegas blog has more about food in it then drinking? Fat kid? Oh well! Nachos plus BBQ pulled pork sandwich equals the best hang over cure ever. Wiped out from all this activity, we decided to head back to Andrew’s for some much deserved naps. Unfortunately this nap only made me want to continue sleeping. Tori and Jess rallied and met Travis at his hotel for a few hours, while I called it a very early night and passed out. Such a failure. The next morning we packed up and started the drive back home to San Diego. Vegas is great, but I was happy to be going back. It was a fun and unexpected adventure; however, despite the creepy guys.