Posts Tagged "UCLA"
UCLA: Sunday’s getaway
Unlike Saturday, the weather was awesome and stayed awesome the duration of my trip. My getaway day started slowly. I took my time getting ready, aiming for a 11:30 am departure from my hotel to head to Pink’s for lunch. Except I was ready by 9 and starving so I called Pink’s to find out when they opened and lo and behold [because it was obvious I was meant to eat at Pink’s] they were opening at 9:30. Well, by a quarter to 10 I was checked out of the hotel and on my way to Pink’s for a very delicious breakfast of chili cheese dogs. Didn’t you know that chili cheese dogs are the breakfast of champions?
Since I came so insanely early, there was no line whatsoever. Everyone who I told [i.e. Bubba and my parents] that I was going there warned me about the lines. Not that I worried, remember, I waited in line for cupcakes.
I helped myself to a chili cheese dog and pink lemonade and took a seat in the back patio area.
And enjoyed my breakfast.
It was good. I would have waited in line for it good.
I called my mom after I ate and she asked me if I had any more cupcakes since my dad was pretty much whining over not getting any. I didn’t but decided that I would assume the role of Cupcake Fairy again and surprise them and made another stop at Sprinkles. I promptly referred to them as my “contraband” and watched them like a hawk. For no real reason other than I could.
After picking up “the stuff”, I drove back towards Westwood in hopes of Diddy Riese being open, alas they were not and I would not be having cookies. I was really bummed. So I had to find an alternate activity to tide me over before I went to the airport. My parents, on multiple times over the weekend, informed me that I could take Santa Monica Boulevard all the way to, gasp, SANTA MONICA! Shocking, I know. So off I went.
Read MoreUCLA: Saturday Move-In
When we last saw our chipper heroine, she was packing away the linguini carbonara. And onto today’s exciting chapter!
This was our chariot for the weekend, a Chevy Cobalt. It was a pretty nice car where the doors automatically locked when you put the car into gear and unlocked when you parked it and had one of those handy keychain openers but the best thing was that it had HEATED FRONT SEATS! Yes it did and once I figured that out [while on the 405 and pressing random buttons saying, “I wonder what this does…”] we were so freaking happy. They really did help soothe my muscles and my lower back. I had it on all weekend.
Look at all the buttons!
Our hotel is across the street from a Mormon Temple. Remember people, not every Mormon lives in Salt Lake City and not everyone who lives in Salt Lake is Mormon. That’ll be on the GMAT so take notes.
So after bumming around in the morning and even having time to flat iron my hair, we headed out to Sprinkles to pick up cupcakes and assume our roles as the Cupcake Fairies. It didn’t take too long to find parking [thankfully since I’ve heard parking can be a bit of a pain in that area] and off we went to stand in a short line for cupcakes.
The store’s really tiny but there are plenty of daily cupcakes to choose from. I picked up an assorted half-dozen: red velvet, strawberry, vanilla, dark chocolate, a black and white, and a peanut butter and chocolate while Lindsey picked two vanilla, dark chocolate and red velvets. Lindsey helped herself to a vanilla as soon as we got to the car and it was like biting into heaven. It was sooo good and the cake was moist.
These were Lindsey’s…
And these were mine…
And then we were off to campus!
Once on campus, we wandered around to kill time before Lindsey had to move in. First, I was attacked by a Bruin, or an adolescent bear.
Then we took refuge in Ackerman from the Bruin and the rain and bought a cool Paul Frank umbrella that was barely adequate for the both of us but did the job. Though I did have to say goodbye to my awesomely straight hair.
Then we happened upon the cutest puppy ever. His owner was trying to walk him but he wasn’t listening to any of the commands and came directly to us. I wanted to take him home.
This is Janss Steps. Lindsey said it was a bit to climb up but I found that I bounded up it with no problem…needless to say, I was tempted to air box and lift my arms up in triumph once I did make it to the top.
Legend has it that you’re supposed to avoid the sixth step or else you’ll add two additional quarters to your stay here. I was ready to step on it but didn’t out of solidarity with Linds.
UCLA: Friday
So I uploaded my pictures last night and decided to do a 3-part series because otherwise you’d be inundated with random pictures. Because I care like that. So here’s Day One: the Trip Down.
Now I didn’t get the fun pictures of us eating at Tacos Jalisco, the BEST taqueria ever. Seriously, forgo the chain burrito shops like Chipotle and Rubio’s [as much as I enjoy both] and search out the smaller, family owned establishments. They will not fail you at all. I always made sure to stop at Tacos Jalisco during my breaks from school because I could not find a decent burrito to save my life in Ann Arbor [Pancheros was a poor but doable substitute]. While many people outside Vallejo consider it a dive, it most certainly isn’t. Shame on you for even suggesting that. Anywho, nor did I get to take pictures of us traversing through Wal-Mart where Lindsey completely depressed me with talk of “driving our Wal-Mart cars in our Wal-Mart clothes talking on our Wal-Mart cell phones and listening to our Wal-Mart music and sleeping in our Wal-Mart beds” in the soon to come “Wal-Mart World.” Thanks Linds.
But here we are in Oakland waiting for our plane. Lindsey is attempting to play Super Mario Bros on my DS but is failing miserably as she usually does. The poor girl. I’m tempted to make the “game over” sounder her text message alert. Because I’m evilly funny like that.
I spent the time reading through my ESPN the Magazine. Well, I almost stopped after this page but I pressed on because I’m that hardcore. Reading to the max!
Say goodbye to the Bay Area! I got to sit by the window and learned [after all these years of flying, I’m just NOW figuring this out…so sad!] that when the plane turns heavily to one side, it’s fun to look directly down from the window…it makes you feel all vertigo-ey. So.Much.Fun!
Here’s us potentially annoying the woman sitting next to us, who was already miffed that she had to get up to let us take the seats and now she has to deal with two chattering, picture taking freaks. Ahh, yes. Exactly.
