California Vacation
May 2006

When I was going through a particularly rough time, two of my amazing friends bought me a plane ticket to come visit them in California. It was an amazing (and extremely therapeutic) trip, and I got to spend time with so many wonderful people!

The Flower Fields
We visited the Flower Fields in Carlsbad, CA.	A sand sculpture near the entrance.	The flowers are grown in stripes of color along the entire field. It looks like a gigantic rainbow.	In the Rose Garden, they have many rare species, including this one that I HAD to get a pic of: "Gay Princess." Or as I like to call it, the Shasta Rose. :P
My friends Aimee and Char brought along their Dollfies, beautiful ball-jointed dolls from Asia. The top two belong to Char; the white-haired one is Candide and the black-haired one is Sagitta.
Lots of pretty flowers. :)
Annie, Char, and Me Photo by Aimee	Annie, Char, and Me Photo by Aimee	Me and Char Photo by Aimee	Char, Aimee, Me, and Annie
The Getty
We also visited the Getty in Los Angeles. They have beautiful gardens, and a display of French artifacts from the Rococo period.
This couch was the size of my CAR.	A French writing desk.	One half of a recreated room.	The other half of the room.
The LA skyline.	Ah, the glorious smog. :P	The maze garden out front.	Gorgeous flower vines arranged to look like trees.
Pretty red flowers.	And yellow roses.	SABOTEN!! (um, that's "cactus" in Japanese. Because I am a geek.)	A better view of the cactus garden.
Char, Aimee and Me. Photo by Van.		Van, Char, Me, Annie and Aimee. Photo by Van.
Random Stuff
I tested out the camera I'd borrowed before the trip.	Brought to you by HatsonBushes.com. (Don't ask.)	We indulged our love of all things Japanese at Kinokuniya. They have so many entirely unneccessary, entirely addicting tiny toys and trinkets!	An assortment of the Japanese magazines available. I was able to find a Takarazuka magazine that I can only get otherwise by importing it. Needless to say, I was pretty impressed.