Mike and Sam Go West! Day 11 - Newport Beach, Whale Watching, and a day of fails!

[soarinfan]

Mike and Sam Go West!

A Holiday Extravaganza

Please click the images below to watch Episode 12 of our Holiday Vlog!

Quite a short day again today - the majority of the fun lies in the video! Enjoy!

So about 6 weeks before the holiday Sam had forced me to start watching The OC (a show which was on early 00's set in... The OC). Sam loves The OC - probably safe to say one of her favourite shows ever - so I had arranged a cheeky little surprise - we were going to go and visit where The OC was filmed - well the pier and what not anyway! We had already planned to visit Newport today anyway - we had a whale watching trip booked, Sam, Jade & Jake were going to a concert, and I was off in the evening to meet up with my pal Luke who lives out there.

The day started fairly promptly as it is a bit of a drive down to south LA past LAX towards Redondo Pier where some of the show was filmed - it was also a pretty grey day but it didn't dull the mood! It was also fairly tricky to find but we eventually found the coast line and somewhere to park the car for the princely sum of 2 quarters, and headed out on to the pier.

We weren't quite sure whether this was or wasn't the cafe/diner they all used to sit in in the show - but after looking at some of Sam's photos when we got home it was (as she had inadvertently zoomed into a picture and sign on the wall stating it was!). Unfortunately the area had declined somewhat to what was shown on the TV (of course -everything is dressed for TV anyway!) and the grey clouds didn't help, but it was cool to see none the less.

Naturally, Sam had to have a picture on a bench like any fans of the show always saw Marissa on - turns out it wasn't even the right bench! but it looked the same so it'll do for now! We hadn't had any breakfast and idea was that we were going to be having some form of lunch when wet arrived at Newport which wasn't too far down the road (probably about an extra half hour). The plan this afternoon was that Jade & Jake were going to go to the beach, whilst I took Sam on a whale watching boat tour which she had booked through our GO LA cards.

Unfortunately - by the time we battled through LA traffic, got to Newport, actually found somewhere to park AND found the whale watching place, it was as good as time to board the ship. Naturally by the time we set out to see I was absolutely ravenous! You can see that I'm clearly wasting away in the photo below...

The whale watching tour was actually really really good - so much better than I imagined it would be. We had booked through a company called Newport Landing however, when we arrived at the outlet we were told that today we were going to be going with someone else down the road - Davey's Locker - ok we thought! Bemused we had toddled off down the road and found them fairly easily - I imagine they must be sister companies or similar because from what I can imagine the tour was as good as the same.

There was a bar on board and the Captain kept running "drinks specials" - I was more interested in the food! Thankfully I was first to the bar when it opened but naturally the only sustenance was alcohol or crisps - and as I was driving I was stuck with a bag of ready salted or "Plain" as they are over there. It wasn't great but I managed!

The animals that we saw were breathtaking. We saw thousands of dolphins, a few sealions here and there (including a slightly dead one! ) and then to finish it off a pair of whales - it was pretty awesome to see - and so different from what I would usually go about doing on holiday - very much recommended if you're in the area!

We had to get our skates on next because I had to drop everyone off at Laguna Beach - as they were off to a concert near by there tonight, and I was then off to pick up my pal Luke to go flying. Jade suggested we just pick Luke up on the way which thankfully we did as due to traffic it was turning into a close call! We managed to drop them at the beach though and get back to John Wayne airport fairly swiftly before the office closed at the flying school he is with.

Luke was the pilot in command this afternoon so he got on with all of the checks to ensure the plane pixies hadn't come along and nibbled at some of the cables whilst it had been parked whilst I did a bit of plane spotting ) Unfortunately, one cable had been nibbled on by the plane pixies - the radio (or "comms") were dead in the cockpit - we could transmit out, and hear them back, but we couldn't hear each other (which although is technically flyable - it wouldn't be wise!). So after sitting there with the engine on for 10 minutes waiting to taxi and trying to figure out a solution to the problem, we ended up chucking in the towel and giving up nightmare! Shame as I was really looking forward to flying today - we had actually been transferred over to this aircraft as the one he usually flies had been commandeered by a student all day !

Never mind - it wasn't meant to be. Naturally though it did lead to good things - more time for PIZZA! We both have an unnatural obsession with the Italian stuff so it was a delight that Luke lives very near by to a California Pizza Kitchen - so we made a bee-line for there!

WOW that was good pizza! Cheese literally oozing everywhere - loved it! Then the phone started ringing - it was Jade. First thought was...whats happened?!? Turns out the concert which they were going to see had been cancelled - what a day for fails! Unfortunately also - they had fed Sam a cocktail or two, and she was (having had no food all day) gazeboed/trollied. I could hear the high pitched squealing laughter in the background - oh god I thought, my first time dealing with a very very drunk Sam. Could be interesting. I told Jade where we were and that we were going to go for dessert somewhere else, and she said they were on their way to us and that they'd join us.

We found them a small time later in what Sam nicknamed "THE MCDONALDS FOUNTAIN!" (can you tell why it was called that? ) Sam was being amazingly loud and high pitched, so I said it was probably wise to get to this place and get some food inside her - thankfully it was going to be The Cheesecake Factory, so Luke and I could still gorge on the best pudding known to man. I managed to get Sam inside without her being arrested for being drunk and disorderly, and ordered her some chips and water, whilst we all devoured cheesecake.

It was soon time to head home after dropping Luke off - his first experience at meeting Sam (and an interesting one at that - after he had to help me carry her to the car! ) - again quite a trek all the way back to Hollywood but the nice villa at the other end was worth it. Thankfully Sam was out like a light but I was up snacking on left over pizza and watching Top Gear on BBC America for a couple of hours. Sam of course had to try and sleep it off because tomorrow we were going somewhere very special indeed...

...DISNEYLAND!

That's it folks for Day 11 - stay tuned for Day 12 which begins our 4 day visit to Disneyland California Resort. I would love your support on my YouTube channel where all of the holiday vlogs are located - SoarinFanProductions. Seemingly some of the videos went viral but the others are trundling along! Like & Subscribe if you are enjoying them!

[dozy]

fantastic again