A Diet of Rite-Aid Ice Cream: California Girls Trip 2017

Girls trips are different from any other kind of trip. I honestly think they can be the most relaxing or the most stressful out of any kind of trip you will ever take. It completely depends on the people you decide to take the trip with. I've had some bad ones and I've had some good ones. A lot of times you don't know what you are going to walk into because awesome friends can turn into travel nightmares. In conclusion, be so so so careful when it comes to who you travel with.

My best friend Sala and I both love to travel. Shockingly, that's probably part of the reason we are best friends. Sala grew up partially in Samoa, Arizona, California, and Utah. We met when she moved to Utah right before junior year of high school. I became friends with her older brother junior year because we swam together and had AP Physics together. I became friends with Sala senior year when we had AP Government and Politics together. We share a more left-leaning political stance and live in the most Republican voting district in the entire United States. We had some good times tearing other people's arguments to shreds. We also once got kicked out of Spanish lab for talking too loudly and quickly in Spanish. We became fast friends when we went to senior prom stag together. That's a whole different story that maybe I'll get into later.

Sala is also friends with a girl named Ivana. I didn't really know Ivana that well before the trip because we didn't run in the same circles at all during high school. When you have a high school graduating class of 890 people, it's pretty easy to not know people. She also graduated a year after us. Ivana basically invited herself on this girls trip that Sala and I were planning. I figured it would be fine because if Sala loved her so much, probably I would too. Sala and I are pretty much the same person. The trip was an interesting one to say the least.

My best friend Sala and I in Vegas

Day 1

We left for our California trip around 3pm when I finished swim lessons. I had taught four straight weeks of lessons and was honestly exhausted. Swim lessons are my very favorite job, but they do take it out of you. The sun, the water, and the kids can all make you exhausted pretty easily. It didn't help that I had been up since 4:30am cleaning the pool deck so things would be clean for parents day and finishing the kids' report cards. I was pooped when we left.

The first day, we drove to Vegas and stayed in my dad's condos right on the Strip. Sala and I shared the massive king bed while Ivana had the queen bed in the other room. We each had our own bathrooms as well as sharing a kitchen, dining room, bathroom, and massive family room on the bottom floor. Honestly it was the dream condo.

After we made it to Vegas, we quickly unpacked and then walked the Strip for a little bit. We ended up grabbing some food at Shake Shack and then just walking around for a little bit. We went back to the condo and headed to bed early because we were planning to leave early the next morning.

Day 2

We left at 6am the next morning. I love to drive, so I drove the whole way from Vegas to California. Sala is the kind of person who can sleep within 10 seconds of getting in the car, so she passed out immediately. Ivana also opted to go to sleep, so I drove with all the windows down going 85 and blasting music all the way to LA.

Sala grew up in Hermosa Beach, so we stayed with some of her family friends there. It was awesome because Sala and I shared a queen bed while Ivana slept on the floor. She volunteered because apparently she is a wild sleeper.

Sala and I at Hermosa Beach

We made it to the beach by 10:30am and ended up spending the whole day there. Because it was cloudy, none of us put on as much sunscreen as we should have. We all got fried, which is honestly quite difficult for all of us to do. I had a great base tan from teaching swim lessons. Sala is half-Samoan and half-Tongan so she doesn't burn easily. Ivana is Mexican so she also doesn't burn quickly. It was quite honestly hysterical.

We also got some ice cream from Rite-Aid to finish off the day. When Sala grew up in Hermosa Beach, one of her family's favorite treats was ice cream from Thrifty Ice Cream, which is located in Rite-Aids only in California. We had to try it. It was as delicious as she had said it would be. I would highly recommend it.

We went home and went to bed early that day because we were all so exhausted from the travel days we had just had. Sometimes it's good to just go to bed early.

Manhattan Beach

Day 3

We woke up late and just chilled on the beach all day. One important thing for a good trip is to make sure that you are all on the same page. Sala, Ivana, and I just wanted to relax and go to the beach. We went to the beach every single day of our trip. It was amazing.

We ended up getting ice cream from Rite-Aid twice and only ate fish and chips other than that. It was pretty much an ideal day, other than me getting a parking ticket. We were two minutes late to our car and managed to get ticketed in that amount of time. I was mad because the Porsche next to us didn't get ticketed even though their meter had expired too. I ended up paying the ticket, but I definitely was not very happy about it at all.

Sunset at Hermosa Beach

Day 4

Shocker: we spent the day at the beach. The only time we left was to go pick up some Chinese food. Sala, Ivana, and I all found that we absolutely LOVE Chinese food. We used Yelp (Sala's favorite app) to determine where to go and then ate there. It was delicious.

We made it back to the beach just in time for sunset. On the beach, we hung out and laughed. Any time Sala and I are together, we are laughing 95% of the time. We laugh more than anyone else I know, which I love. Both of us are super easy to make laugh and we both love to talk so it's the perfect mix.

Sala and Ivana even demonstrated "ballet for thicc girls" as they called it. Mostly it involved them just screwing around. Ivana accidentally pushed Sala to the ground once and we died laughing for a good while there. We took some pictures in the water at sunset (you can't keep me out of the ocean, no matter how cold) and headed to Rite-Aid for ice cream.

Basic face mask selfie

After our Rite-Aid ice cream run, we went home and did some face masks. We ended up going to bed pretty early because we were planning to get up early the next day and drive down to San Diego, which is my favorite city in the entire world.

Day 5

We woke up early and began driving to San Diego. On our way there, we stopped in Encinitas at a place called Potato Shack. Sala's mom grew up in Encinitas so it was really cool to see a little bit more about where she grew up because I love Sala's mom.

As we were continuing down the coast, I got a call from my dad. He wanted us to turn around immediately and come home because he didn't want me driving at night, even though we were planning on switching around who would be driving. Because I was driving his car, we ended up turning around and heading home immediately. Luckily the girls were great sports about it, which was really nice.

On the way home, we just sang and chatted. Sala joked that I sang the song "Gasolina" by Daddy Yankee so much that if she had a dollar for every time I sang it, she could have paid for the trip completely. It was honestly hysterical. It was an awesome trip and we made it home with little to no traffic, which is shocking considering it was July 3rd and normally there is tons of traffic. Girls trips can be great!

Life Lessons

Find the right people to travel with.

Set expectations and a budget before the trip.

Make sure you make it to your parking meter in time, especially if you don't drive a Porsche.

Sunscreen is essential.