After lunch, we stopped at the ice cream shop that had ice cream mochi. It was really good and I'm not one that is normally a huge fan of the ice cream mochi.
After Little Tokyo we walked through the oldest street in LA (it's right by Union Station) and walked over to Chinatown. Here there was a large area filled with little separate shops. It was very reminiscent of some places we saw while in Asia. We found Joe's mom a shirt as well as a kimono for myself. All pretty cheap.
Laura got back home at around 7:30pm. We quickly took her out for yummy dinner at a vegan place nearby and then got her to sleep since she had to get up again at 3:30am or some insane hour.
-Miranda
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On Tuesday we left in the morning to go to Ventura for a whale watching trip. Grey Whales migrate through the area. This is around the end of the season, but we hoped to still get to see one or two. Even without Grey Whales, there is the possibilities of seeing other whales, dolphins and sea lions.
The trip went great. We saw a Steller Sea Lion right away and saw quite a few California Sea Lions later on. We were also treated to a large pod of Common Dolphins checking us out. As for whales, we didn't see any Grey Whales, but we did get to see a few Humpback Whales.
Upon getting back to Laura's place, we let her nap a bit before going in to work. We decided to go with her since we hadn't been to the Beverly Hills area and because she only had to work a few hours. We explored the area, including walking down Rodeo Dr. We found some yummy food and frozen yogurt before Laura was done with work.
-Miranda
Steller Sea Lion
Common Dolphin
Humpback Whale tail.
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Laura had to work in the morning, so we headed walked around her area some to explore. Afterwards we went off to check out Koreatown. One of Joe's goals for this trip to LA was to go to the different ethnic centers to try different foods and explore. The issue with Koreatown is it is a pretty large area. It's not as dense as Little India. There are random areas that will have restaurants but that was all we could really find.
Once Laura got off work she met us there. We found a restaurant that had Korean pancakes. We were going to have dinner with Chris later so we didn't want to eat too much, but we still wanted to try the pancakes. We ordered two for the three of us and that ended up being way too much food. The kimchi pancake was super good. With the food came a number of small dishes with things in them that were also very good.
Once we were done there we headed back to Laura's place to meet with Chris. We ended up just going for a long walk, stopping to get Boba tea and eventually stopping at a pita joint and getting some really yummy felafel.
-Miranda
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Joe was getting antsy again and wanting to travel a bit again, so we decided to head down to southern California to visit Laura in LA and Sarah in Twentynine Palms. We didn't want to deal with driving down to the Cities so we decided to take the direct flight from Duluth to Las Vegas. The airline that does that flight though is pretty annoying. It nickels and dimes you for everything. The only think "free" is your personal carry-on. The larger carry-on you have to pay for, so Joe and I took just one bag and then we each had a personal carry-on. Also, when we did the online check-in, it showed our seats and we were nowhere near each other, oh but you could buy your seat and be able to sit together then!... Wow... They don't give anything out on the flight either. Not even water. It did leave on time though, so that was good.
Once we arrived in Vegas we rented a car, drove down the strip and found a hotel.
-Miranda
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For dinner that night we decided to walk down the road to see if there was another place that might have food farther down. The place we were staying had a pretty small, sketchy looking kitchen and the food was expensive. We did find a place about a mile down. We were told to find a table upstairs. The view was amazing. A 360 view of the sunset, the ocean and the biosphere. Dinner was also great.
The next morning, Mom and Papa watched the sunrise, then we headed out back in to Tulum for breakfast. Mom, Papa and I all had reservations to go to the Tulum Monkey Sanctuary (Joe had already been there with his mom the previous week). The tour was great. Lots of storytelling and views of spider monkeys. Their ultimate goal is to be able to release the monkeys back into the wild, but some won't be able to be released for one reason or another. Those that are at the point of possible release stay in Monkey Island. This is a fenced off area where they can run around. It's fenced to prevent predators from getting in. The monkeys are able to get in and out themselves. It was very interesting. They also had some rescued horses, parakeets and a dog. At the end of the tour, there was a cenote with a hole to jump in. Of the 9 people in the tour, 7 of us jumped. Mom didn't, but Papa and I did.
While we were doing the tour, Joe got the rental car washed. He picked us up once we were done, and we headed off to Playa Del Carmen to return the car. We got there with plenty of time to spare and had no problems with the return. We stayed in a hotel that was nearby the bus station.
That night we split up. Joe and I had a goal of finding an only vegetarian restaurant. After quite a walk, we did find a falafel and lemonade restaurant. The food was good.
The next day we mostly relaxed before hopping on the bus to the airport then catching the plane back home. Fortunately, we missed the insanely cold weather. At least we came back to 20's and even 40's instead of below zero temps.
-Miranda
This is Mimi. She was raised by a human, so she mostly walks upright and doesn't really know how to act like a monkey. She's been learning though.
This poor lady was owned by someone that fed her chocolate when she "acted up" and Coca Cola when she was "being good".... She and another female are so obese that when the people got her they thought they were having twins, but apparently they're still bigger than what they would be if they were pregnant.
One of two baby monkeys that were born on Monkey Island.
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