Tell me what’s your first reaction when your parents told you they were gonna visit you for X-mas? Excited? Or Exhausted?

 

Believe me, making the entire travel plans is no fun. You want to make the most use of time while they are here and take them to as many places as possible, yet it can’t be too tiresome. You need to book all the flights, hotels, tours, cars, and you are the only one in charge of everything. Not to mention all the unexpected accidents happen during your trip and you need to keep calm and deal with them. And of course, handling all the little yet “annoying” requests from your parents, such as connecting the Wi-Fi on their phones and providing the hotspot when there is no wireless. (Jesus…this is a time when everybody is online and once you are offline, you feel like you miss the whole world!)

As I grow older, I feel my parents are actually becoming younger! Seems like we are both switching roles and I become a baby sister!

But as tired as I was, I felt enriched. Even though there were sometimes disagreements and little conflicts, I enjoyed being with my family. And although it sounds like I am complaining about the huge amount of work (it took me two months to make all the plans ==), I actually feel proud of myself cause I am finally old enough to take care of my parents! For me, it’s always interesting to travel with my family. There are lots of inspirational dialogues going on and I love all those deep talks!

But I am sure there are still many people who don’t know how to take their parents around and how to arrange everything. I am gonna share my entire trip with you and hopefully, my posts will make your life easier lol!

Before I go into details about my entire trip, I want to give you a rough look about my schedule.

          12.17-12.20 LA

          12.21 LA-SF

          12.22-12.23 Napa Valley

          12.24 SF-LA

          12.25-12.26 LA-LV

          12.27-12.28 LV-Grand Canyon

          12.29 LA

          12.30 SD

Since there are so many places, I want to spilt them into several posts based on different locations. This one will mainly talk about all those interesting places that I’ve taken my parents to.

Day One: USC-BEVERLY HILL-THE GROVE

Well, USC is definitely a great place to check out. The campus is really nice, with various kinds of trees and different shapes of architectures. There are two places that I find most fascinating. The first one is Doheney Library. It won lots of awards for its Italian Romanesque style and the drawings and decorations inside are just so majestic. Every time I enter that building, I feel like I am back to the middle century.

Another place is the first floor of Wallis Annenberg Hall (ANN). There is a newsroom inside, very high technology, modern, and advanced. Though I am not majoring in journalism, those facilities look really awesome!

Ok anyway, I am in love with USC. Forgive me for my endless talking about USC. I also took my parents to Beverly Hill to see the rich people’s life! I wish I could ever afford to buy a house there >.- !

The Grove is also on my list because both I and my boyfriend think it is very American! During the Christmas time, they put a very huge Christmas tree in the center and the decorations made the place so romantic. Besides, there are lots of nice restaurants to pick.

If you don’t want to dine out at a restaurant, the Farmer’s Market is also very good. I and Kevin often go there to grab some fresh oysters, shrimps, and salmon. You can also chill out a little bit with a cup of beer and enjoy the live concert in the evening.

Day Two: COUSIN’S HOME-SANTA MONICA

My cousin Angela is also living in LA, so we drove to their home in the next day. We had a great family reunion time and then hit the Costco super market together. Everything in Costco is so large and amazingly cheap!!! Ahhhh unbelievable.

Unfortunately, when we headed down to Santa Monica, it was raining like cats and dogs. We were trapped in the Santa Monica Plaza. Mum and I were happily shopping while Kevin was talking all the way with my dad. Perfect division, wasn’t it?

Day Three: UNIVERSAL STUDIO-GRIFFITH OBSERVATORY

Alright alright, don’t laugh at me for taking my parents to Universal Studio. Indeed, I think it’s a place for everyone. No matter how old you are, you will have fun there. It’s not like Disneyland that is more targeted at children, in Universal Studio, you can actually learn how to make movies! All those special effects and high technology are what make American movies so distinguished.

 

We also visited Griffith Observatory. Kevin actually took the role of being a tour guide and shared many knowledge in astronomy. Standing at the top of the mountain, we gotta see the night view of Los Angeles. Pretty cool.

So this is basically our time in LA. We did go back to LA after our stay in SF and LV, but it was more like a stop in between and we didn’t have much time go out. Below is a list of restaurants that we went to and I highly recommend to you!

Boiling Crab

EMC Seafood Restaurant

Cheesecake Factory

Sushi Gen

Beverly Soon Tofu Soup

Sun Nong Dan

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Thank you for reading! I will try to update the rest of my trip and share all the sweet tips ASAP!! If you liked this post, please leave your lovely comments below and subscribe to my newsletter!

XOXO, Sweet Connie!