So initially I came up with the title of this post to tell you all about my California vacation,  but as the days dragged on and my procrastinating about blogging continued,  I figured it was an apropos title for my sloth like behavior since returning from the land of blue skies to the land of snow and ice.

California was wonderful.  The Del Coronado was it’s usual wonderful, welcoming self and many a day was spent hanging out with my Coronado island buddy Marie whilst Markie was attending his protein conference.

Marie is a super talented artsy type, and she makes fabulous bags and goodies and she is super nice and the perfect Thelma to my Louise…..

A lot of time was also spent on the beach rescuing critters from gulls

Do you see the size of the little guy?  He was huge,  and so were the 2 gulls who had found him before I did……… fortunately for him they backed off when I came crashing along the beach looking for sand dollars.  He is still living his crabby life,  just a little further up the beach now.

La or Smell A as Marie calls it was brilliant too.  It was truly the Hollywood experience this time around as they were filming the muppet movie less than a block from our hotel.  It was so great to watch the big song and dance number being filmed outside the El Capitan I was so excited to see Miss Piggy and the gang (I was a huge fan as a kid never missed a show) and we made a buddy in Tom the extra…….he was hilarious and made watching the filming extra entertaining.   We also got to discover that Jason Segel cannot dance and Amy Adams has the patience of a saint.

It was so cool as they filmed on Hollywood Blvd almost every night of our stay……so I was very disappointed they had finished the night before we left……what would we do instead?  Oh I know hang out with paparazzi outside Katsuya by stark and watch the stars arrive to be photographed and seen…….oh I mean get dinner (ahem,  yeah right!).  In the 40 mins we waited we got all the celebrity gossip from the papazzi and saw Lorenzo Lamas (remember him?) apparently he’s going to be on dancing with the stars so he caused a flurry of activity for the paps and someone I was actually excited to see Nicole Scherzinger of the pussycat dolls……she was really nice and smelled so good,  she must spray herself with perfume constantly.

I did get a piccie snapped of me and Nicole but no I wont share it………….it does nothing for my self esteem.

So along with lots of shopping and eating and hanging out it was the perfect break from the cold snowy days.  Sorry it took me so long to share my news,  I’ll be back to share all the crittery goods I’ve been working on and am working on really soon……..promise,  and my fingers aren’t crossed.

booooo hooooooo the vacation is over,  and my god the frigid mid west air hurts 3 times as bad after you’ve been sunning yourself on the beaches of California.   It really was a great vacation though even if it did start a little scary

This is our plane being sprayed with copious amounts of de-icer (I had no idea) I have to admit this freaked me out a little……..they do what?!!? Why?  to stop the engines seizing up in the cold……..oh…….are we sure this is safe? Oh our plane is going to be a little delayed……..why?  because the giant fleet of snow plows have to clear the runway…………hmmmmm ok.   Very, very odd stuff but it made leaving Chicago extra happy.

San Diego was of course brilliant we did the whale watching schooner trip.  Every year between December and March the gray whale migrates to warmer waters (smart whales)  and so you can see them on their trek  I got a few pics

It’s not so easy to get pics so I hope you are suitably impressed.  I love the 2nd pic as I think it looks like a comedy mustache.  But it’s not just whales you can spot,  dolphins swam with our boat for miles (I think I prefered them to the whales)  and sealions swam around trying to have a nosey at us.

We also went to Disneyland this trip I did all the scary rides (except space mountain, something about a rollercoaster in the dark freaks me out) I also was extremely excited about checking out the Tim Burton store

That store was cool, absolutely stuffed to the brim with Tim Burton related Disney crap……I had to get the Jack Skellington mickey mouse ears……so cool.  And I got some pics of my Disney idol

And discovered that Mickey’s closets look just like mine

We also went somewhere I’ve wanted to go for as long as I can remember

Recognise it?   I’ll give you a hint it’s located in…

Horray for Hollywood it’s the Graumann’s chinese theatre and I have always wanted to see the concrete hands and feet of the stars in it’s forecourt…..well one set more than any others (if i’m honest)

Sigh I love Marilyn,  and it was so great to put my hand in her handprint (we have the same size hand) It was also exciting to see that she had dotted her eye with one of her earings……I could have stayed there all day but it was easy to get distracted by the other greats…..I think I took a picture of every concrete slab I added some holiday pics to my flickr if you want to check them out.

So now we are back in the freezing Mid West (it snowed yesterday brrrrrrrr) and I guess it’s a good thing as we are broke and exhausted,  and I have lots of new critter ideas to get started on ……as well as a long overdue artomat update.  Better get to it.