One hangout, a total blast :) (continued from This Special "Someone")

We went to the beach boardwalk today. After the first day of summer school ended (I REALLY hate summer school but I had no choice), I picked her up at her house at 2:30 and started heading towards Santa Cruz. We had quite a ride there, considering the fact that it WAS my first time driving there and I was actually driving quite fast and it scared her a bit so I slowed down but we still managed to make it there in half an hour, so I STILL drove a bit fast. When we got there, I was actually feeling quite lucky because it had been a LONG time since I last went to Santa Cruz (last year) so I had to sort of figure out my way through the streets. So I was just driving along with her and I was thankful that I saw very familiar landmarks at the corner of street intersections and eventually got to the parking lot where my mom always parked at. So we went there, paid $12 (I was glad it wasn't that expensive and since we were staying there for a while, why not?), and went to find a parking space. If we had parked outside, however, we would have needed to pay with quarters and needed to have come out once or twice to pay more with quarters. Once we found a parking space, we headed into the amusement park and the FIRST "adventure" we went to, so to speak, was the fright walk. I"ll admit that I sort of killed the fun (or should I say fright? O_o) because I had used my phone's flashlight capability and walked through the whole thing with it, so I saw through all the scares before hand, and we eventually caught up to the group that started about 1 min before us. Even though I used a flashlight, it was still sort of scary for me because we were completely surrounded by mirrors and if I didn't look carefully, I would have walked into one of them and probably got stuck there for a good time. After we got out, we walked deeper into the amusement park and as my own personal tradition, I went to the speed pitch (I go to the boardwalk at least once a year and test out if I can pitch faster or not) and I ended up pitching a 52 (last year was 43). I was quite surprised when I consistently pitched a 52 for all three throws. Anyways, this isn't important...moving on...LOL. The next ride we went onto was the Haunted Castle ride. Now, for this, I was sort of scared but I knew it wouldn't have been as frightening as the first one because at least for this, you were sitting on a moving object going at a constant speed so no matter what, you couldn't slow down. But I honestly thought I could have not plugged my ears 'till the very end, but I just did it the whole way just to make sure I didn't scare the shit out of myself. Overall, the ride was pretty cool, except for the fact that I was being a complete wimp by having both my ears plugged for the whole time. Then after that, we went over to the Giant Dipper, and it took her nearly 5 minutes to convince me to get onto the ride with her, mostly because I didn't want to refuse to her and because I was doing it for her xD. If it was my other friend, yeah, he wouldn't quite succeed. Now, for this ride, at the beginning, the first small drop, to me, was already enough. But then right as soon as we were climbing up that huge climb, I was thinking to myself "oh shit...here...goes...nothing..." but I was prepared for it because I pretended I was in a sports car just without the top for protection (Sorry :(, I still imagined myself being in a car, natural reaction I guess, even though you told me it killed the fun out of the ride). But I have to say, it actually wasn't that bad. Even though I was thrown up into the air about 4-5 times, it was worth it considering first of all, I felt different about it this time, and second of all, I loved the speed. In the past, probably about 2-3 years ago, my sister and relatives dragged me onto the kiddie coaster, and I was scared as hell. Through the whole ride, I had my head down and had my eyes closed and kept on saying "I wish this was over, I wish this was over...". This time, no, not at all. And I have to say, she's really weird (in a good way) because she's afraid of heights and yet she rides roller coasters now??? XD just for some reason those 5 words, "roller coaster" and "afraid of heights" don't go together so I was surprised how she managed to get used to it. Anyways, after that ride, we went onto the other one, and the other one was a bit more scarier (if that's even a word). The slope of depression for that ride was a lot steeper and there were more angled turns than the Giant Dipper. Overall though, it was still pretty fun. So in the end, she got me to ride the two roller coasters of the boardwalk, the Haunted Castle ride, AND the fright walk when it took my relatives and my sister about 3+ years to convince me, and they still have not succeeded yet. So after we got off the ride, it was about time to leave the boardwalk (I swear, next time you come back, if you do, we are staying there way longer. today was just complete luck that it happened, but I was still glad it did happen ^_^) and take her to go sightseeing. So it took us a good 10-15 min to get to the destination point because first time round, we ended up meeting an ambulance with the sirens on. So then we had to go back the entire way a second time, and this time, it was a lot better. I was grateful that I sort of remembered the way but it was sort of like a "you make the wrong decision, u gotta start all over again but if u get onto the right road, then you're fine" type of situation. So I took her to the place where my mom and I went to stand by the ocean and the absorb the view, in a way. So I just walked around with her, stopped a few times to look at the ocean, and just treasured my time spent with her because (I know I say this every time, but I KNOW this is the last time we will ever spend together before she leaves, and if she ever does come back, maybe another time but the chances are slim, very slim) she was leaving the next day. So, we walked around a bit, then ended up moving our car closer to a beach which we stopped at. We ended up spending about 5 minutes looking for an entrance to the beach because we couldn't find where the entrance was. LOL. In the end, we FINALLY found the entrance and went down. When we were down there, I purposely tried stayed out of the water just to watch her (sorry if that sounds creepy, but it was what I was doing). Since this is a post that's just for her, I'm just going to bring out all of what was in my mind at the time. When I saw her playing in the water, to me, she was extremely cute and I just couldn't help but smile. So I was watching her the entire time and when she came up to the sand and sat on a log, I went to sit beside her. Right as soon as I sat down, probably 15 seconds afterward, I had this sudden feeling of the idea that this was what I wanted, this was what I truly wanted. I don't know why but I just had that idea. So then after we sat for about 5 minutes, we walked back up the stairs and continued driving to the other side. We saw some houses, commented on them, and then I ended up making a U-turn at one of the T-intersections. It was about time to leave SC, since it was around 6:30 and it took us half an hour at least to get back, we started heading back to the highway, but at the time when we decided that, I just realized I had one problem. I couldn't drive on the highway wearing only flip flops. So then I asked her if she could get my shoes for me (sort of embarrassed actually because I didn't want her to touch my shoes or socks because they were dirty and smelly in a way) but she did. So this was another time where it was dangerous for me because I was attempting to put on both socks and shoes while the car was in motion and the steering wheel was in my hands. So I started putting on my socks and shoes, and I still don't get why she laughed, but when I said "crap I think I threw my socks away," she cracked up. When she was laughing, I was completely blank as to why she was laughing. She then told me it was funny because of the way how I said it and because I was laughing WHILE I said it. So she laughed about it for about 3 minutes and then we got onto the highway when something else happened. Now I don't exactly know what the hell I did to the guy, probably because I cut him off or something, but he got really pissed and started coming after me. At first, I didn't want to even bother to mess around with him because I thought it was too dangerous to even attempt to do it in the mountains, but I thought since this was the very last time I was going to race someone with her in the car, might as well make it worth while and dedicate this race to her, since it was a challenge for me too but she wanted me to do it. So I started speeding up, and the guy started speeding up too (the guy drove an Isuzu Rodeo with 205 horsepower. LOL ikr? I even searched it up XD. I got no life). At first I told her "you know what, I don't think I should do this, it's way too dangerous." But then that's when something happened. I came to the fact that my family's background was racing, my uncle used to be a street racer, so it had to influence me in some way or another. So then I didn't tell her anything, and continued on. Overall, it was fun because the guy had no way of passing me no matter what, which I didn't quite get because my car definitely did not have as much horsepower as he did. So then after 5 minutes, I realized that this wasn't bad at all, and that's when the adrenaline started pumping. I completely turned this situation into a race in one of those racing games. So I completely adjusted myself to thinking "Ok, pretend this is a racing game except it's real life. Time to put what you know about racing into this one event." So then, I started driving my car like it was a sports sedan on a winding road in a game. The guy must have been thinking I was crazy because for the first turn, I drove really close to the center divider (when you race, no matter how sharp the curve is, you ALWAYS have to start from the outside and end up at the inside) but then as I was approaching the second turn, I moved my car from the center divider to the middle yellow dotted line (the inside). So after a while, the guy got REALLY pissed and started tailgating me. I wanted to piss him off even more by stepping on the brakes at him but I thought that it would be best if I got back to LG as soon as possible. So, with that in mind, I basically drove 60 on the turns and 90 on the straight roads. The whole time, I was actually pressured by two facts: 1. I had to maintain the lead or else I would have been second the whole time and 2. make sure it was intense and crazy enough for her to enjoy the ride and race. So I tried my best, and honestly it took everything I learned out of me and skill wise, and ended up succeeding. Even though, he came in at the very end and stayed in front of me for a good 5 minutes or so, the last stretch of straight road, I ended up overtaking him and passing him and then going up to speeds of 95, almost 100. The only reason why I knew we were at 95 and close to 100 was because when we were at max speed, I checked the speedometer on my car and it was between the 90 mark and the 100 mark. So then after I past the guy, to make it more entertaining for her, I rolled down my window, put out my arm, and waved "bye bye" to him. After I did that, I sped even more, except keeping the same speed, and basically disappeared in front of him. Then, the highway split into two directions, I headed toward the LG exit, and exited the highway. That's when I said "I dedicate this race, to you." So then, afterwards, after it all ended, I drove really slow because throughout that whole time, I wasn't myself. I ended up shaking from going back to what the heck happened in the mountains but she didn't notice. I also took a few big breaths because I had to calm myself down, and she did ask me if I was ok which was nice of her, I ended up telling her yes because I honestly was feeling fine, just I needed to calm down a bit. So anyways, we went to downtown Saratoga where I thought I could find the place where my relatives brought me to look at the stars, but I ended up taking her on a 20 to almost 30 minute drive through those set of mountains. By that time, though, I was starting to feel the soreness in my right leg just below the calf muscle. So we drove for a good 20-30 minute and we eventually hit the top of the mountain (somewhat) but at that time, we both had no clue where we were. Turns out, we were off big basin way for a long time. So then I decided to make a U-turn but something scared both her and me. While I was perpendicular on the two lanes, a mini cooper came up at a speed of I would say 25-30 mph. Thankfully they slowed down so once I completed my turn, I held my hand up, showing a sign of "thanks" and she did the same thing back, as a meaning of "you're welcome." So the whole trip basically took about half an hour to 40 minutes but it was actually fun considering it was driving in a mountainous area. Later, once we got out of the mountains, I brought her to the park, which I only had one intention for. Once we got to the park, I took out a red sharpie and a black pen, and got out of the car. She asked me if she had to go down and I gave her the option to choose for herself. She decided not to, so then I just walked across the bridge to where the stairs were, started heading down the stairs, but then turned a full 180º and wrote something on the piece of wood that directly across from it. I wrote "Christina We Will Remember You FOREVER" and put a smiley face right beside it. So after that, I went back to the car, and started heading for LG downtown, but missed the entrance to highway 9. So then we started for Saratoga Avenue but about half way through, I decided to change the plan. I ended up driving to the church where we had our very first hangout together, and right when we entered the parking lot, she knew what I wanted to do. So then I looked at her, then said "one last time to drive my car?" Then she smiled and said "ok sure." So then I parked my car into the parking space and we switched seats. So then she backed out and we started making loops around the parking lot. I was very impressed because she caught on pretty fast, or in other words, improved. But it was funny at the end because when she parked the car, she said "now it's your turn :)". When she said that, I smiled and almost laughed. So after that, I took her to downtown LG where we just walked around for a bit. To my surprise, I met my old friend, Courtney Hall, and other best friend, Katie Tedford (I met both from tennis at Courtside) but it was pretty awkward, I don't know why. So then when me and her crossed the street, I met both of them face to face and we just exchanged our "hi's" and went on our way. Our first stop was the candy stop which we spent about 10 to 15 minutes in there, just walking through the whole store to see what they had. She ended up buying a toad head (or if that's what you call it) for her brother which I thought was nice of her. After, we both headed to the apple store. There, she played scrabble and Sparkle HD. She was stuck on scrabble for a while but she sped through Sparkle HD. She ended up telling me to play for her, which I did. I actually found the game to be pretty fun but still, $5? I found it to sort of be not worth and she said it was definitely not worth it. So then after spending about half an hour at the apple store, we had to leave because my sister was extremely hungry. So I drove her back to her house, and when she was getting off the car, I had this sad feeling run through me, knowing that this may be the last time I see her until the week she comes back, sometime next month. So when she got off the car, I inched my way forward to watch her go in, but I also saw the Lexus that she was talking about for the whole time we have known each other for. So this marks the end of our hangout, I truly had a blast today, and I hope she did too, and I hope we get to do this again, except with a different car. I promise that if I ever do get the 3.7L 305 HP V6 Premium Coupe, I will bring her to Santa Cruz again and at least one joy ride.