#BookWorm: Good As Gone

Hello fellow readers,

Okay, I have got to stop picking crazy disturbing books. All of the mystery books I’ve read lately aren’t just a mystery they are straight up disturbing. Like I have had nightmares. The sad part? The things that happen in these books could legit happen to people. This one was no different. Good As Gone by Amy Gentry is about a young girl named Julie who goes missing at the age of 13. All of a sudden a lady shows up who meets the age criteria for Julie, but is a totally different girl than the one who left. Is this the real Julie? Why did she come back on her own? Where is her kidnapper? So many questions start to be answered in this plot twisting mind boggler.


I couldn’t really decide how I felt overall about this book. I guess I will give it an 8/10 because of how quick I wanted to turn the pages, but there were some elements that I didn’t like. There was a lot of religion slander and some talk about late term abortion. But I can to the conclusion that these things are real. And while the story in the book is fiction, it’s not fiction for some people. Religion can be corrupt. Our world is corrupt. It makes my heart sad that this is what some people go through and that there are some leaders in our world who would do things like this. The ending to this book was sub par. It gave you answers you wanted, but it was kind of dumb in my opinion. I’d love to discuss this book with someone who read it so I don’t have to give spoilers here! Needless to say the next book I am going to read will be a chill teen romance book. Or at least I hope it will be more chill than these last few!

Thanks for reading with me,
- Olivia :)

Franeks Take the West Coast: Los Angeles and San Diego, CA

Hey everybody, 

This was the last part of our two week journey down the west coast and I decided to combine L.A. and San Diego because our time in San Diego was so short. We arrived to Burbank and stayed the night right near the airport at the Marriott that was a short walk from the train station. It felt very safe there, we had no problems walking even in the dark. The Marriott Burbank Airport was super nice! It had a nice outside bar and a couple of pools too (none of which we had time to enjoy but I wish we could have). The next morning we got up and got our rental car from the airport (Avis- do not recommend if you are under 25 because they charge you a billion fees) and drove down to Santa Monica for our tour with A Day in L.A. We absolutely loved our tour! It stopped at Venice Beach, Rodeo Drive/Beverly Hills, the Farmer's Market, Griffith Observatory, Hollywood/Walk of Fame. We wish that we would have had more time to spend in Venice Beach and the Farmer's Market! But we were SUPER happy that we found a Blaze pizza to eat at while we were there as it had been a while since we had a staple meal. Afterwards we headed down to Anaheim, checked into our hotel the Holiday Inn and Suites at Disneyland (highly recommend!!) and then walked over to Downtown Disney for dinner. 

The next two days we spent at Disneyland and California Adventure. As a Disney OBSESSED person, I had to go to both and really wanted to spend one day at each, so Madi agreed and we did that. However, we could have probably done both in one day if we really wanted to. At Disneyland I made Madi get to the gate at 7:15am (Jamba Juice in hand) as the gates open there at 8am most days. We did pay for the MaxPass fast passes on our phones and it was 100% worth it. It was $10/person per day and we bought it for Disneyland first and decided the next day to buy it for California Adventure. We got on EVERYTHING that we wanted to do by 10:30am. After that we repeated some rides like Space Mountain (which IMO was actually cooler than Disney World's) and the Matterhorn Bobsleds. Halfway through the day we decided to skip out on the heat and go back to the hotel room and just chill (AKA I took a nap) for a couple of hours as well as eat lunch and an early dinner off property to save some money. When we went back over, somehow I convinced Madi that we really wouldn't get that wet on Splash Mountain if we ducked down, and we ended up totally soaked (oops!). And we also did Space Mountain for the third time. We stayed for Fantasmic, which was different than Florida's but cool, and had reserved fastpasses for that in the morning which gave us really good seats.

The next day we headed over to California Adventure. This park basically had four main rides: Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout (the old tower of terror RIP), Radiator Springs Racers (basically Test Track but done way better) Soarin' and Toy Story Mania. All were cool, but we got through things there quickly since California Screamin' and the Ferris Wheel were both closed for renovations along with the World of Color night time show which was a huge bummer as many people said that show is awesome. We decided to again go back off property to eat and rest at the hotel and then came back before dinner, hit a few rides again and then went off property for dinner. Since there was no night time show, we didn't go back to the park afterwards. I could write so much about our Disneyland experience. Maybe one day I will sit down and do some Disneyland tips/tricks, but for now I am trying to keep things brief. 

The following day was our ten year dating anniversary and three year wedding anniversary! We headed up to Burbank to do the Warner Brothers Studio Tour (which literally took us 2 hours to go 30 miles gotta love LA traffic amiright?!). The tour was awesome! We could have easily spent another two hours there if the tour allowed. Even though they were filming some things the day we went, we still got to see quite a bit. Including some bat mobiles and some things from Harry Potter! We would definitely do another studio tour again if we ever go back. Next we headed down to San Diego. Our first night was just kind of relaxed, exhausted from traveling at this point. We had rescheduled our hot air balloon to do it this night, but due to storm clouds it got cancelled, AGAIN. It was just not part of God's plan for our trip I suppose! Our last day of our trip we got up and went over to La Jolla beach, a little north of San Diego. It was so beautiful and the weather was perfect! I would have loved to spend more time in La Jolla. The Cottage for breakfast/brunch is HIGHLY recommended, it was delicious and Madi said they had the best french toast he has ever eaten. We then headed over to Balboa park. It was beautiful, but so so hot. We ate at Lucha Libre for dinner. YUM but dang their portions were HUGE. We could have easily shoved more things into this stop, but at this point we were so exhausted that walking around outside more was not appealing. If we go back to San Diego one day, we have a list of things we didn't get to do! 

Our trip overall was incredible. Madi has applauded my trip planning skills often, but he said this trip was over the top great. We loved every minute of it and would do it again in a heartbeat! But there is much more of the U.S. to explore, and now that Madi is settling into his new job and work routine, we won't be traveling for a bit! Well not anywhere far that is. Somehow we still have a lot of weddings in the next twelve months. It is that season of our lives! 

Movie/TV show from Los Angeles: Big Fat Liar (during the studio tour the prop room reminded me so much of this) and Friends (of which I have never seen all the way through). Santa Monica always reminds me of the movie Cellular too (sooo goood). 

Also Ocean Avenue was stuck in my head this whole part of the trip lol.

Thanks for keeping up with us,

- Olivia :) 

Franeks Take the West Coast: Monterey, CA

Hey all,x

The next stop on our adventure was Monterey, California. We stopped here just for one night to do some whale watching and see the coastline with a relaxed vibe. The way we got there was getting off of the train in Salinas and taking an Amtrak connection shuttle over to our hotel area. It was about a forty minute shuttle ride. We noticed right away the quiet of being away from a big city! Monterey was so peaceful! We stayed at the Portola Hotel and Spa, a great Hotwire deal! It was a beautiful hotel with a lot of charm. However, there was no air conditioning! At first, we were worried about this as Madi likes rooms cool, but Monterey was not a super warm or muggy place at all so it was not a problem. It stayed in the 60s throughout our time there, and dipped to the high forties overnight. There was a bike rental shop right next to our hotel, and we ventured out towards the bay and Point Pinos to explore! We got to see some adorable harbor seals and saw the beautiful coast our whole ride. The weather was perfect! 

We biked up to Point Pinos Lighthouse, which is still in use today. It was a great find, as it is only open a few days per week usually and runs off of donations. We watched a little video about this history of the lighthouse and walked around some before heading back towards our hotel. Once we dropped our bikes, we walked over to the marina and wharf to get on our sunset sail. We went out on a catamaran boat with two other couples and our captains. They had a nice plate of snacks and wine for us. We got pretty far out and got to see some cool dolphins, but quickly realized we were not going to see any whales. I totally read the advertisement wrong and the intent of the tour was not to see whales, just to do a sunset sail. Oops. Oh well! Our sail was still beautiful. We will have to see whales another time! We did get to see some ADORABLE sea otters! 

Monterey was the quickest stop that we had besides Napa, and we easily could have spent more time here. The aquarium I have heard is great as well! Things to add to our next list! The next stop is the Los Angeles area. Lots of things we will be seeing and doing there!

Must Do's in Monterey:
- Visit Point Pinos Lighthouse
- Bike the Boardwalk and Trail Area
- Make a Stop at the Aquarium

Movie this reminded me of: Finding Dory!

Thanks for keeping up with us,
- Olivia :)