Matthew's Graduation/ Imperial Valley Trip
On Thursday, I took the 150 mile drive south to the Imperial Valley (The Salton Sea Area and south to Mexico) for one of my best friends, Matthew Smith, college graduation.
I left the house at 8:30 am with the goal of arriving at 11:00, meeting Matthew at the county airport. As I was driving down, I had to be apart of a work conference call about having military youth at different 4-H summer camps. I arrived at the Imperial County Airport 20 mins before 11:00, earlier then what the directions claimed it would take me. I figure it was due to the fact i cruised at 80 MPH when i got on the 86 South, for there where no cars on the road for miles, so it was nice to go a speed I wanted to go. As my conference call ended, Matthew arrived. I have to say it was a little strange to see Matthew drive up in an Oldsmobile Achieva, which just happens to be the same car I had as my first. Luckily for him, he had one of the last models that where produced, compared to me who had the first. Matthew and I headed up to one really good mexican food restaurant in Imperial, then headed on down to pick up Jordan.
We drove down to Calexico (Last City before being in Mexico) to pick up Jordan Yee, another great friend of mine, and we went to chill for a little while before getting ready and heading to the graduation. We went to the Imperial Valley Mall in El Centro, and decided to see a movie. We decided to see the new Star Trek Movie. While waiting for the movie to begin, we walked around the mall for a little bit, then went to watch the movie. This was my very first Star Trek movie. I have seen some small bits of past movies, and they seemed so boring that I didn't go watch them (I stayed with my Star Wars). Even though i was a bit confused from some of the terminology, I do have to say that was a good movie. It had a great amount of action, and everything flew well.
After the movie, we headed right to the Holiday Inn Express to meet yup with Kristen Weeks, also another super friend, and got a room with three beds in it, and prepared for the Graduation. The graduation was held in the quad of the San Diego State University (Imperial Valley Campus) in El Centro. There where tons of people, but we stayed to the side lines so we can talk to Matthew during the ceremony and take photos. What didn't help, was that it was in the low 100's that day, so it was supper hot. After the graduation was over, we all chilled, and worked on taking tons of photos of Matthew with his family members and friends. After the millions of photos taken, we left the campus, and headed for dinner at Denny's. After a wonderful dinner, we headed back to the hotel, Jeanine (Matthew's sister) joined with us for the night, and we chilled. We caught up on everything and had some other great conversations. Before long, we realized that it was 3:00 in the morning, and it was time for bed.
The next day, we all woke up, and slowly had a relax full morning packing up and other things (I was the last to wake up). After leaving the hotel, we drove around for a while to kill time, they showed me their county fair grounds, which was a neat thing to see since they spend many hours there with animals and other 4-H members at the fair in late winter to early spring. After killing some time, we headed over to the county airport, where there was a Steak house, and this was the location of Matthew's Graduation Lunch that his mom, Maryann, planned and invited family and friends to. It was really nice to meet people who have made a difference to Matthew's life, and it was cool to hear how Matthew has inspired them over the years.
After lunch, Matthew, Kristen, Jordan, Jeanine, Maryann, and I all headed down to the bowling ally to play a few games of bowling. It was a lot of fun. I was in the low end at the end of the first game, but I was second place in the second game. We would of played another game, but it was time for me to head back to the Inland Empire. We chilled for a few moments in the parking lot, then we headed our own ways.
**Matthew: I am proud to see you graduate, for I know you have spent many hard and long hours to achieve your degree in Social Sciences. You are an inspiration to me and to others to work as hard as you have and be successful. It is a great honor to have you as a friend, in fact ALL OF YOU!!!! and I want to thank you for inviting me down to the valley. I really enjoyed the short time we where together.
I left the house at 8:30 am with the goal of arriving at 11:00, meeting Matthew at the county airport. As I was driving down, I had to be apart of a work conference call about having military youth at different 4-H summer camps. I arrived at the Imperial County Airport 20 mins before 11:00, earlier then what the directions claimed it would take me. I figure it was due to the fact i cruised at 80 MPH when i got on the 86 South, for there where no cars on the road for miles, so it was nice to go a speed I wanted to go. As my conference call ended, Matthew arrived. I have to say it was a little strange to see Matthew drive up in an Oldsmobile Achieva, which just happens to be the same car I had as my first. Luckily for him, he had one of the last models that where produced, compared to me who had the first. Matthew and I headed up to one really good mexican food restaurant in Imperial, then headed on down to pick up Jordan.
We drove down to Calexico (Last City before being in Mexico) to pick up Jordan Yee, another great friend of mine, and we went to chill for a little while before getting ready and heading to the graduation. We went to the Imperial Valley Mall in El Centro, and decided to see a movie. We decided to see the new Star Trek Movie. While waiting for the movie to begin, we walked around the mall for a little bit, then went to watch the movie. This was my very first Star Trek movie. I have seen some small bits of past movies, and they seemed so boring that I didn't go watch them (I stayed with my Star Wars). Even though i was a bit confused from some of the terminology, I do have to say that was a good movie. It had a great amount of action, and everything flew well.
After the movie, we headed right to the Holiday Inn Express to meet yup with Kristen Weeks, also another super friend, and got a room with three beds in it, and prepared for the Graduation. The graduation was held in the quad of the San Diego State University (Imperial Valley Campus) in El Centro. There where tons of people, but we stayed to the side lines so we can talk to Matthew during the ceremony and take photos. What didn't help, was that it was in the low 100's that day, so it was supper hot. After the graduation was over, we all chilled, and worked on taking tons of photos of Matthew with his family members and friends. After the millions of photos taken, we left the campus, and headed for dinner at Denny's. After a wonderful dinner, we headed back to the hotel, Jeanine (Matthew's sister) joined with us for the night, and we chilled. We caught up on everything and had some other great conversations. Before long, we realized that it was 3:00 in the morning, and it was time for bed.
The next day, we all woke up, and slowly had a relax full morning packing up and other things (I was the last to wake up). After leaving the hotel, we drove around for a while to kill time, they showed me their county fair grounds, which was a neat thing to see since they spend many hours there with animals and other 4-H members at the fair in late winter to early spring. After killing some time, we headed over to the county airport, where there was a Steak house, and this was the location of Matthew's Graduation Lunch that his mom, Maryann, planned and invited family and friends to. It was really nice to meet people who have made a difference to Matthew's life, and it was cool to hear how Matthew has inspired them over the years.
After lunch, Matthew, Kristen, Jordan, Jeanine, Maryann, and I all headed down to the bowling ally to play a few games of bowling. It was a lot of fun. I was in the low end at the end of the first game, but I was second place in the second game. We would of played another game, but it was time for me to head back to the Inland Empire. We chilled for a few moments in the parking lot, then we headed our own ways.
**Matthew: I am proud to see you graduate, for I know you have spent many hard and long hours to achieve your degree in Social Sciences. You are an inspiration to me and to others to work as hard as you have and be successful. It is a great honor to have you as a friend, in fact ALL OF YOU!!!! and I want to thank you for inviting me down to the valley. I really enjoyed the short time we where together.
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