Earthquake in California/2nd Blog Post

Who knew a vacation could turn out unbearable so quickly? No one in my family would think of experiencing such a thing, especially on our vacation.

My family and I were excited to visit California, especially my sister. She and I wanted to try so many foods before going back to Colorado, most notably snail(lololol. We can stomach a lot of things). There was this Asian garden mall that we would always go to whenever we visited California. As expected, we went there again. My sister got an adorable bunny hat, and the ears could move! A certain amount of people would comment about the hat and ask where we got it haha. My family and I went to so many places there. San Diego was perfect to go around and eat food. There was this particular restaurant I was fond of, Bonchon. They served the most heavenly fried chicken I had ever tasted in my ENTIRE life. It was so delightful to eat! The crunchiness was so exquisite, I could not fathom how they were able to maintain that level of crispness and also preserve the flavor inside it as well. I would recommend that place to anyone who loves to eat chicken(side note: I finally found out that Colorado also has this restaurant! I’m so excited!)! The food was not the only thing that made that vacation memorable. Los Angeles was a city full of wonders. First off, the Huntington Library was just phenomenal. The gardens and inside there were so beautiful and so well-kept. Now, the library was full of artifacts that were worth more than my life. The paintings inside there… they were so alluring and so astonishing to look at. As for LACMA, I could not believe how creative people could be. There was an artist who used only cigarettes to create an entire tiger mat. My experience in both the library and LACMA were some of the best memorable memories during my trip. Speaking of memorable, no other memory was as memorable as the very day I experienced an earthquake.

It was unnerving. Before that day, there was another earthquake, but I could barely feel it. This time, it was more major. It was a 7.1 earthquake. It happened at around 8:10 PM. I was at the Asian garden mall again because there was a night market there. My family and I wanted to try some of the food there. There was delicious squid and banh khot(a Vietnamese dish). Everyone was rather calm at first. But then, someone kept on shouting to move. There were a lot of concerned murmurs around me. Then it hit me. For some reason, the surroundings around me seemed to look strange. I felt myself rock around, as if I was on a cruise ship. Many people were pointing at something. Then I looked up and witnessed what they saw. There were two very tall pillars by the entrance that was holding up a Chinese-styled roof, and it was swaying. I felt the earth rumble again, and everyone around me said to get out of the way. No one knew whether or not the the two pillars would give way and plummet, either towards the people outside, or towards the building right behind it. My family and I only stared at it while holding our ground, waiting to see what would happen next. Thankfully, the earthquake subsided and no one was hurt. I couldn’t believe it. Two earthquakes in a row and the aftershock of yesterday’s earthquake was even worse. I was scared. I didn’t know what would happen tomorrow. There could’ve been a third one. I was conflicted. I didn’t know if I would make it back to Colorado safely. I desperately wanted to go back because I knew that if something even more terrible would happen, I was not in control.

Well, my trip to California was definitely something to remember. I am just thankful that my family and I weren’t at the heart of the earthquake and we were safe. It was a lesson to remember. If I was to take away something from that day, I had to remember something. I had to remember that my life could be stripped away from me just as quickly as I was given it.