We're Driving To California

We are packed and the car is stuffed with what we need for a 15 hour drive to So. Cal at 4:30am. The 4 of us will drive down, then David will fly back to get back to work (or that is what he says he is doing while we are gone for a total of 3 weeks). I believe he has a lot of work planned....like he will be "working" on his motorcycle riding, he'll be "working" on his Aussie Footy, he'll be "working" on his blockbuster movie list...oh life is good. Our house sitter will be here taking care of the cat and my plants, so that's a relief to have someone here

My sweet & precious 93 year old Grammy passed away recently so this is the reason for our So Cal visit. This is where most of my family is and where I was born. My Aunt has decided to do a memorial "celebration" at my sister's house in San Diego (more specifically Oceanside) and I know I will be seeing family members that I haven't seen in a long time and some perhaps that I've never seen. I am really looking forward to it and plan on taking many pictures.



My Grammy is on the far left. Aren't those dresses fantastic? She was a feisty woman and knew what she wanted. I loved spending Summers with her and rustling thru her desks to find interesting things that she would tell me about. And I couldn't wait to get to her overflow of bottles that I would walk with down to the liquor store to buy a candy bar with the deposit money. Can you even do that anymore? Each one was a whopping 5cents and I would take a dozen of them in the wagon and get CANDY!!!! I'm actually very excited to see family and talk about our Grammy!

So when David leaves back home to "work"... (just kidding David. I know you will work hard, then play hard. Have fun with weeks without any of us there) it'll be the 3 of us running around our old stomping grounds, eating In-N-Out Burgers (I think we'll be having this for breakfast, lunch and dinner... still can't believe we have no In-N-Out here in Denver...why not????) Wabi Sabi Chinese, Pinks Hot Dog stand and my favorite Indian Restaurant "Tamarind" in Chino Hills. The boys and I plan on seeing family and friends and beaches and visit the spot where I met their Dad and go on the Merry Go Round on Santa Monica Pier and dip our toes in as many beaches as we can ... first Oceanside, then Santa Monica Beach, then Venice Beach and then Huntington Beach where I will meet up with my friend Shere' who just brought her infant home from Vietnam after waiting for 2 looooOOOng years!

We will do all of the fun things that I usually do when I'm in L.A. and see my friend Monica give birth to her 2nd baby ... so many things. And the icing on the cake is our sweet "new" friends who live here, Mesfin and kids (Ethiopian family that go to our Ethiopian church) are going to be there while we're there too. It's their first time to California and so I just extended our time there a tad so that the things that we were going to do anyway, we will now do with them. I know L.A. and Hollywood like the back of my hand and so we're as excited as they are to have each other to have some fun with!