College Comeback in Cali!

Last weekend was very exciting for me, 5 of my Transy pals came to visit. I will give them each a shout out by name: Katie Holmes, Katie Royse (formerly Bo), Allison, Morgan, and Emily. If you count Logan who is approximately 5 months old in Morgan’s stomach than there were 6 people. I should have known with 6 women in one apartment for 4 days there would be some excitement, but there was even more than I bargained for. Since I wanted all of my visitors to travel in safety and I do not own a 6 passenger vehicle I decided a mini-van rental for the weekend was necessary. I arrived at Alamo to pick up my mini-van and asked where I should park my car that I drove. They informed me that there is no parking for my car and I would have to park it at a pay lot somewhere, to me this was totally ridiculous but the guy at the counter just looked at me like I was crazy for thinking this. I was pleasantly surprised by the mini-van selection and after smelling and observing each of the vans I picked a new white Chrysler Town and Country. After driving this van extensively for 4 days I give it 2 thumbs up, it drives a lot like my car. The only tricky part is parking and backing up which aren’t my strong suites to begin with.
I got a text from Katie Holmes that she missed her first flight and would be getting in half an hour later, no biggie. So my first pick up was Emily, Morgan, and Katie Bo. Since I couldn’t leave my car at Alamo I had 1 hour to pick my passengers up, get back to Alamo and move my car out of their 1 hour lot. It was like an hour and 10 min. by the time I picked them up so since I am a nervous Nelly I was totally stressed about my car getting towed. So instead of a warm greeting they got a panicked friend rushing them to the Alamo lot. I was also very hyped up on coffee which amplified my nervousness and sweating. Once we retrieved my car and moved it to a pay lot I could relax a little. We then headed back to the airport to retrieve Katie H. Once she got in the car it was obvious she had a very stressful morning and tears were close to the surface. She hadn’t heard her alarm and woke up 2 hours late, then her Dad raced her to the airport and she still missed her flight by about 10 minutes. So she was forced to either wait until the next day to arrive or pay $500 for a one-way ticket on a different airline. I will say she made the correct decision and ponied up the cash for a one-way ticket. To further enhance her drama of the morning she didn’t have time to shower, forgot several items she wanted to pack, had recent knee surgery and had to be wheel-chaired around the airport, and she prepaid to check her bag which she wasn’t able to check so that was another waste of money. But like the real woman she is she sucked it up and let it go because she knew she didn’t want to miss spending time with her pals, what a girl! Our final arrival was Allison and once we retrieved her from the airport I could finally relax. We headed towards Venice beach to have lunch but since I had never been there before I think we ended up somewhere on the out skirts of Venice beach but we did have a very entertaining experience. There were lots of random old men hanging out in front of the restaurants we were looking at. On our way over to the restaurant an old man crossing the street said to me “Nice legs kid,” this is creepy just on its own but the fact that he called me kid made it even more disgusting. We ended up at a nice place next to the ocean and even though the man seating us was a little creepy it seemed innocent enough. After a nice lunch we were paying our bill when another old man wandered over from the bar and started talking to Emily. He made several references to having spent the night with her last night and since he was old we weren’t sure if he was sincerely confused or if this was one of his pick up lines. After awhile it wasn’t funny anymore and after he pinched Allison on the arm we got out of there.
We wanted to whip over to Beverly Hills from Venice but in true LA fashion this meant sitting on the interstate for an hour in traffic. Since traffic was a nightmare most of our pics were taken from the car. We finally made it to downtown Hollywood to see the stars and all the handprints but once again LA threw another obstacle at us. After finally parking and making our way to the street we saw that the whole sidewalk and theater were blocked off due to a restaurant opening, this meant our LA day was more of a traffic nightmare than a sightseeing bonanza. By this point in the day I was tired of the mini-van and traffic and we spent another 2 hours in traffic getting home from LA.
That night we just went to dinner at a local Mexican restaurant but the dinner came to a quick end after a small medical situation, I will protect the identity of the person involved since it is a medical condition. Thursday was a very long day for everyone so we were all ready for bed, after some puppy chow of course.
Friday was a pretty laid back day, we did some sightseeing around San Clemente, a little shopping, and a walk down to the beach. That night we took our van down to San Diego for some dinner and drinks. There was some serious confusion about where we were trying to eat but the place we ended up wasn’t bad, just loud and a bit of a walk. The walk probably didn’t bother Katie’s knee thanks to the drinks. We then went to Whiskey Girl to have a post dinner drink and dance. I really liked this place but it was not handicap friendly. Every time we found a spot to sit our mom-to-be and post surgery patient, they would remove our chairs to make room for the dance floor. After this happened the third time we gave up and headed home. Half of the kids feel asleep in the van on the way home and the rest of us played car games to stay awake. Before bed we ate several cupcakes and then feel asleep with stomach aches.
Sat. morning John made us pancakes and then we did some sightseeing up the coast to Laguna and Newport Beach. We packed a picnic lunch and ate on some benches by the beach in Laguna. We then found an amazing gelato place and had some needed ice cream. I think this might have been the highlight of the trip for Morgan because she loved her flavors. I took everyone home to rest after our sightseeing trip. Allison and I ran to the mall because she needed to buy out the whole selection of Young and Restless T-shirts. We then all got ready and went to eat at my favorite Italian place Sonny’s. Unfortunately Katie H. had a bad stomach ache all day and being surround by massive amounts of Italian food didn’t help, she was once again a trooper though. The next day everyone had to be at the airport by like 7 so it was an early morning. I was sad to see my friends go and a little sad to see the van go too. It was so great to have everyone come visit because you want people to know where you live and see the places you talk about out here. It was just like old times sitting around and hanging out. Other than Morgan being pregnant, that would have been a much bigger deal in college.
It was nice that John and I still had all Sunday to hang out. We made it to church and then tried this lunch spot right on the beach in front of our house that we hadn’t tried. It was really great and I wish we would have found it sooner. We also made it back to the farmers market where Romaine lettuce seems to be back in stock, thank goodness. Also, they are getting in lots of good apples now. Since we wanted to reward ourselves for our run last weekend we went and got a couples massage. I am now more sore than I was all last week. He said I had a lot of tension in my neck he couldn’t get worked out because I was too sensitive. I thought he was doing it very hard. That tension could have been from my desk job or the mini-van. Sunday was a great day and a perfect way to end the weekend. Also, thanks to John we have a scary carved pumpkin on our porch. He only had to use a few toothpick to hold some pieces in place.
This week I will be going to my first NBA game, Clippers vs. Trailblazers. This would be more exciting but I have to go back to LA which I am sick of right now. We are looking forward to boring weekend next weekend, which means some boring blogs in the near future. At least that is what I say now.