Carlsbad and Back!
This entry was posted on 12/5/2006 3:24 AM and is filed under XCountry.
| Since we decided to leave the jeep we were no longer going to "start"
our trip with a drive down through San Fran, Big Sur, LA and ultimately
San Diego. This posed a bit of a problem because we wanted to visit
lots of folks on that route! Well, we split the difference and with
about 5 days to spare before we had to get back to tie up loose ends,
pack and then fly out... we decided to make a quick blast on down to
so-cal! |
Our first stop was Carlsbad - we made a marathon run right down to see
Garry, Suzy, Molly and Wesley. This was a long day of driving and I
decided that I utterly despised LA regardless of the glorious elements
one might find within it's bounds. I have an
idea... how bout instead of building another freeway lane or another
car-pool lane or another toll lane, why don't they build some public
transportation?!? blah blah blah... LA traffic is AWFUL.
Anyway, after blowing 2 hours sitting in the LA parking lot, we finally
got loose and made it to Garry's just in time for drinks and leftovers
at Molly's first birthday party. Suzy's parents (who are awesome), her sister and husband and the Woos were all there. Wesley showed us how to get some M&M's by demonstrating his mastery of the potty. Wait a minute... how come I don't get M&Ms when I do it?
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 | Garry and Suzy were in transition because they've bought another house
that isn't quite ready, but they've started to pack up all their
stuff. Unfortunately they didn't pack their psycho chihuaha/jack
russel mix dogs. Anyway, they were such gracious hosts and gave us
their master suite for a couple of nights. We hung out and had drinks,
sunned ourselves in their backyard, played with the kids, checked out
their new amazing home, went to the stable to see the horses and had
some amazing sushi among other things. It was a great time and I was
psyched that they dug Anna.
Here's a picture of me and Wesley playing with one of the horses where Suzy rides. This guy liked eating my hair. HEY Leave it alone!! there aint much of that stuff left!!
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Next stop was Mike and Joyce's. We unfortunately were almost out of
time so we could only stay one night but we had a great time. Mike
expertly grilled a plate full of fillets and Anna and Joyce whipped up
some squash and asparagus. I just kept the glasses full of wine, which
was no small task I assure you. We drank some great stuff too... some
of that Steele we picked up.
On the day we took off we made a quick
stop at a local winery and tasted some cool chocolate port served in a
chocolate cup. I was pretty psyched that these guys liked Anna too. |  |
 | I still had 4 folks left to visit, but we were out of time. We did
manage to make a quick two hour stop (next time it'll be longer like it
or not!) to see Caroline and Gregg. That was a fantastic stop!!
We
showed up on a gorgeous afternoon and Caroline had some awesome
goat-cheese snacks and some wine ready for us. I was once again glad
that Caroline and Gregg got to meet Anna. After leaving their place we
raced against the clock to get back up here to Chico. We had to make a
stop for the night but got in yesterday afternoon. Man am I tired of
driving. It's hard to feel sorry for us, I know. Thanks to everyone we saw and sorry we didn't get to see everyone!
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