Vacaciones! Days 1-7

Last week I took the week off from work and recharged from the day-to-day. Sort of. Could have used another week, methinks.

My parents recently celebrated their 40th anniversary, so my sister and I took them out for a meal at the Basque Cultural Center in South San Francisco. Basque cuisine has long been a part of our immediate family lives – at least, when we're on vacation; we have tried it out at several different places (mostly in Nevada) and have always enjoyed it. My sister discovered they had a restaurant in South SF so a couple years ago we tried it out, it was good, and so we took the parents there for a celebration meal. We got the family dinner which had several different courses including soup, salad, lamb cheek (not gonna lie, it was both delicious and gross at the same time), and prime rib. Aside from the lamb cheek (I love lamb, but the cheek was a gross cut, chewy and weird) it was all very nice! 

We also went to the Wreaths Across America fundraiser for the Sacramento Valley National Cemetery. This also included delicious meat and potatoes and a (very loud) live auction that blew my hearing out for the evening. We went to this fundraiser last year, and this year were able to bring my grandmother – my grandpa is buried at the cemetary, and the fundraiser is to place wreaths at each soldier's grave during the Christmas season. This year they will need 12,000.

Then I sort of ran around and was stuck in major traffic on Hwy 4 to Brentwood on Labor Day (a big fat accident in the construction zone just past the Loveridge exit – there had to have been three Highway Patrol cars, glass in the road, a fire truck, ambulance, tow trucks… and by the time I got there it was pretty much cleared so I didn't even get to see the carnage. BOO.) I was heading over the the Shops at Brentwood, where they have an Ulta and a DSW – I'm a little bummed I don't have a closer Ulta, but what are you gonna do? There's also a Sephora in the JC Penney's in Brentwood – but luckily there is a real one in Walnut Creek. I actually managed to not increase the nail polish/makeup/etc supply, instead stopping in at the Kohl's and Michael's – picked up some new dangles for earrings or something from Michael's, and I finally found a black tee/tunic at Kohl's! I've been looking for one for a long time, it's beaded down the front. The last picture in this post has me wearing it. 

Tuesday I stayed home and did laundry like a champ, packed up my stuff and on Wednesday headed down south to Santa Clarita to visit Sarah and her family. The trip down took 5.5 hours which is generally about right, with two stops – one for gas at Harris Ranch and another pit stop at Laval, just before the Grapevine. I got to Sarah's right around 3:30.

Didn't do too much that day: long drive = tired Melissa. I got myself a new air bed, a massive 19" full size Beautyrest from Walmart, and that along with a foam mattress cover equaled a really nice portable bed! I was pleased. I just can't sleep close to the ground anymore; my old air bed is the regular kind that's like six or eight inches off the floor – when you have to get up in the middle of the night in a strange place… let's just say I am too old for that, now. I've never been a champ at camping and sleeping on couches, and I'm not about to do an about-face and change my stance on that. 

Thursday we took the boys to soccer and then headed to SUPERWALMART, which is always a treat. We don't have SUPERWALMART by me at all (there's one in American Canyon which is 25 minutes and a $5 toll away… or an hour if you get stuck in Six Flags traffic, in which case you suck it up and keep going because you paid that damn $5 toll!) so I'm always up for a trip. I didn't need anything but I did find medium egg noodles which are increasingly difficult to find up yonder, and a butter pecan box cake mix. MEDIUM EGG NOODLES!!! I also checked out a new-to-me yarn store not far from Sarah's house and got two skeins of Madelinetosh Chunky to make into hats. 

Friday we hopped on the Metrolink train to downtown LA, where I experienced Union Station – what a trip! I've been in big airports and ridden BART all over the Bay Area but that was just weird/overwhelming to me, how all the trains, buses, Amtrak, etc., all converged in one place. Glad I don't have to do that every day! The inside of the station was very art deco and I got a shot of a section that isn't being used: 

Across the street from Union Station is Olvera Street, which is an old part of LA, and there is even an old adobe inside. Before we headed over there, we went to lunch at Phillipe's, the originator of the French Dip Sandwich! I… was actually not too enthused by this idea originally but I'm game for anything. Even giving wet bread sandwiches a chance again. Wet bread is up there in like the top three things I generally refuse eat (cooked fish, lima beans, wet bread [I say cooked fish because I recently developed a love of RAW SUSHI wtf]) so I was like, okay I will try this famous wet bread french sandwich but I don't promise to like it. 

I liked it.

They just barely dipped the bread in the au jus, like maybe a quarter inch? The meat was good – I had beef. They also had pork, chicken, lamb, etc. I meant to order the sandwich with bleu cheese which would have been even better! Next time, for sure, whenever that may be. I also want to try the lamb, because yum, lamb (just not lamb cheek!).

 After lunch, we headed over to Olvera Street, and it definitely reminded me of an outdoor version of my beloved Mercado in San Antonio. 

We visited the Avila Adobe – the oldest house in LA! Nicely set up and definitely cooler in the shade than the rest of LA, that's for sure. Sarah's little boy David actually sat with me for a picture…

And may I just say as someone who was suffering from a crazy stomachache AND the dredges of a migraine… I look pretty excellent in this picture. Especially since I wanted to lie down and WHINE. (Thanks Sarah for taking an excellent picture of me! lol)

Later that day, we went back to Sarah's house and rested up for our dinner out in Santa Monica – we were meeting our high school friend Rhoda for dinner at Il Fornaio, which is exactly where we had dinner with Rhoda last year! Last year I had a pasta dish with lobster, and it turns out I don't really like lobster (I'm not really kidding about the "If it comes from the sea it does not go in me" stance I generally take with sea food, but given that the sea food I do like is on the weird spectrum – calamari and shrimps, and I like crab cakes, I really thought I would go for lobster, but alas! I do not. I am sad about this) so this year I decided to stay away from anything too weird, especially since I'd had a pretty sassy stomacheache all day (YOU'RE WELCOME) and the food at Il Fornaio is quite rich. 

I decided to go for chicken tortellinis with a tomato cream sauce (See Abs, I totes will eat a cream sauce… as long as it's a tomato one!) and it was quite good, particularly after I followed Rhoda's lead and put a bunch of hot pepper flakes all over it for a little extra kick! I also had a very nice glass of sauvignon blanc and a caramel custard for dessert. The custard was very much like flan so of course I had to go for it. 

After dinner we took our now-yearly picture!

I look slightly ridiculous but I think I'd just kicked my leg up and made a face! Yay for me. I was having a pretty good hair day, though, and my glass of wine didn't reignite my migraine, so I call this whole evening a win! lol

The next day, my last in Southern California, was spent at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library… a post for another day because I have many feelings (almost all of them patriotic) about our trip there. It was really quite an experience, so stay tuned!