Catching up

Wow, so much has happened since I last wrote. I will try and get it in some kind of order.

I made the trip to California for Alissa's 30th birthday. I was beginning to wonder if I would be able to do it, but of course I would do just about anything for my girls. I woke up at a ridiculous hour the morning I was supposed to leave, guess I was excited, so I was on the road to Tulsa much earlier than I had planned. Of course, Kaci was running a little behind, but she had a really good reason and we made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare. While we were waiting to go through security, I saw Ed's cousin Tammy. She has been a TSA agent for quite a while now, but it is the first time I have seen her at the airport and in uniform. We had a quick chat and she had to get back to work.
Our flight was pretty uneventful, a layover in Las Vegas, where we had lunch. We had some comic relief listening to a woman from Kansas complain about Southwest. Obviously she doesn't travel much, because her complaints were pretty typical. But it was good for a laugh anyway.
Alissa, Kari and Allison met us at the airport in our Sebring convertible. Which would have been fine, but Kaci and I had overpacked, mostly me and getting our luggage in the car proved to be quite the challenge. Suffice it to say, my suitcase ended up being on the laps of Alissa, Kaci and Allison!! Made for a funny picture and a great start to our vacation.
We made it to the resort finally, got checked in and into our room. The resort was absolutely beautiful. I will for sure go back there one day. It is a great location,central to so many things. Megan, Alissa's roommate from college lives in LA now and she joined us for the weekend. The girls had a great time catching up and just generally being silly in the pool. I went back to the room early, I was pretty tired from my early wake up and the travel. The girls all came back, showered and we went to a Sushi restaurant in Corona Del Mar that night. It was really good!! I conked out a little early, but it was a great first day.
Sunday was a very relaxing day, we ate breakfast and headed back to the pool. Lunch was by the pool, lots of fun pictures and an absolutely gorgeous day. California certainly made a good impression on all of us. Allison and Megan left that evening and it was just the girls and I. It was so nice to have some time with my girls. We had dinner and got in bed a little earlier that night.
Monday wasn't as pretty of a day, it was much cooler and rainy. We ended up at the mall, did some shopping and had a good lunch. We got take out for dinner that night and just stayed at the resort. We watched Big Bang Theory to get ready for our night at the taping and had a lot of fun.
Tuesday we drove in to LA, met up with Megan at her apartment, did some sightseeing, Grauman's Chinese Theater, Star Walk, Hollywood Hills, lunch at the Roosevelt Hotel, where we saw the new Dr. on Gray's Anatomy, well some of us saw him, the rest of us didn't notice him. We went to the cemetery where a lot of the stars are buried, didn't find Marilyn Monroe's, but did see Buster Keaton's. We went to Burbank for the taping, saw Johnny Galecki sitting on a bench, reading his script and then sat for about 5 hours watching the taping. We did get pizza out of the deal, but it was a long night. We took Megan home and then made it back to Newport very late. Needless to say, we slept in on Wednesday. We had a very lazy day, just back and forth from the pool to the hot tub. I went to the grocery store and got sandwich stuff and we had a picnic by the pool. It was a very good day.
Thursday we drove into San Diego/Coronado and spent the day at the Hotel Del Coronado. It is a very historic hotel and very impressive. We had lunch on the beach and took some very fun pictures. Kari took us to the NEX and we shopped a little, then went to Allison and Mike Shanahan's house. It was my first time to meet Mike, he is a very nice man and he and Allison seem very happy. We went to a restaurant they like and had fish and chicken tacos. It was a very nice dinner and good company. It was yet another late night, but a good one.
Friday was another very lazy day by the pool and hot tub. We had another picnic with our sandwich stuff. Just as we were about to leave, this woman came to the hot tub and all of us were stunned by how much she looked like my mom. I just couldn't stop looking at her. It turns out she is from Manitoba, Canada, so probably not related to us, but I have never met someone who reminded me so much of Mom. I think it was Mom's way of spending part of our trip with us. I finally told her as we were leaving how much she made me think of Mom and she was so sweet and said that she had recently lost her mom and hoped to see someone who reminded her of her mom as well. I love you Mom and miss you so very much.
We all got ready to head back to LA, Alissa packed, since she was going to spend the night with Megan and we headed out. Traffic was bad, so we were late getting to the restaurant and it was packed. Since we didn't have reservations, we had quite a wait and Cameron (Alissa's friend from college) was late getting there as well. I felt myself getting queasy, but tried to fight it. We finally were seated and I knew I had to do something, so I asked for crackers, but it being a sushi restaurant, they didn't have any. After a few minutes, I finally told Kaci I had to step out and walked outside for a while. Kaci came to check on me and we decided to walk to a grocery store nearby and get me some crackers. I went to the car and Kaci went back to the restaurant. I made it to the car, got in and immediately had to get out to throw up. Now let me tell you, there is nothing like barfing your guts up in the parking lot of a very nice Sushi restaurant in downtown Los Angeles. Thankfully I didn't notice anyone around during the actual barfing, but I was pretty focused on the task at hand. I managed to get back in the car (backseat this time) found a semi comfortable position and fell asleep. Kaci came out once to check on me and finally the rest of them finished dinner and came to the car. I hated to miss out on our last night in Cali, but guess that's the way it was supposed to be. We said our goodbyes to Alissa, Megan and Cameron and headed back to Newport. It was a pretty miserable ride and as soon as we got back, I took a phenergan and crashed. Kari had to leave really early the next morning and I slept until she woke me up. I felt much better, so got busy cleaning and packing so that Kaci and I could be out by 10. Unfortunately our flight wasn't until 2, so we had some time to kill. We ended up sitting in the lobby of the resort until around noon when our cab arrived to take us to the airport. We had a very interesting cab driver, who ended up taking us the long way around, claiming it was to avoid the golf traffic. So what was supposed to be a $25 cab ride turned into a $35 one, plus tip!! Oh well.....
Kaci and I had a layover in Phoenix and then headed back to Tulsa. A very nice gentleman from Tulsa ended up sitting with us and we talked the entire way, while Kaci did Sudoku. It turns out he had just hiked the Grand Canyon and had tons of advice to share. He is a Dr. in Tulsa and made the trip back much more interesting. Donald and Lovella picked us up at the airport, took us back to their house and we visited for a little while and then Kaci and I both headed to our respective homes. I didn't get in until about 12:30 am, but of course couldn't go to sleep, it was around 3am before I managed and with the time change, well I for sure slept in the next morning. Ed made it in around 2 that afternoon from his bike trip and we did some clean up in the back yard. While we were out there, our neighbor's Jarrod and Lyndsay drove up and we finally had a good visit with them. They shared the good news of a new baby with us, probably due in October.

Ok, I am pooped, I am quite sure I left out some good stuff, if I recall anything I will add it later.