the one with california
July 1st, 2008Day 23
I flew out to California at 10:00 AM, Utah time. Heidi took me to the airport (Thanks!!) I’ve never flown on a little plane before so it was an interesting experience. The airport lady checked me in and I went through the door, expecting to be going through the little hallway to a plane, instead she said, “Door 42!” and I walked into a long cement sidewalk. I started at Door 1 so it was a long walk. But the flight was mostly empty and I had lots of room. I finished reading the Host. Since I’m sure I’ll forget to mention it, I really enjoyed it. The first half is S-L-O-W but it picks up in the last 1/4th. I was in tears at the end. I only had a couple of pages left when we landed and so I let other people get their stuff first so I could keep reading. Before I knew it, I was the last person on the plane! Oops. Lori was a little bit late though so I quickly finished the last few pages.
I flew into the Long Beach airport, which is like the cutest, tiniest, little airport I’ve ever seen. It looks like it’s straight out of the 60s. It could be a movie set. When I got off the plane, we walked across the tarmac and into the building. I was following the signs that said “baggage claim”. I didn’t have any other bags but I needed to use the restroom. We walked through a tiny terminal and around a corner and before I knew it I was outside! I called Lori and she was like, “Oh you accidentally went ouside?” and I said, “No! The baggage claim is outside!” I’ve never seen such a thing. It’s like the outdoor escalators at the San Diego airport. Californians are weird. And for the record, you can’t go back in after you go out so I missed the bathroom.
Lori was such a sweet hostess. She planned the pefect first stop: Sprinkles! I was secretly hoping she would want to check out a cupcake place so I was tickled that she planned it already. It’s a cute little shop with lots of delicious looking cupcakes. I decided to go with their most popular: Red Velvet. Lori got the Black & White I think. They were delightfully tasty! (Candice, you would have loved it, the cake was so moist!) And the frosting is fantastic.
From there we headed to Laguna Beach. There are so many cute little shops there. But since it’s summer it was completely packed. We finally found a spot to park, got Emmett out and in the stroller, and we were ready to go. Then we went to put money in the meter and discovered it was a 30 minute spot! So we loaded him back up and drove around some more. We eventually gave up and headed back near their place. We got lunch and went to their apartment. The afternoon was spent chatting away. Emmett is such a cutie. I loved playing with him!
For dinner they took me to BJs. The pizza was good but oh my gosh the pizookie. There are no words to describe the deliciousness.
I stole this picture from their website.
Day 24
On Wednesday Emily came down to spend the day with us. She had to drop Brian off at work so she was there bright and early! We decided to go out to breakfast. At Paul’s recommendation we went to Break of Dawn. I just realized now that I looked at the website that the owner, Chef Dee Nguyen was our server! He was sassy. He kept calling us “The Mommies” presumably because Emily is pregnant and Lori had Emmett with her. You can read about why he started the restaurant here. For that reason alone, it’s worth visiting. He’s a real family guy.
Looks delicious doesn’t it? It actually wasn’t really. Or I guess we just didn’t get what we were expecting. But Paul swears that the duck omelette is amazing. None of us were brave enough to try it!
We spent most of the day chatting but also went to the beach for a couple of hours. It was so nice the whole time I was there. The weather was mostly in the 70s!! Gorgeous. It was so fun having Emily with us. We haven’t really all been together since October and that was only for an hour or so. It was great having a whole day together, just the girls (and Emmett!) As you may have noticed, we were too busy yacking to take a picture! I can’t believe I went all that way and didn’t get a picture of us together!
That night Lori and Paul wanted to cut Emmett’s hair. He has the cutest red hair but it had begun to grow in a bit of a… Kramer hairstyle. So cute. Anyway they needed an extra set of hands to take pictures while they cut. I went a little nuts with the picture so just bear with me.
Isn’t that cute!?
Aren’t those cheeks amazing??
All done!
Day 25
Friday morning we just hung out. We made a stop at In-N-Out (everytime I talked to Jacob he asked, “Did you go to In-N-Out yet?”) Then we went to this really great outdoor mall. I can’t remember the name of it. It was huge. They had these beautiful fountains.
Then it was off to the airport. We were running a little late because of traffic but since it’s a mini airport I still had plenty of time.
The flight was packed this time. There was a little family of 4 two rows ahead of me. They had a 4 year old girl (approx.) and a 2 year old boy. The little boy cried for pretty much the entire flight. It didn’t bother me too much, since I’m used to blocking out kid noise. 
But the trip became slightly more eventful when he started projectile vomitting suddenly! Thank heavens it was in the last 15 minutes of the flight. I felt so bad for the businessman sitting next to the mom. He kept trying to get the fan to blow more air. The only problem with it happening in the last 15 minutes is that the flight attendant had to sit down and couldn’t help them clean up anymore. I felt so bad for the parents. They were mortified. But I have to admit that it was pretty funny!
I had such a fantastic time in California. When Jacob suggested that it might be better if I went alone so he could work more, I almost didn’t go. I’m so glad he talked me into it. We won’t be able to do this after we move so it was basically now or never. I love Lori & Paul (and Emily!) so much and it was great to get to spend time together. We had some really great conversations and I was reminded how very lucky we are to have such fantastic friends.
Heidi picked me up from the airport. We went straight from there to the Capitol Theater to see A Drowsy Chaperone. It was, in a word, hilarious. It’s probably the funniest musical I’ve ever seen. And it was especially fantastic that it was narrated by Jonathan Crombie, aka Gilbert Blythe!
You can read Heidi’s post about it here.
Day 26
Mostly spent recovering from the crazy week. I slept most of the afternoon! Then, at Jacob’s request, we saw Wall-E. It was very cute. And Jacob was jealous that I had In-N-Out so we went to American Fork to try out Chadders. It was a pretty good copy. The fries are just as bad as In-N-Out’s.
I came home to a fun surprise in the mail. On my Celebrate Me day in May I bought this print from Vol. 25 on etsy. I saw it and knew it was perfect for our new apartment (can I say that if I don’t even know what it looks like?)
It turns out she does a monthly customer appreciation giveaway and I won! Look at this adorable print she sent me. I’m sure it will be perfect in our new kitchen.
Day 27
We were completely out of groceries and since it was Sunday I had to make do. We wanted something sweet and I was able to scrounge up the ingredients for lemon bars. Actually we didn’t have enough lemon juice so they were kind of lemon/lime bars! I followed the recipe exactly because I’ve never made them before. I realized after I put them in the oven that Mom always made them in a bigger pan. I think they would have turned out a little better that way. They’re a bit too thick.
Day 28
Playing catch up at home. Jacob sent me this e-card from work. It’s a lousy picture but I wanted to remember it. Very sweet. Love this guy.
Yay! All caught up!
