August Adventures

Did I miss a month here? I know you all are wondering where I went.
I was in San Diego.
With my Mom and Sister.

It was a whirlwind.

But we came, we visited, we conquered.

We went to visit our dear friends, the Lauterbachs. Dear Rachel was not able to join us, but we enjoyed the company of the rest: Rondi and Becca. (As well as Mr. Lauterbach, of course).

Our first course of action was getting there, but that took longer than we expected. After a seven hour ordeal, we arrived, albiet late, to the Lauterbach's home in Escondido, CA. We enjoyed our picnic dinner, that was supposed to be enjoyed on the beach in Carlsbad for a beach jazz festival. But alas, we got swallowed up in traffic woes on the freeway. Evil traffic, Rondi calls it.
Saturday we spent the day together in Pacific Beach, browsing thrift stores and eating an amazing lunch at an asian restaraunt, followed by a delicious frozen mocha. These are all activities my friend Becky introduced me to while we were in San Diego last year.
We visited with Joe Ward briefly, who lives near by and has been a long-time friend. That night we also got time with some dear friends, the Whites, who hosted us in France for two weeks several years ago. Rondi made a delicious steak dinner with a wonderful side salad from Fine Cooking that included oregano marinated cherry tomato halves with feta cheese, olives and a delicious dressing.
At church on Sunday, we were able to reconnect with all the East Coast Pilgrims like Jess Aveni and others as well. We were able to see the new Grace Church building and then shoot on to Trader Joe's for lunch on the fly. We then threw all our stuff together and headed for a quick afternoon at a different beach.
That night we went to see "Bourne Ultimatum". You see, my mother and Rondi, both, wanted to be spies when they were younger. That was their major bonding moment, right after "You were a dance major too? in the early days of our friendships in Maryland. The funny thing was, I've never seen a movie in my bathing suit, much less with sand still on my feet. We laughed about our general appearance, but who could complain after such a lovely afternoon at Del Mar?
And we finished off our weekend with a visit to our newly transplanted cousin/nephew, Brad and his new wife, Jane, who live in Escondido as well.
No joke.
it was a whirlwind.
But it was the first of many times to come.
We will always have memories.
And most of them come from laughter-- some of them at eachother's expense. My mom, who
has a difficult time getting over her highschool French, said at one point, trying to pronounce words as we went along the freeway, "What are we looking for? Oh... there it is: Rrrrrauncho...
At that point, we didn't let her finish because we were laughing too hard. Classic.
What a good start to memories together here on the West Coast.
And today I'm at work, waiting for my time to leave.
And they are off galavating the city, shopping up at Kierland.
Tommorrow: another conquering oppurtunity: Last Chance. Movie time with Janis and Janelle.
The day after: the Camelback Spa for the day.
Here we come.