Back From Vacation

Finally, the vacation photos I'm sure all three of you have been anxiously awaiting. I did some vicious editing to spare you all from slogging through 200+ photos. This was partly a working vacation as the point of going to L.A. was to paint Tom's parents house, but we managed to get plenty of playing done. Our first playdate was San Luis Obispo.

Tom's parents kindly let us borrow the car for what is the longest three-hour drive on earth; Los Angeles to San Luis Obispo. When we lived in SLO, it was always agony making that trip. We decided to drive by our old house, which looks exactly the same, before stopping in Pismo Beach for Thrifty ice cream and a walk on the pier. Anyone who has a chance to eat Thrifty ice cream, should. For $1.49 you get a generous double scoop of some of the best ice cream made.

On the pier, we saw a seagull trying desperately to swallow a fish that was nearly his size. We also saw a man with an impressive handlebar mustache, but I couldn't figure out how to take a picture without being completely obvious. I really wanted to get a good picture of the pelicans that usually frequent the pier but they weren't cooperating and all I got was several flying by. I may have to write a strongly worded letter to the Pismo Beach Tourist Board about their unruly pelicans.

After a walk on the beach we headed into SLO to visit the Thursday night Farmer's Market and tootle around the mission. One of the many things I miss about the Central Coast is the plethora of missions and the influence of Spanish-style architecture. Stucco and clay roof tiles look a little out of place in Washington. The SLO mission has a lovely garden that is nearly always deserted and is a huge contrast to the busy market on the other side of the walls. The Farmer's Market has always been a good place to fill up on tasty food and it seemed to have even more BBQ than it used to. We sampled food from a couple different vendors and bought some fresh fruit before making our way to our hotel in Cambria.

I mentioned the hotel and the tour of Hearst Castle in my previous post, so we'll skip directly to our Friday dinner stop before heading home. If you're ever extemely hungry and happen to be in San Luis Obispo, go straight to Chili Peppers. They have great cheap food and you get a lot of it:

My favorite is the Mediterranean Chicken Burrito (shown here) and it really is the size of a plate. I have yet to be able to eat the whole thing at one sitting. After dinner we got back in the car and drove our stuffed bellies back to L.A.

Saturday was a work day. Ah, the joys of masking windows! Sunday was a family play day (and my birthday) so we went to the Long Beach Aquarium. Although crowded, as most aquariums are, we had a good time. I really like watching jellyfish and could have taken pictures of them all day. The highlight of the day was feeding the lorikeets. They are sociable little parrots who will sit on your hand to drink the juice that's sold outside the entrance. That day there were a gang of lorikeets dive bombing from one end to the other of the enclosure, often passing close enough to ruffle hair or brush cheeks with their wings. The lorikeet I fed was a greedy little bugger and would periodically look up and chatter at me before burying his head back in the cup. On our way out, a bird was stationed at the exit looking desperately for handouts. Tom offered him the last drops left in his cup and boy, did that little parrot get pissed at the lack of juice! I found a nearly half-full abandoned cup that he managed to drain in the minute that it took to transfer him to a birdless little girl.

Monday I flew to Las Vegas for a conference and company team meeting. We all met for dinner and went see the Blue Man Group afterwards. I've never seen them before and the show far exceeded my expectations; just don't ask me to describe it. Also, the Venetian is the only hotel on the Strip that I've ever stayed at that I would highly recommend. My room was the size of a small apartment and very nicely furnished. I didn't get to enjoy it long because Wednesday I flew back to L.A. and Thursday we came home (technically we got home very early Friday morning).

I've decided that 3 flights in 4 days is a little too much and of the Seattle, Long Beach, LAX and McCarren airports, McCarren in Las Vegas is the worst to deal with. Nothing worked the way it was supposed to and I was so tired that a strip search probably wouldn't have fazed me. It's good to be home.