California Days 13 - 15- Birthday & Ohana time!

After our long day in LA, we drove south to San Diego for a few days of fun.  Our last few days on vacation were all about cramming in time with friends and family. We got there in time to have an early lunch with Rich's mom before hooking up with some of our closest friends, who happened to be at their beach house that week on break (they live about 90 min away otherwise). So Ryan was lucky that he got to spend extra time with their kids. First up was a date for the three of them to go ice skating (he was overjoyed!), followed by a later afternoon froyo date in gorgeous Oceanside (I could definitely live there).

Once we parted from our friends, we drove up to Rich's brother's wife's parent's house (did you follow that?) for what Rich thought would be a small family dinner...but surprise! It was a wee bit more, as some extended family and friends came by to help us all wish him a happy birthday.

Our next day in So Cal we had to divide and conquer in order to see everyone, so Rich went to spend time with his mom in the morning while Ry and I went to see friends at a park near the ocean. We met up with Rich later for lunch at our other friend's house and feasted with them before having to hit the road early that evening for the long, traffic-filled drive back to LA.

We managed to get to Redondo Beach in time for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory to celebrate the eve of Rich's birthday (since we'd be flying on his birthday again this year). He kindly chose MY favorite restaurant to celebrate, and I had a crazy delicious meal of a Thai coconut-lime chicken and vegetable curry on brown rice, along with my beloved Godiva chocolate cheesecake! What a great husband!

We look happy...but we are freezing. Shivering. This is moments before we asked to be moved away from the coveted scenic, sunset pier view to go back inside so that we could feel our lower extremities. We didn't care if our view was of the dumpster or the parking lot, we just wanted our blood to flow again. Hawaiians no can handle cold, brah.

Clearly I recovered from the hypothermia

We made our first and only stop at Trader Joe's minutes before they closed to grab some last minute gifts and provisions since we had to get up at the crack of dawn to fly back to Hawaii. By the 'crack of dawn', I meant that we probably could have slept until around 5:30am. But because we travel with my father, we have learned that if you tell him 5:30, that at 4am we would hear quiet rustling. By 4:15 we'd hear progressively louder 'accidental' noises meant to wake us up in time to make sure we don't miss our flight. And by 4:30, he'd be fully dressed, standing by his bags all lined up against the door, claiming he made absolutely noise and had no idea why we were all up so early. :-|

All went smoothly the next day since we had LOTS OF EXTRA TIME after dropping off my parents to their flight, returning the car, and getting to our gate early for our direct flight home... And I will also add that no matter how times I've done this flight, it never gets old. The view only gets more beautiful after you've been away for a bit- stark black lava fields and turquoise blue, clear waters.

I could've done without the blast of hot, humid air when I walked off the airplane in my winter attire, but you can't complain when your Uber (my friend Y) can fly you home in minutes because of no traffic (thank you, country livin').

We missed you too, Moku Nui.

We have a good chunk of time to pass here on the island before we can leave again. Our lanai renovation should start in the next 2-3 months, so our funds will be directed toward fun things like nails, lumber and renting dumpsters for our demolition. ;-)

But of course, I can't wait, and am already eagerly planning a few trip ideas in my head.