DJ's Vacation
I should have kept better notes if I had wanted to create a realistic portrayal of my early August family vacation. Absent that, I'll just riff on what I remember.
The beginnings were inauspicious. Sonny Boy One was out playing cards the night before. I suggested he get in around midnight since we had an early start planned. I heard something around 3am and got up. He had just gotten in and told me he won $40. I congratulated him by telling him to turn out the light. A few hours later I banged on his door and said “Its go time punk!”. Anyone can be a parent.
We hopped in Unc's borrowed mini-van, which saved us some dough. We made pretty good time to LA, with only about 20 minutes of traffic snarl somewhere along I5. It looks pretty much the same to me. Around Bakersfield SB1 realized we were spending the second half of the vacation in Oxnard, which he was excited about. He's a good kid, just not very focused.
We spent the first night in Hollywood, where I felt right at home. We did the standard tourist routine, checking out the Walk of Fame and Graumann's Chinese Theater. I high fived Spiderman and got a pic taken with Tigger. I saw Regis Philbin's star and wanted to snap a shot but forgot my phone.
We dined at Trastevere that evening. We enjoyed the patio seating and the food. My bud TK would be happy to know that our calamari were served with the feet. The only down side was that we were interrupted a few times by the kid at the next table with a hacking cough. I eventually walked over and said, “I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV, and you could be tubercular.”
The next day my wife led us on a unfruitful search for the homes of stars. We invested in a $10 map and were off to find George Clooney's house. The place was for sale for about $800K so perhaps his staff lived there. We did have a chance to go by Carl Reiner's house though. That was a thrill. I wanted to do some shopping on Rodeo Drive but my wife talked me down.
We spent the next three days of my vacation in Carlsbad at the in-laws. We did some swimming in the pool and also went to the beach a few times. I got pounded by the waves at Cardiff by the Sea and lost my trunks a few times. Nothing to see here folks, move along. I served as chief cook at a beach gathering the next evening with some family friends. We were not supposed to have alcohol there so my wife put a bottle of wine into an orange juice container. She's always thinking.
We wrapped up our trip at the home of some friends in Ventura County. We got a great boat ride and the kids loved being pulled behind the boat on the “bum buster”. I stayed off it as I was concerned about the ability of my trunks to stay in place. We also had one of the finest Mexican meals ever, but I can't remember the name of the joint.
Stay tuned. Maybe the next post will be more interesting.
The beginnings were inauspicious. Sonny Boy One was out playing cards the night before. I suggested he get in around midnight since we had an early start planned. I heard something around 3am and got up. He had just gotten in and told me he won $40. I congratulated him by telling him to turn out the light. A few hours later I banged on his door and said “Its go time punk!”. Anyone can be a parent.
We hopped in Unc's borrowed mini-van, which saved us some dough. We made pretty good time to LA, with only about 20 minutes of traffic snarl somewhere along I5. It looks pretty much the same to me. Around Bakersfield SB1 realized we were spending the second half of the vacation in Oxnard, which he was excited about. He's a good kid, just not very focused.
We spent the first night in Hollywood, where I felt right at home. We did the standard tourist routine, checking out the Walk of Fame and Graumann's Chinese Theater. I high fived Spiderman and got a pic taken with Tigger. I saw Regis Philbin's star and wanted to snap a shot but forgot my phone.
We dined at Trastevere that evening. We enjoyed the patio seating and the food. My bud TK would be happy to know that our calamari were served with the feet. The only down side was that we were interrupted a few times by the kid at the next table with a hacking cough. I eventually walked over and said, “I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV, and you could be tubercular.”
The next day my wife led us on a unfruitful search for the homes of stars. We invested in a $10 map and were off to find George Clooney's house. The place was for sale for about $800K so perhaps his staff lived there. We did have a chance to go by Carl Reiner's house though. That was a thrill. I wanted to do some shopping on Rodeo Drive but my wife talked me down.
We spent the next three days of my vacation in Carlsbad at the in-laws. We did some swimming in the pool and also went to the beach a few times. I got pounded by the waves at Cardiff by the Sea and lost my trunks a few times. Nothing to see here folks, move along. I served as chief cook at a beach gathering the next evening with some family friends. We were not supposed to have alcohol there so my wife put a bottle of wine into an orange juice container. She's always thinking.
We wrapped up our trip at the home of some friends in Ventura County. We got a great boat ride and the kids loved being pulled behind the boat on the “bum buster”. I stayed off it as I was concerned about the ability of my trunks to stay in place. We also had one of the finest Mexican meals ever, but I can't remember the name of the joint.
Stay tuned. Maybe the next post will be more interesting.
posted by DJ @ 5:56 PM
1 Comments:
At 9/04/2009 4:41 PM,
jeanne said…
Boy, you should have been with us in LA. we were held captive as audience members of Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader for 5 hours,stayed at the Avalon in BH,(I highly recommend it), couldn't sleep a wink b/c some loud, obnoxious producer was going on about a script, and then we sat next to him at breakfast and had to hear his me, me, me story all over again. It was tolerable b/c we were two tables away from Michael Steadman, (Ken Olin)at breakfast. We then went for a hike in Runyon Canyon, got lost and asked for directions from two lovely twin sisters. Turned out they were Tia and Tamara from "Sister, Sister" and "Twitches". THey chatted with Cormac and my niece and let them take pics, etc. and gave us very detailed directions. We then got lost trying to leave LA and were given detailed, exciting directions by a screenwriter for CSI, 500 Nights.... When we went to Graumann's the only thing that happened was my wallet was almost stolen from my bag by this real creepy guy. Oh. I know. Sorry. This is your blog, not mine.
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