We do it too live!

When my mom is in town, we just do it too live dude!  It leaves me feeling like I need a weekend to recover from my fun filled weekends. The most ridiculous part though, is that we didn’t take hardly enough pictures.

She flew into town on Thursday and we headed up toward LA to meet up with Scotty for dinner. On our way we stopped by RANDYS!!! Donuts!!!!! I’ve been dying to try it since they are world famous and supposedly the best donuts around and let me tell you, they ARE! No doubt, best donut of your life. My mom kept saying over and over how she’s never had a donut like that EVER! I am pretty sure she is going to fly into LAX now just so we can stop by Inglewood and get some. We joked about how we should buy our lotto tickets across the street at the Minimart (which got up to $600,000,000) because no doubt we would win it and be announced, “Barbara Nash from Inglewood CA!” haha we didn’t though.

In the drive thru

We were behind this ridiculous jelopy with Donkey Kong and Indiana Jones and had fun watching the two try to fit in this thing. It gave us plenty of conversation.

OOOOhhh yea. Eating our donuts in a parking garage looking out over 405.

After some shopping we meet up with Scotty in Westwood for dinner at this sausage joint called Steingarten and then hit is favorite bar called The Wellsbourne. It was a really cool spot. It looked like an old house or something. I said it looked like we had stepped into the game Clue, so the whole night I kept saying, “It was Mrs. Peacock, in the Library, with the rope.” LOL This was my mom’s first time meeting Scotty. Can you believe it? We have been friends for about 6 years now and she finally had the chance to put a face to the name. Crazy. She was glad we went up to his hood and hung out. She really liked him and said what a kind hearted guy he is and she can see why I’ve kept him around.

The next day we had to head to San Diego for my cousin Laura’s Bridal Shower. I haven’t blogged about this yet but have been meaning to. My relationship with my aunt, uncle, and cousins on the Pirtle side of the family has taken a huge dump since the passing of my oma. The last time I saw most of them was at oma’s funeral in 2007, so, when I received the save the date for Laura’s wedding I was looking forward to having a chance to reconnect with them. I have managed to see Brian a bit more in the last few years, but with Laura living on the East Coast now, it is really rare that I get so see her. I miss them. We were so close growing up and as I get older and my relationships with my other cousins grow stronger, there is a void where I wish my connection with them was strengthening too.  

The party was a fun simple house party. I met some of her future family members and saw some familiar faces I haven’t seen for years! We even had some amazing and powerful discussions about our lives and where they have been and where they are going. I even had a second to tell her that I miss her and wish we kept in touch. She agreed and promised we would. Just a few days after, I received this sweet thank you card in the mail. 

Hopefully, we will stick to it, and keep in better contact. I also look forward to celebrating the upcoming events in her life and I can’t wait for Sean to meet the other side of the fam too.

After a late night at the local watering hole, my mom and I got up and decided to run a mountain. No, for reals, I ran a mountain. I had looked up some runs on mapmyrun.com and found this nice little trail in Torrey Pines (my moms requested location) that had free parking and looked to be like a nice run along the bluffs and beach. I run bluffs all the time. HB, Costa Mesa/Newport Beach area, I got this. YEA RIGHT! This was a 600+ feet climb! But we did it. I did it! However, not without complaint. I do recall saying I’m not going to make it multiple times but I hardly stopped to walk. We finished the toughest mile in 12 minutes which to me, is pretty dang good.

Torrey Pines

There is nothing like conquering a mountain by running it. It can correlate to so much life and there is nothing like that sense of accomplishment.

After two nights in a row of having a bedtime of almost 2-3am, the rest of the weekend was rough. Haha. We hung out with Sean, got some dinner and woke up Sunday to go explore San Pedro/Rancho Palos Verdes. We stopped by our Port of Long Beach station so I could show my mom one of our best LNG stations in the nation, visited the Korean Friendship bell, toured San Pedro and went to check out the Tide Pools in Rancho.  I wanted to take my mom to these tide pools I visited back in early 2010 but one look at the cliff side, doubled with really high winds, and no one was really feelin it. It was just too cold and windy. We continued on to Manhattan Beach and stopped by my favorite Cuban restaurant for some garlic chicken. She loved it!

Then we drove up to the Japanese gardens by Jelena’s house in Long Beach...  

Fixing my moms hair for our picture

Yes its real.

And then stopped by to love little Ivana.

Laughing with me.

Waving "bye" as her grandma and grandpa leave

Isn't she a doll?

Long beautiful eyelashes

"I'm crawling outta here!"

After, we hit Halogen and then called it an early night.

Sheesh.

So let’s see, here is the breakdown:

Costa Mesa to Westwood

Huntington Beach to San Diego

Huntington Beach to Long beach

Huntington Beach to San Pedro

San Pedro to Rancho Palos Verdes to Manhattan Beach

Manhattan Beach to Long Beach

And then Huntington to Long Beach again

And then back to Costa Mesa to the airport.

Don't bother me for a week...I'll be sleeping! haha.

We do it too live! There is just so much I want to do with her that when she does come to town, we cram a shiz load of stuff into 4 days! haha. Next time maybe we should hit the local spa and chill a bit more. ;)