So Yummy: Back from DC and CA

I left home on Saturday, May 21st and got back home yesterday, June 1st. How did it go? Truthfully, not bad.

DC was cool. The town was clean, the homeless were contained and there was a lot to see and do. Unfortunately, I was cooped up in the convention center for most of the time. BUT, when I was out, we ate, ate, and ate some more.

One night, apparently the Who (or is it The Who?) was in town and some work-related colleagues went. Had I known, I may have gone too, just to rub Cass' nose in it. Too bad I didn't know. Instead, I went to dinner with Amanda and the rest of our team to an Italian joint near Chinatown.

Come to think of it, the first night I was there, I hit an Italian joint (Sfogalina) by the hotel. Then the last night we were there, we all hit an... Italian joint named RPM nearby. In-between the Italian joints, I had sushi by myself one night (skipping out on an invite to see Primus play A Farewell to Kings nearby), and then a Chinese/American fusion type place called Farmers & Catchers, or something. My French dip wasn't that great.

Other places I ate included the Yardbird (or Yard House, I can't remember) and then a few times at the convention center. I got one run in, saw the White House, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, reflecting pool, among other things. Good to get out, for sure.

Come Thursday, I flew to Phoenix (had breakfast for lunch) and then headed to Palm Springs (Indio) to hang with Judy.

Indio wasn't bad, other than it was SUPER HOT as usual. Judy actually made dinner a few nights and we had poke one day also. She was actually pretty self-sufficient and capable, considering the circumstances. We went out one day and hit up some local Goodwills, where I found a great new handcart for my band stuff. Also bought a cheap pair of sunglasses to wear around.

On Saturday I drove to Irvine to pick up the fam. I stopped at the Spectrum for a delicious ramen lunch (Silverlake Ramen or something) and literally as soon as they brought the meal by, Marci texted and said they just landed. Dumb plane was 30 minutes early, so I pounded my lunch and headed to the airport. We drove to San Clemente from there and got ready for Ted's memorial.

A bunch of people I've met over the years were there, some I remember, some I don't. But was good to connect with cousin Maxine, her daughter Kelly and husband Brian, their kids Simone and Clark, as well as neighbors Peggy and Neville, Todd's old friend Jim and his wife Tracey. Of course Judy and Ray were there, as well as Sooner and Marty and other members of the family. Most fun was had with nieces Ella and Chandler, and watching them with Riley and Haley. So glad to see them all together and having fun.

Todd put together a great slideshow video of Ted over the years and both he and Alison had nice memories and comments about it all. We all hung out late into the early evening, before me, Marci and Judy headed over to the Volare hotel, which sounds nicer than it was.

We had a two room suite, with the main door opening into a bedroom, which had a door on the other side, which led into the other bedroom with attached bathroom. The floors felt uneven and the hotel itself needed some updating, but it was what it was.

Next morning I took a run around San Clemente and got in some miles. I sure love the vibe of that area. Not an ocean guy, but the place is beautiful. And they have a great donut shop, the Donut House, that took care of my breakfast needs for the two days I was there.

After meeting at Todd and Ali's, we all went down to the beach again and walked around, good to be out in the sun. That night after dinner, we headed to Dana Point where two kids named Ethan and Stephan took us out on their sailboat. We took it out about 20 minutes and had a few words about Ted, before we dropped his ashes into the Pacific. A bit of humor as his box didn't sink, so Todd had to take Judy's cane and smack it a few times to get it to go under the surface.

The next morning, Haley and I took her car and headed north. We drove about 5-6 hours to Angel's Camp, CA, where we stopped at the WorldMark resort there. On the way, we stopped in Bakersfield and had sandwiches in a ghost town. Yeah, it was Memorial Day, but man, it was dead. The sandwiches were good, though.

We had dinner at a place called Rob's Place in a small town called Murphys, about 10 miles from the resort. Our waiter, Gabriel, was cool and cracked me up when he said the ghost pepper cheese was so spicy it was as if his African ancestors came up and slapped his face. Next morning, we grabbed coffee in Murphys again and headed north to Bend, OR.

The Bend drive was about 8 hours and it felt that way. Because Angel's Camp is so out of the way, the drive to there and from there were on some backwoods highways and roads and it was pretty fun and scenic. We stopped for lunch in some town, I can't remember which, but the food was good at a place called The Foodie Cafe.

When we finally made it to the Bend WorldMark, we got in the room and Haley had deja vu. She insisted she'd been there but I couldn't remember if we had or not. After a bit, I realized we had, it was one winter when we were traveling with Ted and Judy and we had stayed there. Anyway, we went back into Bend (which is a cool-ass hip town) and had dinner at a Thai restaurant.

Later that night, we found our room was infested with gnats, there were probably a few hundred circling the lights in the kitchen. Haley was gonna sleep in the front room, but because of the bugs, we ended up sharing the king bed, where there were no bugs, thankfully.

The last morning, we got coffee in Bend at a lousy coffee shop, hit a tasty donut shop, then hit Dutch Bros on the way out of town. We figured we'd stop in Portland for lunch, about 1/2 way through the drive. But, since the drive was out of the way, we ended up crossing into Washington and pretty much bypassing Portland altogether. Then we passed through Vancouver and before long, Hay was a little hangry and bratty. We got through some grumpiness as she found a little teriyaki joint in Ridgefield. We had lunch and she drove the rest of the way home.

The Escape did well on the drive. Was comfortable enough and did what we needed it to do. The brakes are still a little not as responsive as I'd like, but overall, I was happy with it. Gas prices were crazy, but luckily, the Escape only takes regular unleaded, so the most we paid was $82 for a tank. In my car, that would have been closer to $100. Crazy.

Anyway, I'm glad to be home and ready to not eat out every day and night. Need to build back the reserves. Here are some pictures.

By the way, thanks Blogger for putting the pictures in reverse chronological order. Too many to sort them so scroll to the bottom and work your way up.