Well it's time to leave Colorado and head to the sunny state of California! Dad dropped us off at the airport and away we went!
Alli was loving the freshly picked flowers. Ian (who likes to watch home renovation shows) commented on the lovely countertops.
Wednesday (6/19/2024)
Our morning started by heading into Gardena California and trying out a new app my brother recommended called TooGoodToGo. It lets restaurants and food shops sell their items that have gone past their recommended sell-by time for a cheaper price.
Our first try with it was a Korean bakery called the Smoking Tiger.
The only thing is, you can't be too picky, because you never know what you're going to get. For $5 we ended up with a Mochi Pie, Ham and Cheese Croissant, and a Earl Grey Tea Scone. The croissant and the cookie were okay, but nothing amazed us. Still, for $5 to get 3 treats, it wasn't too bad.
And we happened to run into an old work buddy Irv!
Next it was down south to Chuck E Cheese! We're putting this summer fun pass to good use, going and using our 250 play credits a day. And they have one of Theresa's favorite coin pusher games!
Ian is consistently getting 30k+ on Skeeball.
And after a few tries, I can get all 5 jugs and the bonus on the Milk Jug Toss.
One of our favorite parts of California is all the good food there is! We got some really good things at Market World.
And Trader Joe's has the best little chocolate chip cookies.
You just have to make sure they have coconut in them. At our Trader Joe's in Florida, we'd found the recipe was different. Without the coconut they're just not as good.
And here's why we got to California a couple days before the Pasadena Chalk Festival. Wednesday Volleyball! I ran the group for years when we used to live here, and I'm so glad that my friend Alysa has continued it. We played until it got dark!
Then stopped at another TooGoodToGo shop in Hermosa Beach, right by the pier. This one sells Gelato and Coffee, but also croissants.
And for $5 we got 3 giant croissants! 1 Jalapeno cheese and 2 ham and gruyere cheese. These were all delicious and definitely worth the money!
Afterwards, we met back up with the volleyball crew at American Junkie right on the pier for 50 cent boneless wings and other treats.
Thursday (6/20/2024)
I definitely don't miss Los Angeles traffic. We left our hotel in the South Bay and drove up to Pasadena to prepare for the chalk festival!
For just $6 we got all of these amazing looking donuts! Theresa said they pulled them right out of the case! The blueberry one was delicious, and the strawberry cream cronut was amazing. No wonder Colorado Donuts has a 5 star review on TooGoodToGo.
Monday (6/24/2024)
We checked out of the hotel mid-day Sunday, but stuck around for the Chalk Festival Awards, which meant we were leaving Pasadena pretty late. But before we go, Theresa saw a very highly reviewed TooGoodToGo donut shop show up.
One of the things we've always got to do when we visit California is visit their old school friends. It's Lola!
And all her sisters! We met up at the park and the kids all ran around and played for a couple hours.
The only excitement was a nearby tree that was apparently home to a bee colony. They started to swarm! I was amazed at how quickly someone came by to check it out.
Good to see you all!
There's a second Chuck E Cheese in the area, but we just haven't "loved" it when we've gone in the past. Try again?
Well when we came back, we just had a hard time finding games we loved. And the ticket payout on many of them is abysmal compared to many of the other ones we've been to. Alli took a spin on the big wheel and supposedly won the big prize.
Looks like the 100 to me.
But we checked the card history and it didn't show 100 tickets. I brought it up to one of the employees, showing him the pictures and the card history. He said he'd take care of it and add some tickets to her card, but 5 minutes later, I checked and there wasn't anything extra. I'm not going to argue it twice since it's only 100 tickets, but it just re-affirmed our disappointment in this particular Chuck E Cheese location.
You know what is never a disappointment? Korean food from the Old Time Noodle House! The kids have grown up eating here, and the owner has watched them grow up. She always takes care of us here.
My favorite spicy pork, plus all the sides that Theresa likes.
Ian loves the wontons here.
And it's not on the menu that I've seen, but Ms. Lisa knows I used to love the chap-chae when they had it. She brought the table a plate of it! And it's so good!
Thank you Ms. Lisa! It's always good to see you! We'll be back again before we leave!
And sure, the kids would love an ice cream bar for the road. Thank you!
This day still isn't over? Where am I now? I recognize this spot. It's the Mickey and Friends parking garage!
And Downtown Disney!
About a month before coming out here, I noticed that my friend who writes clues for Minnie's Moonlit Madness said that MMM would be happening today! I asked if he needed a volunteer and he said yes!
So I dropped T and the kids off at the hotel and made my way to Disneyland. Since I'm so early, I got to hang out in the lobby of the Grand Californian Hotel, listening to the pianist.
And sitting in front of the fireplace.
Checking that our stone is still there.
At 9pm, we were allowed to enter the park! World of Color is going on, but it's pretty busy.
I enjoyed it without any crowds from the back side of Paradise Pier.
Making my way through Ornament Valley in Cars Land.
There's Craig!
And it was great seeing lots of old friends!
Easy questions were pretty easy.
He's got a lot of volunteers tonight because he's running two clues!
The first is in front of the stage where a large group of Wildcats are teaching the teams how to dance. They have to learn 4 different dance segments then "perform" once they think they've got it down.
To "practice" before all the teams started showing up, Isaac and I partnered up as guinea pigs to see how we did learning all the dance moves. We had some great teachers!
Borrowing this video from Kevin Yoneda.
Even Craig got into the practice session!
But this is where I'll be working, the Art of Animation building.
With all of these awesome people. There's nothing worse than having to wait for someone to run a clue when you're trying to move fast. With this many people, we should be able to keep up with the 150 different teams that will be coming through here tonight.
Our clue has to do with Shang-Chi and the Ten Rings, but with the Olympics coming up, we're going to mix things up with a little Olympic flair. The 4x100m swimming medley is a very popular event, so we're going to have each team member "swim" using a different stroke to where I stand a little ways away. Once there, they have the option to pick an easy trivia question or a difficult trivia question. An easy question wins you 1 ring, a hard one is worth 3 rings. Once you collect 10 rings, you are done! This was considered an easy/medium clue.
- What baseball team did Disney own? (Angels)
- What breed of dog was Air Bud? (Golden Retriever)
- To what sport is the Lilo & Stitch song "Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride" referring to? (Surfing)
Hard questions were a little more difficult.
- What was Lightning McQueen's racing number?
- What sport was the movie "The Greatest Game Ever Played" about?
It was great to hang out with old friends like Kim and Isaac.
It might have been a late night, but it turned into a pretty early morning the next day to head to the Torrance Farmer's Market.
And of course we're going to Ken's Top Notch Produce. They have the best nectarines and plums in the USA (according to Theresa).
There were weeks when Theresa got $100 of fruit from here when it was really tasty.
And we could smell the strawberries from Mendoza Family Farms before we saw them. We followed our noses to find them. They smelled amazing and tasted just as good!
Ian remembers the samples of fresh squeezed orange juice. No samples today, but we'll buy a 16 oz bottle.
Always some of the tastiest salsa we've found anywhere. We came away from the farmers market loaded with fresh fruit and other treats.
For lunch, we met up with a friend from the chalk festival, Sarah! Always good to hang out with friends!
For dinner, we drove down to Long Beach to have dinner with another friend from work. It's Scott!
He answered the door wearing this green shirt and I had to just laugh.
Years ago, when I first started playing volleyball we were on a team together and this was our team jersey. We were sponsored! I love it!
Thank you Scott for finding these old photos of our team. We tried to think about how long ago they were...
While we got to hang out and chat with Scott and Karla. Plus there was some delicious pizza from a nearby pizza place. It was a fun evening of just hanging out.
Wednesday (6/26/2024)
Can that be right? 2006? 18 years ago?
The kids had a great time playing in the pool together.
We got to sleep in a little bit on Wednesday, but for lunch we met up with some of Theresa's old work buddies. Many have retired and are off having fun adventures of their own!
And for lunch, we had one of our favorite street taco places, El Amigo! They were a favorite when we lived here before.
Afterwards we had a down day of going to the good Chuck E Cheese.
And then off to the beach for another night of beach volleyball!
Thursday (6/27/2024)
Today is the day we are visiting with another one of Ian and Alli's friends, but this time her mom kept it a surprise!
And then lots of Chuck E Cheese games.
And enjoy that while we walked down the Venice Pier.
Where are we on Friday morning? How about the beach!
The kids wanted to play some beach volleyball while they were here, so we spent over an hour running around the sand, working on passing and serving until they were tired.
At which point our good friend Alysa showed up! Who needs to work today? She said she'd gotten in plenty of hours and could take the time off.
And she also showed up with a friend Carly, which means we can play 2 on 2 volleyball! It was really hot, but Alysa was prepared though. She brought an umbrella for the kids and sand socks for anyone who wanted them. We played for nearly 4 hours and my feet were a little blistered by the time we were done! Maybe I should have worn some sand socks. Thanks for the volleyball match Alysa and Carly!
I ordered a reasonable amount of food for us. Spicy pork for me. 2 orders of wontons for the kids. But they kept bringing us out things to try! A rice cake soup (delicious! loved the broth) and egg rolls too! Super spoiled when we come here. We try to pay them back in kind with big tips and glowing reviews.
Thank you again Ms. Lisa! We'll see you again the next time we're out this way!
Not too far from the Korean restaurant there's yet another Chuck E Cheese that we haven't been to. Better go check it out! They had some great games, plus some that paid out really well for tickets.
Saturday (6/29/2024)
When we knew we were coming out here, Theresa set up a meetup with her mahjong friends from work to hang out on Friday.
Which meant me and the kids were free to do whatever we wanted tonight! How about eating at the Korean restaurant?
It's our last full day in Los Angeles and what a busy trip it has been!
We spent the morning at our new favorite Chuck E Cheese over in Carson. I really like their Down the Clown game here. They only have 7 balls (versus the 20 it's supposed to come with) but it's enough for me to win the jackpot on a semi-regular basis. Gotta be fast and accurate! I stopped before the timer was finished so the high score didn't run up too high.
Afterwards, we joined our former neighbor Sam at the Menchie's frozen yogurt that we'd always go for a walk to.
Great catching up with you Sam!
The kids remembered drawing on the chalk board, and went to work.
Promoting Menchie and telling people to play Minecraft and Roblox.
That evening, we walked a little bit of the Greenbelt wood chip trail where we first walked over 10 miles with the kids when they were 5 and 7, and played a little Pokemon Go, battling Mega Rayquaza with any new friends we found while we were out.
That just about wraps up our Los Angeles trip, but we're not quite done yet! Tomorrow we'd driving down to San Diego for more adventures!
WOW...what an LA trip, so busy but fun!!...seeing so many old friends (mahjong pals, too!!...hadn't seen/played that game in a long time!)...lots of beach time and beach volleyball (what Lunchbox memories!)...so special that Alli & Ian got to see Lola and Brylie, again, their special friends :-)...such fond memories and delicious food from the Korean restaurant (Ms. Lisa has a special place in her heart for your family, and vice versa)...the Farmer's Market sounds wonderful (fresh, ripe plums and nectarines are yummy!)...TooGoodToGo offered some great deals (those donuts looked especially tempting)...MMM was a fun (and tiring) way to end that full day (4am to bed and then up early the next morning???...I'd be too exhausted to get up :-) )...all that CEC (you guys are such pros at those games!) Such a fun and blessed time for the family! EOM
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