My West Coast Summer Tour-Part II

Modesto!  Yes, Modesto.  My good friend Heather drove with me (and she is a good friend....anyone who would drive with someone through the Central Valley of California is a VERY good friend!  What a terrible drive!), which I greatly appreciated!  Nothing too exciting on that drive other than a car fire up by Magic Mountain.  It was actually pretty entertaining.....first, we see a PT Cruiser along the side of the road and the entire front end was completely engulfed in flames.....the fire truck had not yet arrived so, it was a pretty roaring fire!  Then, we notice in the median several yards away from the car, 4 teenage girls in their tank tops and short shorts, just staring at the car in flames.  One of the girls was on a cell phone and Heather and I proceeded to imagine what that phone call sounded like....."Hi......Dad?  Remember when you said that I could take your car to Magic Mountain today if I drove really carefully and didn't get in an accident?  Well, I didn't get in an accident......but........"  Oh my gosh....I can't even imagine!

So, I'm sure you're all wondering why we decided to stop in Modesto (or maybe you're not, but I'm going to tell you anyway.....).  Until I was 9 years old, my family managed an apartment building, "The Villa", in Seattle.  There was another apartment building across the street, "The Villa Capri",  owned by the same people that owned our building.  The managers of that building were an older couple named Al & Louise.  They were kind of like a second set of grandparents to my sister and I.  Al passed away almost 20 years ago, however Louise is still sharp as a tack at age 94 and she lives in Modesto in a retirement building.  I haven't seen Louise since I was probably 15 or 16 years old, however she is very good about keeping in touch with my mom and sending her handwritten letters with those free stickers you get in the mail all over the envelope (too cute!).  So, I decided that Heather and I would spend the night in Modesto and visit Louise!  

Here are some of the highlights of my visit with Louise:

*Walking into her building and taking the elevator up to her apartment with two other elderly ladies who told me that she hates the elevator because it's too "damn" slow and she needed to get to her apartment because she had to "pee" (yes, her words......)  Too funny!

*Louise asking us if we watched Judge Judy.....she thinks JJ is a really smart lady!

*Louise asking us if we watched the Ellen Show.  Then she proceeds to say "Well, she has her a beautiful lady doesn't she? (meaning Portia DiRossi)"  (Heather and I about DIED!  It was HILARIOUS!)

*Louise begging us to stay just 15 more minutes......(this really made me realize how much she loved having us there to visit with her.)

Since our visit, Louise has written mom several times telling her how much she loved having Heather and I in her home!  She is such a wonderful lady.  It was really sad to think that that visit with Louise would more than likely be my last.  I'm just glad I had the opportunity to see her.....it was a really fun time!

The next morning, we were off to our next destination........

My West Coast Summer Tour

Well, I am back!  Yes, I understand that most of you probably didn't even realize I was gone!  That's fine.....you're not required to keep up with every trip I take (or every move I make, or every cake I bake....but I digress....), but that's what a blog is for!  You can read through this post and feel as though you were on vacation with me!

I left around 4:30am on June 13, along with my dog Lucie, and headed south....our final destination:  San Diego.  By 8:37 am, I had already spent $82.00......ON A SPEEDING TICKET!  Ugh.  Anyway, unfortunately, it was well deserved and I was lucky it wasn't $382.00......so I'm not complaining!  Lucie and I made it to San Diego and we stayed there for about 5 days, just hanging out, going to the park and enjoying the summertime!  I think the most exciting thing I did was go to the San Diego County Fair with my friend Heather.  It's kind of a tradition that we have and I didn't make it last year, so I really couldn't miss two years in a row!  Man, I love that fair.  Actually, let me rephrase that.....man, I love to EAT at that fair!  This year Heather and I discovered a new addition to the fair food family......a churro funnel cake, topped with fresh strawberries and LOTS of whipped cream!  It was sickening delicious!  Heather and have three things that we do at the fair.....we EAT (yeah, we covered that), then we go and look at all the yearbooks and high school student work (something only nerdy teachers do) and then, we go and get our tarot cards read!  We love listening to what they have to tell us and love sharing our stories!  It's kind of expensive entertainment, but something we look forward to every year!

After our time in San Diego, we headed north to...........

Stay tuned........

Mamma Mia!

Okay, so I've been to a lot of Broadway shows and musicals in my time, and there are many that I really enjoy for several different reasons, depending on my mood.  However, the one I always LOVE, LOVE, LOVE is Mamma Mia!  I mean seriously, who doesn't love to hear ABBA?  Listening to them is like comfort food for the ears!  I remember buying the 45 single in 5th grade to "Does Your Mother Know?", and on Fridays our teacher would let us bring records in and we could listen to music during lunch, so I brought in that ABBA 45 and played it and half the class got up and danced (mostly girls) and the other half just sat there and stared at us dancing (mostly boys).  Anyway, I really like ABBA!  I admit I don't know all the words to all their songs, but I know the important words and I can dance like nobody's business to Erasure's re-make of "Take a Chance on Me".....so, that being said.....

I went and saw the movie version of Mamma Mia! on opening night last night!  The theater was sold out and the only seats available were in the second row back (yes, I have quite a neck kink this morning.....) but it was still as fun as ever!  I was hoping for one big audience dance party at the end....that didn't happen, so I'm going to have to see it again and start one myself!  Check out the trailer and then get on your platform boots and dance on over to the nearest theater and have some fun and sing along.....(I know you know the words....."You can dance, you can jive......having the time of your life, oooo-ooooo-oooooo.......")

Mamma Mia Trailer