It can pay to be a little bit of a wuss

My mom and Marin came out for a visit in mid February and naturally we spent one of the days at Disneyland. My mom is from Gardena, which is right by Disneyland, so she grew up going there. So it was really fun to go with her and hear some of the memories she has and see her so excited to be there again, since it was almost 15 years ago the last time she went. Well, she had never been on Splash Mountain so we took her on it. I think I've admitted it before that that ride makes me a little nervous when you go down the drop off part. So I always avoid sitting near the front. Well this time it totally paid off because Nate, Marin, and my mom got soaked and I barely got a drop! So that is why I say it can pay to be a little bit of a wuss. By-the-way, my mom loved the ride.



Stuck in Indiana Jones, which my mom also loved.

At Baby Blues BBQ in Venice. I wish I had a picture of the food. It was soooo good. Definitely not the kind of food you could handle on a regular basis.

Hanging out at The Grove.

Thanks for visiting, Mom and Goob! Come back any time!



So LA has this thing called Dine LA Restaurant Week. I can't remember why but I'd heard of it before so when I found out that it was going to be from the last week of January to the first week of February, Nate and I decided to take advantage of it. There were so many restaurants to choose from that it was hard to decide which place to try, but the nice thing is that you could look at the menus online that you would be able to choose from for each restaurant and they were also listed in three price groups. So we based our decision on the price, how yummy the food sounded, and the location. We ended up going to a place called The Beachcomber in Malibu. It is located at the beginning of the Malibu Pier and it has outdoor seating right over the shoreline so you can hear the waves really well. You also had a view of the lights shining on the water all around the coastline. Plus, the food sounded pretty yummy, and it definitely was. So the way it works is for one set price you can choose one of three appetizers, one of three entrees, and one of three desserts. The set price is a lot lower than if you were to order all three dishes separately any other time. We both really enjoyed our food. I could have just had my appetizer, the Baked Bleu Tomato Soup, and been totally satisfied, but of course I wasn't going to stop there. I had a chicken dish for my entree and then broke from my normal dessert choice and had a bread pudding for dessert. Nate's entree was especially good, Red Wine Braised Kobe Short Ribs. It was so good. I've been craving that soup and would love to go back during the summer and watch the sun set while eating. Our pictures don't really show the place very well but oh well. Maybe next time.



Last weekend we drove out to Indian Wells near Palm Springs for a tennis tournament. It's a professional tournament just below the level of a grand slam so a lot of big names were there like Federer, Nadal, Roddick, Murray, Djokovic, Ivanovic, Jankovic, etc. Anyway, it was pretty exciting. We purchased Friday evening tickets for $16 each and got to see the women's semifinals and the men's doubles semifinals. We walked up just in time to see Andy Roddick and Mardy Fish play doubles. The seats were so close since it wasn't in the main staduim; it was crazy. They won. Then we got to see Anna Ivanovic play in the semis in the main stadium. She won. Then we watched the other men's doubles match. By the time we got out of the parking lot it was close to 11:00 and we didn't want to drive the 2 1/2 hrs home or get a hotel room, so we slept in the back of our car in a church parking lot. Luckily we've learned from experience and we brought a lot of blankets and pillows just in case. It was actually quite comfortable. I think we're going to try and go every year.