My vacation back to California

So I had a really good vacation (as I like to say) back at home in the US. The two weeks I was back was surprisingly full of fun times with family and friends. Not to say that I expected it to be boring but I was very busy and all over the place. It started with Sushi lunch with my Mom and friend Drew and a girl’s night out Bunco game on Thursday with my Mom and her friends. They play Bunco every month on the second Thursday for the past…I don’t know like 10 years. Whenever I am in town around this time I always ask if they need substitute player. Lots of times they do and this time I got to play too. Usually I am pretty lucky at Bunco and win the “Most Loss” or “50/50”. I know it sounds funny to want to be the biggest loser but in Bunco you win money for losing. But this time all I won was a really BIG buzz from the wine and no money. Still fun!

Bunco!!

So after that my weekend continued. On Friday night I went out with my friends Jen and John. We went out to dinner and caught up on the past 6 months. Saturday my parents planned an Italian Dinner party for their friends since they just got back from Italy. They wanted to share their Italian experience and put on a 5course meal like they frequently had in Italy. So my Mom planned the menu, did the grocery shopping and my sister and I cooked (everything from scratch) and served the food. Course 1: Focaccia bread and Caprese Salad (buffalo mozzarella, tomato, fresh basil and olive oil). Course 2: Margarita Pizza. Course 3: Pasta Caronara with Pancetta. Course 4: Veal Scaloppine and Rosemary Olive Oil baked Zucchini. Course 5: Molten Lava Cake with Fresh Strawberry sauce. Like I said we did it all from scratch including making the pizza dough and hand kneading it. We started at 10am and finished loading the last dish in the dishwasher at 9pm. It was a lot of work and everyone said the food tasted excellent and REALLY appreciated it. But the best part was spending the day with my sister and Mom bonding in the kitchen.

Making the pizza dough

Kiersten seperating the fresh rosemary (from our neighbors yard)

Mom granting the Italian Parmesan

Me in my cooks apron

Kiersten in her chef outfit

Veal Scaloppine

Home made Margarita Pizza

The next day, Sunday, was another good day. I went to the Lakers first Play-Off game for the season with my Dad and uncle. I am not usually into basketball but as everyone knows it’s always better to see a sport live. And surprisingly I actually watched the game more than I people watched. Probably cause it was a good game and the Lakers were winning the whole time.

Laker's Play-Off game. GO LAKERS!

Me and Dad at the Laker's Play-Off game

Monday and Tuesday I recovered from the weekend. Wednesday I took a day trip to San Diego (down and back) to take care of some business. While I was there I met up with Chris, my brother-n-law, and we went out to Vietnamese Pho Soup for dinner. Another meal I totally miss in Central America. If you have read my previous blogs you know I tried to make Vietnamese vermicelli noodle bowl but definitely don’t know if I could swing the pho soup so it was a must to have it while I was in San Diego. Thursday night my brother and his girlfriend came over to dinner at my parent’s house. Another good family bonding time!

By this time even though I was having lots of fun I was also really starting to miss Ryan. We talked ever day on Skype and wrote sappy love notes to each other on Facebook. While I was having all this fun Ryan said he was just working, working, working and being mopey cause I was gone. Oh I felt bad BUT it was Friday and the weekend partying was starting all over again.

Friday night I went out to dinner with my parents and my friends Meghan and Matt. We went to Black Angus and I shared Prime Rib with my Mom. Once again another thing I miss a good piece of beef. After dinner Meghan, Matt and I met up with some of their other friends and YES of course LOTS of drinks. Saturday I went to a family party with my extended family: grandma, grandpa, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, etc. For this party I planned the menu, Central American food. Yes not as exciting as an Italian dinner but still good. It was nice to visit with all my family and fill them in on the stories I don’t talk about on blogabond. Sunday I layout at the pool with Jen and John, working on their first tans for the year and trying to keep my color before rainy season starts in Costa Rica.

So lets see…to sum up my last few days in California. Monday day I drove down to Los Angeles paid $52 to Secretary of State and $80 to Consulate of Costa Rica to certify documents for my work visa for Costa Rica. Monday night I went to an Angels baseball game with Meghan, Matt and some of their friends. A friend of a friend of theirs knows some big wig who works at the stadium so we got a box behind home plate with tons of free food (hot dogs, hamburger sliders, pizza and of course peanuts and Cracker Jacks) and beer.

Our view from the box at Angel's stadium

Me, Meghan, Matt and firends at the Angel's Baseball game

Finally two weeks later, Wednesday morning 11am I got on a plane back to Costa Rica and the love of my life my husband. Yet it was a long day with two connections in Mexico (Guadalajara and Mexico City) and both planes were late. Yep back to the Latin slow life. I landed in CR at 1am and was greeted with a HUGE hug and kiss xoxoxo by Ryan. The first thing he said was “I hope you had fun but don’t ever leave me again. Haha”.

written by  ryan & debbrial on April 28, 2010 from Santa Clarita, United States
from the travel blog: Us Discovering the Latin Americas
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