SV07 #7

Wednesday came so quickly…I mean it felt as though we had just got here and now we had one day left to have as much fun as we could before heading on to our next destination. Today was going to be a little different than the others. First of all I would be waking up at my leisure. I had a play date with my buddy “Hawk”. This was his nickname from when we both worked at a camp in Simi Valley. My name was Yosemite. We had to choose nature names, but now I am drifting from my story. I had plans to hook up with Hawk at his dads dealership and then from there go to lunch. I really felt bad that I hadn’t gotten a chance to drop in on his mom. She was always so cool. His family was and still is very awesome. I have spent several New Years Eve celebrations with them at Disneyland and I know his sisters fairly well. It has been a joy knowing and growing with this guy since 1995. We’ve been through a lot, and we have lots of stories, but that will be for another time.

Today I woke up and slowly got around to showering and then heading out the door to meet him around 12:00. Once there I got out of the car and gave him a big hug and we just sat there and kept telling stories of what we had been up to the past four years. The last time that I had seen him was during the trip out to Cali to go to my sisters wedding in 2003. It felt really good to catch up. We waited for a little while before his wife and child pulled in. We were all going to go out to lunch together. It was good to see the little woman again. Seeing her was even longer than 2003. I had met her when she also was a counselor at the camp. We piled into his car and then headed for CoCo’s. This is a little restaurant that is kind of like a Denny’s or Perkins. Good food, and lot’s of good conversations. We talked and talked and talked and got caught up on all the happenings going on in their lives. I think I might have had some fish. Hawk had a hamburger and a coke “no ice” he doesn’t like getting ice in his drinks because he thinks that the ice takes up more room. Even at a place with free re-fills, he always gets no ice.

During my lunch date, Grace was spending time with Cheryl and they were doing some serious shopping. I had no ill feelings of this. I mean hey it keeps me out of the line of fire from the shoppers…right fellas?

We finished lunch and I was locked into the booth so that I couldn’t sneak and take the check up to the counter and pay for the meal, so I let Hawk go do it and then I took out some cash and slipped it into their baby’s bag. I figured that even if they didn’t know where it came from, that they could use it to take each other out sometime. Not that I like throwing money around, but I also don’t like feeling like I can’t take care of myself. One of my biggest faults, but that is another story for another day. We drove back to the dealership and I said my good-byes and then took off to meet up with my sweetness.

I met her back at her brothers house and I think Cheryl was napping. I had to hurry, because I knew that Cheryl needed to catch the bus back to San Diego later that afternoon. I wasn’t sure where the bus station was from that point, so we drove around a bit until we found it. We were fairly early and so we went a couple blocks away to a shopping center and went to Costco so that Grace and Cheryl could do a few last minute shopping adventures. We also went and got some more ice cream from Baskin Robbins. Finally it was time to say good-bye to Cheryl. We drove over to the bus station and waited with her until her bus came, picked her up, and took her back to San Diego.

It was getting late, and it was our last night in California. We remembered that her brother had been telling us about this place that sells used clothing from movies and television shows. We thought that would be cool to check it out on the way home. It was relatively close by and so we found it and headed inside. It was in a small shopping strip downtown. Kind of narrow and had a small upstairs. They did have a LOT of clothing from lots of different shows. The problem was that a lot of them were VERY used and just because they were used by some extra on Designing Women they felt they could ask 45 dollars for a white t-shirt. Not my idea of a good deal. But we did look around and it still was fun to see all the memorabilia that the owner had. After this we felt that it would be a good idea to get a movie and take some food back home with us. We stopped by Blockbuster and looked at their used movie collections. We looked for a while but nothing really suited us. We did end up buying “Trading Places” DVD. I had seen it before and it was pretty good if you like the show. We grabbed some food and headed back to her brothers house and just enjoyed a nice quiet evening at home. Grace was worn out, and I could tell. She was out before the first house was redone, and so I felt it best to get back to the hotel and let them get some rest…besides we had yet another long day tomorrow.