It was almost too rare....

Whew....

I had a great time over the last 5 days or so, but boy am I tired.

What follow is almost sure to be very lengthy, so settle yerself.

Friday morning saw us on the road. We stopped to see Sis on the way out of town, and secured coffee (eggnog latte for me, black regular for Pops), and heading out of town at 8:30. We marked the semi-halfway mark in Walnut Creek, where I did indeed get my cheese steak sadwich.

After some driving around, and a tour of my old stomping grounds, we gassed up and got back on the road. We had clear sailing for most of the trip. It was hard to believe. Hardly any traffic, no cops, no bad weather....it was great. Then, just as we neared our final destination...a scant 5-8 miles from M's house, we hit traffic. Bigtime.

We crept and crawled along until we got to an exit, from which, I know the way on the surface streets. We slid off the highway, and arrived about 10 mins later. 477 miles from my front door to his.

Not a bad haul, and we made excellent time. M was at work, but came home at 7ish for lunch. We did our howdies, and spent his lunch hour catching up a bit.

He was working the next day as well, so Poppa and I went to Pismo Beach to get some saltwater taffy. Needless to say, the weather was beautiful the whole time we were there.

On the way back, we happened on this place. I'm not sure exactly what they do there, but I'll bet it's fun to watch. After that, we went back to the house and just hung out, having family time.

Sunday arrived, and that was party day. It was also football day, and I'm shocked to be able to report that the Raiders won.

No, really.

I shot lots of photos at the party, but decided that you would all be bored with them, so I haven't posted any of them. If you want to see some, let me know. There was beer (for the adults), tons of food, killer cake, and a game of Hacky Sak. I managed to put a mild sprain on my left ankle while playing, but like a trooper, I toughed it out and was one of the last 2 playing when the game died.

Monday saw Poppa, M, and I heading to Morro Bay, where I used to live. Due to circumstances beyond my control, I have no photos of the trip, but it was nice. We walked down the beach hunting shells and the like. I managed to find 2 intact sand dollars as well as a fair amount of really cool shells. Afterwards, we had lunch at a diner (poppa's chowder is better by far) and headed home. We got home just in time for M to go to the movies with his 2 sisters, and I took a much needed nap. We had barbecued steak and steamed clams for dinner, and that was it for Monday.

Tuesday saw our exit. We took our time on the way home, and when we got to Gilroy, we just had to stop. We went into Garlic World, and spent some money. Prolly a little more than we should have, but we got plenty of swag. We spent 23 bucks and change, but that netted us like 6 avacados, 5 heads of garlic, and the other various items here. So far, my fave are thegarlic pistacio nuts.

The ride home was alright, and as we neared home, we decided to have dinner at the Pinon. They have a really killer deal these days, and so off we went. I ordered the New York Steak, and after my chat with the waitress about how I can never seem to get a true rare steak she ran off to the kitchen.

Not 10 minutes later...I had hardly touched my salad, she came back with not only a fucking perfect steak, but a hunk of prime rib for poppa that was nearly 2 inches thick. Mutha fucka, but it was good. For almost 2 seconds I thought about sending my meat back for a little more heat, but in the end it seemed more trouble than it was worth.

After that, we came home, and I crashed like a speed freak at the end of a runner. It was back to work today, and now I've told you the story.

Hope you all didn't miss me too much.

Buenos con queso,

T.