Thanksgiving, etc.

Our trip to California was fun. We had a bit of a delay in the airport in Seattle, so we got to Palo Alto around 5 PM on Wednesday night, a couple of hours behind schedule. We went out to dinner with my folks, and then went to a bar with Jessica and a few of her lawyer friends. She seems to be doing pretty well, although she has made the questionable decision to spend next semester in the Hague working on Charles Taylor's defense team. I didn't know who Charles Taylor was, so I Wikipedia'd him. He's a former Liberian warlord and an all-around bad guy. The charges against him include, but are not limited to: child soldiers, chopping off arms, cannibalism, and human sacrifice. And Jessica is trying to set him free. She says she's doing it to promote justice: in order for a trial to be fair, the defendant must have an equally sound defense and offense. She really just wants to go to the Netherlands.

Thanksgiving day was nice; we went for a hike through a trail at Stanford that has really pretty views of the Bay Area and goes really close to The Dish, a giant radio telescope that used to search for extraterrestrial intelligence but is just sitting there and rusting now. We went over to Jessica's family's house for dinner; the guests were Jessica's brother and his family, her aunt and her family, me, David, and my family, and a couple of Jessica's law school friends. Kate, her mom, prepared a delicious feast. I was shocked by how much of a MILF Kate has become- she works out constantly now that she is retired and is in great shape. I've known her since I was 5 and have never seen her, or anyone else her age (65) for that matter, this fit. It's scary. Anyhow, she's a good cook and cooked a lot of good food. Their house is impressive in both size and grandeur, and if I hadn't grown up in it I would be a little intimidated. The whole thing was a little over the top but fun. David handled it very well.

On Friday, we woke up at the crack of dawn to hit up our local Walmart and go shopping. Just kidding. We took highway 1 (the scenic route) down to Monterey. David lived there for two years and my family would take weekend trips when I was growing up, so we both wanted to go back. We went to El Torito, which is a Mexican restaurant right on the water. It's a must-do in Monterey. The food is so-so but the view is spectacular. We thought we saw a whale, but it was just a wave. We wandered around Cannery Row. There used to be an indoor carosel with an old-time picture place, which I thought would be fun to do, but it's all been replaced by an imax theater. We stopped by a cafe that had a heated outdoor bench, which was the highlight of Cannery Row. Even though it was chilly and overcast, this crazy stone bench felt like it had been sitting in the sun for hours. We drove to Pacific Grove, and David showed me the route he used to run in the Army. I was impressed: it was very long and steep. We couldn't go on the base, which was disappointing, since I wanted to see where he used to live, but we drove around and he pointed out other important landmarks. We went to Carmel too but it was all overpriced shops, so we didn't stay long. When we got home, we went to this loud Japanese restaurant and hung out a bit with my parents.

I went to a spin class at my mom's gym on Saturday morning; I wanted her to do it with me, but she was afraid her knee wouldn't be able to handle it. We got some coffee and picked up pastries to take home to the menfolk. Peet's has a scone that I really like, so I try to eat it whenever I am home- there's a Peet's two blocks from our apartment, but they don't have my scone. We had talked about meeting Jessica up in San Francisco, but we weren't feeling up to it. So, we did a bit of shopping. David had never been to Costco, so my mom took us there. I got a fuzzy robe for lounging around the house, and he got a light jacket. I realized while I was there that Costco is probably the reason I enjoy free food samples so much. My parents took me there all the time as a kid, and I loved to snack on the little samples they hand out. We came home arounf 3:30, had some sandwiches, made some margaritas, and that's pretty much the rest of the day. My dad rented a couple of weird foreign movies; we watched one all the way through, but the other was too bizarre to finish: it was this Armenian art film full of symbolism and pretension.

This morning, my mom got bagels for breakfast, which is what I was secretly hoping she would do though I didn't want to ask. If she hadn't brought them home, I was going to suggest that we go up and get bagels. She must have read my mind. We walked up to the Farmer's market; I got some almonds to take to work tomorrow, and David got some almonds for the plane. The we said goodbye to my mom, and my dad drove us to the airport. It was a pretty quick flight, and now we're home. The Cobra was really happy to see us. I'm not looking forward to work tomorrow, but I am glad to be back in Seattle.