Anyway, this past Thursday my parents made their annual trip out to see the Tour of California bike race. (FYI: For those of you who didn’t check it out, Levi Leipheimer won it again, 2 years running. BONG!). They met me at MTV for lunch around one and we did a little catching up. After lunch, (about 2:30) my parents made their way up to Solvang, which is a little Dutch town about two hours north of Santa Monica.
Well, it was supposed to be two hours. My dad made it a point to call me at like 5:30 to tell me he STILL was not in Solvang, he still had 60 miles to drive, and “goddamnit, why is there so much fucking traffic in Los Angeles. Both directions, I don’t get it.” It ended up taking them about 4 hours to get there. Sorry Dad.
On Friday, still in Solvang, my parents did a little a shopping up there, watched the race in between little spurts of rain, and I found out later my mom managed to have two drinks, which apparently did her dirt and she was tipsy the rest of the day.
While all this was going on, I had my own little adventure. It was Friday, and it being my last day of Parental Control and all, I wanted to get a little drunk. I had every intention of getting a little festive early, passing out and taking a couple hour nap before I had to meet my parents at 6 PM for dinner. My day began at the office at 10:00 AM. At 11:20, after packing all my office supplies and my mini-fridge, I made my way home, an unemployed man. I got home, planned on taking a little break, then heading down to The Whaler for my mostly-weekly lunch with Devon. Well, when I got home, I became instantly bored, so I grabbed my headphones and made my way down to The Square early.
Upon arrival, I found Jackie Dos making an early stop as well before she went in to work. She had French Toast; I had a Stella. Jackie departed around 1:00 PM, I remained, and was soon joined by Desiree, Nicole H., Maura, Josh M., Tomas, and Jon B. Well, to keep things PG, let’s just say I proceeded, along with my cohorts, to get drunk. Yes, that’s right, I got drunk. At the Whaler. How odd? Also, my parents ended up getting lost in Culver City, and I was too drunk to give them proper instruction on how to get to their hotel. Sorry guys.
At the end of my venture, I made a little stop over at Mercedes Grille (go eat there, food is awesome, and the staff rocks) to see Jackie. She decided to finish me off by handing me (from what I can remember) two frosty glasses of Sapporo. It might have been more. I don’t remember much from Mercedes except winking at myself in the mirror behind the bar. Jackie told me I kept getting loud, but that’s nothing out of the ordinary. I just felt bad b/c she was working and I was a total idiot. Sorry Jackie.
I don’t remember the bike ride home, or coming in the door, or passing out on the couch. I was totally blacked out. My parents were trying to get ahold of me for like a hour to go to dinner, but I didn’t hear one ring on my iPhone. Eventually, my parents just walked over and banged on the door until Johnny let them in. Oops. I woke up though, and we went to dinner. I was still a little buzzed, but what can you do. I pretty much drank a small wading pool’s worth of booze.
Dinner was good. We went to C&O Trattoria. My dad loves that place. It was good eating.
Saturday it kept raining on and off all day, so it was tough to really do anything. While the sun was still out, we had breakfast on the boardwalk at the Sidewalk Café. We tried going on a bike ride down to Manhattan Beach, but it got really cold and overcast, so we pulled a U-y and came back. We watched a little of the bike race on TV, then took a little trip down to Hinanos to have a quick beer. As I expected, my dad loved the place; he said it reminded him of a bar in Shenandoah (the little coal region town in PA her grew up in). We then walked to 26 Beach and had a nice, sober, family dinner. Saturday night we watched Michael Clayton which was surprisingly great. Movie recommendation #2 of the post.
Sunday was the best. The weathermen were calling for rain all day, and b/c those guys are always spot on, it ended up 70 degrees and sunny all day. We began the day having brunch at the Whaler where my parents finally met Ms. Devon Steigerwald. Also, her boyfriend Tony made an appearance. And the coup de grace was Jackie making it out of bed to join us! Brunch was a lot of fun; my parents loved Jackie. But who wouldn't? On a side note, Jackie’s family owns like 110 acres on an island in North Carolina called Currituck (Google it). My dad always wanted to retire in North Carolina, so he kept asking her to put his name on the list buy some of her family’s land. When were getting ready to go, I walked Jackie out b/c she had to go shoot the UCLA women’s gymnastic meet, and somehow we missed the guy proposing to his girlfriend in the middle of the street. How crazy is that? Dude just proposes right there. And all his friends and family were on the Whaler deck watching the whole thing and cheered the minute she said yes. Good thing too, b/c it would be kinda awkward having everyone you know see you life go down the shitter.
After the Whaler, we walked around the Venice boardwalk a bit and snapped a few photos. Came back, mom watched the episode of Lost she missed, and dad watched the final stage of the bike race, which we skipped b/c it was calling for rain. My dad wanted to go swing by the Apple Store, and I hadn’t been there is almost a week, so I took them. To my surprise, my mom bought he first computer: a white MacBook. YAY!
My dad’s weekend highlight happened when he went to pay. He gets in line, and the gentleman in front of him, with his daughter, offered to allow my dad to go first. My dad, who had already been helped, said not to worry about it. The man ahead of him on line: Alec Baldwin. No shit. Of course, my dad has to double check with me to make sure he isn’t seeing things. The guy’s getting old, he wanted to make sure. He then ran out to grab my mom, who was standing outside on the phone with Steph. After he paid, we walked out and my dad proceeded to relay the story to my sister, thus beginning the embellishment of that story for months to come. He was really proud of himself too for not fawning over the actor.
After our star-studded Promenade experience, we walked back to the Whaler, had an afternoon cocktail (or three) and I gave them a quick tour of Anchorage, where we ran into Jackie coming back from UCLA, and my dad made sure to remind her again to save him half an acre to retire on. I never realized how much my dad likes his real estate.
After the quick tour, despite Jesse’s best efforts at Mercedes, we ended up back at Hinanos and had burgers for dinner. After our meal, we walked back to The Hotel, hung out for a bit, said our goodbyes, and they walked back to their hotel.
All is all, I couldn’t have asked for a better weekend. Luckily it didn’t rain much. I got to show them all of my local haunts. They got to meet some more of my west coast friends. It was an all around great vacation. I think my dad summed it best when we he said, “This place is like a party all the time.” Bingo.
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