The week me and Pat returned from our own California Adventures, I decided to purchase plane tickets to visit San Diego with my family two weeks later. My dad's side of the family had gotten together and decided on a little reunion, so I felt that if I did not go I would be missing out on seeing/meeting a bunch of people that I had not been in contact with since I was a toddler. Plus, my Grandparens and cousins were pretty insistent, so I bit the bullet, bought the tickets, and after a week and a half home, I was at PDX boarding a plane for California once again.
((( Because my descriptions are so lengthy, I am going to split this overview in to two posts, followed by one for the actual reunion, and one for our days at the pool/beach. )))
friday (7/5) :: night 1
After working all day, I drove straight to Portland with my bags packed and ready to go. I met up with my step sister Jenna and cousin Tabi who were also heading down at the same time, and my friend Megan took us to the airport. We had time to grab a sandwich for dinner and then were at our seats and taking off. The flight seemed pretty short because I was working the entire time on my laptop, while the other two played with their phones. I of course had to take some pictures before getting started. I am extremely thankful for my Urbanears over the ear headphones because for the entire duration of this flight the infant across from us was screaming her little head off. (Listen up lady, your baby probably does not need her little shoe shoved on her foot when she is mid temper tantrum, all you are doing is increasing that kids volume. I am not sure if you notice, but the rest of us certainly do). Obviously, I do not have any children... or patience...
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| [[ views from the plane on our night flight to san diego. ]] |
We landed and got to the Hilton where my family was staying pretty quickly only to find that there were only two beds, one of which was being occupied by the parents, respectfully, and one by the two seven year olds... So as Tabi crawled in between the little girls, me and Jenna went on a scavenger hunt for something more comfortable to sleep on than the tile floor. (Mind you, this was sometime around 1am). Being the resourceful lady that I am, I could not help but notice some extremely comfortable looking cabana cushions outside most of the hotel rooms. Unfortunately said cushions were not on our own hotel room patio, so I felt that a little reconnaissance mission was in order. After about ten minutes of scouting and another ten of execution and giggle fits, me and Jenna had managed to "borrow" two cabana cushions large enough for each of us to have our own little beds. (*evil laugh*). In the morning we, or rather Tabi, returned them to their proper rooms. We did however inherit a badminton ball somehow... sorry room down the hall...
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| [[ in flight entertainment. bored. jayden demonstrating our sleeping situation. ]] |
saturday (7/6) :: day 1
This was the day of the reunion, so after grabbing some breakfast with my Grandparents and uncle, and picking up the cousins from the airport, we were headed for a bayside park to meet up with everyone else. I was seriously kind of nervous, and it was really overwhelming. When we got there people were hugging me and at first I was not sure who anyone was, except for a few people who looked familiar. I am not even positive that I had ever met my Grandpas older brother or his family, who live on the East Coast. It was really great getting to see everyone though, looking through old albums a few people had gotten together, and seeing how happy my Grandparents were. This event went on for the majority of the day and we took a ton of pictures, which I will save for their own post tomorrow.
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| [[ grandpa (in the middle) and his brothers bruce (younger, left) and arlen (older, right) |
While we were at the park me, Ashley, and Nicole decided to meet up with my dads cousins ( are in their 30s), for some dinner and drinks later on. My dad dropped us off at the hotel that we were staying at called the Dana on Mission Bay, which was not quite as large or fancy as the Hilton, but was still a really nice hotel right on the water. Personally I would not have minded a nap, but we all got ready and went down to the hotel bar for a drink instead. While we were down there some guys who were at a wedding (there were two wedding going on at once) came over to us and started inviting us to come dance with them. Thanks but no thanks boys. A little while later while we were waiting for our cab by the water one of the guys came back and tried to get MY number for his buddy... to which I responded "Sorry, I am engaged". He was pretty persistant though and I literally had to be like "dude... don't you think it would be inappropriate for an engaged woman to give you her number? Have fun though at your wedding." I guess I was looking good that night, and I never mind a little flattery, so ego boost for Jenn. No harm done.
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| [[ "happy hour" at our hotel. ]] |
Our taxi came and we got to the restaurant, which was called Wang's. I was expecting a standard Chinese food restaurant, but this place was a fusion and it was actually really cool, and delicious. Us ladies got a few greyhounds and Noah ordered a bunch of family style dishes for all to share. Another of my dads cousins picked up the bill, which was extremely nice, and then the older few took off for the night, while the rest of us decided to stay out a little longer.
It was at this point that Jonah suggested a Kava bar up the street, and since none of us knew what in the world it was we agreed. I still don't fully understand what Kava is, but it is some sort of Fijian beverage (Bilo) that is prepared by grinding up the dried kava root, mixing it with water, and serving it in a halved coconut shell. It is supposed to have calming properties and numbs the tongue... Honestly I think it made us all a little "high" and it tasted just awful, but it was definitely a funny experience. At one point the guy serving asked if we had been drinking, to which we responded yes... and he said that if you mix it with alcohol it can make you hallucinate, so we all started laughing and Nicole got a little paranoid. We were sitting in this corner table and there were a lot of interesting books, including one about the "Red Headed Sea Serpent of Southern California". Amy grabbed one that was sort of a fortune telling book and read all of us our fortunes based on birthdays. Maybe it was the Kava, but I found all of them to be extremely relevant, including my own which stated that I needed to stop working so much and spend some time with myself... hmm...
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| [[ fuzzy pictures from our taxi ride. me and ashley. changs. sea monsters. a story about me. kava. fire. ]] |
At this point we split up and me, Ashley, and Nicole found a little dive bar for some more food (munchies?), and a couple beers before calling it a night and cabbing it back to our hotel to sleep.
((( I will post the rest of the overview tomorrow before I get in to my image heavy posts. )))
