Shane Life

Last Thursday night, we left for California to attend the memorial service for my late Uncle Larry. It was quite a trip. We found some amazing tickets on Midwest Express ($218 round trip at the last minute…REALLY?…REALLY.) and were able to be out there with my Aunt Paula and the rest of our family on my mom’s side that we rarely get to see. (One caveat of those cheap tickets was that we could not return until today…no problem in my eyes.)

Anyway, we got in late Thursday night and were picked up at LAX by my dad who arrived from Thailand early that morning. Let me just say that LAX (at least the Midwest/Frontier/Alaska Airlines terminal) is absolutely BOOTY. When we departed the plane, I felt a little like Stillwater in the movie Almost Famous after they get off of the plane and are walking through the terminal. It was almost abandoned and extremely boring. Check it out:

Don’t the three of them totally look like Stillwater?

Anyway, not much doing that night. We got up the next day and drove to Laguna Beach for breakfast at The Beach House, a restaurant that Alli and I visited about 8 years ago when we went on one of our first vacations together to visit my family back then. The food wasn’t as great as I remembered it, but the ambiance was just as spectacular. It’s a small restaurant that overlooks the ocean, the kind of out-of-the-way place that you’d probably find some celebrity at, but alas, we didn’t find anyone. We drove down to the Dana Point Doubletree Hotel and bought tins of cookies. Why? Because everyone loves cookies and these cookies were absolutely incredible.
Saturday was an open day, but it was also my dad’s birthday. We went CD shopping with him and tried to go to places that he would want to go to eat (of course, it was darn near impossible). It was a pretty lax day after that. We went to my Aunt and late Uncle’s house and were joined by a lot of other family members, including my two older cousins, Cindy and Stacy, my other two uncles, Monte and Byron, as well as Byron’s wife, Robyn and their youngest son, Sid. Check Sid out:

On Saturday night, we went to California Pizza Kitchen, a nationwide chain that I’d actually never been to. I had an awesome, totally unexpected pizza. Since I was there, I thought I’d try something different…the California Club Pizza. It had freaking LETTUCE on it. It was incredible.

We also talked briefly about what we was going to happen the next day at the memorial service and then everyone dispersed (other family members arrived that evening as well). A side note…we TRIED to go to the Olive Garden (I’m glad we didn’t, or should I say COULDN’T), but there was a 3 hour wait. Thus, we went on to CPK. Yum. And we have one in KC on the Plaza!

Sunday and Monday…to be continued…