So Chris' sister Kate picked me up at 7pm on Wednesday and we headed down the 5 and got in to Simi Valley a bit after midnight. I don't particularly like driving at night, but at least it didn't feel like we wasted a day driving, y'know? I just hung around in Simi on Thursday, running errands with Chris. He also took me to Chuy's, which is a bizarre Southern Californian BBQ/Cal-Mex joint. I was kind of appalled at the weirdness of some of their versions of food (huevos rancheros was tri-tip chili on top of two tortillas with eggs over easy on top, with a red sauce on the side! What?) but I had to admit it was tasty. We hung out and had a happy hour pitcher on the patio and listened to Simi Valley douchebags revel in their douchiness which
lead to many conversations on the nature of douchiness.On Friday I decided to let Chris get some homework done and took off solo, stopping first at the Ronald Reagan Presidental Library. I did not actually tour the library (didn't want to pay admission) but I found some awesome stuff in the gift shop, including some Nancy Reagan "Just Say No" postcards and shot glasses 50% off! There were a lot of very tanned and rich people there, and it turns out that's because later that night there was a
major event celebrating the destruction of the Berlin Wall, which Reagan tore down with his own hands, apparently.
After that I took the
23 over the crazy mountains down to Malibu. I'd wanted to catch sunset on the beach, but it was mostly dark by the time I go to Leo Carillo State Park, and there was a huge line of people trying to get in to camp for the weekend, so I turned around and headed instead to the Malibu fishing pier, and enjoyed a glass of wine at the newish
Beachcomber, which has a fabulous $5 happy hour menu of $5 drinks and $5 "appetizers" that are easily large enough to be a meal. I had the sliders and they were very tasty. The regular menu looked good, too, and the nautical decor of the place was awesome. It was also awesome to sit outside at night at the ocean and not freeze. Thank you, Southern California. I drove back via Santa Monica and the 405 listening to awesome LA radio.
Chris' family had been driving him a bit nuts and left no privacy for us, so we'd talked about getting a hotel room on the cheap, which worked out well with attending a party we'd been invited to in LA. That said, the Westin at LAX is not at all a 4-star hotel, great deal or not. They actually had a catalog in the room which told you how you could buy the $80 crappy pillows from the bed - or the bed itself. The amount of upselling they were doing was amazing. There was also a musicians' conference at the hotel, I shouldn't need to explain why that was annoying. The party was fun, though.
The next morning we were supposed to rush back to Simi to get there in time to go to a Civil War Reenactment with Chris' family, but on the drive we realized we'd have no time to get food or coffee before going, two things we were desperately in need of, so we pulled off at a Starbucks and looked up good brunch options. Settled on "Jack'n'Jill's Too" in Beverly Hills. I navigated and did an awesome job. I feel pretty confident in finding my way around most of the valley and north west Los Angeles at this point. Brunch was reasonably priced and phenomenal, they just brought us a french press full of delicious coffee to our table, and I had the best BAT omelette ever, while Chris has the best breakfast sandwhich ever. Everyone in the restuarant was young and model-beautiful which freaked us out but was like, awesome, because why shouldn't LA live up to stereotypes?
We then headed back to Simi Valley and just hung around for a few hours waiting for Kate to get some so we could take off. Got in a bit after midnight last night.
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tired
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accomplished
