California Christmas 2024, pt. 2: the Roadtrip

December 27th: We got up early, but not too early, and walked up to Colorado Blvd to be first in line to pick up a rental car. Not a behorned Cadillac, but a nice new Prius that would wow us with its 50mpg efficiency—all that you behold in the following post was done on less than a tank of gas.

And then we zipped west over to an outpost of Homestate, our favorite LA-area breakfast taco emporium…and as luck would have it, it was but a few blocks away from a Sidecar Donut as well!

Energized, we enjoyed a session at the LA Temple, our favorite LA-area temple.

And then we drove to Santa Barbara. And let me tell you, it was not the zippy ride I had hoped (quite foolishly) that it would be. BUT in Santa Barbara I was reunited with Hannah from down the block/junior high/high school/New York and we ate a delicious late lunch at La Super-Rica (where the food did not come out as zippy quick as I foolishly had hoped).

And then we drove through the dark misty windy mountains to a destination worthy of the journey: The Madonna Inn!! It’s too bad I didn’t get any super-good night time establishing shots—this was hard to do as it was the misty night time when we got there. But I had been curious about visiting this famous hotel for many years and when we started making our little road trip plan I realized the opportunity I had been waiting for had presented itself. I booked us the “Voux” room, the picture below is from the website.

We dressed ourselves up for dinner at the restaurant’s famous Gold Rush Steakhouse for a nice steak dinner and a slice of their famous pink cake and then poked around the hotel a bit, too. After dinner I floated on my back in the pool looking up at the stars while Liz stayed dry and warm and read.

We woke up to a beautiful San Louis Obispo morning and got our extensive explore on, visiting the door of each of the hotel’s individually-themed rooms, imagining what wonders might be behind each door.

With our wonderful Madonna Inn time drawing to a close, it was time to drive down to the inspiration of our roadtrip…here’s a clue of what we were headed for…

Yes, a bit of Solvang, the Danish-Californian wonderland! It was a good walk around and explore but also I was at the point of vacation where I was taking a lot fewer photos because, well, I was a little tired of taking photos.

From Solvang we returned to Santa Barbara to visit the McDonalds that claims to have created the Egg McMuffin but evidence from 1995 shows that they just moved the Egg McMuffin plaque to this location.

From there we drove into downtown LA for a little Detroit snack of a suadero taco, suadero quesadilla (the suadero at Ditroit is major detour worthy), and a hibiscus meringue sundae.

And from there we went to Liz’s high school friend Kim’s apartment for a hang with Kim and her fiancee Alfredo and a little Thai dinner at Night + Market Song (good to see you again, startled pig)!

And then it was back to Grandma’s house with us. While we were away Emily had arrived and she took our porch photo the next morning when we left for LAX before 6am. Here’s a little behind the scenes info and a recommendation: We rented our car in Pasadena but booked it for an LAX return. The early Sunday morning traffic was 0 and when you return a car to LAX you take it to this giant parking lot on the opposite side of LAX from the usual crowds and the drop off process is basically instantaneous and then you get on a shuttle that takes you to your terminal real quick. It basically took it no time. Big recommendation.

And that was our Christmas! Soon I’ll be blogging to you about 2025! Can you believe it?

California Christmas 2024, pt.1

December 21: One moment we’re at CMH…

…the next we’re at LAX!

and then one Flyaway bus ride later we’re at Taqueria Frontera, courtesy of a Union Station pick up from Greg!

December 22nd: The Eastern Time Zone has me waking up nice and early and taking a big long walk.

Found one of Grandpa Condie’s swords. It was in a closet.

Then after church we Ubered over to Santa Clarita to visit Christina and her family for a few days. We took walks and watched TV and played game and “helped” cook Patty’s tamales and pozole and it was a very nice time.

December 23 - Trip to In n Out!

And a couple dusk or night time walks.

December 24: Goodbye photo shoot before we say goodbye.

and back to Pasadena in time for a Yang Chow lunch…discovered that their dumplings and szechuan beef are super great (and Liz and Grandma talked carpal tunnel surgery).

Took a night time walk

December 25: Rise and shine, it’s Christmas! We got Grandma a Nothing Bundt Cake and she said “oh boy, oh boy!” and then we ate (some of) it for breakfast!

Then Liz and I took a loooong Alhambra walk past such important landmarks as Story Park, Grandma Condie’s House, the Father of the Bride House and…

…we took these fun jumping photos in front of the Bun n Burger…

before seeing even more Alhambra, including Aunt Louise’s house, but it seems like I don’t have a photo of that.

And then that night? Another walk! Turtles were out at dusk

December 26: Up and walking at Lacy Park!

And then we went with Grandma to get breakfast at Yang’s Kitchen in Alhambra. I had heard that they had good pancakes and it turns out that they sure do! It was a big hit with Grandma and Liz and that made me feel so good, nearly as good as the pancakes made me feel. Definitely interested in coming back and trying more of their menu.

And then that early afternoon we took an architecture tour of the LA downtown library. Liz and Grandma had both read The Library Book, which tells the story of the big LA downtown library fire in the 80’s, so they were like having a book reality experience tour. I was just having a normal tour, but probably I’ll read that book now.

Then that night Liz and I went to the mall for some mall things and I took my picture with the Dan Da Dan standee. Then we went on a San Gabriel food tour had a burger and cheese bread at the Boat, taquitos at Pepe’s, soup dumplings at Kang Kang food court, and then we had a Twohey’s bittersweet hot fudge sundae. What a night! What a Christmas trip…and would you believe that there’s still more to see? Yup! Come back for my next post and you’ll see some amazing stuff!

Chicago Thanksgiving 2024

For our fourth Thanksgiving together Liz and I were blessed to celebrate our first Oak Park Thanksgiving. We drove out Tuesday night and everyone was up and at ‘em Wednesday morning to start the day with a downtown adventure. It was time for Liz to have her first Au Cheval meal!

For “lunch” (it was 10am) instead of the famous burger I had my first bologna sandwich and it was quite the initiation. The table also dined like wolves on an order of marrow bones and several platters of bacon and a couple burgers were ordered on hash-buns.

Post-lunch we had a nice West Loop (or Fulton Market?) walk-around followed by a Loop walk around with some international McDonalds, donuts, shopping and a winter market mixed in their too. And do not fret about the tacos being sold out, the Edwardses hooked us up with some from the day before!

That night we all went to see Wicked and boy it was a hit! Such a big hit that we took a group photo in front of the poster afterwards!

Thanksgiving! The family decided this year it would be fair to have a great Italian feast (a Franksgiving, if you would) and Liz and Mom and me were down in the kitchen by 6am to get it going. Don’t feel bad (at least for me), this was my dream! I don’t have a lot of pictures of the cooking because, well, I was cooking. But here I am with my timeline and recipes taped to the wall.

In a slow bit while everything was simmering Liz and I went to River Forest to walk around Dominican Priory and Concordia College — both institutions might have different names now but that’s what I remember them being when I lived there.

And then…dinner time! Here are some photos of the food, and then us at the table, and then Cornelius up to what he was up to.

And then that night we went and saw The Best Christmas Pageant Ever and this time I have a picture of a picture in front of the poster!

On Friday we all visited Mom and Dad at their job and then got Paradise Pup for lunch. Post lunch Liz and I took a walk around Oak Park.

That night we had our second feast of the holiday at Superkhana International, what a great place that place is! And what sports they were about our big party.

After dinner? A little family photo shoot in front of the restaurant’s floral curtain before a bit of downtown Chicago driving.

Saturday the Edwards flew home (booo!) and Liz and I had breakfast at the Bongo Room. Instead of waiting an hour after for all the stores of Wicker Park to open, we walked the 3’ish miles to the Sears Tower and went up to its observation deck. How fun!

Then we walked on back to Wicker Park (or Wicker Park-ish) and did some “shopping”, celebrated that there’s a Baggu in Chicago now, then headed home for a Johnnie’s supper.

And then Sunday we drove back to Columbus after having had such a nice and lovely Chicago time! (I was wearing a mask because I had just caught a real rotten cold and didn’t want to get Liz sick in the car, which we were about to drive off in.)