Christmas 2023: New Year's Day 2024

If you wake up in San Marino on a January 1st, this means something good: You can go up to Colorado Blvd for the Rose Parade! And that is what we did.

Some of the most fun to be had at the Parade is all the goings on that go on before it has started.

And the big exciting part of the pre-parade exciting? The stealth bomber flyover! (followed by a just-as-cool little formation flyover)

And then…the parade begins! Liz and I nearly made it for the whole thing, but we had to scurry back to Grandma’s to get ready to fly back to Columbus. Christmas trips, they can’t last forever or they start turning into Martin Luther King Day trips (which wouldn’t be so bad!) I’m just going to let it rip with the pics, what more can I say than “Look, it’s a parade!”?

Christmas 2023: A Trip to California

This was me and Liz’s first Christmas as a married couple so we went pretty wild with the gift giving and couldn’t sleep for excitement of it so we were unwrapping presents shortly after 6am…I’ll just show that we have “matching” Shetland sweaters now.

Anne and the Gardners came over for Christmas breakfast and the opening of some gifts from Mexico.

And then Liz and I were off to the airport! We flew through the air all the way to Long Beach Airport, which I don’t think I had been to since about 2004? And upon arrival in San Marino what should we find at Grandma’s house but the Last Gift of Christmas.

Monday the 26th: We woke up kind of early and walked down to Lacy Park to enjoy a few laps of the oval on a fine misty morning.

After Lacy Park? A little breakfast at Homestate! Followed by, among other things, checking out station wagons (and sitting in an RS6! [and dang, just when I think I’m done thinking about that monster that photo gets me all excited again]) and a noodley dinner at the Smoke House with Grandma.

Tuesday the 27th: Another beautiful morning, another walk at Lacy Park and then up to Caltech, too.

Then we headed to Hollywood for lunch at Petit Trois cuz it’s been a few years that I’ve been wanting to share this burger with Liz. And a few years I’ve been wanting to try their filet au poivre. And wouldn’t you know, the show got stole by a fennel salad. Funny how that always happens?

Wednesday the 28th: Well, on Tuesday we went up to the Pearson’s from lunch but I don’t really have many pictures from that. But we played the bug in the kitchen game, Christina gave us some amazing crocheted gifts, we talked Tears of the Kingdom, went swimming, rode in the back of the Rivian, ate tamales, really fun stuff like that. Before heading to Burbank to pick up Emily we had In n Out and it was real nice.

Ok, now: Imagine us picking up Emily, meeting up with Greg, and then driving up to a hotel about 45 minutes from Sequoia National Park (and eating at a fun Mexican restaurant before we got there after not finding another Mexican restaurant where it was supposed to be). And then on

Thursday the 29th: We wake up and drive the rest of the way to Sequoia and have a magnificent time among the giant rocks and giant trees!

We drove home that afternoon and were back in time for some pan fried soup dumplings.

Friday the 30th: A cool thing we did was go to PCC for the Rose Bowl Band Fest where we saw, what? Maybe 4 or 6 of the bands that would be marching in the Rose Parade do a whole set of songs each. Lots of fun, lots of family.

Then that night we went to Dave and Buster’s and Din Tai Fung with the Pearsons.

Sunday the 31st! Wow, the year is at its end. Took a walk with Liz down to Huntington Drive to have a look at the Christmas-time bus stop redesign. Real San Marino Grandchildren will remember how this used to be a snowy little chapel and now it’s a gingerbread house.

That afternoon and evening we did all sorts of fun end of the year things, like going to church, dropping chairs off on Colorado Blvd, eating really spicy chicken aaaandd … going over to Pie & Burger (past some nice Pasadena lights)!

And for our year’s grand finale? Went and saw the parade floats lining up for the parade!

Aaaand that’s it for 2023! And let me tell you, we’re almost in March 2024 now and it’s been a great year! I can’t wait to start posting posts about it! And eventually I will!

Mexico 2023: Thankful for Thanksgiving in Mexico City (and the nice Friday after it, too)

Thursday morning - THANKSGIVING! - we started the day out by bouncing back to the Historic Center to take care of a few things we weren’t able to do the night before — churros at El Moro and tacos at Los Cocuyos!

Since my last visit a year and half before, Los Cocuyos had moved down the street to the space that used to be a Huequito and now offers traditional stand-style taco ordering and eating as well as seating with menus. It’s a big win to get to read the translated list of meats, even if I know I’m going to be loading up on suadero and campechano tacos. And also, a new taqueria called “Los Originales” has opened in the old Cocuyos space. Interesting. Very interesting.

To make the trip real special, we grabbed an uber to south of the south of the city for a visit to canals of Xochimilco. Not exactly what my Mom and Dad saw on Somebody Feed Phil, but a fun little excursion. I had visited once on my mission so it was nice to be back and remember what it was all about. I think it’s a lot funner if you’re with a ton of people and committed to a long afternoon of day drinking—though the guy who seemed to be having the most fun that day was an Australian bloke flowing solo.

After that we Ubered up to lovely Coyoacan for lunch at the famed (and well known to tourists) Tostadas Coyoacan, Christmas shopping, chapel visiting, walking around, and wall-posing.

Then we Ubered back to our place with a really great, talkative driver who may or may not have actually thought that Liz was my daughter? After a little resting at the crib, Liz and I visited La Increible bookstore and Taqueria La Hortaliza. La Hortaliza is now Netflix famous, so by the time our our mid-afternoon visit, they were fresh out of just about everything. The taquero made us beef, onion and potato tacos as that’s what he was snacking on and it was an one-course absolute Jiro Dreams of Sushi (but of tacos) experience. Decades and decades of experience = just a simple little bite turned out soooo good and the conversation was informal but lovely. Great time. Great, great time.

As evening fell, we walked over to Roma Norte for a Thanksgiving blow out meal at Rosetta. So lovely in there, but I gave up on taking pictures pretty quickly on account of the darkness.

FRIDAY! We got up and walked back to Roma Norte for breakfast at Panaderia Rosetta and learned that if you get there after 8 you’re going to have a wait. But then also a great breakfast. What a nice almost last meal of the trip.

Then we walked back through Roma to the west side of Condesa and did a bit of the Ave Amsterdam loop and crossed Parque Mexico. I wound up getting a surprise final taco from Tacos Hola Guero, a famous guisado spot. My chorizo and potato taco, it was such a pure little bit of heaven. Thank you, family, for letting me have one more taco. No, not letting, for encouraging me to! You help me achieve all my dreams.

Then, that bittersweet thing where you pack up your Air BnB. We were out of there with a little time to spare so we did a little more souvenir shopping in the neighborhood and I got an absolute terrible lime ice from famous Niveria Roxy. Don’t order lime! Order something nice, like coconut or strawberry.

And then, back to the airport, back into the air (look carefully at the left side middle of that second photo, can you see the pyramids?) and back to Chicago. Just. Like. That!

SATURDAY We had Sweetgreen (there’s a Sweetgreen in Oak Park, how crazy is that?) and then Liz and I headed back to Ohio. How Thankful I am I got to spend Thanksgiving in Mexico with Liz and Mom and Dad. How Thankful I am that Mexico is so wonderful and they are so wonderful, too. How Thankful I am that God and Gordon B Hinckley sent me on a mission to Mexico City and now I get to love it forever. How Thankful I am I got to dig a little deeper into my mission haunts with my folks there to see where I had been sending my letters from. Let’s all do it again! Soon!