The Great Columbus to California Roadtrip

Over Christmas Liz got to thinking, and a plan was born.
Over Spring break, the plan was hatched when one Friday after work we hopped in the Tiguan and drove to St Louis and then a bit beyond…

Woke up real early the next morning and drove all the way to Flagstaff Arizona, blasting through Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico along the way. I had imagined taking a lot of photos on the road, turned out I mostly just got pictures of gas stations.

After a whole day of relentless driving we stopped for dinner at the Frontier restaurant in Albuquerque, a local treasure Liz’s colleague Mr. Mike had recommended. Our table-filling Tex Mex order really hit the spot and gave us the fuel needed for another four hours in the car.

Sunday morning, up and at ‘em once more with California in our crosshairs!

And next thing we knew we were in San Marino, enjoying the Sunday dinner of champions, having just driven across most of the country!

Since we were in California that meant we were on vacation! Grandma drove us over the the Langham to have a walk around and an explore. All these years and so many different names for that hotel and this was my first visit! Seemed like a pretty nice place.

And from the Langham we walked some Pasadena/San Marino streets that I did not know up to a turtle pond that we know well and then on up to a Hawaiian/Indonesian take out place by Grandma’s that I had heard was rather good and guess what? It was!

Monday was a workday of sorts for me, so Liz went over to her sister’s house after we all enjoyed Homestate for breakfast and, when I was free from the bonds of an honest day’s labor, I enjoyed a little steak supper with Grandma.

After Tuesday’s workday I had a little Big Boy lunch with famed Californian Collin before picking sister Emily up from the airport.

That evening I was reunited with my dear Liz and guess what? It was our anniversary! Our second anniversary and our third March 25th as husband and wife. We gave each other gifts, ate Argentine meats, pastas, and vegetables, and paid our Cal Tech turtle friends another visit.

Wednesday. Now here’s something big. Liz, Emily and I went to Universal Studios! We saw the Harry Potter stuff, we saw the Nintendo stuff, we saw the Simpsons and the Jurassic Park and Waterworld and everything else! And our tram broke down during the King Kong attraction. Woof that wore us out.

After Universal we had Yang Chow with Grandma (not picture) and the next morning we had Yang’s Kitchen for breakfast again and that IS pictured:

Then Collin gave us and Christina and her kids a VIP tour of the Disney Animation Studio before we enjoyed and evening and a morning in Santa Clarita.

And then on Friday we were back in San Marino sorting through treasures, loaded up the ‘Guan, and then Grandma was like “g’wan get outta here!” and we were back on the road, driving all the way to Albuquerque in a single afternoon! ( just kidding of course she didn't say that she said “goodbye I love you come back soon” and we said “goodbye we love you we’ll be back soon!”)

And on Saturday morning we woke up and drove from Albaqurque to the same hotel an hour or so outside of St Louis that we had stayed in a week before (with a stop for onion burgers and corn dogs in Oklahoma on the way!)

Sunday…woke up outside of St. Louis like we had before and stopped at the St. Louis arch like we did before. But this time we lived it up and went inside, it was great!