My New Years San Diego Trip

I am still trying to recuperate from my trip to California. I went back to work today and was tired all day. Took me forever to get through all my work emails and I had to finish writing my self-evaluation.

On my way to San Diego, I had two stop overs - one in Detroit and one in Minneapolis. All week long I was worried about my flight getting delayed due to snow. I made it through both Detroit and Minneapolis just fine but then 30 minutes before we were about to land in San Diego the pilot says our flight is getting diverted to Los Angeles because of fog in San Diego and they can't land. All this time I'm scared of getting stuck in Detroit and Minneapolis and not worried at all about landing in San Diego, the city known for its almost perfect weather. I finally get to Los Angeles and buses were arranged for all the passengers. It was about a two hour bus ride from LA to San Diego. I was starving by the way too. Even though I had two stop overs, both of them didn't leave me enough time to eat. I was rushing from gate to gate. My family kindly took me to Denny's even though it was 3AM. It was weird eating a meal with three other people not eating and just staring at you.

The next morning my brother woke me up to go to the mall. Usually the roles are reversed but, he had some shoes he wanted to exchange. We went to the mall and saw this ad on the wall of this girl happy to be carrying shopping bags. So we did what most normal people would do.
New Year's Eve was at my parent's house. It was a fun-filled night of Bingo, eating, drinking, Donkey Konga and of course throwing coins all over the place and chasing them like you aren't civilized. It's a great tradition.

The rest of my vacation included going to Church three times and a chapel once, doing limited shopping, going to Valley View casino and lots of eating. Sometimes I did both at those places, even Church. One of the times that I went to Church was for an older couple that was renewing their vows for their 60th anniversary. All during Christmas and New Years masses, I kept on hoping someone would sing Ave Maria in Church, especially someone with a more soprano voice. I was happy when it was finally sung at the 60th wedding anniversary.


The priest also said that marriage included three rings - an engagement ring, wedding ring and suffering. (Cue drum sound after joke). It was nice to see a couple still celebrate their love for each other even after 60 years.

My family went to Vally View casino twice, not for gambling but for the buffet. The first time we tried to go the buffet was sold out. You have to reserve a certain time slot and have at least one person physically stand in line for your party. So the second night we tried to go again and we were able to try the buffet. Very delicious. Just to name a few of the things I ate: lobster, 3 of them, shrimp tempura with rice and ketchup, chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy and macaroni and cheese, chocolate covered strawberries, bananas, biscotti, chocolate cake and ice cream. Pictured below are a few of my conquests.
I also dominated the slot machines with total winnings of $35 dollars. Take that Valley View casino. You've been hustled.

I had previously fallen in love with the tres leches cake. Can you imagine how happy I was when there was a tres leches Oreo cake for my cousin's 13th birthday party? Why can't they sell cakes like that here?
My vacation went too fast. I'm actually feeling liking I'm still on west coast time. On the way back home, I had a red eye flight. I only had one stop over this time in Atlanta. Don't think I'm weird but, the bathrooms in the Atlanta airport smelled good. Maybe I had just come at the right time when they were just freshly cleaned. It was 530AM after all when I got to Atlanta. The bathrooms smelled more like the perfume section at a department store not typical bathroom smell mixed with air freshener.

Belated Happy New Year to everyone and I hope the Holidays were wonderful for all of you!