INOKWACA: Packing It Up

On the morning of April 30, Mr. Smith and I had a crack o' dawn flight to LAX. When we touched down in California, we were greeted by a lovely college coed; our #2 Smithling! It was so good to see her on "her" SoCal turf.

We hit the ground running. We rented an SUV for hauling boxes, secured a storage facility, ate lunch, packed up the belongings in the Pepperdine apartment, cleaned the apartment, made a trip to campus to run a few errands (including buying a Pepperdine hooded sweatshirt that will make the trip to Lausanne), made two trips with the SUV and Liesey's car to the storage place, packed and stacked things in the storage room, and we checked on availability of an apartment for the fall, all before dinner. Whew! Not bad for Day 1. (And I might have omitted a detail here and there...)

We actually got the door to the 5X5 unit shut -- no problems! The couple that resides at and runs the storage facility is precious. They said they'd look forward to seeing us in August, and I really think they were sincere.

That evening, we ate dinner outdoors in Westlake Village next to the lake. A nice glass of Chardonnay tasted especially refreshing after such a productive day. Cheers!

Day 2 started out with the most fabulous French toast in Pacific Pallisades at a cute French restaurant that our daughter has frequented. I can see why; Maison Giraud is très délicieux! That is probably an incorrect translation, but you get the idea. It was YUMMY! I decided that gluten could be dealt with head-on for one meal. It was soooo worth it.

Okay, now I have to confess that we may or may not have purchased a few croissants AND a baguette to take with us.
Gluten? What gluten?
Glutton? That, too.

We enjoyed driving along the coast, walking along the beach in Dana Point, and shopping at Fashion Island.

The Dadzi and his daughter both found snazzy shades at Nordies that were actually on sale. No more squinting for these two. And they look oh, so stylish wearing their Ray Bans and Prada sunglasses. (FYI, Mr. Smith is NOT wearing the Prada sunglasses.) These two will be ready for the road trip home. Me? I'll be wearing my trusty, old, not-as-stylish-as-my-daughter's sunglasses that are about eight years old. It's all good...

Since we had accomplished everything that we wanted to in two days, we cancelled our third night at the hotel and made plans to get on the road on May 2nd. Liesey's little car was loaded and ready to roll!

We had reservations at a hotel in Albuquerque, NM, but we wanted to see some things along the route. We called to request a late night arrival. No problem.

A tasty lunch was found at one of our favorite places in Flagstaff, AZ. Diablo Burger is worth a slight detour off of the freeway for a lunch or dinner stop. (I'm sure breakfast would be okay, too, but they don't open until 11 AM...and they only serve burgers.)

We didn't dilly dally very long in Flagstaff -- we got back on the road. At the last minute, we decided that we probably would have enough time to see a National Park. Why not? When we got near the Petrified Forest, we made another detour just as the sun was starting to go down. We had just enough light to see the big attractions.