Our Awesome Weekend

My wife and I ran away this weekend. We went a whole whoppin' 45 minutes south to a hotel near Universal Studios where we went to the park on Friday. That night, we went another hour and a half south (driving time) to Redondo Beach, where we rode bikes up and down the "strand" for three hours on Saturday.

Thursday night, our stay at the hotel began with a wonderful trip to the hotel's hot tub. We spent about the same amount of time in the hot tub on Friday night. Seeing as my wife hasn't had the chance to enjoy hot tubs that much because we usually have little kids with us on the rare occasions we travel and stay in hotels, it was quite a treat. We basically did absolutely nothing and just enjoyed each others company.

Friday's trip to Universal Studios was great. We've lived in California for over ten years now, and this was the first time we have gone. It was really fun, though in hindsight, it was far too active for us. Our leisurely day at the beach was more our speed for the "run away" trip we hoped to have. Nevertheless, the park was fun, and we enjoyed it slowly. The park was quite empty, in fact, during most of the morning; we were able to ride the Mummy ride four times in a row without waiting. Totally cool -- trips like that to amusement parks are awesome.

We went to Rubio's for lunch, and the burritos we had were divine. (The "Healthmex" ones ... totally worth it.)

We went to Joe's Crab Shack for dinner, and had a wonderful meal there, too.

Saturday we returned and I had the best hamburger I believe I have ever had in my entire life. It was so big it wouldn't even fit in my mouth. I mentioned to my wife that I think all those fancy restaurants that serve itty-bitty dishes of hoity-toity food are for the birds. For pure, manly, decadent satisfaction, a good, juicy burger with well-done fries beats that kind of stuff any day of the week. And this burger, with little onion rings and deep fried shrimp was simply astonishing. I think I've got a picture around here somewhere ...

Our trip down the "strand" was great. My wife isn't a big believer in bike riding, but I think she's now a believer in riding along the coast. With no hills to speak of (the true source of her bicycle fear), it was a casual trip where we didn't worry about a thing. We spent some time at a little aquarium on a pier, and just enjoyed the casual ride.

We dreamed of buying a little condo there, but saw the sales price for one condo at $4.6 million and decided it really wasn't that important to us. We are now planning to bring the kids and do it again sometime soon.

Some friends of ours watched the kids (thank you, thank you, thank you, all!), and it was funny to come back and see how exhausted they are. My oldest actually fell asleep during sacrament meeting this morning, and my youngest has been whiny every second of the day.

We are so glad we went on this trip, but are kind of dreading having to be grown-ups again.

Editor's Note: Apologies if bad English this entry has, I'm so mellow right now, I don't really care. All your base are belong to us.