drive 8.7 miles

I wish I could count how many times my mother and I heard "drive 8.7 miles, then stay left" Oh, for about 2 hours straight. But we'll get to that later. 

Side note real quick that relates in a little, my father was care taker to all the cars our family owns this week, bringing them back and forth getting fixed. I already made note about his flat tire, which was preceded by an emergency light that had been on the previous week when my mother was driving it, my car needed a new muffler, mom's car had to go into the shop and B had a cracked windshield. Needless to say, he was busy bringing cars back and forth to the shop while we were off gallivanting around California.

Monday morning we were supposed to get picked up at 8 by Enterprise, 8 in their eyes was more like 8:30 plus a phone call from my mother we were on our way to pick up our car. We get to Enterprise and they give us our car, a Dodge Charger, just like Daddy's, just white instead. As mom and the guy do the walk around and inspect it, what do you know the emergency light is on! He proceeds to tell my mother it's probably fine, due to the weather change. She said, no thank you and off to a new car we got. And what do we get? A Ford Edge, just like moms! After one failed gas station trip (what kind of gas station only has debit card machines to pay for gas? Thanks for the head's up father!) We found a normal one, got some breakfast and we were off. 


We had gotten a brief preview of LA traffic coming home from the airport and over the weekend but this was mom's first time driving in this craziness. Needless to say, there's quite a difference between 5 lanes and people zipping across all five at 90 miles an hour and the measly 2 lanes we have here. Poor mom was so tense those 3 hours driving to La Jolla she got a neck cramp (lol). Every 8.7 miles, not even kidding, the GPS would alert us to drive that many miles, and then you would think we'd be getting off? No. Just staying left. This went on for quite some time we had it down pat. After a little over 3 hours and not too much traffic we arrived! It was lunch time when we arrived so off we went to Piatti's. One of my friends from school lives in La Jolla and suggested we go there because it is the "most bad ass Italian restaurant" so off we went. We split Pronti Salad which was:  chopped salad of romaine lettuce, salami, green olives, artichokes, roasted peppers, chickpeas, provolone, parmesan, crostini & herb vinaigrette and the Pancetta Ai Funghi Pizza which was: tomato sauce, crispy pancetta, grilled portobello, mushrooms, balsamic infused red onions, mozzarella and rosemary.

 

YUM. It was So. Good. Definitely a must go to if you're ever in La Jolla! Thanks Sydney!! After lunch we walked around, went to the beach and took in the awesome views there.

 Mom and Dad's future home

 Sydney lives up there!

Kayak Convention..obviously mom and dad would of fit in great there after the little adventure in Haiti!


After leaving the beach we drove around the town for a little until we found some shopping, my favorite!

We could of probably bought that whole store. 

Next stop..

I had been dying to go to Sprinkles for the longest time. I am an avid fan of Cupcake Wars and Sprinkles has been calling my name. When I found out one was in La Jolla, I was so excited. The store was so tiny inside and filled with a lot of people and a lot of cupcakes. Hello greatness.

We got, Carrot Cake for Uncle Doug, Red Velvet for Aunt Donna (their fav's), Coconut and Irish Chocolate which was chocolate cake with Bailey's frosting. Heaven, let me tell you. We enjoyed them Tuesday night when we went back to Newbury Park.

After a quick nap in the sun we were off to Fashion Valley for some more shopping, my favorite! We got some really good deals, always a plus. Dinner plans were courtesy of Dad, we were off to Studio Diner featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. It was this little place, kind of in the middle of no where, thanks for the heads up dad, and at 8:15 on a Monday night we had a wait! 

(obviously I didn't take this since we in the dark, but here it is) The food was deeelish, that father of mine knows his stuff! We were full to the brim and felt like all we did was eat that day! Tuesday we slept in, went to breakfast then ventured back to Aunt Donna's. 


Up next (the coolest part of the trip): On the set of CSI:NY!!!