July 17th I visited California after having left well over a year ago. I was there for four days. The girls had flown out about 3 weeks earlier and I couldn’t wait to see them. I’d never been so anxious on a plane ride. Nothing a few cocktails couldn’t help. That and some personal T.V. watching (JetBlue is pretty great). I’d never flown into Long Beach before. What a neat little airport that was. I felt something amazing stepping off the airplane onto the tar-mat. It was… could it be? A cool breeze. I was in heaven. I quickly saw my parents and found my wife and daughter waiting for me at a different gate. Chamila didn’t leave my side when we reunited. We were all so excited to be back together.
We quickly made our way over to the nearest In-N-Out where I inhaled a double-double with animal style fries, it was a beautiful moment. After dinner we found ourselves across the parking lot at Marshall’s. Man, the Marshall’s in long beach has some great clothes at discounted prices. Chamila found a football, her new favorite type of ball, and started tossing it around with my dad.
Giselle orchestrated a little get together at the Railroad Inn that same night. It was a good little turnout. Here’s a picture with our friends Nick and Sarah. These two are some of the coolest people I know.
On Friday we drove around running some errands. We ended up by the Main Place Mall in Santa Ana at this great toy boutique/art gallery called Go,Rilla!Go,Zilla!. This place was loaded with fun stuff.
Upstairs from the shop is the art gallery. They were showning some really neat work.
The owners of GoRilla!GoZilla! are also the masterminds behind the Harveys seatbelt bag. So, right next door is a Harveys store.
Gary Baseman bag
Santa Ana has really turned into a pretty cool city. We decided to have dinner at a little restaurant/bookstore/lounge called The Crosby located in the heart of Santa Ana’s artist disctrict. This place opened up in the last year since we moved to Austin. The guys who run it are super nice people. We actually ran into them during the SXSW festival back in March here in Austin. Check them out here and here.
Logo
Menu
Wallpaper
More wallpaper
Beauty
After dinner we headed to Hermosa Beach where our friend Karol lives. She was nice enough to abandon her house for the night and let us stay there. Awaiting us was a bottle of wine, a sweet card, spending money, and amazing guacamole dip. She is way too kind. Thanks again Karol!
The next day we hung out in Long Beach with a few friends. We checked out The Outfit which is curated by our friend Angie. We have some kids’ tees and onsies there. You can find The Outfit inside of The Kids are Alright in Long Beach.
After that we headed home to get ready for a wedding. Our friends Mike and Kimmy were getting married. I was a groomsman and I had so much fun! It was such a great time. Giselle had a lot of alcoh….eh… fun too. Here are a few of the wedding photos.
We spent most of Sunday at the ocean. First we had a big family gathering at the Port’s O’ Call Village in San Pedro where we ate freshly caught shrimp and fish. It was oh-so-good. After that we went back to the beach where we hung out for a few hours, got to splash around a bit, and we watched the sun set.
Goodbye Pacific Ocean! We’ll miss you.
