Away...

Ran away with my husband for our 32nd anniversary. It was wonderful! This was the weekend between ending school and starting summer school, so nothing was "hanging" over my head. We love going to Pasadena. It is not a long drive, so we don't feel like we are spending too much time on the "get there" or the "get back". It is different than home so it always feels like "away" to us. We are familiar with where we stay and the layout of the city so it is like putting on comfy slippers, yet Old Town changes just a bit from time to time so there are always surprises waiting for us.

So! We stay at the Courtyard by Marriott at the edge of Old Town. We park our car, get our stuff to our room and walk into town for dinner. We weren't sure what we wanted but that doesn't matter because there are restaurants with food from all over the world in easy walking distance no matter which way you head. We had had a  Spanish (not Mexican...which I do like, but this was SPANISH) restaurant we had never tried recommended to us: Bar Celona! GOOD decision. We got there just before the dinner rush so we were seated right away and had a waiter who was not busy so he didn't make us feel rushed, and he made some great recommendations. We ordered tapas, sausage and bean stew, bread and cheese, and a chicken skewer. For an appetizer while we waited we had a dish of olives and slices of fresh garlic. We got a pitcher of Sangria to go with the meal. I don't even know how to express how wonderful everything was. The olives were marinated -- I think there were 3 or 4 different kinds -- and served with slices of fresh garlic in the dish. The explosion of flavor in every bite ~ savory and spicy!!! YUM! Then the tapas came. I have had tapas before, but now I feel like I had NEVER had tapas before: the crust was like a croissant and the filling was ... well every bite was better than the last. I didn't know what to expect with the sausage and bean stew. It was actually more of a soup: savory red broth, sausage, bit of ham of some sort, white beans. OH MY GOODNESS!!! Then the chicken skewer: it had grilled chicken, mushroom and bread. The chicken was really really good...the mushroom and bread were divine! All of this while we sipped sangria. I cannot explain how, but the sangria made the food taste better and the food made the sangria taste better. We munched on the fruit from the sangria glasses when dinner was over -- didn't need dessert after that!

For breakfast we wandered down town and followed our noses to Cheesecake Factory. We got there just as it opened ... actually 2 minutes before. We were seated right away and had breakfast. Ok...if you have been there you know the menu is like a little book. We looked through it and realized we had never seen breakfast on it before. While we were debating what to have, cuz it was actually 'brunch' time...Ed ordered avocado rolls as an appetizer. . .just as they arrived we found the breakfast page we had never seen before. So ... I had eggs and bacon, and Ed had an omelet preceded with avocado rolls. Sounds crazy...it was yum. We were by the window so we got to see the eclectic Pasadena crowd wander by: people of every kind ~ young / old / family / singles / normal / not-normal. We lingered over breakfast and coffee and relaxed and talked about everything and nothing, oohed and awwwed at some cute babies (fun to do from the grandparent side of life) and put all the rush finally AWAY!!! 

From there we just wandered. We spent some time in Crate and Barrel, and another store or two,stood for a minute and watched a crowd watch the World Cup, then wandered down for a late-ish lunch to a place we have been wanting to try: Redwhite&Blues. We sat down in the pretty empty room so we had a waitress pretty much all to ourselves. There was, in a different room, a bridal shower going on. They provided bits of drama and entertainment, but no distraction. We ordered wine and cheese flights: Ed's red wine, three yummy cheeses, some scattered figs and almonds, and some fig chutney; mine was whites with goat cheese, a couple kinds of thinly sliced spicy meats, some figs and almonds and fig chutney. AGAIN!!! can't even say how good ~ every sip and bite was a party of my senses. Soft jazz played it the background, a friendly waitress (she brought Ed an extra flight size glass of a red to try just cuz it was her favorite and she thought he might like it ... and she was right!). We wandered over to Barnes and Noble and did a very very slow meander through all the isles, made a couple of other slow stops and then went back to our room -- we DIDN'T need dinner!

We got up and went to church and Shawn spoke. He spoke on character -- it was not that it was new stuff, but he wrapped words around the topic and packaged it better than I have ever heard anyone do EVER! It was balanced, honest, and helpful. I am hoping they download it to their podcast. You can go to their web site (expression58.org) and down load it if they do. I really think you'll like it (who ever it is that is reading this).

So now we are home. Great time away. I actually feel ready for summer to start now. Tonight I am a happy girl. (OK...maybe a bit more than a girl since it was our 32 anniversary...just a bit more)