Always Anna

…and this past week was no exception.  I love being on vacation.  I do like my job (for the most part), and am pretty entertained at work most days.  But there is nothing like having time to relax, sleep in, and just be yourself.  And if you can find time to drink in there too, that makes it all the better.I flew home to California last week… and boy, are my arms tired!  Hahaha… I kid, I kid!

Okay, seriously now… The BF and I took the fabulous JetBlue from Boston to Long Beach last Saturday, and flew into absolutely gorgeous weather.  GORGEOUS.  The way summer should be - low 80s, no humidity, clear skies.  Sigh.  I already miss it.  But I digress…

We got in early on Saturday morning (I love the time difference when I fly west!) and spent the day wandering around Silverlake and Hollywood with my best friend from high school, C.  C gave us a great tour of the area (I may be from SoCal, but I don’t spend much time in Silverlake), and since one of the things I miss most about California is the food, we decided the smartest thing to do would be to eat our way through LA.  And that’s how I ended up eating a huge omelette (with avocado!) and homefries, then fabulous fruity gelato on Sunset, then a #2 from In N Out… all between 10:30 and 12:30.  Sometimes I impress myself with my eating skills.

After eating myself into a coma, the BF and I hopped in the rental car and drove north to Camarillo, where my mom and stepdad live.  In their RETIREMENT community condo.  Sadly, I’m not kidding - for some reason my non-retired ‘rents are living in a gated communithy that is straight out of the Twilight Zone - a whole town full of old people and their golf carts.  It was utterly bizarre, but I got into the swing of things by stuffing my face for 2.5 days and playing my first golf game ever.  I don’t think Michelle Wie needs to watch her back though - all the holes were par 3, and it took me between 6 and 16 shots per hole.  Are you impressed?

After putting on 5 pounds in 3 days (I wish I were kidding), we drove to South Lake Tahoe - a drive that took us 10 hours.  Shockingly, I managed to stay awake for all that time, thanks to an overload of coffee and Dr. Pepper.  If you ever have the opportunity to take the 395 from SoCal to South Lake Tahoe, I’d highly recommend it - it was stunning. 

My dad, stepmom, grandparents, and aunt & uncle were at a condo in South Lake Tahoe for the week… so obviously I thought it would be good to throw the BF in there to meet my crazy, drunk family.  It was fun though - having a card-playing, heavy-drinking, loud-laughing family can’t help but be entertaining.  Lesson learned in Tahoe?  Lemon drops may be my new favorite martini-drink… but more than two will knock me right on my @ss. 

On Friday, we booked it out of Tahoe to head on over to San Francisco - the BF and I both have friends there, and wanted to visit them and play tourist.  We got in around 6 and after chilling for a little bit, four of us went to dinner at a sushi place called Tsunami - fish was great and sake selection was staggering.  And by staggering I mean that I was staggering when I left - my low tolerance + strong sake = slight sloppiness.

From there, we went to an “art party” - which is going to have to a whole other post, because I have a TON to say about that!  So we’ll fast forward for now to Saturday.

So, Saturday morning comes - and surprise, surprise, I’m hung over.  But, not willing to let a slight headache and mild nausea slow down my touristy impulses, the BF and I snag a cab and go to Pier 39.  We check out the seals that took over part of the pier, have some yummy clam dishes, and buy maps.  Well, I buy maps - I’m kind of obsessed with them.  After that, we walked to Lombard Street to see that super curvy road, then trek over to Golden Gate Park.  To quote a friend, “Golden Gate Park makes Central Park look like the town green.”  That park was HUGE.. and I would know, as we walked the entire length of the park.  We went through the Japanese Tea Garden, walked by a ton of lakes, even saw bison.  We ended up at the beach, where we had dinner and watched the sunset.  Sigh.

That night, we went to a party at my friend’s house.  The party featured hilarious theater people, a lot of booze… and Jello shots.  Whoops!  I got DRUNK - I guess 7 Jello shots and a 6-pack will do that to me.  I drunk dialed/texted some friends, rocked out to Journey, and proceeded to pass out in a chair at 2 AM.  Which, while it sounds early, was actually way too late, considering that we had to get on a plane and spend the day flying on Sunday.

And now I’m back in Boston, cursing the humidity and the fact that I have to work.  I need to win the lotto so that I can be on vacation all the time.

P.S.  I apologize for the lack of editing in this post - I don’t have the energy to deal right now!