Visit Home: Part the Second

I told my friend Myriah that I was going to go to California. She said, "Can I come visit you?" What? Where I was going, and where she currently lives are not close. After asking 'really?' four or five times, I got that she was serious and we set a date. Lillian kind of looks like a duck in this picture.



Every time I go to California, I really only have two things on my itinerary. #1: Go to the beach. Up until my move to Arizona, I'd never lived more than 30 minutes from the ocean and I miss it. A lot.


Which is why I'm glad Myriah consented to go with me. Because she'd never been to Huntington Beach, I decided to make it an adventure and try to remember how to get there from memory. We only had to do one U-turn. (I took the 55 until it ended and turned onto 17th, but I forgot to turn onto Superior, oops.)


All of Southern California was beset by June Gloom, so we didn't go in the water. I didn't even bring jackets for them at all, or even pants for Nora. Just like the last time we were here my kids were severely under dressed. Nora's wearing Lillian's spare shirt on top of her onesie, wrapped up in my nursing cover. Jeri was very apologetic about the weather, saying how she wished it was sunny for our visit. Man, I get plenty of sun in Arizona, don't you worry.


Lillian has had a hearty dislike of the ocean since she got knocked over by a wave at Pismo Beach. But, I'm pretty sure she would hate it if that hadn't happened. She stayed far, far away from the water and played happily in the sand. This was Nora's first trip and as she's too little to object, I made her put her feet in.

She didn't like it.

#2 on my California itinerary: Eat at Wahoo's. So. Extremely. Delicious. I've never actually eaten at the one in Huntington before, and I think the salsa is a leeetle bit spicier than the ones inland; I couldn't eat it, but I blamed it on Nora. Or, I've gotten sissier. One of the two. Aaah. If I had to pick something to eat every day for the rest of my life, it would be the #6.

Even Lillian got in on this action. And, I realized as I was making this post, I only got two pictures of Myriah. To Lillian's left is her arm.

And here she is with the Duke. On the way home, the kids fell asleep, so we decided to visit the Newport Beach Temple. I kicked myself for not remembering some church clothes - I mean, we could have taken turns running in and doing inititories or something. I took some pretty pictures of the flowers out front, which I'll probably post tomorrow.

Thanks Myriah for driving 3.5 hours (well, probably more like 4.5 if you factor in the... detour) one way to come see us!