Personal Dork Assistant

What I Did On My Summer Vacation, LA Edition

I had a month back in the states to pack up stuff and prepare for the long-term move to Taiwan. There was the trip to Origins, of course, but that was hardly the only thing on the schedule. Was back from Ohio for only a few days before driving down to LA with the parents to finally meet Michelle's folks. Of course before that could happen we had to find a kennel for Laika. Thankfully we found a vet nearby who offered boarding and still had space for the long weekend. Got Laika chipped, too, as long as we were at it. Booked a hotel in Old Pasadena because it's about mid-way between Agoura Hills and Diamond Bar, plus I know the area well. Just barely had time to check in and catch our breath after the long drive before we went out to San Gabriel to meet up with Sam and Michelle to check out a potential Chinese caterer. Mom and Dad got a aste of LA life as I had to drive down the interminably long local roads to cover the limbo between the 210 and 10 freeways. Was only 30 minutes, close by LA standards, but it felt almost as long as the seven-hour drive down I-5.

Michelle's friend Betsy was also there to meet us at the restaurant. Met her when the whole gang visited San Diego. She studied fashion design, which was handy as she's been helping Michelle with the wedding details, much to Sam's relief, I suspect. She taught English in China with Michelle, except she stayed longer and studied the language, such that she spoke Chinese almost as well, if not better, than Sam & Michelle, certainly without the tone errors and other mistakes common to native-English speakers. This impressed mom greatly, of course, although I suspect Betsy is tired of being treated as a novelty, like a talking monkey or something, by Chinese folks. She was probably just as bemused by some of the random superstitions that mom dragged out of the closet (e.g. no duck or other flat-beaked fowl for the wedding banquet, and the wedding should be on a double-digit date that's felicitous on the Chinese lunar calendar). The boss lady was nice enough, and it's easy to see how she pulls in the big wedding bucks but the food was only okay, which is just fine for wedding food, really, but hardly inspiring. Got back to the hotel room and it wasn't long before we all crashed after the long day.

Got up the next morning and went down the street to the Coffee Bean shop on Colorado. Finally got to cash in my punched-out frequent-drinker card that's been sitting in my wallet for literally years. That alone made the whole trip worthwhile. Took my monstrous (and free!) cup of vanilla latte back to the hotel room to go with some red-bean toast that mom brought. Yum. Had to wait around for at least one trip to the bathroom before I felt ready to hit the road. 134 west to the 101 north to Michelle's house. The drive went surprisingly quick, but driving through The Valley is always so depressing. Just doesn't seem to be much civic pride to be had from being a Reseda resident. Agoura Hills is a perfectly pleasant outer-ring suburb situated almost on the edge of wilderness but not really. Although to be fair Michelle's family was there before most since her dad worked at Amgen which is headquartered in AH. Mom finally met her match in Mrs. Hsiang, who manages to keep her 15-year old house looking spotlessly new even while raising kids, running her coffee shop, and flying between coasts. Even Michelle concedes that her mom is a little obsessive.

After all the pleasantries there was the inevitable exchange of gifts. We'd just got back from Taiwan so Mom brought tea. They'd just got back from a Mexican vacation so they gave us a massive bottle of Kahlua. Should go well with the bottle of Baileys that's also sitting in the cupboard. It's a lot of Mud Slides. Sam didn't get Michelle a ring, but Mom made up for the difference and then some with the excuse that grandma insisted. So there was a bracelet-necklace-earring set in gold from grandma, and a silvery ring-pendant-earring set with heart-shaped diamonds from mom, plus those traveler's checks that I brought back from the office to home through US Customs all went into a red envelope. Hopefully that'll cover our share of the wedding expenses.

Went out to Malibu Lakes to check it out the site. It's near AH, but nestled in a little valley in the mountains, on the shores of a man-made lake. The lawn was impeccably manicured and the ranch-style hall actually has a little history behind it. Convenient, pretty, and available on the one date that satisfies both the practical and the superstitious requirements. Book it. Malibu itself is just over the mountains from Agoura Hills (who knew?), so we took the twisty roads over the hills and right down to the beach to the Sunset Restaurant for lunch. Right on the beach, with great view of the ocean, potential rehearsal dinner site? The folks had the conversation volume dialed up to packed-HK-dimsum-hall rather than nice-low-key-brunch, but whatever. Mom loved the Asian chicken salad, and the halibut was quite good, too, but I was disappointed with my Cobb Salad. I always order Cobb Salad when I get a chance because it's got so many random ingredients that it's impossible to make at home. However, their Cobb didn't have avocado, chicken, or even bacon, instead there was an overwhelming amount of ham which got old real fast. Shoulda gone with the fish.

Drove back to Pasadena to get some rest and got to cruise along Pacific Coast Highway for a nice weekend drive along the way. Thankfully we were going in the good direction, as the road was jammed solid with beachgoers coming off the I-10, and it's always fun to drive the 110 between Downtown and Pasadena. Killed the afternoon in the hotel room and then it was off to Monterey Park for the evening meet-and-greet. The LA uncles and Michelle's grandparents joined us for dinner. The grandfather was quite the character at 90-some. First he broke out the bottle of XO and tried to get everyone to drink, but the uncles had to decline as they were driving. No matter, as he managed to polish off half a bottle of hard liquor virtually by himself without missing a beat in the conversation. Our green-leaning relatives had to bite their tongues a bit while the former air-force general expounded on Taiwan politics, but things loosened up once he moved on to history, poetry, art, and all his other hobbies. The rest was just your typical polite-but-loud dinner talk. Lots of pictures taken after dinner, with every possible combination of family units. Thank goodness for digital.

Got up early the next morning to hit the road to Irvine, 210-605-405. Dropped mom and dad off at uncle's house and picked up Alan. Uncle actually wanted to come along to Anime Expo, but thankfully we managed to talk him out of it. Wanted to get there early to avoid the crowds. Turned out that the crowd for registration was the day before, and the Exhibit Hall doesn't open until 10am anyway, so not much to do for a while but wait in line and chat. They finally let us in and Alan promptly went nuts buying Gundam model kits. By the time Abby met up with us at 10, he'd already spent almost all his money. Wanted to fill up some DVD series, but the prices at the dealers weren't that great, at least compared to online deals. The freebies didn't really measure up to my experience at last year's ComicCon, and you had to jump through more hoops (i.e. fight off mobs) to get them. Oh well, it wasn't as if I had anything better to do. Turned out that I spent the least money of all, as Alan had his models and Abby spent tons on manga. But they can afford it and it was a good time for all. I even managed to pick up a couple of free t-shirts despite the relative stinginess. Tonight was the big family dinner, including the GF+sis+mom, who were visiting people in LA before coming up to SF to stay with us. Really should get a little something for the GF. Thankfully the Brea Mall was on the way and Abby knew the place well as the Nordstrom salespeople knew her mom by name. A 10-minute in-and-out and I had some chocolate in pretty gold boxes. Plunked the cousins at Abby's house and went back out to pick up GF and family from where they were staying in Walnut. Good HK-style seafood, ate way too much, and took more pictures. Took the GF back to Walnut and then picked up mom&dad from Diamond Bar before zipping back to Pasadena.

Tried to check out as early as possible for the long drive home, since GF, etc. were taking a Chinese bus-shuttle from Monterey Park to Oakland that same day. We were cruising along I-5 when mom got a call on her cell from GF's mom saying that they couldn't get on the bus because their friend didn't actually book the reservation and the bus was full at the end of the long weekend. Turned out that a college guy also missed out on the bus, and offered to rent a car to drive them to our door. I'm dubious as to the wisdom of three women in a foreign country getting into a car with a total stranger with long stretches of road in the middle of nowhere, but I guess there's still the built-in trust among Chinese. Of course, there's more than enough Chinese wackos to keep the Taiwan news stations in business, so that's hardly a guarantee of safety. Anyway, everyone made it home safely. I managed to drive Pasadena-home in almost exactly six hours, which may be as fast as I've ever done it. Helped that we didn't stop for lunch and I was driving a nicer car, but there was more traffic on the highway than usual plus mom&dad were along. In the end, Laika might've been the happiest one. He was jumpy and cringing when they led him out of the kennel, but once we took him outside and he realized that he was going home he almost jumped out of his skin with excitement. Should've given the kennel some of our regular pet food, as Laika pooped some nasty shit for a few days. It was good to be home.