3 x 50

This year, three out of the six of us turned or will turn 50. So it was time for a girls vacation!

Due to busy schedules, financial constraints, and/or family obligations, we had to pick somewhere local to 'get-away' for a three day weekend. And NAPA was the place.

And what did we do?  Wine tasting..

Sutter Home Winery was one of the free ones. Since none of us are wine drinkers, we didn't want to pay a surcharge for tastings.

And we ate..

Sat in on a cooking demonstration at the Culinary Institute of America

... and ate..

Celadon was delicious!

... and ate..

.. and ate some more.

One of my rare attempts of taking a selfie.

We not only ate throughout this trip, but more importantly we continued to keep the bond we 'sisters from another mister' strong.  It's such a blessing to know that we will all grow old together through the ups and downs of life.

Home Away From Home

My last post (6 of 6) of my celebration trip with the Girls.

We had the privilege of staying at Marj's parent's house.

They graciously let us stay there when they were away. It was wonderful to have a home to hang out in...

...and to see where Marj grew up.

QUESTION: Whom does this black and white picture look like to you?

Marj's parents have a bidet! I didn't get the chance to use one in Europe (where supposedly they are everywhere). It was fabulous! One more item on my household list to get!

So did you figure out who that b/w picture looked like? Marjorie or Lisa?

I totally think that she looked like Lisa but that is a picture of Marjorie's mom! LOL!

This trip wouldn't be possible without each of us doing our part to make it happen for Susana. 
Marj - for finding the place for us to stay, her parent's home.
Lisa W - our chauffeur and navigator for the whole long rainy weekend.
Lisa Y. - getting us all into Disneyland and a fancy lunch that didn't cost an arm and a leg.
Me - getting VIP tickets to The Doctors
Koreen - for joining us at a very busy time for her and her young family to make us 6 complete.

That is what we call TEAMWORK... that is what I call FRIENDS FOREVER... true BFFs!

Happy 50th Sus!

In two years, it'll be mine and Lisa W.'s turn! I better start planning! LOL!

Saddleback

For Sunday worship, Sus wanted to visit Saddleback Church. Home of Rick Warren's church.

They have trams like Disneyland to take people to the church building.

Rick was there to welcome us as we drove into one of their many parking lots.

 The church... it looked like a fancy office building or high tech museum.

 The sanctuary was filled with TV cameras on each side.

The High School Youth Group led worship that day. They sounded professional!

 It was hard not to watch the monitors rather then the real person. He was just so small to focus on.

Rick preached on financial responsibility. Good topic!

Outside are their info tables and lounge area.

NEXT UP: Home Away From Home

Gorging Again

Whenever we get together we eat. Eating binds and bonds us together. Sharing of food. Breaking of bread. We ate like queens. Late meals.

Starting with Thai for dinner.

Thai Ice Tea to Go.

This tiny hole in the wall was awesome. They gave out not only free water but free Thai ice tea AND free dessert- fried bananas. Many of us didn't drink the ice tea (and took it to go!) since it may keep us up. Smart! I drank mine and I was fine but Marj was wide awake throughout the night.

At Paramount Studios we ate lunch at the Commissary. (See Behind The Scenes At The Oscars). And after picking Koreen up from the airport we headed to a Chinese place Marj and her family went to when she was young.

At CA Adventure, we ate lunch at Carthay Circle.

I had the halibut.. delish!

The waiter treated Sus' to an apple pie dessert because it was her birthday!

At the end of the day, Sus' had to get her beignet and shared them with all of us. It was warm and yummy!

After sending Koreen off to the airport we headed to an all-you-can-eat Korean restaurant, Cham Soot Gol Korean BBQ.

It was packed and we waited for over an hour. It was freezing in there also. Because you have to cook your own food, they had a ton of fans going through out the restaurant.

This is how Lisa and I sat for an hour in the freezing wind as the door opened and closed frequently next to us. BTW, we were sitting INSIDE!

Once we were seated... Marj cooked up a storm.

They gave you a ton of meat to cook. It felt so wasteful when we left since we could not eat all of it.

We literally rolled out of this place. I felt so bad that we couldn't eat all that they gave us. What a waste!

After church service on Sunday, we headed to Guppy House... where they had the hugest shaved ice I ever saw!

Yep.. I had Marj's same expression but I could not have 'expressed' it like Marj can!

My lunch.. stewed pork bowl. It was delicious!

So very bummed that I could not take any food home with me on the plane.

NEXT UP: Saddleback

The Happiest (and Wettest) Place on Earth

You might have noticed that there were only 5 of us at The Doctors and in Hollywood. But we are a group of six!

Yes, Koreen was missing. She arrived in the next evening for us to head off to our next adventure in the morning.

A special group picture with the Mouse of the Park!

 We spent the day (even though it was raining) at the happiest place on earth.. without children.

On the tram.. cold but excited!

California Adventure...where Sus' got a "Happy Birthday" pin and we each got "We Are Celebrating" pins.

Koreen has never been to this Park and Marj and Sus have never been to Carsland. So off we went...

In front of the Radiator Springs Fire House

We stood in the single rider lane which was still about a 30 minute wait.. can you guess what we did in line?

Marj was so good at Heads Up!

Afterwards we lunched at the elegant, Carthay Circle Theater.

I never knew that this was a restaurant!!

It's a copy of the famous theater in LA.

It was such a treat to have a nice sit down meal, something I have never done at any of the Disneyland Parks. And we were greeted by Mickey and Pluto at it's entrance.

Pluto greeted us also!

It was a gray day but that did NOT damper our moods!

One of our favorite rides!! I scored 133,800..my highest score!

We rode a total of five rides that day. Koreen had an evening flight back out to go home. She was only able to spend 24 hours with us but it was the most precious 24 hrs we had. We were not truly whole without her.

NEXT UP: Gorging Again

Behind the Scenes of the Oscars

So after The Doctors, we got to explore the Paramount Studio Lot on our own..

The Paramount Water Tower

On the streets of 'New York'

...and lunched at the Commissary.

Then we headed to Hollywood and Highland.. the home of the Oscars. Luckily we were there two days before the big show and saw all the preparations for the big event. The fence behind us on the picture below was where the journalists and fans all stood to greet the celebrities who walked the red carpet towards the theater.

The closest we will be to Ellen, who hosted this years Oscars.

Setting up outside in front of Dolby Theater

These gold statues were situated all along the walkway to the theater. Covered, of course, to protect them from us tourists who like to touch!

On the red carpet up the stairs where all the stars will walk into the theater.

Another gold statue right front of the entrance into the theater

Inside the theater, we would have seen something like this (without all the people). It's huge!
We tried to take a picture of the Hollywood sign but with all the rain and fog, this is as good as it got.
We also swung by Grauman's Chinese Theatre.

Will Smith's foot is huge next to mine!

NEXT UP: The Happiest (and Wettest) Place on Earth