Road Trip Day 1: Destination San Diego

Good morning everyone! I had Monday (Martin Luther King Day) off so I decided to take a weekend road trip to San Diego. There is nothing like road trip down interstate 5. I left the office around 3:30pm yesterday, packed my clothes and was on the road by 4pm. My trunk is full of my niece's Christmas presents that they left behind and my front passenger seat currently holds road trip snacks like mini cucumber sticks and trail mix. My plan, so far, is to stop into my best friend's house in Brea for the night, then head to San Diego in the early morning. Traffic was not bad leaving San Jose. I would say I averaged 60 mph leaving San Jose. However, it got bad driving into Morgan Hill and into Gilroy. Once I hit interstate 5, where only 2 lanes were available, I sat in more traffic. There were 2 accidents on the freeway last night. One involved a small vehicle and a large semi truck. The second involved a small truck and a small RV.

I arrived at "Lily's" condo at 10:30pm and called up to her to open her front door. It took a few rings, eventually the recipient answered and all I heard on the other line was, "oh, hey, sorry... I thought I picked up my phone, but I picked up my TV remote." We both laughed. She opened the door, I gave her a big hug and we both climbed up the stairs to her bedroom where we've spent many nights talking about celebrity gossip. "Lily" and I have a unique sleeping arrangement. She and I always ALWAYS share a bed. There is also a funny story about one of the nights we slept together, but I will leave that for another day. After catching "Lily" up on my life, we drifted off to asleep.

Corned Beef-hash from Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour

I woke up this morning at 7am to get ready for breakfast; Veronica will be joining us. We will be discussing our Chicago trip. We decided to go to famous Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour Restaurant for breakfast. I ordered corned beef-hash served with french fries. "Lily" ordered Toad in the Hole with a side of Baffle Fries and Veronica ordered Bob's Benedict. Farrell's is mostly known for their ice cream and dessert. It is a restaurant with old school parlour setting. Usually their lines stretch out the door and along the block. Since we started breakfast off early, we were the only ones in the restaurant. That was great for us, because we needed to discuss our trip.

Nieces Elisa and Penny

I then hit the road to San Diego around 9am. The drive wasn't that long, but slow drivers made it so. I arrived in San Diego a little after 10:30am. I was greeted at the front door by my niece Elisa who was so excited I can hear her scream, "My Ninang is here!" *Ninang is Godmother in Tagalog* Since my older sister Lynn's birthday is this weekend, I offered to help out with the kids. Today we went to Rohr Park in Chula Vista. We ended the day with Chinese take-out and ice cream we picked up from Albertson grocery store. The above video is of my younger niece, Penny, who loves the song "Gangnam Style" by Psy. When she hears it, she stops whatever she is doing and starts dancing.

Me, Penny and Elisa at Rohr Park