My last week in LA was relatively tranquilo. Chris went back a couple of days into the last week. I used the time to get some shopping and downloading done to equip Andiamo for the next few months. I managed to meet up with my now ex-brother-in-law Craig for a couple of dinners. Tria also proved to be a worthy pal to hangout with. She started getting a bit busier because the new semester at CSUN was starting to kick off (she’s a college professor), so that made our meetings a bit scarcer and shorter towards the end of my stay.
I met up with Angela a couple of nights, which was good fun. We had dinner in Marina del Rey one night, it was so nice to be back in my old turf. Back when I lived in LA, I spent TONS of time at the marina on my first boat “La Dolce Vita”. I find myself missing those days sometimes. She lives close by the marina in Culver City, and she had never really been at the marina. So I took it upon myself to show her around.
Also managed to meet up with Teresa, who’d become a good pal since we met on Myspace last year. She’s going through a few tribulations with her life, but still manages to handle everything with a smile and great aplomb.
My sister Judy and her kids got back on the 26th, and it was nice to see them again. It didn’t feel like they were gone for about 3 weeks, but indeed they had. They had an amazing time in Italy and told me all about it. Judy also took lots of pics and there was much family gossip to get caught up on. I managed to hang out with the kids for some quality time, which is always something I really look forward to. The kids are getting older now, and that means in a few more years, they may be tied up in their “teenage” lives and not be into hanging out with their cool Uncle Tony. Then again, I can try to keep things interesting for them, we’ll see what happens with that.
So, some notable highlights of my LA stint:
1. Meeting up with Eveline, my Bocas buddy, and hitting the food scene around LA
2. Hearing from and meeting back up with Tria, a very cool chica who I met in Bocas, only to find out she lived LITERALLY 2 blocks from Judy’s house.
3. Getting caught up on all my fave LA pleasures, including: In-n-Out; Sushi (lots of it); Jamba Juice; Indie103 radio; Cool LA dive bars in Hollywood, downtown, and Thai Town; watching obnoxious industry types (and laughing alot); driving in LA; the awesome climate; Sunset strip; Melrose; La Cienega; hanging out in Marina del Rey, meeting up with all my LA pals, old and new,
4. The vegas junket with Chris and Miguel, a great long weekend of fun, and healthy debauchery (hehe)…
5. Hanging out in Santa Monica with Chris and Becky, another great pal who’s always a joy to meet up with.
I flew back to Florida a couple of days later. I was only there for a couple of days, so I had to scramble a bit to get the rest of my shopping done, and other stateside stuff that needed to be taken care of. I managed to meet up with Paul and Janet and the kids in Orlando one last time, and a surprise meeting with Jackey, a chica pal I first met up with in Utila when she was down there to do her scuba instructor training. She was in Florida doing some scuba instructing, and met up with me in Orlando on my last night in before flying out. We hit an all you can eat lobster place I know in Orlando and had a great time hanging out.
The flight back to San Jose went off without a hitch, and thanks to GC Mitzy, I got hooked up with a great hotel room for my layover in San Jose. Mitzy talked me into changing my return flight a couple of days so I can meet up with her in San Jose. She won a free trip to Costa Rica from Taca, and she said she had a surprise. Who was I to resist, so I did so, and met her the next day. I was thinking we were going to hang out for a couple days in San Jose and maybe get some poker in. Which we did on the first night she was in.
But then, she hit me with a surprise a 2 day whitewater rafting trip on the Rio Pacuare! Now that was a surprise. So the next morning after she came in, we woke up bright and early to meet the bus that would take us to the whitewater rafting site.
The next 2 days were filled with AWESOME whitewater rafting, ziplining, and staying at an amazing riverside lodge that literally had a rushing waterfall going right through the property. It was good fun, and the people were pretty friendly. And it was a nice side of Costa Rica for me for a change.
After the trip, we had one more night in San Jose, where we played some more poker, I won more money, and ate some nice seafood at a local spot.
When i got back to Bocas, I honestly felt like I’d been gone for 6 months. It was nice to be back on Andiamo, and the cats were pretty relieved too. 