Home Sweet Home!

NOVEMBER 18-21, 2008
I didn't do much but go to my training while I was in Los Angeles. I'm not big on walking the streets of downtown L.A after dark. The top questions I received in Los Angeles from my fellow colleagues and random people on the streets:

1. "Want to go out for drinks?" No thanks I'm good...after inviting me day after day, my colleagues realized that I'm not one to go out for drinks

2. "So where are you from? ...There are BLACK PEOPLE IN UTAH?" ...many of the brown folks in Utah are bi-racial like myself!

3. "How much do you get paid?" Not enough!

The perks of an overpriced hotel. My review of the Biltmore Millenium Hotel of Los Angeles.
-Internet usage $10/per day or $1/minute in the Business Center
-A slamming Magnabox big screen t.v
-$10/day for a refridgerator

-A hot tub so big the maximum occupancy is 3 people! When a hairy old stranger decided to get in the hot tub with me, I felt as if we were sharing a tub!
-Long scary hallways
-Sweet sounds of screaming drunks and loud cars all night long

Don't get me wrong, I did have some fun though. I hung out with a few buddies and ate really well but by the end of the week I was ecstatic about meeting up with my hubby in San Fransisco.

NOVEMBER 22-24, 2008

On Saturday my honey bunny planned to go to the South Embarcadero Mall and walk through the Piers on the shoreline. We got a little lost in downtown San Fransisco (in the GHETTO) and nearly got into several accidents due to the severely steep hills (our car rolled back ten feet! good thing there was no one behind us!) We finally made to the Embarcadero, Derek was so excited to get a plate of sea food. We walked through the farmers market and the indoor food market. I was impressed by their specialty cheeses, mushrooms, breads and even flavored olive oils for dipping the bread. My husband has definitely introduced me to the finer things of life when it comes to great food (Nia you definitely would have loved it!).






We finally got around eating the long awaited sea food. Derek was disappointed when the waitress brought out his $25 dollar plate of 3 prawgs, 6 oysters, 3 clams all RAW! Errg even my stomach turned at the sight of it. I played it safe and got a smoked salmon sandwich but even that was served uncooked but I ate it anyway. Derek was a good sport and ate it all ( he smothered them in sauce and just swallowed).

On Sunday we went to back Hayward, the last area that I served in as a missionary. We went to sacrament meeting and it was so good to sing the hymns in Spanish and listen to the talks in Spanish. It made me so happy to visit with those that were recently baptized when I was a missionary, still faithfully attending church. I taught Marcos Funez when he was a little 11-year old and now he's 16. He's taller than me and has a voice so deep I bearly recognized his voice when I spoke to him. His grandmother, mi abuela cooked some amazing Carniasada...mmm I ate sooo good as a missionary.




We later visited the temple (we convinced Marcos to come along). I have so many memories there, we took all our investigators there. I love that temple. We walked around the temple while Marcos told us about his plans to serve a mission, return and enroll into school to become a fire fighter and eventually get married in the Oakland temple. That little boy has his whole life planned out. Derek and I just listened to him in amazement.







On Monday the weather was great again and we hit up the second hand thrift stores. California has the best thrift stores, I bought a lot of name brand dress pants for work and jeans. We of course found better sea food and ate ...and ate... and ate until we had to board the plane to come home to Utah. Brrr it's so cold outside.