I told my Cali peeps that I know they are gonna think I’m crazy, but I would prefer to take public transit vs them picking me up. I love being able to maneuver around the cities that I visit without a vehicle and also people not having to endure traffic on my behalf.
I told my aunt Chris that I would be make my way to her house via the LA Metro
train, but she happened to be in the LA area and had lunch w/ us at a little cafe on Olvera St. before my daughter zoomed off to San Diego. Olvera is a Mexican Marketplace that is a long, narrow street with lots of restaurants & shops about one block from Union Station.
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| Juanita's Mexican Cafe |
My
aunt lives outside LA surrounded by the Cali mountains. The mountains were so close, I felt like I could just
reach out and touch them. It was so beautiful, mountains make me think of
Panama *mi corazón = mi heart* My aunt is a
DIE HARD Lakers fan and I have to shout out the Lakers Suite that I stayed in
at her house. This photo doesn’t even
capture 40% of her Lakers memorabilia. I love that someone loves their team as much as I love mine. I guess being a fanatic runs in the family.
The next morning I took a $3 uber to the train, then a $5 /
2 hr train ride to see my Cali ace Amber in Long Beach. We’ve been friends over 10 years so anytime I’m in the LA area you can probably find me
linked up with her. She is always such
an amazing host, always has the fridge stocked fulla Champagne and Bacardi. She
has the cutest little beach house with an enchanting view of the bay, I felt
like I was in a Norman Rockwell painting.
As I sipped my champagne on the couch I could see the sailboats sailing
by, it was so serene.
Younger Panama and Amber would head to downtown LA or Hollywood when I was in town and party the nite away until the time difference caught up with me and I passed out, the new older us kept it local and I loved it cause I was in bed at a respectable hour. Ima tell yall a little secret… 41 year old me can’t hang like I used to, don’t let social media fool you. The first nite we drank next door in Seal Beach while watching the Christmas parade (1) I love parades (2) I love Christmas (3) I love drinking… again Winner Winner chicken dinner.
They took me
to brunch the next day at their favorite spot called
*The Breakfast Bar*, if you don’t know bottomless mimosa brunch is my
life.
Amber had a Christmas party at her place that evening, we took a quick
time out to see the Naples Xmas boat parade right outside her house.
That was a first for me, but I felt like a little kid cause I was so
entertained by the highly decorated boats.
It was a little chilly this trip, but they promised to take me out on a
boat next trip (guess I gotta come back in the spring/summer) I didn’t take any
pix at the Xmas party, but a good time was had.
The next day we headed off to one of their local watering holes at 10am to watch football. Reminds me of the time I was in Hawaii at a sports bar at like 7am getting litty while watching football.
Any who, my Atlanta Falcons were getting
slaughtered so I hopped on the train and headed back to my aunts side of town
to link with my fam at Dave & Busters.
I haven’t been to Dave & Busters in years, but not gonna lie I had a
really good time playing games and watching football games that I wasn’t
emotional invested in.
That evening my cousin Amber (yes another Amber) who works at the W Hollywood
invited my aunt & I to come through for jazz nite. Turns out that it was Jazz Nite - Christmas
Edition, once again *WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER* I don’t even wanna guess how much the drinks
at that W cost, but cousin Amber kept
the drink tix coming and I was hydrated and in musical heaven.
We all got up at the crack of down and drove down to San Diego, I had planned on taking the Amtrak, but Amber and Aunt Chris decided to drive down for the day. We linked up with my Aunt Sonia (the aunt I used to spend my teen years L.A. summers with) her daughter Gabby and my daughter and we spent the afternoon on Coronado Island playing in the Cali snow aka sand at The Del hotel, the Del is apparently a famous hotel that may or may not be haunted that you should visit should you find yourself in the San Diego area.
That evening got to explore & see the beautiful Xmas lights around downtown San Diego and Sea Port Village.
I'm still traumatized about being forced to get on this, I shoulda ran away
The next day my daughter and I took the Amtrak Pacific Liner
back up the coast to LA. The views along
the train route were to die for. I was in heaven, I literally want to go back
to Cali just so I can take the train up and down the coast. They have a café onboard with booze, so my
daughter and I enjoyed very reasonably priced mimosas while taking in the views.
When the train arrived in LA three hours later I was really sad to have to get off. Took the city Metro train to Hollywood, placed our luggage in storage with Bagbnb and spent the rest of the day hanging out in Hollywood. Even stumbled upon the Aquaman premier. We got to see Queen Atlanna arrive (how funny, I live in Atlanna) and King Nereus (Princess Mera’s father). Also funny that just the day before in Mexico it felt like we were on Tatooine from Star Wars and in the movie Aquaman when they are wandering through the Sahara desert looking for the tritan, it really looks like they are on Tatooine.
Younger Panama and Amber would head to downtown LA or Hollywood when I was in town and party the nite away until the time difference caught up with me and I passed out, the new older us kept it local and I loved it cause I was in bed at a respectable hour. Ima tell yall a little secret… 41 year old me can’t hang like I used to, don’t let social media fool you. The first nite we drank next door in Seal Beach while watching the Christmas parade (1) I love parades (2) I love Christmas (3) I love drinking… again Winner Winner chicken dinner.
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| I told her she looked very Martha Stewart'y (pre Federal Prison) |
The next day we headed off to one of their local watering holes at 10am to watch football. Reminds me of the time I was in Hawaii at a sports bar at like 7am getting litty while watching football.
We all got up at the crack of down and drove down to San Diego, I had planned on taking the Amtrak, but Amber and Aunt Chris decided to drive down for the day. We linked up with my Aunt Sonia (the aunt I used to spend my teen years L.A. summers with) her daughter Gabby and my daughter and we spent the afternoon on Coronado Island playing in the Cali snow aka sand at The Del hotel, the Del is apparently a famous hotel that may or may not be haunted that you should visit should you find yourself in the San Diego area.
That evening got to explore & see the beautiful Xmas lights around downtown San Diego and Sea Port Village.
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| Star of India - San Diego Maritime Museum |
The next day we took a road trip to Tijuana, Mexico
something we did the last time I was in San Diego about 10 years ago. Last time it took
us about 1 hr to get through the US customs border line on the return… I recently read that its best to park on the US side
of the border, cross the border on foot and then call an uber on the Mexico
side. We let the kids talk us into
driving *le sigh* We visited the Avenida
Revolucion (great place for local shopping and eats), The Tijuana Cultural
Center / CECUT, it’s the only IMAX theater in Tijuana and it has a very unique
design. I felt like we were on a Star Wars set on the planet of Tatooine, home
planet of Anakin Skywalker.
Then we headed to Playas de Tijuana, the beaches
that are right below the US border. It was so surreal
to see the US border stretch way into the ocean, then see armed guards
on the other side of the border. During the day the area was very safe, very clean; lined with restaurants, street vendors, tourists, and a long boardwalk with HUGE HEARTS. We had
lunch at Restaurant Arcos Playas Tj and we had a front row seat facing the
beautiful ocean (and that damn wall). The food and drinks were cheap, plus the food
was amazing. When we headed back to the US… OMG it took us 3 hours to get back
through. There are a sh*t ton of
vendors selling any and everything to cars waiting to get back in the US. My poor aunt just kept getting talked into
buy more and more stuff, I eventually had to LOCK her window. I told her NOT to make eye contact, but she
didn’t listen to me.
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| Playas de Tijuana - Mexico / US border |
When the train arrived in LA three hours later I was really sad to have to get off. Took the city Metro train to Hollywood, placed our luggage in storage with Bagbnb and spent the rest of the day hanging out in Hollywood. Even stumbled upon the Aquaman premier. We got to see Queen Atlanna arrive (how funny, I live in Atlanna) and King Nereus (Princess Mera’s father). Also funny that just the day before in Mexico it felt like we were on Tatooine from Star Wars and in the movie Aquaman when they are wandering through the Sahara desert looking for the tritan, it really looks like they are on Tatooine.
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| If you are looking for Uncle Snoops star, its across the street from the Mann's Chinese Theater |
After we were done getting our Tourist Mode
on, we took the city Metro train to my aunts house and slept like babyz. The next day was all about enjoying my last moments with the mountains, day drinking and a
long ass flight home!
