Summertime ‘22: Anaheim
Similar to my hiatus in Mexico, I haven’t been to visit my family in California as often as I have wanted to. Compared to Aguas, it has been half as long since I have visited my Cali family, but I was past due for another visit considering all that has changed.
Unlike the overflow of family in Mexico, my dad’s side of the family is very small. I have two aunts (Christie and Jo) that are both married with two children each. One of Christie’s children, Carly, is five days younger than me and she recently has had two children of her own, Harper and Harlow. Besides them, it is my grandma and step-grandpa (Grammy and Fred).
They all live very close to each other in or around Yorba Linda, Orange County. While small, don’t let that fool you, their drama could go toe to toe with my mom’s side any day.
Communicating with family in California has been difficult at times since moving to Bangkok. So, I was more than appreciative that Christie was willing to house us for three days and three nights so we could catch up.
We flew into LAX and were picked up by uncle Scott and aunt Christie. They wanted us to take Covid tests as soon as we arrived but once we saw each other, we all were too excited and forgot until we got to their house.
We told them we did not care what we had to eat and surprisingly they chose Portillos, taking us full circle back to Chicago.
As soon as we got to their house, we took Covid tests and to our surprise, Emily tested positive. She had no symptoms but it really stopped everyone in their tracks. Christie and Scott were planning an international trip in the coming weeks and were going to be visited by their son, Kyle, the week after we left. Not only that, but it would mean that we couldn’t get too close to Grammy either. It basically affected how we interacted with everyone for the remainder of the trip. And because I was always near Emily and at risk of catching it myself, I chose to wear a mask.
After talking through how to move forward with this unfortunate news, we decided that we would keep our distance from people and try to make all gatherings outside. We were thankful that we were still able to visit with people even if it was from afar.
We got dinner at a local pizza and pub spot with both aunts, uncles, and grandparents. It was lovely to see them all at once and they were all understanding of Emily’s situation.
Because our visit would only consist of two full days in L.A., we wanted it to be spent entirely with family. Both for logistical reasons and because two days can’t make up for the years apart.
On our first full day, Christie took us to Jo’s for a BBQ and to see the renovations they had made to their backyard and pool. It was nice to see how much her children, Carson and Davis, have grown since the last time I had been there. In fact, they even told Jo they had very little memory of me. They were kind enough to stay and hang out for a bit. Even uncle Mike, who is usually consumed with work (from what I remember), made time to come out and chat.
Carly brought her children and for the first time in person, I got to see them, from a distance. I wanted badly to go play with them but it would be too much of a risk. Since Carly and I are the same age, we did everything together as children and we have always had a great connection even though we do not talk often. In retrospect, had I not moved to Indiana, I think we would have remained best friends and my life would have played out much differently.
After enjoying the pool and sun for several hours, Jo dropped us off at Grammy’s apartment. We got a tour of their apartment and then spent the majority of the time out by her community pool catching up.
While Grammy isn’t that old, she does have many ailments that bring her immense daily pain. That coupled with early dementia makes for an interesting time. While my California family has to deal with her daily antics, it is always a lovely time when I get to see or speak with her, even when it is brief.
Grammy and Fred offered to take us out for dinner at one of their favorite diners. We accepted and had a wonderful meal.
The second, and last, day of our trip and in L.A. would be a relaxing one.
One thing I appreciate about my aunt Christie is her openness to having discussions about family dynamics. She knows our family has our fair share of problems, and tries her best to help me understand. She was kind enough to answer many of my questions about the past and how that has impacted how our family relates today.
The conversations continued once Jo arrived and we all set forth to Irvine Park to meet up with Carly and her mini me’s. Irvine Park has a $2 zoo and a beautiful park to walk around. It basically acted as a distraction for Harper and Harlow while we got to catch up.
Unlike so many zoos I have visited in the past, all the animals there were active and out. The kids loved it.
For lunch we picked up Chick-Fil-A and we all headed to Carly’s apartment complex to hang at her community pool. Her home in Irvine felt like a resort, which I think is the point. This city/suburb is very cookie-cutter and at times eerily so. It’s like being on vacation every day.
To see Carly’s living space and the life she has built for her and her family was really nice to witness. I enjoyed being there at that moment. I was so happy that life is working for her and that she is happy. She loves being a mom and has a great support system between our and Tristian’s family. It made me really cherish the short time we had together.
Dinner was near Christie’s house at an outdoor mall where we all went to different places for dinner and brought it all to an outdoor seating area. We ate Cafe Rio and afterwards I bought four cookies from Crumbl Cookies that cost nearly $20! That said, they were probably the best, most decadent cookies I had ever put into my mouth. But $20?? (That’s LA for you, I guess)
Grammy came over to Christie’s for one last visit and to say goodbye. When living in the states, I usually called her two or three times a month. Unfortunately, it has been nearly impossible to continue that from Bangkok, so it was nice to see her one more time before our departure early the next morning.
After each stop on our travels, it was hard to say goodbye. Being so far away from friends and family is and has been difficult, so we were thankful for this trip back to visit. Em and I got to experience a lot during these five weeks and are grateful for all the kindness and hospitality we were shown.
I, of course, enjoyed the incredible food we ate along the way. Chicago has worldwide recognition for their food and it shows. After consuming around 300 tacos in Mexico, we started losing count and gave up keeping a tally. Aguascalientes’s street food could go toe to toe with any other city in the world, in my opinion. The restaurant scenes in both Oaxaca and Mexico City excited us beyond what we expected.
We are grateful for the opportunity we had to travel back home and spending time in places like Aguas and L.A. was long overdue. We hope to be out that way again in the near future.
Restaurants (Suburbia at its finest):
Portillos
Wise Guys Pizzeria
Costco
Woody’s Dinner
Chick-fil-a
Cafe Rio
Crumbl Cookies
