Monday, February 17, 2014

Hello Southern California!

When Uncle Neal announced his engagement at our family gathering last September, I pretty much lost my mind with excitement (and may or may not have physically hurt him with hugging and jumping around) and promised that we would be there. In hindsight, I probably should have waited for an invitation or something, haha.
He and I have an interesting relationship. He is actually the ex-husband of my dad's baby sister. They got divorced F O R E V E R ago, literally. Adam and I reconnected with him when we moved back from Hawaii, because he was in area, and still the father of my awesome cousins. It has just been an awesome relationship that has grown. We have SO much in common with him, that he really is a very important member of our family.
There is the family that you are born into and the family that you create. That is my mantra for life. I think everyone understands this....we all have people in our life that we are not related to but that are a billion times closer to us and more important to us than those that we are connected to by blood. Uncle Neal is one of those. That and I cannot untrain my auto-pilot calling him "Uncle Neal".
So fast forward a few months and it is time for the wedding. They opted to get married on a Tuesday to celebrate it actually marking their 14 year anniversary and have the reception on a Saturday, so everyone else could celebrate with them (as Tuesday is kind of a awkward day for most people). Well, not us. We'll take any excuse for travel and awesome experiences...so to Southern California we went for 10 *FANTASTIC* days.

Layover in Dallas? One pound of brisket please.
No, I don't want sides...I just want meat.
No, I am not kidding.

We landed late Saturday night, we just all sat around chit-chatting for a few hours before the day of travel caught up with us and we passed out. Thanks to jet-lag and the 3 hour time difference, we were up BRIGHT AND EARLY. The day started with an awesome breakfast in Palm Spring and a nice walk around downtown. Palm Springs is currently home to the infamous Marilyn Monroe statue so we made sure to check her out as well as the near by hat store. I am obsessed with hats. I am also obsessed with how amazing Adam looks wearing a hat, despite the fact that the only hat he owns is a winter cap.


So amazing

Well, our plan was to spend the morning in Palm Springs and then head to LA for the afternoon and night to check out the LA scene, but that didn't quite pan out. We were having such a *FANTASTIC* time with our awesome hosts that we didn't want to leave. And they didn't want us to. So we didn't.
We still haven't experienced LA, but I know it has nothing on our experiences that week.
Instead we headed down to walk the Thousand Palms Oasis in the Coachella Valley (yes, where the huge festival is every year). It was incredible. The area is complete deserts and right in the middle of absolutely nothing of desolate and dry nothing is this amazingly lush and vibrant string of oasis's. I have never experienced one in real life and they are a marvel of Mother Nature.









Obligatory stop at In&Out Burger...Adam likes his burger and fries "animal style"

Serenaded by piano

Adam and Jay talking beer