No Place Like Home

Someone once said, ~Home is where friendships are formed and famlies are grown, where joy is shared and true love is known; where memories are made and seeds of life are sown. This is the place...that people call HOME.~ During the past two weeks of a well deserved vacation, Los Angeles and San Diego, were considered home as families who haven't seen each other for quite some time, reconnected to where laughter, joy, as well as, singing were experienced by all. However, it wasn't just about family, as time was also spent consuming mass quantities of food, shopping, and site seeing, which plenty of pictures were taken.

Without a doubt, Los Angeles offered a plethora of eating establishments that absolutely makes one's mouth water depending on what type of taste one has to the particular food(s) in question. In a week and a half, places such as Damons' Ocean Seafood in Chinatown, Goldilocks( a filipino restaurant), and the Thai BBQ were sources of contentment. Its those four particular places that I highly recommend for those who are planning to visit Los Angeles, but leave one thing behind and that is your belt because you're full stomach will keep your pants up. Let me tell you something, I suprisingly still weigh the same leaving L.A. at 155lbs...it must be my metabolism.

Let me ask you this question, when it comes to hanging with family you haven't seen in quite some time, do you remember their names and how you're related with him, her, and/or them? When it comes to my family, you literally need a score card as to who is related and how we're related to each other, which shows that I have a big family. In any case, when it comes to family there's always suprises to be found and I found mine which is that I'm grandfather...yes you read it right. For I had to confirm it more than twice and its true I have a granddaughter, which blew my mind. Hey, I'm already a Godfather, a father-type figure to "my kids" at the asylum, now a grandpa, all I need to do now is become a father and I complete the package deal.

Essentially, a person can't go home empty handed without taking pictures and doing a little shopping, which was very profitable. Profitable in the sense that I was able to have a picture taken at not only Bruce Lee's Star at the Hollywood walk of fame but also at the Hollywood sign itself. Off all the places to shop in Los Angeles, Chinatown was the best but you had to haggle with the vendors to get a fair and reasonable price. Ultimately, the one place that was the highlight of my two week vacation was spending New Years in Vegas, which I can now mark off the list of things I wanted to accomplish and even though I didn't gamble or drink I had fun being that it was my first time.

In retrospect, a great ending to a great vacation was looking over brightly lit Los Angeles at night with a friend at a Griffith Park. In the two weeks I was there, many memories were shared/made and they will never be forgotten. Ultimately, L.A. was a great place to visit as one witnesses the fast pace life of people who actually dress up to go out and when I mean dress up, I mean dress up. However, I'm an easy/slow pace kind of person and dressing up to go out for me is putting on jeans, sneakers, shirt, shades, and a hat...nothing too flashy. In the end, as we landed in Pensacola today, the immortal words of Dorothy from the Wizard Of Oz came to mind in which I said these 5 words...there's no place like home.