We had an early breakfast today and made a beeline for downtown for the LA Auto Show. It may be a little known fact but I live with three men who like cars.
Bill had purchased early entrance tickets which meant we had run of the place for two hours. Auto shows are nice because most makers are represented, the showrooms are not filled with car salesmen and there is no pressure to buy. Since we will be buying a car next year for our fourth driver (GULP), we wanted to research some possibilities.
First we looked at all the mainstream makers. There were some higher end and foreign cars we don’t see as much in Indiana. We looked at anything that struck our fancy as well as makers that we definitely are partial to.
Then we walked to the other showroom to see the custom cars.
Growing up in the LA area where cars are more a reflection of personality and roots, Bill and I nostalgically admired the flat bed bouncing trucks, the sparkling engines and the glimmering rims.
Of course, there were also some more artistic cars represented like the van for the upcoming release of Disney’s Onward as well as a whole Lego car display.
As soon as the doors opened for the general admission, we noticed the crowds were getting thicker and lines longer. We left about 11 am and drove to Pasadena, had a delicious Mediterranean lunch at Sahara and returned to Grandma Suzanne’s house.
We didn’t take a lot of pictures but we settled in comfortably around her kitchen table which she stocked with loads of raw nuts, one of Bill’s favorites. We told stories, talked about favorite recipes and books and just caught up on life. The boys popped in and out of the kitchen between matches on her full sized Ms. Pac Man arcade game.
We excused ourselves late afternoon and drove to Marina del Rey. We didn’t tell the boys which restaurant we had chosen for dinner but the choice was nostalgically driven. When we pulled up to the parking lot of El Torito, we asked the boys if they knew why we were there. Mason immediately and correctly recounted the story:
On the evening of our wedding, after the reception ended and Bill and I had said goodbye to all the guests, we went back to the hotel and changed our clothes for dinner. It was a Saturday night and El Torito was packed! When I gave our name to the hostess and was told it would be an hour or longer for our table, I was crestfallen. An hour? Didn’t she know I was a bride who had just gotten married eight hours prior? I felt like my Cinderella moment had faded. We did stay for dinner which we enjoyed but that story has been told more than once.
As luck would have it, there was no wait for our table on a Friday night at 6 PM. A holiday weekend will do that, perhaps, or maybe it was just good karma. My meal is the only one pictured but it was a pasilla chile stuffed with vegetables and cheese and then grilled. It was a take on a chile relleno that I had never had but really enjoyed. Everyone else had his own standard favorite like fajitas and chimichangas and then we were off to the hotel again.
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