#66 California Dreaming and taking a culinary badass challenge

Sometimes I get lucky.

I was spending a week in California for work. But these lucky things kept happenening to me during the visit.

It just so happened that my brother lives only a short 20 minutes away! We got to go to a Spanish restaurant. They had my favorite Paella and we hung out and laughed in this beautiful outdoor seating area.

I was lucky that my niece Hope was able to stop by so I could see her. And I got to meet Steve's sweet little dog Rosie, and Steve's house. And he took me for a joyride on the highway in his Porsche. That puppy goes from 0-90 in literally two seconds. I just whooped and shrieked every time he gunned it. So much fun!!!

Lucky to see my family!

My colleagues at the community were fabulous and showed me such great hospitality. They brought me out to a Churrascuria one night -- oh my word, the food! A Churrascuria has a "first course" of about 100 items on the salad bar. Then, you are continuously offered choice after choice of meats --Lamb chops, parmesean crusted sirloin, candied bacon, salmon and shrimp...and these little nuggets.

The server came out with a tiny little skewer and asked if anyone wanted to sample this delicacy.

I did not. Nope. Not interested. At all.

But then I realized I was being chicken.

What if it was delicious? What if I will always wonder what this taste like?

Ughhhhhhhhh.. I don't wanna.

But I did.

Can you guess what it was that I ate?

The first person to answer correctly will get five bucks from me, just to make the contest fun. And because my alligator arms are too short to give anything more than $5.

It tasted like chewy chicken bacon, in case you were wondering. Good luck. I hope you win!

Lucky to be with this great group of people, see their beautiful community, and have this amazing treat of a meal!

One night, I had a bit of extra time so I drove out to the Pacific ocean at Santa Cruz. I grew up watching The Lost Boys -- and being fascinated by the Santa Cruz Boardwalk spotlighted in the movie. I finally got to see it in person.

And, just a little bit farther up north, I got to walk along the beach walk, feeling the sea spray and feeling the ocean breeze. This beach smelled just like Marblehead, my childhood town north of Boston. The salty, seaweedy smell is comfort at its best for me. As much as I love the St. Pete beaches, they just don't have the same ocean smell.

Lucky I got to experience it!

I have never been able to watch surfers in action, and I was able to do it for a long time. And, I happened to be able to watch one surfer who, according to the other spectators around me, got a place on the Olympic surfing team.

I also got to see and HEAR sea lions. They are loud. They are large. They are freaking badass and I loved seeing them in person.

Lucky!

On my way home, I randomly stopped in to get a burger. The restaurant's name is burger. That's it -- no capital letter or fanciness. They saved all their fanciness for the burgers. I got the "Spicoli" (Children of the 80's, do you get the reference?). Utter yum. I munched on it on my drive back on the road that took me through towering Red Woods.

Lucky!

On my way out on my last day, I saw this gentleman slowly wandering across the sidewalk.

I do love snails.

Lucky!

I had some meetings scheduled on my travel day and left super early to the airport so I could get settled in and have the meetings there before my flight. I was running a bit late for them, so I had to change my plans last minute and pull off the highway looking for a place I could connect. Found out my meetings got cancelled. So I looked around for a place to grab lunch before heading to the airport. Across the street was the Winchester House. Hmmmmm....I have always heard of this place. So I stopped in.

This house belonged to the heir of the Winchester Rifle company who had a series of bad luck influence her life. Her infant and her husband died, which sent her on a downward spiral. Seeking counsel from Spiritual Mediums about why she is so unlucky, the seers told her that she was cursed by spirits impacted by the rifles, and to dodge their curses, she needed to continuously build on her house. Why? Because the sound of hammers would scare away the ghosts and because the ghosts would be trapped in the many passageways and rooms. She took it to heart and build she did.

Many things make no sense, and the museum curators were clear that they have no answers explaining the method to her madness.

There were doors on upper floors that led -- nowhere.

There are giant doors placed next to tiny doors.

There were winding passageways and staircases.

There are even staircases going to the ceiling.

There were double dining rooms.

All kind of random oddities.

Honestly, I kind of felt badly for her during the tour and wondered if she would be embarrassed by the tourism trade that thrives because of her fear and unusual coping skills.

But I was lucky to have stumbled onto this interesting landmark!

And right across the street was an adorable shopping/restaurant area that I buzzed through after grabbing a gluten-free sub from Ike's.

My first leg of the flight had a group of youngish adults travelling together -- and it was obvious it was their first flight. When the plane took off, they shouted cheers and gave a giant round of applause. It was fun listening to them experience the thrill of their first time in the air.

And, God must have known this was a big event because He made an incredible skyscape for them to see when we were landing in Salt Lake City. Unbelieveably beautiful.

I was lucky to see it!

Next, had some time to kill before my Red Eye back home. I wandered through the cutest airport store and would have bought this towel if they weren't literally closing their gate.

So I went next door to the only restaurant that looked open. The host let me know that the kitchen was closing in three minutes. I said, "Hey, if I can get my order placed in three minutes, will I get lucky and be able to come in?" She considered it for a few seconds, laughed, and said, "Sure, come on in."

My server had no problems with timeline. I asked him what would be the easiest thing the kitchen could prepare since they were getting ready to close. He reassured me anything was fine, but still looked happy that I ordered a simple salad. And sitting next to me was a great person to talk to. Amy had just moved to Salt Lake from North Carolina a year ago and was slowly getting used to the lifestyle. Doesn't sound like she is thrilled with her experience so far, but she was passionate about rodeos, which there are some in Salt Lake City, so I learned a lot about barrel races, roping contests, and behind the scenes rodeo action during our conversation.

I got done just in time to get on my final flight to Tampa. Thankfully. I got the window and had an empty middle seat. My aisle-sitting row partner and I did a big old happy dance when we realized we would have more room and settled in for the trip home.

Lucky to have these incredible experiences.

Lucky to meet great people along the way.

Lucky to have wonderful family.

Lucky to have fantastic colleagues.

Lucky to see the awe-inspiring world.

And now, lucky to be home.

Happy fourth of July all!