Bookends

I have very few friends from lives past that feel like home. Kie is one of those friends. We met while we both attended Foxcroft School, an all girls boarding school, many moons ago. We became the best of friends and then second semester we chose to be roommates. She is from Japan, but has lived all over the world, so we seldom see each other- but this week she came into town to see my family and me!

Foxcroft Fall 2000

I thought she would want to be crazy busy doing all the Hollywood things but she said her biggest thing was just coming to hang out with the Zunigas. Oh my melty heart. We of course did touristy things, but we also just sat and hanged out and ate. Our favorite past time.

Dress up!

She arrived on Tuesday at LAX. That's about an hour from my house. Everything in LA is an hour from my house because I don't live in downtown, and even if we were in downtown it would probably still take us an hour, let's be honest. We came home, dropped off her GIANT suitcase and she gave us gifts, she's so cute. Then we went to Griffith Park and went through all the exhibits at the observatory and took a million selfies in front of the Hollywood. I really have never been anywhere in LA, so I enjoyed this as much as she did. Griffith Park is BEAUTIFUL! If we lived closer I would be there all the time. It was daytime when we went, but a night trip to the observatory is a "definite" on my bucket list. We have a little mountain near us with an impeccable view of the city, so I'm sure it's amazing from the observatory. And que romantico to go with the husband!

As close as we got to the Hollywood sign

Three of my favorite people in the universe!

After that we went and walked the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Not exciting. Stars in the cement with a bunch of people hustling tours and a crazy man that wouldn't pass us by, instead chose to walk at a snails pace with us in lieu of continuing around us. So we crossed the street and went into Juicy Wings... amazing milkshakes! and a much needed distraction from the crazy man.

Korean BBQ love

From there we sat in an hours worth of traffic. My husband said he would be home by dinner time, so our goal was to be home in time to meet him. We got home and made some frozen pizzas, but when he got home he wanted to go to our favorite sushi place. It's delicious, but taking a Japanese native to American sushi did not sound amazing, so I was glad that when we showed up it was closed on Tuesdays. We googled a Korean BBQ place and took a chance. It was heavenly and we certainly ate our monies worth. I think we impressed our waiter.

Literal frolicking at ALL TIMES

The following day we had a lazy morning and then got a text from my husband as we were about to leave for the beach. He said the ports were closed and he didn't have any work for the day. So we went to pick him up and decided to drive down to San Diego because I don't really know LA and our agenda was to sleep on the beach and eat good Mexican food because that's hard to come by in Japan. So we went to Solana Beach, my absolute favorite, and Pizza Port for lunch. I highly recommend The Carlsbad if you're ever there. We took all kinds of darling selfies, but let's get real, we sat in our tent and napped while wearing jeans and let the Mr. attend to the children and frolic in the waves. He's the best!

Pizza Port

The most patient sister award goes to....

We found this random board come to shore and couldn't find the surfer, it was a scary couple minutes but he eventually came up. phew!

This is how women in their 30's spend their time at the beach. hidden. in a tent...

...in jeans. hahaha

We went to my momma's house because she is out of town and went and got all of our favorite Mexican foods and Peterson's Donuts, because you can't go into Escondido and not get them. That would be treason. Our feast consisted of: street tacos (pollo, asada, pastor), carne asada nachos, rolled tacos with guac and cheese, chichirrone-the kind in the sheet, and horchata. Very healthy.


Thursday was our most relaxed day. After taking the Mr. to work we went to CalPoly Pomona because apparently it's all the rage to have US College shirts in Japan because all the clothing companies have made their way over. So we needed to get Kie's twin brothers some sweatshirts. and We went to Wal-Mart before that because they also requested cheap socks for their birthday. Talk about easy to please, such boys. Then we were off to the MALL. Our other favorite past time is shopping. Shopping in DC, shopping in NY, so why wouldn't we shop in LA? Technically it was in Ontario, but that's ok too. She got a few things, and even got a discount because I was wearing green for St. Patty's day. AWESOME! and ice cream. All shopping days require a little ice cream. Then we came home to a smorgasbord of left overs and watched Miranda videos.

Then she left in the Morning. I cried the entire way from the airport home. I know I'll see her again, I've sworn to be in Japan by my next birthday. It's happening. I want to meet her family and husband so bad! But still. I was definitely sad to see her go. I love her, she's the cutest! See you soon!

family picture