home again home again part 2

First, read part 1 if you missed it.

So I woke up in my fancy hotel room around 7ish (but I was still on Eastern time, so it felt like 10). My BFF was supposed to leave her house around 7:30 and head over to pick me up so we could start our long drive north. This gave me time to shower and head down to the restaurant to use my $15 meal voucher. As the host sat me, I heard him point out to the waitress which tables were using the vouchers, and it was a good 75% of them. I noted this so I would be sure to give a good tip, which wasn't included in the voucher. I had a veggie & cheese omelette, coffee, pineapple juice (yum!) and a plate of fresh fruit. Lemme tell you, even though it's winter, California still has the best fruit out of anywhere. What I didn't gobble up, I got in a to go box - which I promptly forgot at the table and had to come back and get. Fortunately, the host was waiting for me, fruit in hand.

Bout this time, BFF called. There was less traffic than she had expected (it was MLK day) and was on the street of the hotel but couldn't find it. I hadn't actually seen my surroundings in the daylight yet, so I looked out to this:


If you ignore my reflection, you can see the SF bay and the airport directly across. I described the area to BFF by naming the other hotels, the 76 station, etc. She said she was at the 76 station and couldn't see the hotel. I told her that she must be at the wrong place, because she would definitely be able to see me. Turns out that 2 cities in the same area have the same address & street, only with different hotels. Confusing Bay Area. We got it figured out and she came and got me.

I'm not smart so I didn't leave the camera out for the 6-hour drive. Thus, no pictures of highway 101 or the redwoods or even the pizza place we ate lunch. We stopped at that pizza place because I remember it from when I was making this exact drive all the time - it's exactly halfway and very yummy. I didn't remember what it was called, but I described it well enough to BFF that she was able to find it no problem.

When we got to Eureka, we drove by the motel we would be staying at and then continued on to my parents' house. When I got there, my nephews were playing in the yard with someone I didn't know. Nobody else was home. I was like hi... I'm desiree... and she obviously knew who *I* was and introduced herself. (She turned out to be my stepbrother's girlfriend.) Since nobody I knew was home, I said I was going to show BFF back to her motel and I would call later.

When we got back to the motel, there were 2 cop cars in the parking lot. During the course of our stay, we would see 3 more. At least we were safe, right? I unlocked the door and immediately stepped back because I had just been knocked out by the smell of cat pee. Awesome. Then we saw the best bedspreads ever:


Please click on this picture, because it really needs to be examined closely to appreciate its greatness. BFF's bedspread even had a cigarette burn hole in it though it was supposed to be a non-smoking room. We opened the windows all the way, and I sprayed some lavender room spray that I had gotten as a gift from the last hotel. (You know, the nice one.) I'm not one to judge a motel purely on it's odor or bedspreads, but I should have run and run far. The toilet handle broke off so the toilet itself couldn't be flushed. We had the maid come fix it, but still. Then the water pressure in the shower was so high that taking a shower was painful - especially on that sensitive "nipple" area. BFF is too nice to ask for a new room, so we stuck with it. Oh well, it was just a place to sleep.

My sister wasn't getting into town until the morning, so I decided to stay with BFF that night instead of going back out to the house. I assured everyone that I would be there to go to the airport, but as BFF and I were pulling up to the house, they passed us on their way out. I was a little upset that they didn't wait for me (and in fact had to drive around us to get out of the driveway) but I also understood that there were other things going on.

I hung with my Uncle Snot, who was on his best behavior. To get an idea of why we call him Uncle Snot, look at this picture from my sister's wedding of me and Jay:


It makes me laugh, but you know.

Eventually everyone got back from the airport, so my sister and I sort of "teamed up." There was nothing we could really do to help with anything because all the rest of the family (not my stepmom) was taking care of everything. I was actually relieved I didn't have to do anything, but I also felt useless. BFF was still in town, so I went out to dinner with her at Tomo, my favorite Japanese restaurant. It was delish as always. We also went to the Lost Coast Brewery which has one of the few types of beer that I like (Great White).

Ok, stay tuned for part 3. I'm not sure if that will be the actual memorial party or the trip home, but you know it's gonna (continue to) be a great story.