Having spent most of our adult life in the South Bay it was odd to leave our home “Namahana” in Mexico and return to Southern California. Not driving a car in 8 months and especially freeway driving made for a stressful first couple of days re-acclimating to the hustle bustle lifestyle we lived for so long. Thanks to some wonderful friends we were able to have perfect accommodations for the 2 weeks stay. After a stop in Redondo for a quick bite at the Cheesecake to visit Ramon our favorite bartender we head to “Kinship” in San Pedro. The beautiful 83 foot Berger Motor Yacht. I helped Larry deliver it to Fort Lauderdale down the ICW a couple of years ago. Larry gave us the boat to use whenever we needed it for the 2 weeks there. After a very nice Fathers day on Kinship we gathered up Sean and Dylan and headed to Berry Creek for a too quick “2 Day” visit to Bitchin Ranch. It was great hanging out with good friends Bob & Jody, and worth the 1000 mile freeway grind to make it happen. Back in Redondo we were delighted to have Gary’s house for the next week in the South Bay.

Friday we attended Uncle Phil’s celebration of life, unfortunately Phil lost his 4 year battle with lung cancer (due to an infection) and passed away on March 30th. For those of you who did not know Phil, he was a big part of our lives along with Aunt Paula for the past twenty some years. We spent most all of the holidays together, as well as trips to Catalina, Palm Desert, and New Years at the Rose Parade, etc. He will always be in our hearts.

The next few days was filled with gathering all the purchases, from Amazon, West Marine, Harbor Fright etc., that we needed to get back to Mexico. We planned on bringing most of it back in checked baggage but ended up getting way too much “stuff”. We were making a visit to Sean in Santa Barbara and decided to visit  friends Erik and Terri in Ojai. They are off of ” Meja” from Barra De Navidad. They make the trip down in there Tundra every year and were kind enough to offer to bring the “stuff”we could not get on an airplane down to us in Puerto Vallarta come October. Sean drove up to Ojai from Santa Barbara for the evening. We enjoyed an awesome meal and the great company of Erik and Terri in their probably 100 year old home in the hills of Ojai. What a sweet place to chill for an evening.

Back to the South Bay to visit friends and to prepare to fly home to Namahana. It was great to visit our kids grand kids and friends. All the driving and mostly the impatience of people on the road, not so much. We look forward to being “Home” on Namahana for the summer in Puerto Vallarta.