No Boys Allowed

Friday night I was able to take off with homegirl Carianne, for a quick girls getaway. We had two goals in mind:
1) Do one session at the LA temple
2) Go to Tai Pan Trading in Rancho Cucamonga. (http://www.taipantrading.com/ )

Thanks to Carianne's "punctually challenged" husband we got a later start then we originally planned. (Great job Jared. Geeeeez!) :)
We took off close close to 5 pm but we had a smile on our faces! Our hotel was in Ontario---and after lots of Friday night LA traffic we finally made it to our hotel waaaaaay past my bedtime (9pm)
LOL
Bubba was nice enough to write me a big letter before I left and sealed it up for me to open when I went to bed. He also sent me with one of his Teddy Bears so I wouldn't be lonely.


Saturday morning we were up bright and early---and hungry. Surprisingly, no one must eat breakfast around there because we couldn't find anything but McDonald's and Carl's Jr---and I wanted french toast and hash browns. We finally found an IHOP and I was never so excited to find one. It was ridiculous!
After breakfast we discovered Ontario Mills across the street actually contained outlet stores and we thought we died and went to Heaven. We didn't buy anything for ourselves but came across lots of stuff for the kids---and a little girl who will arrive in August.



The ugliest pair of shoes I have ever seen, courtesy of "The Rack."

After Ontario Mills it was off to Tai Pan Trading. I walked in and didn't know what to do or where to go. I didn't know what to expect but it was HUGE. We wandered around for a few hours, found a few items and called it good.
It was 2pm and we were set on "Cheesecake Factory" for a late lunch. After consulting my GPS we decided to start heading north before we ate. I knew there was several locations up closer to the temple that we thought would be easy to get to.
50 miles and 2 1/2 hours later we finally arrived in LA-------hungry.
My lame GPS told me there was a Cheesecake Factory in the Beverly Center so we park and find out the GPS was wrong. A lady gives us directions to "The Grove" a few miles down the road.
Its going on 4:30 and we haven't eaten since IHOP. I am about to go postal, but I am trying to remain lucid.
We arrive at the Grover and after a 15 minute wait we steal a table at the bar inside the Cheesecake Factory. I get my raspberry lemonade and the world seems OK again. We chow down on stuffed tortillas and head off to the temple---which again is only 5 miles away but take 20 minutes to get there.
I think the highlight of my trip occurred about 2 blocks from the temple on Santa Monica Blvd. My window was rolled down and as I pull up to a red light I glance over to my left to check out this brand new orange convertible Corvette. These two OLD men are in the front seat. The driver (complete with a comb-over and gold chain) yells over "Hi cutie!" I mumbled a response which I think was a "hi" but I can't recall because I was shocked that he seemed to genuinely think he could "pick me up." As soon as we pulled away we began laughing like two little girls.
We make it to a 6:30 session at the temple---it was awesome. Thank you to Carianne for getting my caboose in gear and getting me down there. I hope to make this temple/shopping getaway a more regular occurrence. We did get home LATE Saturday night, but lucky for me church doesn't start until 12:30pm.
Woo-hoo!
Here is looking forward to more girl getaways! Cheers!