Got to see each other 3 times

I got to see my best friend three times while he was out here. NOTHING went as planned. He wasn't told that his dad's sister was vacationing with his family since they have never really had a vacation. So that was ok- we made it work- we just didn't get to hang out in Carlsbad or anything like we had planned.

There was the Pomona Valley Mining Company after LA Pride, which was fun, and I blogged about.

We did Disneyland one night, which was fun. It was a Monday night. It wasn't too crowded. I met him and aunt's kids who were 22, 18, and 16. We all got along great. We went on all the fun rides- Matterhorn, Space Mountain, Star Tours, Buzz Lightyear Astroblasters, Tarzan Treehouse, saw Fantasmic, and the fireworks. On the Matterhorn where you have to sit 1 person behind another and 1 person pressing up against another my friend found it a little disturbing he had to sit in front of me because he's shorter. It was funny. I put my arms around him because his cousin joked she needed more incriminating stuff on him since she was the one who was incriminated by all the photos that my friend took. It was fun.

Yesterday I drove down to Carlsbad to meet my friend and his cousins. I had a blast driving down listening to my radio, all the great SD country stations, and a few other songs that I found like this...


My friend's parents were returning their car at LAX and on their way back. We all went to Rubios for lunch and talked about their vacation, what they've been up to, and anything else that came to mind. My friend's parents and aunt showed up shortly after we arrived. We all agreed to rendezvous at 2 at the fair. We were there at 2 at the fair, but his aunt, parents, and his 18 year old cousin arrived at 4. We walked around seeing what they had to offer. I noticed it was what the LA County Fair was even 5 years ago with more of an emphasis on livestock, community, and student/community competitions. We had a fun time walking around and looking at the random booths, joking, whatever. Then we had time to kill before his parents arrived, so we looked at the program at what there was to do. There was tequila or wine tasting. We were standing right in front of the wine tasting, but they only took 25 people per showing, and we were numbers 26 and 27. We decided tequila was the next best thing. It was cool. We learned about tequila coming from agave and usually being made at 75-80proof (35-40% alcohol). We got to try joven and anejo tequila- basically young gold tequila, El Jimador was the brand. Then we tried El Jimador anejo también. It was just small shot size samples, but it was cool, and something to do. It was free- and at the LA Fair Im sure it wouldn't have been free. As we're sampling and learning about the tequila the adults show up and they are oblivious as to what we were doing. We walk around in the buildings with them and then split up again after about 2 hours. My friend, his cousins, and myself set out to try the fair food, which most of it was $2.00 on Tuesdays. We had deep fried steak bites, deep fried oreos, and cheesecake bites. The steak bites were heaven. The oreos were so-so. We went through the jewel and wood exhibit showcasing work people had done, and we spent forever in there. We were really into it. The machine used to cut jewels was so low tech compared to what we were expecting. We met back up in the carnival area and chatted, took pictures of each other, and then walked toward their car. I was parked out the other gate. My friend's aunt said she'd shuttle me to my car. OMG. They were all saying how bad, scary, and crazy her driving was. She couldn't follow a sign, mowed down 4-5 cones trying to turn her van out of the row we parked down, and was just sort of all over the road.

My best friend and I did talk a little- about me being gay, how he thought it was kind of cool to have a gay guy to talk to things about, how he has heard about gay Hollywood clubs that straight celebs go to. He also thought it was cool he hasn't seen me checking him out... hahaha

We get to my car and my friend and the 18 year old want to ride with me. We're trying to get over to Farmer Boys in Escondido because my friend's family loves Farmer Boys, and haven't had it since they were out here 4 years ago. I put the address in my phone and see that I get off at Nordahl, which I remember just being off the 78. While on the way my friend's mom calls giving us new directions- to get off at some random parkway that basically was to be a shortcut, but really wasn't. My friend, his cousin, and I all talk about how women are bad with directions, how women don't listen, how women do this and that. We were amused. There are mainly country and Spanish stations in San Diego, so I had all the country stations preprogrammed. My friend's cousin said Taylor Swift was on, and the 3 of us sang Taylor Swift's Love Story.



Then the obnoxious Gretchen Wilson came on, and they didn't know the words, but they got the "I work hard, play harder" part, and we were sitting in the car singing that as we drove. Fun times! My friend used never like or even listen to country.


We get split up when we end up back on the freeway and I follow my GPS directions. My friend calls his mom because we got split up and I was making sure we were going to the right one since both were within a mile of each other. They were planning on the other, so we got directions. I was told to hop back on the 78 and take the 15 south. Then my friend's 21 year old cousin comes on and says take the 15N instead. I go up that way and we don't see the exit Century Park or something they want us to take. We go up about 4 miles and still nothing. We turn around and later somehow find them. It was 9:55 and Farmer Boys closed at 10.

We decide to do IHOP instead, and we all sit, eat, and talk. I didn't really get to talk with my friend's mom, and we were both a little sad about that. After dinner we all took funny photos in the parking lot, which was fun, hugged, and took off. I flew home- I made it from Escondido to my house in 50 minutes. I put the car in cruise and did 76mph the entire way home.