A Cumbrian in California (Week 1)

Here we are again. To those of you that read my last post, thank you! It was nice to see that I have readers in various countries. Now bear with me - there will be a few posts over the following week that will attempt to cover our various adventures up through Spring 2019.

Let's begin with the first week of our trip to California (October 2017) - shortly after the very first post this blog ever had. We arrived absurdly late after our long haul flight but we were greeted at home by my sister, Sushi (our late cat), Honey (our late poodle) and Lady (our shitzu-cocker spaniel).

One of the first places I took Eliot to was “El Ranchito Taco Shop” in Poway (shout-out to my Poway readers!) for an amazing carne asada burrito. He quickly understood why I had been going on about it since we met.

The adventure continued with a trip to Costco! Costco is like entering Narnia - you never know quite what you’ll find and you will definitely leave with things you didn’t realise you needed! As I was writing this, it also made me realise that it only took ~710 days for Eliot to (physically) meet my father. Then again, he met my mum and sister 3 weeks before our wedding in July 2016. Ha. We don’t do things very conventionally - after all, I proposed!

The remainder of our first week in Cali was spent going to the North County Westfield Shopping Mall for a mooch around Nordstrom & JC Penny, eating at Buffalo Wild Wings and introducing Eliot to the wonders of IHOP.

We also had the opportunity to meet with some of my former teachers-turned-good friends! It was great being able to show him around my former high school, and visit former teachers either in their ‘natural environment’ (a classroom) or for lunch at The Yellow Deli in Valley Center. 

Our first weekend was spent at (what we now call) Wedding party #3. The party was a typical Mexican fiesta with plenty of agua fresca to go around. This was a lifesaver for us since the heat was absurd! The party was followed by excellent craft beer and Cards Against Humanity. I won’t go into much detail with CAH but rest assured - we had some truly terrible ones. 

Speaking of craft beer, we went on a tour of Stone Brewery and it was great! You can get Stone in certain London shops but there was something really nice about the one we got in Escondido. Following our tour I decided it was time to introduce Eliot to another of the treasures we have: In-N-Out. Similarly to El Ranchito, he finally understood why I was so excited to eat there again. Their burgers and fries still haunt my dreams… 

And so ends Week 1. Stay tuned for Week 2.

The following are a few select pictures from our first week. If you are particularly interested and want to see more, just go over to my instagram page --> @mrsemilyandersen 

Sushi (my mum's late rescue cat)

My best friend Jessica - I'll never let her go. She knows too much!

Don't worry - those weren't all for him!