We spent Wednesday walking 3+ miles around Laguna Beach playing a sort of scavenger hunt type game called ClueHoo. Check it out at http://www.cluehoo.com/. One of the first clues was to find the lady who loved to shop. Here she is.
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| Ok. So which one is the shopper? |
The game is played by downloading an app to your smartphone. You find a location based on a clue. Then you solve a riddle or figure something out there and, when you type in the answer, you get a clue to go to another location. Locations included statues, unique signs, landmarks, architecture marvels, etc. Clues were painted on pottery, imprinted on molded brass plaques, "spoken" by spirits. In one place you had to pedal a stationary bike outside a bicycle store which generatd enough power to light up a sign within the store window giving you your next clue. It was fun and cleverly done. Not part of the game, but along the way we saw this one-of-a-kind car parked along the street our clue was on.
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| Now this is what I call custom detailing on a car! |
That is not just a very artistic paint or mosaic tile job. Look closely at the detail. This is certainly a squad car befitting a geek!
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| "QWERTY" keyboard any one? |
The hunt took us through downtown Laguna Beach with its quaint and artsy shops, along the Pacific Coast Highway, along the shoreline through scenic Heisler Park, to an art museum, to an iconic movie theatre, and back to our starting point near City Hall. It was a stimulating experience both physically and mentally for left and right sides of the brain. Alex was a trooper and seemed to enjoy hiking all 3+ miles of it with us. We had our picture taken at the end of the hunt. We were more tired than we look in the photo. The trek was good in that we pre-banked exercise to offset the calories of the next day's Thanksgiving dinner.
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| Here we are at the end of the game, sporting our ClueHoo lanyards and badges and resting our feet. We still had enough energy to smile for the camera. |
There is one major item to be thankful for this year. We are going to be grandparents again. Dan and Carrie are expecting a baby girl at the end of March. Despite being five months pregnant, Carrie wanted to host the holiday at their home and cook the whole meal. Cooking is her hobby and passion. So is running. She ran a 10K Turkey Trot Thanksgiving morning before preparing a gourmet meal for us. Now that is something I would never attempt the morning before getting a full-fledged Thanksgiving meal on the table even if I were not five months pregnant. Amazing. Here was her menu.
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| Carrie's menu for Thanksgiving 2013. |
Alex positively loved her Spicy Chicken Bites appetizer. I think they may have been truly gourmet Chicken Nuggets to him. Carrie's cornbread casserole is a tradition I love. She makes that at our house too. Here are some pix of the main course and desserts.
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| Doesn't that bird look luscious? It was so moist! |
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| I love a good crumb apple pie. This one was delicious. |
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| My contribution was cutout cookies and chocolate crackle cookies I baked up in Livermore and brought down. |
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| Carrie and "mini-carrie", Dan, Frank, Alex, me, Carrie's mom Diane, and of course Snoopy. |
After dinner Frank, Alex, and I returned to our hotel. When we had checked in two days earlier we had seen hotel staff decorating the courtyard garden for Christmas. Thanksgiving evening they turned the Christmas lights on. We had a second floor room with a garden view and this is what we enjoyed right outside our window.
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| This is the decorated garden as seen from our balcony. |
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| The photo barely does justice to the trees dripping with lights. |
Friday was raining so we picked some indoor activities. Frank and I took Alex bowling while Dan, Carrie, and her mom spent a laid-back morning at Dan and Carrie's. In the mid-afternoon, we all went to see the Disney movie Frozen. I really liked it. Alex stayed engaged the whole time. Frank got in a good nap.
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| I highly recommend seeing this. |
This movie is visually gorgeous with rich, pure, jewel-tone colors of an icelandic, crystalline world and an abundance of swirling details of snow and costuming. It was as much a feast for the eyes as a Thanksgiving meal is to the taste buds. The music was fantastic. Since the leads are two females (usually dual leads are a girl and a guy) the musical duets could have tight fitting harmonies from two female voices. The sound was so melodic and strong without anyone screaming rather than singing. We saw the movie only in 2D and it was great. The plot was a little thin, but hey, it had good characters, awesome scenery, love themes (both romantic and sisterly), and captivating music so you did not need an intricate plot to distract from all that. I really did like it and would go to see it again. This Disney movie DVD is getting purchased for sure.
We left Saturday morning to drive back in hope of avoiding the traffic frenzy typical of the Sunday on Thanksgiving weekend. About 45 minutes away from Dan and Carrie's we passed a fourteen vehicle accident. Timing is everything. We must have just avoided it. Traffic was not backed up and no emergency vehicles had arrived on the scene yet. Folks were milling about inspecting damage on the array of crumpled and dented vehicles. It did not appear as if anyone were seriously injured. We never learned the circumstances. It was not foggy or slick; there was just pretty dense traffic moving at about the speed limit, interspersed with some slowdowns and stops. I guess it was the unexpected stops that got folks in trouble. The rest of our drive was boring and uneventful. After seeing a pile-up of so many vehicles, boring and uneventful were yet other things to be thankful for.
We're glad that you were able to come down and celebrate Thanksgiving with us! We look forward to making the trek up to Livermore to celebrate Christmas with you, too!
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