Goofin' Around

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Me and Miles goofin' around!!!

Disney & Dinner

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If my memory serves me right, I think the date was Monday, February 20... and a group of us went to Disneyland during the day... and a formal dinner in the evening! The occasion: Ashley's 16th birthday.

The Shubin Family is very close to many of us on staff here at The Rock... as well as to so many others. Bill & Tina are both on staff and their two daughters are not only very involved in our youth group, but they also help around the office and enroll each year to attend our "intense" missions trips known as "Airborne!" (This year, "Airborne" is going to South Africa). So we celebrated Ashley's birthday with The Shubin's and with other friends!!! The plan: Disneyland!
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Once we arrived, one of the first rides we went on was Space Mountain, which is probably one of the best rides in the park. And as we were in line, we saw a lone Disneyland employee standing by herself watching the lines. She was standing in the middle of a large open area (which is the same area as the picture above... with Ashley standing in the middle of the circle). So, the employee was standing in that area... and I just decided to do something random. I took my cheesy disposable camera, hopped the chain and walked out in the open square to approach this girl. When I got to her, I showed her my camera and asked, "Can I get a picture with you?" And after a brief, two-second awkward silence, she hesitated and then said all suspicious, "Sure." So I stood next to her, reached out with the camera ahead of us and snapped the picture. Enjoy...

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Then after Disneyland, we all went to a very nice restaurant called The Summit House, located in Fullerton. This restaurant is amazing. It sits on a hill overlooking the entire North Orange County valley... and the food is awesome! I ordered "escargot" for an appetizer... Yes, "escargot"... and it was really good!!! And then I topped off my appetite with a huge steak. Oh, and their creamed corn is excellent. (In fact, I think you can get the recipe on their website). But there is always room for dessert!! So I ended up a "creme brulee." Let me tell you... I ate more than I needed to eat, but the food was too good to pass up. (Is that called gluttony? :-)

All in all, this was a great day. Happy Birthday Ash... and thank you Shubin family!!!

[Click here to visit The Summit House website.]

The Getty Center

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Earlier last month, I went over to my older sister Shaye's house to hang out. The original plan was that we were all (Shaye, Chris, me, and all their kids) were going to go to the Long Beach Aquarium, but the kids did not want to go!!! How weird!! So... Shaye, Chris and I just decided to do something on our own... so we went to The Getty Center in Los Angeles.

On our way to Los Angeles, we stopped in Pasadena to eat lunch. We ended up around the Old Town Pasadena area and went to a sushi bar. The sushi was amazing. (I wish I could remember the name of the restaurant, but... oh well!) It was one of those sushi places that has the floating boats with all the different plates of sushi on it. You just pick and choose what you want as it "floats by."

After lunch, we headed toward the Getty Museum, but the fun was just beginning!!!

When we arrived, we drove through the "pay for parking" booth and took a left-hand turn up the hill toward the museum. There was a van ahead of us and the gate opened up and we followed the van through the gate. But the van ahead of us stopped and we passed it by and continued up the hill. But then we saw all these flashing red lights on the side of the road and we heard alarms. Then the road ahead of us opened up... with a huge baracade. We just sat there for a second or two and then a few museum security officers approached our car. Then it dawned on us... "We aren't supposed to be here. We took the wrong turn at the booth and shouldn't have followed the van through the gate." We explained what happened and headed back down toward the parking lot... laughing the whole way down!!! What a memory.

So then we ended up at the Museum and we constantly kept seeing security and we thought, "They flagged us and are keeping their eye on us." How funny!!!

[For those of you who do not know what The Getty Center is, its an art museum. You can visit their website by clicking here.]

The Getty Center is amazing! It sits on a hill overlooking the entire Los Angeles area. The views are great.
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After sunset, we ate at the restaurant located at the museum. The name of the restaurant is "The Restaurant." And "The Restaurant" has really good food.

Good food, good art, good times!!!!
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