/ Texas Sarah

House Guests

I've been pretty lazy about blogging lately, but it's not all because I'm a notorious procrastinator. Recently, Guillaume and I have had some very nice company come through our little auberge in Long Beach, which has been (happily) occupying my time off.
Guillaume's friend from school, JB, came 2 weekends ago by way of the Pacific Coast Hwy from Berkeley, where he's also doing an internship. He brought his sister along who was visiting from France, and they pretty much lived like beach-bums during their stay here. I got to see Santa Monica and its beaches for the first time, which I had mixed feelings about. The beach is pretty crappy, with people's litter all over with a bunch of snot-nosed, dirty-diapered kids running wild, but Santa Monica, especially the Promenade, is seriously nice. It's definitely a place I could find myself wandering to occasionally. We discovered Cafe Crepe, a hidden treasure of an eatery there, too...it's the best little Frenchy cafe we've found in the LA area so far, and it's cheap, too!! We've taken 4 French people there (not including Gui), and they've all raved about how great it is! So, besides Santa Monica, we took them to our fave beach, Huntington Beach and got to see the place during a surf competition. I also got super-duper sun-burned while there (pics below), and I'm still peeling from that burn.

Last weekend, we had another pair of visitors, our friend Ber's little sis Steph (and by little, I mean super tall and gorgeous) and her beau, Yves. I'd met Steph in France last summer during my first visit with the kids, but we otherwise didn't know eachother. Their stay turned out to be so much fun...we really enjoyed having them around and it was even cooler that they brought video and pictures from their earlier trip to Texas. It was good (albeit a little sad) to see everyone back home hanging out (and little Oak is soo big!!!), and we got to hear some stories about their visit and what they'd been up to while they were there. We all got (re-)acquainted over a few pints of Foster's, Shiner, Fat Tire and Strongbow at one of our little Irish pubs in Belmont Shore. I finally got to visit the Getty Museum, which was absolutely awesome; the Manet was cool, but I was much more impressed with the Zoopsia exhibit and the museum itself. I'll definitely recommend it to everyone who visits the LA area! Unfortunately, while we were having lunch there Steph came across a nasty bay leaf in her turkey chilli, which nearly killed her (no joke). Luckily, Yves swooped in with the heimlich maneuver and saved the day. But, seriously, she gave us a scare and afterwards, I thought of how Bertrand would never talk to me again if something had actually happened to her! We made sure she chewed her food thoroughly thereafter, and spent the rest of our time on the beaches of Malibu and walking around my favorite place in Venice Beach - the canals. We really enjoyed having them here, and they treated us to a nice dinner at one of our favorite places in Long Beach.
So, a jam-packed last few weeks and now Gui and I are ready to chill this weekend. We've got a lot of laundry to do, too.

Here are some pics of recent adventures with friends - new and old. Good times.