Sacramento

Nori and I left the bay area on Saturday, April 24^th   for California’s capital (Sacramento), for those of you who forgot or did not give a hoot. We arrived at Anna’s home (eldest daughter of Floria, Nori’s sister whom we visited in Tehachapi). We were greeted by Anna’s husband Joel and three sons, Xavier, Gabriel and Daniel. We needed to get an oil change and Joel came with me to Jiffy Lube and took care of it before the place closed. Later, we got caught up with family stories and planned for the next day. Joel wanted to take Nori and I and the family out to eat and we had to choose. I quickly turned to the fussiest eater of the boys for advice and Gabriel came up with Smash Burger.

What a good choice….they have fantastic beef and chicken burgers and great shakes as well. If you ever find a Smash Burger place….go by all means. If I wasn’t retired, I’d consider buying a franchise and put one in Alamogordo. Now, if one of you who reads this blog beats me to it, at least let me eat there for free for life.

One of the boys had a big school project to turn in on Monday which he had not started and there was a food request from Joel. It was decided that Sunday would be a mom help child, Nori cooks, Pat blogs and Joel babysits kind of day. After breakfast, we shopped at a craft store where Anna saw a mother and classmate of Xavier doing the same last minute supply buying. We stopped at a grocery store to get all the ingredients for etoufee, lumpia and a plate of Philadelphia cream cheese dripping with a raspberry chipotle sauce on the way home.  The project got finished and we ate well. What a dinner!!! Nothing was left. Anna now has Nori’s etoufee recipe and Joel is a happy camper.

After dinner, Joel’s parents who had been on vacation came by to visit their son and grandsons. Nori and I enjoyed meeting them both and his dad, Del Fino and I toasted with a cerveza and great cheese from Mexico. We left Monday morning on the 26^th of March.