Matt loves LA

It was a weekend of disappointment...except for in each other (aww....). We just had rotten luck in everything we tried to do. So this might come across as a negative post, but bear in mind that we had a lot of fun in the midst of it all, and bring it to light just as a comedy of errors and pitfalls.

We start with Friday night...date night! We never go out to the movies unless it is to the dollar theater, but Michelle had secured some AMC gift cards, so we decided to use it to see the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie. That would be a good one to see on the big screen, right? So we ate dinner together at home, some homemade cauliflower lasagna from Michelle. It was delicious (that was not one of the disappointments--cauliflower worked out just fine as a ricotta substitute). So we left almost an hour early to get to the theater, which was about 8 miles away. We figured that the theater was showing pirates on many screens, and getting there early we shouldn't have a problem getting tickets. Well, traffic was a bear, and then by the time we pulled into a parking garage by the theater, it was all full (only realized after driving through the entire thing). So we drove to another one a little further, one which cost $5 to park (come on, Burbank! cut us some slack). By the time we got the theater, the movie was to start in about five minutes, the line was super long, and none of it mattered anyway, as the show was already sold out! Argh! In retrospect, we probably should have gone much earlier, purchased our tickets, then had dinner, and then returned. Oh well. Michelle had spotted a one dollar bookstore, so we decided that, if our evening was to be Depp-less, at least it could have depth (Michelle's pun, not mine). Plus, we had to make the parking cost worth it (I know, I know, sunk cost...). We walked out with 9 books! All for....9 dollars! Among those, we secured a hard cover Where the Sidewalk Ends, a comedy/instruction(?) book on fathering by Bill Cosby (not that I am a father yet), a book on places to kiss in the Northwest (that is our big vacation for the summer, returning to my mission area in Washington, the San Juan islands, and adding a few spots such as Vancouver), a Clive Cussler (hat tip to Bret for that one), a Tom Clancy (wanted to learn more about Tony's life), and others. We saw a book by Peter Baird, and almost purchased it, but in the end decided a novel about the horrors of war wasn't something we were acutely longing for.

After, we headed to yogurtland and at least sweetened (for Michelle, artificially) the date night. Then we came home and watched "One Fine Day" on Netflix--we just joined netflix! We got tired of paying redbox late fees due to our negligence.

So still a fun night, but not the one we expected. Michelle is going to write about our Saturday:

Having grown up in Southern California, I have driven by the strawberry fields along the 101 freeway many times. I had come to hear that they have an annual strawberry festival and each year vowed to go. Since we don't plan on being in the area for too much longer, we figured that this was going to be the year.

We invited a couple of friends from church, Kimberly and David Jones, to join us on our adventure. We envisioned lots of strawberry tasting, cooking demos, recipes, strawberry-themed artwork, rides, and games. We were pumped!

We parked at the Camarillo Factory Outlets and took a free shuttle to the festival. The line to get onto the familiar old yellow school buses was long, which we all interpreted as a good sign that the festival was going to be awesome. The admissions fee of $12 each seemed a little steep but we figured it was going to be worth it for the awesome strawberry goodness ahead.

Once inside it was a game of where are we supposed to go. As far as the eye could see there were booths with the standard carnival fare - nachos, churros, pretzels, and, of course, $3 bottles of soda. To the right there were tons of vendors selling various bric-a-brac for exorbitant prices (and very little of it strawberry themed). To the left were the kiddie rides with relatively humongous lines. Straight ahead was the stage with the cover band. Among the vendors we found a few strawberry delights - the Joneses settled on strawberry parfaits, we ate the fried strawberries (which - surprise - weren't that good). We passed on strawberry pizza, strawberry nachos, strawberry popcorn, and four or five varieties of strawberry infused alcoholic drinks. We eventually made our way to a magic show and a demo on how to make strawberry salsa (where we weren't fortunate enough to get a sample to try). In all, it felt like we drove all the way up from LA, took a shuttle, and paid $12 each for the opportunity to buy fried strawberries, with each berry costing a dollar each. In all, we each ate three strawberries a piece. It would have been more satisfying and cost-effective to go buy a few crates of strawberries at the store, look up some recipes online, and have a picnic.

At least when we leave the area, we aren't going to be missing the strawberry festival. It wasn't a great time, but we are sure that we are going to be joking about it to each other for the rest of our marriage. And a shared moment like that is priceless.