Hectic Sunday

Sunday was a bit more hectic than usual due to a snafu at the end of our Manzanillo trip.

We were scheduled to leave Manzanillo at 11:50 a.m. on Saturday for a short flight on AeroMexico to Mexico City where we would have a 75 minute layover before boarding an Air Tran flight to Santa Ana's John Wayne Airport.

We were smoothly going through our check-in process until our AeroMexico agent very apologetically informed us that our flight would be at least one hour late.

Of course, this meant that we would miss our connection in Mexico City. The people at AeroMexico were great in securing us a spot on a 4:00 p.m. Alaska Air flight to Los Angeles with all of our friends.

Since they had all flown out of LAX, it was easy enough to hitch a ride back to the Camarillo with the FitzGeralds.

The problem was that our car was still in Santa Ana.

Thus on Sunday I boarded a train in Camarillo at 7:18 a.m. for the three hour ride to Santa Ana. My sister-in-law Gayle, who lives nearby, picked me up at the train station and graciously gave me a ride to the airport.

From there I was off to my Mother's house for a visit. Guess who I found there?

"Oh God, more paparazzi!"

It was none other than young Jacob Contreras.

"Feed Me, SVP"

Vanessa, our niece Lauren and her

newborn Max were in the house too!

Our son Mike, my sisters Linda

and Marilyn, Lauren and Max

After visiting for a few hours, I was off to Cal State University-Northridge to pick up our friend from Lyon, Lucie Damboise.

She has been living in the San Fernando Valley with first our friends the Sabolics and more recently in the dorms at CSUN while she studies American culture and the English language. She will spend her last two weeks in California living with us in Camarillo.

Lucie with her two Brazilian friends

Suzani and Julianna

They are also CSUN students that she met through her university program.

After picking her up, we drove directly to a 70th birthday party in Camarillo at Yolanda's Mexican Food Restaurant.

Rod, Jason and Scott Fujita

Can you guess which one was celebrating their birthday?

Lucie and Laurie

Lucie is now safe and sound in Casa Contreras.