California

One nice thing about living in Las Vegas, quite honestly, is it's proximity to Southern California. Romeo's mother and her siblings are from there, he was born there, and after being raised in Las Vegas, he returned to CA for college and the first decade of his professional life. He returned to Vegas just a few years ago with a job transfer. (It was shortly after both of our moves here that we met.)

Anyway, he and I enjoy traveling to the Los Angeles area, or primarily it's "suburbs" (is that a Midwest term?), as often as we can. We used to go once every two or three months before the marriage, pregnancy, and baby. He enjoys going "home," I enjoy the shopping and the weather, and we both enjoy the entertainment factor, as his favorite blues band is L.A. based and he has turned me on to them as well. So we would often find dates that B.B. Chung King and the Buddaheads were playing an L.A. area club and just pack ourselves up, head on down, and make a weekend out of it.

Needless to say, for any mother or parent reading this blog, packing a couple's belongings for a weekend is by far easier than packing for a family of three, especially when one of those family members is an infant. Then there is the trip itself, which is 3.5-4 hours. Sometimes, I get bored myself, so you can understand how a baby would do on it. Add in having to take feeding breaks, get a better hotel room than we would have to just for ourselves, and, and, and...basically, our trips to Cali started becoming few and far between when I got pregnant (L.A. rush hour stop and go traffic and morning sickness also don't mix well). We have only gone once since my 1-year-old son was born. That time, about 7 months ago, we did bring Tybalt, and we had a a great time attempting (and successfully) finding new things to do in California that are baby-friendly. We ended up at a Food Truck Festival. And for the gig we planned the trip around, we luckily have family in Cali and were able to have an aunt babysit for a few hours in the evening. But in general, like I said, we made it a family weekend and enjoyed a lovely late winter-early spring day with our young son.

Romeo and I have been craving some time alone, however. And seeing I am blessed with a loving mother-in-law and [cursed with a hateful] father-in-law who adore Tybalt, we had them babysit for the weekend and Romeo and I hit the road for a little couple's time. This time around the musical entertainment was our dear friend Ron Ellington Shy. He used to perform with The Drifters, The Coasters, and Don and Dewey (just to name a few!). He is an amazing musician. Romeo has known him for years and years. They met at a show in Cali, and they both ended up living in Vegas. But the economy has declined for all residents here, and that includes gigs for musicians. So Ron moved back to Cali a little over a year ago and now performs in the L.A. area.

Ron was playing at a place called The Fret House in downtown Covina, California. Covina is the town Romeo called home for more than 10 years of his adult life. He knows Citrus Avenue, the main drag, well as he was on the board of directors of the playhouse there for a handful of years. It is there that he got his acting experience and honed his skills. The night we met we talked about that theatre and the shows he has acted in, produced, or otherwise participated in. And on other trips to Southern Cali we have driven down Citrus Ave, or once stopped and parked at the theatre, just to get a quick look but on Saturday we spent the ENTIRE day on Citrus Ave. in downtown Covina. And it was amazing. Absolutely wonderful.

But this post is long enough. For now I will say...

To Be Continued...