Jet-Lag

Within my job responsibilities, I manage some of our Accounts on the West Coast and Northwest. This week my travels brought me to Orange County, CA and Seattle, WA.

First stop-California. My co-worker Don and I had a productive day and ended it with dinner at one of my most favorite restaurants, Las Brisas in Laguna Beach. The guacamole is incredible and the view is stunning as seen below.

Next day we had some appointments near Los Angeles and we stopped for a burger at SoCal's classic burger joint, In and Out Burger. Extremely tasty....

Don is a great person to travel with given his professional and personal life experiences. He has a great outlook on life and offers up some really good advice. He's very sensitive to the tragedy and has really given me some good tips. We were talking about the Holidays and how badly I am dreading them. He told me to do something different on Christmas Day, where I would normally spend at Mom and Dad's. He said, "sponsor a family through your church and bring them gifts and Christmas Dinner, the joy you will get out of seeing their smiling faces will bring a lot of good". Do something different and special. He also thought hosting Christmas at my Grandfather's house would be a wonderful way to bring the Family together, which was so important to my Parents and will remain incredibly important to my Sister and I. We must keep on the tradition of being with my Family on Christmas Day. That was our day. "Incorporate their traditions into your own, Melissa."

On our flight to Seattle, I turned my computer on to do some work and ended up sharing with Don about 200 photos of my parents. He commented on what a wonderful family we had and he touched my shoulder with great sympathy and said, "you still have Ted, Christina and Aydan and they need you." He also gave me some wonderful ways to continue honoring my parents through a potential benefit next April. It feels good to talk about my Family. I have so many wonderful memories with them up until the end, it's hard not to smile when I think back. It's the end that's so difficult......

After a long day of work in Seattle, we were ready to have some fun. We checked out the University of Washington's beautiful campus, even bought some "Huskie" sweatpants. Then we ventured to Pike Market and grabbed a latte at the original Starbucks coffee, walked around the market and admired the stunning Flowers ( a full arrangement for $10..) and bought a cookie at a local bakery what was almost as big as my head. I walked past the place I had purchased Mom's hand painted "Seattle" magnet that I had bought for her last year. She always loved little trinkets from places I would visit.