Lessons Learned from Christmas 2008

Trevor & I spent six days in California for Christmas. With 140 miles between our parents, another 100 between my parents and camp, and a final 130 miles back to the airport, we really covered some ground -

and learned some important lessons along the way:

• Things that matter: Friendly AAA drivers who show up on Christmas day to fill your car with gas when you’ve run out in the middle of nowhere. Things that really don’t: Lakers vs. Celtics.
• Banana Bread Beer tastes just as bad as you think it would.
  
• Chihuahuas are kind of like cats.

• 26-year old bodies don’t recover from air mattress / floor / airplane sleeping quite as quickly as younger ones.
• The Stone Brewery - despite its kind of weird warehouse-like location in the outskirts of Escondido - is an amazingly awesome demonstration of the slow food movement, not only featuring over 20 of their own beers on draft and in the bottle, but offering beers from other craft breweries and tons of local and organic goods and produce, including onion rings so thick and delicious they look like donuts.
  

• When a kitchen-full of Californians tells you the hot sauce is too hot – it’s too hot.
• Just like video cameras, airport scales add about 5 pounds.
• A pie can be cut into 8 pieces with just 3 straight lines. This makes little to no sense to the Tecate and Irish Car Bomb swilling masses. So, we'll just have to believe you, Cranium.
  

• A full year of eating Mexican food twice a day couldn't get you to all the amazing-looking places between LA and San Diego.
• When your Grandma and Mom drink (and enjoy) a Lambic, it's official: It really is the right type of beer for non-beer drinkers.