Saturday, October 23, 2004

Dinner With the Carpenters

Last night I was invited to have dinner with my roomate Alex's parents in Malibu. I didn't turn that down.

It was my day off and I was just working on PHP stuff for my site.
Around 5pm that afternoon when Alex and his father, John came to pick me up from our West LA place. We all squeezed into the old pickup truck and headed down the Santa Monica Freeway towards the Pacific Coast Highway. It's a gorgeous drive up that highway that runs parallel to the ocean. The sun was setting at that time. Below I took some pictures with my PALM Zire 71.

In traffic	On the Pacific Coast Highway
Sun setting	Dusk

I'm not used to this kinda of scenery coming from the East Coast. The sun usually rises on the ocean.. and then sets in the west. Over here in California, its the ocean that it sets on, and rises in the east.

Well, we got to Carpenter house up in the mountains of Malibu. Where all cell phones don't work, but you can see every single star in the night sky. Truly spectacular. I meet Alex's mom, Alice, who is outside the house BBQing. A young boy is also there helping her, by the name of Johnny.

Just as I get to the entrance of the kitchen, I hear a scary cackling howl in the distance. I look at Johnny and ask him, "What was that?!?" Johnny says, "Its the Coyotes. They are about a mile away.."

I ran into the house instantly. While Mrs. Carpenter was still preparing dinner, Alex was going to take Johnny home which is just up the road. I decided to take the ride and go with them. When we drove less than a minute up the winding road to Johnny's house, I found myself in a really neat garden filled with exotic trees and plants I have never seen before. I met Johnny's father who seemed real nice. After dropping off Johnny, Alex and I headed back to the house.

I sat down at the kitchen table to eat with the Carpenters who said grace before eating. They are such a wonderful family. So wonderful that I was compelled to write this entry about them. Mrs. Carpenter made a fantastic dinner consisting of BBQ steak, salmon, snapper, along with rice, salad, broccolis... wow!

After dinner, Mrs. Carpenter told me to pick a prize out of the "PRIZE Box". That was too good to be true. So I did. I closed my eyes and reached into the box... and pulled out a little motorcycle toy. The kind you wind back and it springs out on its own.

It was a Friday night, and if I didn't have to work the following morning, I would have slept over. Mrs. Carpenter was going to drive Alex and myself home and then stay the night and go home the next day.

So thats what happened. All in all, I had a great time in Malibu having a quiet dinner with my California family, the Carpenters.