4th of July.

Last weekend I was lucky enough to go to one of my favorite places, Irwindale,CA. We flew out Friday evening and arrived in Burbank where Travis and Budah picked us up and took us to In n Out.

Saturday morning, Rachel, myself and Travis's Mom Gale got ready for our big shopping day. We were going to the Fashion District in down town LA, but when getting off the exit, we realized the Staples center was right there so we made a little detour to check out the Michael Jackson scene. I must admit that I never really considered myself a fan of MJ. I knew who he was my whole life of course, but never really got into his music, or him. However, I just can't get over the fact that he passed so unexpectedly. We parked in a parking garage where no one else was and went up to the Staples Center where there was a huge billboard with MJ's picture. We stood in line with only a few people in front of us to sign the board and get our picture taken. Gale couldn't believe we were there :) Funny enough, I have seen the same board on TV many times now and it was reported that people waited hours in line to sign that..guess we were pretty lucky to not have many others there.

After that experience, we headed to the Fashion District which is always fun in an overwhelming way. So many things to see and buy. We were there exactly 2 hours and all got plenty of things to try to get home. We cruised around LA and then headed up to Universal City to have lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. We sat on the patio and it was a beautiful afternoon. Clear blue skies, music and people everywhere. At lunch Rachel was talking about how lucky we were to be able to go to all the fun places we go and do the things we do. I thought about that the rest of the day and couldn't agree more.

After lunch we went back to our hotel to change and head out to the Speedway. We arrived just in time for qualifying where Travis qualified 14th. There was a huge crowd for the race which I was very surprised by. Rachel, Eric and I headed up to the main grand stands to watch the race and sat with Travis's cousins and their 3 girls. Although Travis's car was great in practice, it didn't appear to be the same in the race and he ended up finishing 12th.

We had such a great trip full of laughs and it was exactly what I needed. I can't wait for the next trip to Irwindale!