The Meeting of the Families...

It was just as we had imagined...a darkly lit room...tension filling the night air...Walter "The Costa Rican Don" Herrera sat in the shadows...his face shielded...only the glow from his cigar visible in the dark as the 'muscle' (Sara) stood steadily by. The foreign visitors were ushered in...assured that the Don was eager to meet them...and so after five years together, our families were to finally meet. 

To everyone's relief, The Don gave his approval of the foreigners, and my parents were warmly welcomed to Los Angeles. Over the next five days we sought to show them a little bit of what LA has to offer, as well as enabling them to relax and recover from their jet-lag. 

My father completed his mission and arrived at an Air Museum with Walter within 24-hours of arriving in the USA, while my mother strangely enough chose to avoid this excursion in favor of getting to know Sara better. The Herrera hospitality was wonderful and my parents were able to meet everyone, although my request for name-tags was ignored by all. We also made important pilgrimages to the Getty Center, Hollywood, UCLA, Laguna and a bonfire on the beach. 

Rejuvenated and happy to have been able to meet so many of Jen's family, we packed the olds into our rental car and set off for the next leg of this crazy journey. It is a truly bizarre experience to be taking your parents on a holiday...complete with them sitting in the back of the car marveling at my ability to drive a motor car on the 'wrong' side of the road. Our next stop was San Francisco...with a trip up the famous coastal road of Highway 1 ahead of us.