Of Pinnipeds, Poop Coffee and Pfamily

Yes, yes, I know it's spelled "family" but I couldn't resist continuing my little series of words starting with "P".

Thought I'd give a little recap on my very busy weekend:

On Friday night, hubby and I picked up a minivan from the car rental agency at the airport and drove it down to LA, where my cousin, his wife, and their daughter were staying with my parents. Nearly 2 years ago, I took a trip to Indonesia with my parents (details here: http://heckledtrio.blogspot.com/2008/10/home-at-last-brief-recap.html) and met all sorts of family on both my parents' sides, so it was nice to see my cousin and his wife again after meeting them for the first time 2 years ago. Their daughter, Jasmine, is the same age as Todd, and the two kids got along fabulously. Jasmine spoke mainly Chinese, Todd spoke mainly English, but the two were able to understand each other. Plus, you know how it goes with kids-- language is never a barrier, for "play" is the universal language! It was also a good way for Jasmine to improve her English, and for Todd to practice his Chinese.

We started out on Saturday with a drive down to Sea World in San Diego, where my 2-m-tall hubby enjoyed feeling like a normal human being behind the wheel of a minivan (and not the usual scrunched-sardine feeling he gets in regular cars) during the long drive. It had been over 20 years since I last visited Sea World, so I was curious to see how much had changed since then. Turns out: a lot! The Shamu show had gotten a lot cheesier, but the sea lion show had gotten more entertaining! There was a new roller coaster that Todd clamored for and loved, despite his mother screaming her head off at all the turns :-P And my highlight of the day was getting to see real live sea turtles! First time I'd ever seen them up close and not just in movies and pictures. I could have whiled away all day just watching them swim and sunbathe, had we not had company! Saturday's weather in SD was expected to be overcast, so I didn't bother with sunscreen. Big mistake-- the sun decided to pay us a surprise visit and then proceeded to blaze down upon us all afternoon-- and we came home with some badly sunburnt arms and faces.

Sunday we hit Universal Studios, which had likewise changed since my last visit (which was only 3 years ago). The "Back to the Future" ride had become "The Simpsons" ride, the special effects/sound stage had been updated to showcase modern technological advances, and the tram tour featured the new King Kong movie in 360 3-D in addition to old staples like the earthquake in the subway. The kids, of course, enjoyed themselves thoroughly and had great fun sitting next to each other on all the rides, even getting mistaken for siblings at one point. I made sure to lather up with sunscreen throughout the day, but it figures-- we didn't even need it that day, as most of our time was spent in the shade. Even the long lines waiting to get on rides and see shows was spent in the cool shade.

The day ended with some fireworks-- one of our neighbors (one of the few original families from when the neighborhood was first built-- many of the others have moved away) who used to host block parties at his house, did likewise this year-- a huge party complete with fireworks in the street. Todd and Jasmine enjoyed not only seeing fireworks light up the sky, but got to hold sparklers-- something even *I* have never ventured to do! What a great ending to a fun-filled day. Allan and I had to return to SB that night, and dropped off the rental van after midnight before getting home  and climbing into bed, exhausted.

So... back to the title. The pinnipeds clearly referred to the sea lions whose zany antics we enjoyed, and (p)family was my family from Indonesia, visiting the United States for the first time. But poop coffee? How many of you have ever heard of Kopi Luwak? It's basically a coffee whose beans are derived from an animal called the civet. It eats the coffee berries, digests the fruit portion, and then poops out the beans, which are then harvested, cleaned and processed. It's produced primarily in Indonesia and is the most expensive coffee in the world. My cousin brought a small box of it with him, and we brewed it and tried some on Sunday morning. True to its claims, it was really good! It was amazing how little bitterness there was. That's the primary reason I dislike coffee-- too bitter. But this stuff? Rather than pouring in sugar by the cupful to sweeten the taste, I only had to add a couple teaspoons of sugar to enhance the flavor, and was even able to drink some of it without any sugar at all... and without wrinkling my nose at the bitter taste ;-) Kopi luwak may have less-than-savory sounding origins, but it certainly does yield some world-class coffee!

What a weekend! Monday was spent doing little more than recuperating, thank heavens we got the day off! Back to the grind... at least it's a short week :-D