Host’s With The Most

Chrysa and I were delighted when my mom came to visit for Thanksgiving. This was her first trip to the west coast and my first time hosting Thanksgiving. The pressure was on!

Chrysa and I are always excited when we get visitors. We were especially pleased to host my mom for Thanksgiving weekend. It was a bit of a challenge since I had to work some hours, and I had a cold, but we made it work.

Mom came into town and as usual we hit the town running. Chrysa was just getting off of her eight days on at work, so she was sleeping. I decided to meet with mom for a nice lunch date prior to going to work myself. I picked her up at the hotel and we headed to the Thai cuisine restaurant in town coincidentally named “Thai Cuisine.” The food was awesome and it was great to catch up. I hated to eat and run, but I did have to go to work.

Mom is great at entertaining herself. While Chrysa and I were unavailable she checked out Lompoc and rested from her travels. It was a good thing too. I put her to work later on helping me prep for Thanksgiving. I decided to keep the menu traditional this year. It was my first time hosting after all…not a time to be experimental. A failed foie gras stuffed turducken would ensure that I never hosted again. Instead I went with a citrus roasted, free range turkey (free from work), mushroom stuffing, oven roasted potatoes, sweet potatoes, and gravy. Thankfully everything turned out great!

The rest of the visit was dedicated to showing mom the gems of the Central Coast. I showed mom Surf Beach and we got to spend some mother-son quality time together. Chrysa took mom into Solvang for some shopping and eating while I was at work. We also had dinner at Industrial Eats where the food is awesome and the wine is plentiful (seriously…served in water tumblers!).

Aside from Thanksgiving, the highlight of the visit was our group outing to Avila and Morro Bay. Chrysa and I knew the views would blow mom away. I’m pretty sure we were right. Mom was very taken with the little resort town of Avila Beach. The weather was cool, but sunny, the day of our visit. It was perfect for walking through town and onto the pier. After thoroughly enjoying the scenery mom was intent on finding a wine tasting room. Great wine isn’t exactly hard to find in California. We stumbled into Alapay Cellers and mom and Chrysa got a tasting flight. Both of them really liked the selection. Mom liked it so much she ordered 6 bottles to be shipped to her in Georgia. It may have been the complete cuteness of the town, or maybe it was the wine, but mom is making noise about a family vacation to Avila. That’s a visit I can certainly get behind!

After Avila we headed to Morro Bay to show mom the rock and take more pics. While in Morro we also had a nice meal while the ladies sipped on delicious looking Bloody Mary’s. It started to get pretty cool outside toward the end of the day, so we headed back to Lompoc. It was a lot of fun showing mom a couple of our favorite places on the Central Coast.

The visit wrapped up sooner than any of us would have liked. On mom’s last day Chrysa was running the Red Rocks race so we decided to meet her at the finish, and end the day in Santa Barbara. Unfortunately mom and I missed seeing Chrysa finish (she is just too fast on the trails). However, we did get to congratulate Chrysa shortly after she finished, and snap a couple great pics.

After Chrysa wrapped up and changed we caravanned to Santa Barbara for one last meal with mom. When we got into town we walked the beach a little and finally made our way to the pier. The views on the pier are really nice and there are some good seafood restaurants. We got to celebrate Chrysa’s finish at the race while taking in the view and enjoying the bounty of the sea. It was a positive way to end such a wonderful visit.

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