Another High School graduation

Friday we celebrated another graduation in the family.  Mitchell, the grandson of Randy's brother Butch, graduated from High School, and since we are in Southern California, we were able to attend the ceremony. We are only an hour away but on Friday afternoon that could mean up to a 3 hour traffic delay. And it's the holiday weekend, so there might be even more traffic! So, in order to be there by 5 pm, we left at noon. We beat the traffic, but of course that meant we got to San Diego way early. It  still beat sitting in traffic for hours, and now we had time to try a new restaurant. Our niece Melissa recommended Hodad, so we went there. Hodad's had been on "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives", and to celebrate that event they created a special sandwich called the Guido Burger. It's a burger toppled with pastrami; that sounded good to Randy, who ordered it with a side of onion rings. Really good! I was perfectly happy with my bacon-cheeseburger and fries. The only off note was the fact they served Pepsi instead of Coke.

Still had some extra time, so we looked for a place to get a manicure. At the last minute I went for acrylic nails instead. I have never had acrylic nails. I thought they just stuck fake nails on, but there is a whole process of buffing the nail, adding fake tips, then painting some build-up material over the whole nail to smooth it out. And for some reason the nail polish at salons stays on much longer than mine. I like this!

It was a little awkward at first; I felt like I had long sticks at the end of my fingers. But I think I could get used to it.

By then we had used up most of our time so we headed over to our nephew's house, where we caught a ride to the graduation. Mitchell not only graduated with honors, he was also the class Valedictorian. His brother, who graduated in June of 2012 was Valedictorian of his class, too. Smarts run in this family! 

After graduation there was a party at Mitchell's parents house. His mom is so talented; she baked cupcakes, decorated the house, set up the caterers, and created gifts of leis and roses from dollar bills.

And now one more graduate is ready for college! Mitchell is brilliant. He has picked UCLA as his college; he will do awesome there.