Busy Sunday in SoCal

Sunday - February 17th

Jill and I had a fairly busy Sunday in Southern California. We started by attending a church service at the First Christian Church of Fullerton. The place where Barry and Donna worship. I've been there a couple of times before for their Tuesday evening Contemplative Service with Barry. So I thought this would be a nice way to see what their Sunday services are like. We had a new experience, singing songs - some we new the melody, but with different words, and other songs with the words projected on the two big screens, but didn't know the melody... They do things just a *bit* differently than we are used to in our LDS services. Women were dressed in pants - Jill felt a bit overdressed in her Sunday dress. Not very many children in the congregation, and the choir all dressed in robes, and the pastor talking as he walked around using a wireless microphone all led to a unique church experience. They must have used a different version of the Bible as well - some of the quotes from Isaiah felt a bit 'too easy' - so I looked up the matching quotes in the King James version on my iPhone and realized the quoted scriptures on the big screens must have come from a different translation. (I never remember the word 'communicate' in the bible)

The people were friendly, helpful and genuinely glad to have us share their worship service with them.

Then quickly back to the hotel to change and drive with Kenny & Cathy to the Essentia Water bottling plant. I was very interested in the water purification, ionization, and bottling process Kenny uses for his Essentia water. Jill swears by the stuff. Me, I figure you can just put water back in the bottle from the tap and put it back in the fridge - but my kids and wife don't agree with me. We also got to see the actual blow molding process of making the bottles - from a 'preform' plastic slug, to a bottle in just seconds... cool. Don't we all look good in the hair nets?

Bottle 'Preform'Heated Preform going into blow mold

Bottles coming out of Blow Mold
Finished Bottles
Cathy & Jill with Hair Nets
Keith at Blow Mold Machine

We thought to drive to Rodeo Drive and walk around - but by the time we got there in the LA Traffic... it was time to head back south again. We picked up our car and drove down the coast to Laguna Beach to a restaurant recommended by Wayne. Cathy teased Wayne about this being a 'mexican' restaurant with a name like Las Brisas... he said it wasn't Mexican food... see sign below... They did serve some Mexican dishes, but my meal didn't taste 'Mexican' at all.

I got to try Ceviche... made from raw Sea Bass and marinated in Lime Juice to 'cook' the fish. I had a bit of trepidation... but after a bit of prodding from Wayne I gave it a try, and actually enjoyed it - and had multiple servings with some great chips. For the main entree I tried some Shrimp that sounded a bit like Scampi... but was I surprised. It turned out to be one of the top ten best meals I've ever had. It reminded me of the sauce on a fish meal down on the Brazilian coast - a fantastic flavor. I don't think it had saffron in it... but it had a great subtle flavor and was kind of 'orange'. Jokingly I told Kenny he should stay another day just so he could eat this fine meal a second day in a row. After I got back to the hotel I looked up the Las Brisas on the Internet - but sadly found the dinner menu wasn't available the next day... bummer. We then drove straight up to Downey for a fireside put on by the BYU Lacrosse team. Pat, Paul, and Josh all gave good talks - followed by the Coach also giving a good talk. It was fun to be with Brent and talk with him and his friends.

A busy day... but full of fun and new experiences.