Newport Santa

This Saturday we drove up to Fashion Island to take the boys to see Santa. It was so nice just to get out of town for a day. It's always fun to go up there to check out my old make-up counter where I used to work, but sadly it was closed. The store must be getting a facelift, as are the rest of Newport. Of course the mall & parking lot were crowded, but thankfully I had my trusty handicap permit (that expired that day) from when I had surgery. I was so sad that it was the last day I could use it (for those days when there is NO parking). As we were walking towards the mall with our kids in tote, a grumpy man sitting on a bench mumbled at us and I did not think he was speaking to us, but Lance said "excuse me?" and he said,"I'm calling the police to have your car towed. You parked in a handicap spot." Lance said, "AND we have a valid handicap permit from my wife's surgery." He kept mumbling and said some more rude things under his breath. That put Lance in a bad mood for our whole Santa visit until he went to check on our car. I kept reassuring him that the cops couldn't tow our car on that guys word that we didn't appear handicapped. It did make me feel a little guilty knowing that I was using it even though I didn't need it, but it also irritated me that the man accused us of being handicap parking theives! We did enjoy the rest of our time, wandering around and not shopping. The santa was great-he even had a real beard! We ate at my favorite restaurant El Torito Grill. I love the warm tortillas, salsa and honey butter. For those that haven't been, it is like 10 steps up from El Torito-everything is soooo good.