The Quest for South Coast

South Coast Plaza that is, one of the preeminent malls in the country!

Located down in The OC (Costa Mesa, CA to be precise), South Coast Plaza has over 2.8 million leasable square feet, 280 plus stores and the highest per square foot sales in California (eat your heart out The Beverly Center), from Abercrombie to Zegna, American Eagle to Valentino, this mall seemingly has it all.

The effort getting there however was akin to Frodo and Sam's quest for Mount Doom in The Return of the King.

Starting with traffic at a standstill on the 101 (an abandoned burnt out wreck was strewn across the middle two lanes). And ending with getting lost entering the mall from the wrong direction off of the 5 (rather than the more direct route from the 405). It took us almost three hours to go 47 miles. Oh, and did I mention the blown out tire near Anaheim!

Crossing the Carpool/HOV median we hit something that put a gaping hole in the driver's side back tire. Drifting across the five lanes to the shoulder, we ground to a halt, called MINI Roadside Assistance (that's AAA to you and me), blistered in the heat for 45 minutes waiting for the mechanic, and all the while my little car continued to be buffeted by the air currents of the passing traffic. An unnerving experience to be sure, but less so for me since Joe never told me that people get killed waiting in their cars on Californian highway shoulders.

(And that's the second time I had to call Roadside Assistance this week - my battery went flat Monday when I left the blinkers on for an extended period of time - Oops! Silly me!)

So was the trip to the mall worth the trouble? A few select Godiva truffles, a romantic dinner at Claim Jumper, and being come on to as the "not from around here" muscle boys by the cutie in Quicksilver. Well, a good day was finally had by all.

And it only took us an hour and a half to get home... in the pouring rain... and on the donut!