Thanks Cesar Chavez!

Yesterday was Cesar Chavez day & because of that I was fortunate enough to have the day off from work. Normally that is a pretty fantastic thing by itself but on this day of the year it is even better. Why you might ask? What could be better than a paid day off from work? Well what makes this better than most holidays is that my kids DON'T get this day off from school! Don't get me wrong, I love to spend time with my whole family but I treasure my time alone with my man!! And I was going to take FULL advantage of this day off...

So Jamey & I decided to do something that we haven't done for years & we headed for Old Town. Now Old Town has changed over the years but it still has it's old world charm & plenty of Mexican Restaurants (in fact it seemed like every other place was one). It was fun too to remember all the different field trips we had taken there (some when we were kids & many with our own kids). It was a beautiful day with blue sky although the breeze was still a little chilly. Thank goodness it was warm in the sun. We even found a gallery of a local artist (who actually ran the store). His paintings almost looked like photographs they were so detailed. I especially loved the vibrant colors he used & every landscape was from some place local so everything was familiar - of course we had to get one! We stopped in front of a souvenir shop that had colorful tiles on the front & an old hand cart to do some "self" portraits with Jamey's cell phone - needless to say those didn't turn out so great, but as soon as I figure out how to get them off his phone & in the computer I will add them to this post. After checking out several shops & the different gardens we stopped for lunch... how can you resist the Mexican food when the smell is luring you in with every footstep? It was a fantastic way to spend some quality alone time with my favorite person in the world!!

For many of you, you may wonder who is Cesar Chavez? I think California may be the only state in the US that celebrates this day - but I could be wrong. I know when we first started getting it off I had no idea who he was... then my Hispanic co-worker was more than happy to fill me in. You see Cesar Chavez was a Mexican American migrant worker who fought for better working conditions for farm workers. His tireless leadership focused national attention on these laborers' terrible working conditions, which eventually led to improvements. All I know is that I have seen these people at work & I think they are some of the hardest working people there are. I hope they got the day off too!!!