In Blog 243 I talked about Personal Life gets better meeting Linda. In this blog I wanted to talk about My son James turns 21 so I take him out.

Linda and I were enjoying our relationship. She was getting a lot of press on her designs which was exciting. She was featured in a magazine this month, so we bought a bunch of copies.

My son James was turning 21 in a few days so I wanted to show him a good time. I asked him what he wanted to do and got the typical, “I don’t know response”. I’m sure he would have wanted to spend this day with his buddies in the Bay Area but here we were. I thought I’d take him to a few popular bars and knew he liked beer so I thought we’d get dinner first. He liked California Pizza Kitchen so we started there. Ordered a few pizzas and of course a beer to wash it down. It was great when he got carded and he whipped out his ID. The look on his face was priceless. I went through the same thing 28 years prior except by myself.

First stop would be the Yard House, they were known for having over 130 beers on tap. The place was super busy and he wasn’t having too much fun there so we had our beers and moved on to the next place.

I thought the Hard Rock Café might be fun plus he could get a T-Shirt there as a memento. Pretty much the same dynamic as the Yard House, Wall to wall people, really loud. He had been to a few concerts so I didn’t think it would be too much for him but oh well.

Third stop was going to be the final one, so I had to get this one right. I took him to the Hofbreau house of Las Vegas. It was loud too and pretty packed, but it was different. It was like an event. There were large tables and almost like being in Germany. The waitresses were dressed in German garb and the beers came out in big stein type mugs. It was great he loved it lol.

We ordered some appetizers and when I told the waitress it was his 21^st birthday it was on. She was great. She came back with a wooden paddle that fit several shots in the wood. She had Jägermeister shots lined up for him. We toasted his birthday then she told him to bend over. He looked at me like WHAAAT? I was cracking up. She whacked him a good one too, I think I even felt that one. Good thing he was a little intoxicated. We both were laughing so hard it hurt. He said “That hurt”.

After a few more beers they called him up to the stage and he had to blow into the long giant Alphorn. Then everyone in the restaurant sang happy birthday to him. They started a contest on who could hold a full beer in the giant mugs the longest. He won so he got to keep the mug as a prize.

When we got back to the table he looked at me and said “You know I thought I wanted to be with my buddies tonight, but I couldn’t imagine a better time than I’m having and I’m with my own dad”. That really meant a lot to me. We both had a great time that night.

So back to work mode, we were planning our next China trip, so I bought James his first car for his birthday. It was a white Mustang. He had a good job at Levi’s so I wanted him to be able to get to work while I was gone. I was glad I could do that for him. I was going to be gone for two weeks but I knew between the long hours he was working and our comical dog Gonzo he’d be okay.

Gonzo was a good dog, always made us laugh because he was so silly. Between the funny looks he’d give us and him trying to run so fast his legs would slip so he would go anywhere it made for good comedy. He had a pretty good-sized backyard to run around. Good sized for him since he was so small.

We had a German Shepard before, and the dog tore up the entire backyard out of boredom because it was too small for him. We found a good home for him with a larger backyard.

Next stop China…