It's All Happening.

You guys, it's all happening.

I've been to the new Cafe Rio in Lake Forest. If there were an adjective in the English language that could describe the exquisite pleasure and joy that resulted from this opportunity, then I'd use it right now. I think the only word that even comes close is SCRUMTRILLESCENT.

Editor's Note: This post is actually a bit delayed, because I wanted to recap our PA trip first. But in a nutshell, we returned from our Christmas vacation on a Wednesday, recuperated on Thursday, and then took off to Disneyland and Cafe Rio on Friday. I insisted, and Tim did not object. :-)

The day actually started out really badly! First, Tim's sunglasses broke. Argh. (Is it just us, or do other people constantly find their sunglasses to be broken, too? We stopped buying nice sunglasses years ago. We're all about the $10 pairs from Target, because seriously, they'll probably be broken in two weeks anyway.)

Then, when we walked out to our car, we discovered a parking ticket on our windshield. Double argh. (Don't worry, I'm appealing the ticket. The Parking Citations office will have to pull that $42.50 from my cold, dead fingers.)

Then, we arrived at the Disneyland parking garage, only to realize that we'd left the stroller at home. TRIPLE ARGH!!! We decided that it would take too long to drive all the way back home just for the stroller, and because we're too cheap to rent one (since we were only planning on staying for a few hours), it was all shoulders for Weston that day. He took turns riding on our shoulders, and he occasionally ran around on his own. And whichever person wasn't carrying him was carrying the diaper bag. (The lack-of-diaper-bag-storage part of our stroller dilemma was almost more annoying than the lack-of-Weston-storage. Although Weston gets heavy, at least his legs and butt are soft and squishy on our shoulders. The diaper bag, on the other hand, kind of cuts into your skin after a while, especially when it's full of snacks and water bottles, not to mention Weston's bulky blankie.)

So, it was a rough morning. But don't worry!! There's a happy ending!! And its name is Cafe Rio.

TA DA!!!!! (It was a welcome change to drive all the way down to Lake Forest and discover that the Cafe Rio was actually open, haha!)

Both the Cafe Rio truck and the Cafe Rio mobile were parked outside:

Inside, it looked EXACTLY THE SAME (although the Lake Forest location is super spacious in comparison to the Provo location):

And it wasn't crowded at all, which I suppose is one advantage of going at 3:30 in the afternoon. I was half expecting to see people I knew, since I assumed the place would be full of Utah expats like us. However, the clientele looked pretty typical (although I did see several people greeting each other as they came and went).

When we got in line and placed our orders, I had a brief moment of panic where I wondered if it was going to be anything like real Cafe Rio, or if it was going to be weird and different instead. The employees behind the counter seemed to be less synchronized than the folks in Utah, but then again, the place had only been open for two or three weeks, so I'll cut them some slack. Plus, they were all exceedingly friendly. Seriously... really, REALLY nice and helpful. It was great.

And in the end, we got exactly what we wanted, and it tasted EXACTLY the same. SO GOOD. SO GOOD!!! For Tim, the pork burrito, enchilada-style, with black beans and red sauce:

For Jean, the Cafe Rio salad with shredded chicken, black beans, and tomatillo dressing:

And for Weston, a free child's quesadilla!! (Did you know that they serve free quesadillas to the kids? I did not know that!! Yet another reason to fall in love with Cafe Rio once again!!) (It's funny how oblivious you are to kid-related things when you don't have children, which we didn't when we were living in Utah!)

Once we were sitting, I got a couple of crazy faces:

And then some normal faces:

This is my "I am near to heaven" pose:

Surprisingly, Weston showed zero interest in his yummy little quesadilla. (Usually he really likes quesadillas, so I was confused.) Eventually we realized that all he wanted to eat were the little, crunchy tortilla strips that were on top of my salad. So, I gave him a little pile of them. He nibbled. Then he insisted on dipping them into my tomatillo dressing like I was doing. So, I gave him a little puddle of tomatillo dressing for dipping. HE LOVED IT. THAT WAS ALL HE ATE.

Dip:

Lick, then bite:

And dip again (i.e., recipe for a happy Weston):

So, it was great to be back at the Rio. A ginormous thanks to Heather and Gangy & Grandalf who made it happen for Team Anderson! THANKS, YOU GUYS!!!!! I'm hoping to go as often as humanly possible. I still can't believe that Cafe Rio is just 75 minutes away now. We're meeting up with a few of our friends there later this week, and I could not be more thrilled. I think Cafe Rio should be the official meet-up location for OC and LA people from now on. :-)

Finally, here's my triumphant freeze-frame-at-the-end-of-the-TV-show pose: