I just returned from a work trip to Southern California. I was invited out to give a talk to members of Citizens for Global Solutions, the United Nations Association USA and the Regional Council of Organizations. My talk was entitled “UN in the 21st Century: The Continuing Process of UN Reform, Peacekeeping, Terrorism, and Opportunities for Citizen Action.” Wendell Harter, our California Region director, invited me out. Since I was going to be in Southern California for this talk on Saturday the 18th, I went out two days early to visit some Congressional candidates running in the 50th district. The special election there was to replace disgraced former Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham. For more on my talk, see later blog entries.

I left Baltimore on a 7:00 AM flight and flew into LAX. I worked on my Saturday speech for the entire flight. I rented a car at Enterprise near the airport. Little did they know to expect a Clark Kent/Superman experience! After securing the car, I dashed into their restroom and changed from jeans and a casual shirt into a power suit. I walked in a tourist and popped out a businessman. Too funny. You should have seen their faces!

I drove down to San Diego county, where the district is. I met Richard Earnest, a moderate Republican running in the district. I was very impressed with their openness to our foreign policy ideas. After a great meeting there, I drove back north to Encinitas, where I stayed for one night in a Holiday Inn Express just off I-5. I checked into my room and hooked up instantly to the wireless internet, searching for more ideas for Saturday. I worked until around 8-ish and then dashed out to find the Passage to India restaurant. After driving around a bit and calling 411 to get their number and location, I ended up having an okay Indian meal. Very filling, but not too much to write home about. I drove back, sated, to my hotel and spent the next four hours (until 1:30 AM) working on my speech notes.

I got up the next morning at 7:30 and worked until checkout at noon. I was able to get my PowerPoint presentation completed before checking out. Now, I also wanted to visit another candidate while I was in the area, Democratic challenger Francine Busby. My research associate hadn’t been able to get me a meeting, due to Francine’s busy schedule. But, I got directions online to her Encinitas satellite office and figured I could drop off our candidate questionnaire at least. I first stopped at FedEx/Kinkos to print out my notes and slides, then drove down near the beach, parked, and popped into the campaign office.

The great staff there welcomed me and I explained who I was and why I was there. I pulled out the CQ and was prepared to leave when one of the women asked me if I wanted to meet with Francine. I told them I thought she wasn’t around, but they said she was on a conference call in the back and they’d check to see if she was free. She took my CQ and card into the back and I sat in the front to chat with the staff. The lady returned and said Francine’d be out in a minute and I should just wait a bit longer.

Francine came out about 5 minutes later and introduced herself. I felt a little uncomfortable since I was wearing khakis, a black t-shirt, and a leather sport coat. Since I assumed she wouldn’t be there, I didn’t wear my suit. Fortunately, she didn’t mind at all and she asked if I wouldn’t mind walking outside to talk since it was a beautiful day and she’d been cooped up in the office all morning. I was totally fine with that and out we went, leaving her staff behind in the office. We walked down to the beach, with my explaining my organization and our affiliated PAC, and her talking about our shared issues. The beach was beautiful and we stayed there a bit looking out from a perch up the cliff. Then, we headed back since she kept worrying that I’d be cold, especially with my shaved head!

We stopped in front of her office and I assumed we were almost finished. She asked me what my plans were for the rest of the day and I told her I wanted to grab some lunch and head out to Orange County to visit a friend and then check into my hotel in LA. She asked where I was going for lunch and I said I had no idea but would wander around. She said that she had time for lunch before doing some radio interviews later in the day and invited me to join her. I thought it was great so she told her staff she was taking her lunch and off we went. She asked what types of food I liked and I said I could do anything, except Thai since I had dinner plans that evening at a Thai place. She said if you want good down and dirty Mexican, we should try this place right by her office. It was called Raul’s Shack and wasn’t much more than an enclosed cooking area and some chairs and tables. I was sold and we placed our order and sat down in one of the enclosed sitting areas to talk DC political figures and politics. I had this amazing shredded pork burrito called the Adobado burrito (I hope that’s right!) that was to die for. After lunch, we walked back to her office, had some nice farewell comments, and off I went.