A Sunday Afternoon for Pho, Lockboxes and Real Estate

Entrance to Pho Xe Lua, a Vietnamese Pho restaurant on Stockton.

When my husband and I were dating, he first introduced me to Pho, the Vietnamese noodle soup, while visiting Washington, D.C. It’s where he took me for breakfast. I thought he was a bit off kilter to want to eat soup for breakfast. My idea of a romantic breakfast was a fluffy 3-egg omelette, featuring plump tender scallops, spring asparagus and mozzarella cheese, not a bowl of steaming Pho, but it does grow on you. Especially since it gives me an excuse to eat jalapeños. Since then, we have been to many Pho restaurants, including the Pho Xe Lua pictured above, where we went Sunday afternoon for lunch.

Pho Xe Lua is one of the best Pho restaurants in Sacramento, and it’s located on Stockton, across from the Fruitridge shopping center. I ordered one of my favorite dishes, charbroiled shrimp and vermicelli. At Pho Bac Hoa Viet on Broadway in Land Park, you’re lucky to get 8 shrimp in this dish. However, at Pho Xe Lua, this dish was served with 18 shrimp on 3 skewers. The food was served super fast, and huge portions, more than I could eat. The only drawbacks were our drink orders arrived after the food, and my cafe sua da was a bit on the short side.

We were headed to Elk Grove so I could pick up a lockbox from a home that just closed escrow, and then off to Sport Chalet to buy snorkeling gear for me. Ever since that episode over Labor Day in Hawaii when I tried to rent snorkeling equipment and was refused due to “rough waters” and the hotel didn’t want to get sued, I have had buying snorkeling gear on the back burner. Plus, not every resort is like the one in Vanuatu that gave me the snorkeling gear when I checked in and I returned it when I left, and it was free. I’m going to Hawaii next week, and this time I am prepared.

Right next to the Sport Chalet in Elk Grove is a Pet Club store, where we found Fancy Feast Classic Chicken on sale at $11.00 for 24 cans. Fast math tells me we spend $165 a month on cat food to feed 3 cats. Doesn’t that seem like a lot of money to you?

As my husband began stuffing cases of cat food into our cart, my phone rang. It was a potential buyer for a home in Elk Grove. He pressed me for an appointment to tour homes in Elk Grove, and I asked if he understood that if the Elizabeth Weintraub Team shows him homes, that we will represent him and write the purchase offer. Oh, no, suddenly he had an agent, when he didn’t have an agent a few minutes earlier. Funny how when you put it that way to a home buyer, his memory improves.