When my sister, Laurel, and our niece, Aurora, agreed to make the trek from Pasadena out to visit us at Dockweiler RV Park (read more about that special place in our Friday column), I wanted to make something special for brunch. 

What's a better expression of Cali cuisine than avocado toast? This trend has become so mainstream in the past couple of years, I wouldn't be surprised if Jack-in-the-Box rolled out a version. 

The trick, of course, is to buy avocados in advance and let them ripen in your kitchen. With an apple in a brown paper bag always works for me. But that requires some advance planning and I only cooked up this menu after scoring some beautiful bread at Gjusta in Venice Beach the day before. 

Fortunately, the avocados I bought at Trader Joe's were not rock hard and not too mushy. The morning of our brunch, I smashed them using a potato masher I recently added to my small mix of kitchen tools. I don't use it often, but when it's needed, I'm grateful to have it.

Just for the heck of it, I also made tuna salad and a mustard-y egg salad for possible toast toppings. The rustic bread was sliced and toasted on my beloved George Foreman Grill, the last piece pulled off as our company arrived.

My sister contributed to this fun feast by bringing oranges from her backyard. Brilliant! 

After brunch, we suited up and went for a swim, the Pacific was chilly, but not too cold. It was one of the best days in a long string of very good days, reminding us once again to be grateful for this incredible journey. 

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