Wednesday night we arrived in Pasadena and headed over to Jimmy, Lydia, Blythe, and the cats' new home. Lydia's family were in town through Tuesday to visit, and help them move in (thus, our stop in San Francisco to share the visit). They were sweet enough to let us swing by, despite the chaos in their lives, and spend some time with them. We met precious little Blythe Anne on Wednesday (as I previously posted about), and got to catch up with Jimmy and Lydia.
(One of their two cats, October looks so much like my old cat, Cindy-she's just nicer than Cindy (Cindy had too much 'personality' to be 'nice'), and maybe a little rounder :O))
Thursday we headed back over to visit with Lydia and Blythe, and then we went to their 'old' home in Pasadena to help with the last minute clean up. In the afternoon, Blythe napped, and Mom and I headed to Old Town Pasadena (very near our hotel) and shopped up and down the streets (beautiful). That evening everyone met up again at the Cheesecake Factory for dinner.
Friday we took Jason to see some of the sights and sounds of LA. We started in Hollywood and ate at Johnny Rockets, saw 'the' Hollywood sign, walked along the Stars, and examined the handprints/footprints in front of the Chinese Theater. (Just fyi, if you drive to Hollywood, there is a 'mall' garage you can park at by the Kodak Theater, it's two dollars if you get your ticket stamped at one of the restaurants in the open air mall (the same open aired 'mall' with the views of the Hollywood sign)). Next we headed over to Santa Monica Beach. We decided Jason would like the Pier. I sat on the sand and people watched. The surfers were out in full force ( sharks had been spotted the last few days in those areas (with seals), and I had just finished watching shark week on Discovery....so....). The water is FREEZING, and rougher than the gulf 'near' me, and I find-I like the sand in CA!
I did dip my feet in, but it's sort of like burying your toes in a block of ice.
That evening we went back over to see the family, eat dinner, play games, and to watch/hold Blythe. It was not long enough, and it's so hard to leave her, she wouldn't promise not to grow, but I'll see if we can continue getting pictures posted online.
Saturday and Sunday we made the LONG drive home. We drove along the 'bottom' of the states this time. We drove through Palm Springs with miles....and miles...and miles of wind farms (sure, these aren't rare to see, but it's the sheer number that impresses me here). I rediscovered the barrel cactus in Arizona that grow 'down' there. I love these cactus-they are the ones I've doodled a million times in looooong meetings at work). When we got to West Texas on day two, we drove through Sweetwater-my grandfather's home town. Mom had never been. We didn't get to see much of it, but it was just nice to know-he drove those rodes once upon a time!
It was an action packed trip. For a 'full' photo story, this is a link to my shutterfly album. http://share.shutterfly.com/share/received/welcome.sfly?fid=0b6ab7cdd7a87e5b6276141d224b0f78&sid=0AZMmrNw0YsmLJYA
1 comment
Loved your trip to CA! Thanks for taking us along.
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