Homemade chocolate cake and coffee ice cream. My wife is simply the greatest!
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Friday, September 5, 2008
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Mom's Visit - Part 1
--> FRIDAY - SATURDAY
My mom has come out to LA to visit for a few days. We have a few things planned for her visit and will take some photos along the way. Yesterday we loaded up L, my mom, Dudley and myself in the car and headed down to Manhattan Beach to go for a walk. The weather was perfect. In the evening we got pizza from a place near the house and watched "Children of Men" in the home theater.
Today was another great day. We took her on a brief tour of UCLA. L was our guide since it's her alma mater.
In the evening we made our way to the Griffith Observatory. It was closed the last time she was visiting so it was a real treat for to get to go. It a great place to visit, the only challenge is the parking. I dropped them off and headed back down the hill to find parking. Once I found a space I made my way back up the hill. L had acquired tickets to the Planetarium show so we had some time to walk around. We looked at the exhibits, enjoyed the city views and eventually caught the Planetarium show. It's an entirely new show that detailed the makings of the Universe as we know it. Definitely worthwhile.
Mom's Visit - Part 2
--> SUNDAY
Today, Sunday, we took Dudley down to a dog beach about half an hour away. It's not as big as the one in Coronado, featured earlier in the blog. It was still a good place to let him run around with other dogs. Mom got to see him see him take off and open up a couple of times.
Couple of notable things on this trip to the dog beach. Whenever you go to a dog beach or dog park, there's always that one dog that just barks incessantly at the other dogs. It's not aggressive by any means. It's more along the lines of yelling, "Hey! Hey! Hey!" over and over again. Today, Dudley was that dog. Wonderful.
The other odd thing today was at one point Dudley chased another dog into the surf, which is not unusual. He won't chase balls, but he will chase other dogs that are chasing balls. At one point today he just stayed in the surf and stood there. The waves kept coming in on and over him and he just stood there. I guess it was cooling him off.
After a minute or so, he made his way back to shore and continued to meet, greet and blow by the other dogs.
In the evening we took a local shuttle to the Hollywood Bowl. They were having a Warner Bros. tribute. They LA Philharmonic was playing live film scores to various WB clips and montages. It was a birthday gift for mom.
We picked up the shuttle a couple of miles from our house and got chauffeured to the Bowl. It's the only way to go there. Don't have to worrying about driving and more importantly...parking. The bus doesn't make any stops until it drops you off right in front of the Bowl.
L did a great job getting the seats. We were practically dead center and on the aisle. Best of all there was nothing in front of us. The row in front of us started off to our left. This allowed us to stretch out our legs and relax. We brought our own food and snacks that we enjoyed before and during the show.
The performance was fantastic. As you watched the projected scenes from the films you had to remind yourself that the music you were hearing was live. It's just amazing that a group of people can band together to make such organized noise that can illicit an emotional response. Just another one of those things that separates us from the bugs and armadillos.
Mom's Visit - Part 3
--> MONDAY
Mom mentioned she wanted to see a part of L.A. that she hadn't been to before, specifically....downtown. So after a little internet research we mapped out some landmarks, got ourselves organized and hit the road.
Once we got downtown we parked in Little Tokyo. We ended up walking 3 miles total and covered quite a bit. We saw many historic places like City Hall and the Los Angeles Times building. As well as some newer additions like the Walt Disney Concert Hall.
At the end of the tour we hit up one of our favorite ramen shops for a late lunch. Mom mastered eating noodles with chopsticks in one sitting. Impressive.
walking in LA from dominick on Vimeo.
Mom's Visit - Part 4
--> TUESDAY
After 5 hours of walking all over downtown L.A. the day before, we took mom's last day a little easier. We headed over to Manhattan Beach for some lunch. Afterwards we got some drinks from Starbuck's and walked down to the pier.
We spent the rest of the day relaxing, talking and what not. Here's mom trying to convince a squirrel that she won't kill him.
On the way home earlier, we picked up some groceries for dinner. Mom had a shrimp pasta dish that she wanted to make for us.
We made some salads with a little help from L's garden. It was a really tasty meal and definitely a nice way to round out a really great visit.
Thanks for visiting Mom! Come back soon!
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