Sunday - Home Again

Jamie and Pam picked us up from the hotel at 8:30 am.  We had had breakfast and checked out.  We drove Nathan and Linda to LAX airport.  We dropped them off at their terminals.  Nathan at 3 and Linda at 4. Then we drove home.  After lunch, Jamie went back to work, George had an errand to run and Pam and I decided to get our exercise by going back to the Desconso Gardens to walk around. We explored some different trails.  I took some more pictures, of course.

Then we relaxed for the rest of the afternoon.  Jamie came home before it was time for us to go to the airport.  We had a rental car but we were going to a close airport.  We left the house at 5 pm.

The Burbank airport has a pet relief center.  I have never seen this in any airport.  They must have a lot of traveling dogs.

Nathan had a 5 hour lay-over in Seattle.  Linda had a nonstop flight to DC but it was a long flight. Ours was a nonstop as well but it was not a long flight.  When we landed in Portland it was 42 degrees.  Pam said it was 57 in Glendale, it was 47 in DC and 18 in Juneau and snowing.

We all got back to our various homes safely.  We took the Lyft car from the MAX station home.  This is our first time using Lyft.  

Saturday

We did our usual morning walk over to Jamie & Pam's home.  Jamie had to work in the morning so the rest of us went to walk in the Descanso Gardens.  They were very pretty.

During the winter months they have an evening light show called Enchanted.  This bed of glass tulips would all be lit up.  Pam tried to get tickets for us to go but they were all sold out. 

This is how it looks lit up.

We could have ridden the train around.

Nathan naturally found a photo op

Imagine this lit up at night

Taking a break.

Even saw 2 deer.

This was a very pretty garden even in the winter.

Then we dropped Linda off at a friend's apartment for lunch and we went home for lunch.

Once Linda came home we headed off to Barnes and Noble.  We did a lot of browsing.  

After I had bought my brother's latest book I sat in the Starbucks and had coffee with Jamie.  The person in line in front of me "paid it forward" and bought me my coffee!! (because it was Thanksgiving weekend)  That was nice.  

We had gone to the book store in 2 cars because one group wanted to go hiking after the bookstore.  Jamie, Nathan, Linda and George headed off.  Then Pam and I headed home to make peanut butter cookies

The hikers did not hike long.  They decided to go wine tasting at a wine bar. They invited us but it was too late by then.  The wine bar was back near the Barnes and Noble.  They had a good time.

We had our wine after we got the cookies in the oven.

Once they got home we headed off to Annapurna Grill for an Indian dinner.  This is a south Indian food restaurant.  We had idlis as appetizers and Jamie and I each ordered the dosa, which we shared.  No butter chicken, since that is north Indian.  Other than the idlis and dosas the food was all spicier than I like.  Even the biriyani (rice dish) was spicy.  We had plenty of food.  I explained to Nathan that south Indian food tended to be hotter.  A general rule of thumb, the closer to the equator the spicier the food.

The dosas.  Every time I order this, I keep thinking that I should order it more often.  The table next to us ordered the family dosa.  It is 4 feet long!! I snuck a picture but it did not really give the feel for the size and it was not a good picture.

I took a picture of the moon to show the air pollution.  The moon was fuzzy. 

We came home and watched another old classic, Desk Set with Katharine Hepburn.  Very enjoyable silly movie. 

Friday

On our morning walk over to Jamie and Pam's we saw a wedding group.  Of course, I had to take pictures.  They had Bollywood music playing from a loudspeaker.

We headed out around 9:30 am to go to the Redondo beach again.  This time to ride bikes.  There was a line waiting to rent bikes but we all managed to get bikes.  Nathan got Rollerblades.  The bikes were 1 speed with foot brakes.  

We rode south to the end of the bike path.  

At the end we stopped to take a group picture.  Linda did not want to join us.

She was resting.

Gorgeous beach, I went down to touch the water.

On the way back we stopped at the Redondo Beach Landing for an ice cream break.

It was about an 8 mile bike ride.  We turned in the bikes and then headed home.  We had a very quick lunch at home.  It was nearly 2 pm and we had to hurry because we had 2:45 pm tickets to go see the Thor Ragnarok movie.  On the way home Jamie dropped us off at the hotel so we could have the complimentary wine and appetizers.  They are strict at this hotel and would not let us bring in guests.     Well, we could bring guest but it would $20 per person.

We walked back to Jamie and Pam's for a delicious Chana masala dinner.  Linda had a party to go to after dinner and Jamie had to go into work for a few hours.  The rest of us watched an old Audrey Hepburn movie, How to Steal a Million Dollars.  It was a cute movie.  It was set in Paris so it was fun to see familiar places.  We walked back to the hotel after the movie.