Glendale, CA

Nathan, George and I were going to Glendale to visit my brother Jamie and family.  We left our house at 8:15 am, picked up Nathan and then picked up Rebecca from her work at the Amazon Distribution Center.  This did get us to the airport early but we did not have to pay for parking because Rebecca took the car home. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 11:45 am but it ended out being 1/2 hour delayed.  Not too bad.

Airport art

Our plane

View from Burbank airport.

When we got to the car rental place, they told us that they had no cars available.  We could have a pick-up truck or pay $200 more for a larger vehicle, or wait 1/2 hour for a vehicle to be ready.  We opted to wait.  I don't understand this.  We weren't the only ones who got this same message.  What a pain.

After we got the car we drove to our hotel.  We were in a hurry so I did not take pictures.

The front door of the Brand Plaza Hotel.   We checked in and put our bags in the room and then left to go to Jamie and Pam's place.  Grandma Pam is the after school childcare person.  Ella (5 years old) is in kindergarten and Nicole (2 1/2 years old) is in a preschool program.  Ella's kindergarten is in a Japanese immersion program elementary school.

Ella, Pam, Nicole.  

Ella and Nicole were thrilled to see Nathan.  He was a new toy to play with. 

Then we all went over to Sharon and Michael's for dinner.  It was delicious Indian food from Cardamom's.  

Lots of choices.  What a feast!!

One toy Nathan bought for Ella and Nicole to share was this pony that you were supposed balance the sticks on its back.  I did the one on the right. Ella (on the left) found a way to keep them all neatly stacked.  It can also be played kind of like Jenga,  

Reading time. Ella, Pam, Nathan and Nicole.

After the kids were in bed some of us walked around the block.  Then we headed back to Jamie and Pam's to visit for a short time.  We headed back to the hotel.

Our room

Front desk

Lobby

Eclipse and Raptors

We took a Lyft to meet Marianne (Marianne is my friend Joyce's number 2 daughter), Sam, James, and Beth for breakfast at Denny's.  It was right next door to their motel.  

Sunrise. Maybe we will have a break in the clouds today.  

I should have taken a picture at breakfast.

After breakfast, we headed to Alton Baker Park via Lyft for the eclipse viewing.  We kept telling the kids that there were swings and playgrounds.

Birds waiting for the eclipse or as James said, "birds on the zipline!" 

James

  We found a good spot that was fairly open and then we waited.

We were lucky.  We did get glimpses!! It was fun.  I don't think that the kids were very impressed..  Because of the clouds we never needed the eclipse glasses.

But ... Where are the swings?!!! We finally found them. Clear at the other end of the park.  Nathan walked and I went in the car with Marianne and the gang.

Beth

Sam & Beth

But James liked his sticker book better.  

Marianne & Beth

We had heard about Eugene's Raptor Center so we decided to go there. Another Lyft ride.  

My favorite was the barn owl.  It was a nice place and they did a lot of talking about the birds and what they do.  It was interesting.  But I felt like the cages were too small so that the birds could not fly much.  Apparently, they do take the trained ones out to fly more independently.

Another Lyft ride to lunch.  We headed to the Lion and Owl.  It seemed appropriate but it was booked, so we walked to Pippi Anatolia which is a Greek-Indian restaurant.  I think that we all ended out ordering Greetk.

I had the shrimp pita,

While we were there my cousin, Elaine, came to visit. That was fun.  We had a nice time reconnecting. 

Elaine Bernat (my cousin on my dad's side)

 After lunch, Marianne and the gang headed home and we walked to the train station.  We walked through the Saturday Market on our way.  We enjoyed the art along the way.

Pre-halloween

Train station

The train headed back to Portland at 4:30 pm 

Crossing the Willamette coming into Portland.

George met us.  We stopped by Nathan's so that he could pick up a few things and then we headed home. 

To Eugene

The point of this trip is to see the annular eclipse.  Unfortunately all the weather reports say that it will be overcast tomorrow and we won't see anything.  We thought that it could be a fun trip anyway.  We picked up Nathan. a Bellagio's Pizza, and some wine and went to the Amtrak train station.  George stayed with us until it was time to board.  We had some of the pizza while we waited for the train.  It was scheduled to leave at 6:10 pm.  It left pretty much on time.

Getting on the train is SO different than getting on a plane.  They did check our tickets.

Once we got on our way we had the rest of the pizza with our wine.

It got dark fairly soon after we left PDX so no good photo ops.  We got to Eugene around 9 pm.  

Nathan is recovering from having a flu shot and Covid booster so he was ready to crash.  We took an Uber to the hotel. 

So, we made it safely to Eugene, only 1/2 hour late.  At least it wasn't raining.  Now if the weather would only cooperate tomorrow.  We hope to connect with Marianne, Sam and kids tomorrow and also with one of my cousins.