Arboretum day

 It was not a particularly good night for us.  The room was hot but when the AC came on it was very loud and then it got cold. So we got a little slower start than we had planned. We had planned to get to Sharon and Michael's around 8:30 am. But that was when we actually left the hotel. We stopped at Porto's to get breakfast to go.  I had a ham and cheese croissant.  

Sharon & Michael's home

Once we got to the house we all walked up (well some walked) to Toasted for morning treats.  I just had OJ. 

Pam showed up.  She had been sick and so we had not seen her yet. That was nice. 

Once everyone had their snack we headed back to the cars to go to the LA Arboretum.

Nicole with Lancaster

There were a lot of peacocks around

We had paid for an 11 am tram ride around the arboretum.  

The tram

Nathan, Ella, Nicole, Sharon, Pam, Jamie, George, and me

I hadn't realized how large the arboretum was.  We never would have gotten around it all, walking with the kids, though we could have walked faster than the tram.  

Bamboo

Pink Silk Floss tree.

Waterfall which has been used in some music videos.

Rose Garden

The building used in Fantasy Island

Ella had had enough.  

It was lunch time when we got back to the starting point.  We ate at the Peacock Cafe.  It was good and reasonably priced.

We headed back to Sharon & Michael's right after lunch.  It was nap time.  George, Nathan and I found a place that we could hang out for a couple of hours.  We played a round of 10, 9, 8.  Then we went to Trader Joe's to get some things for making lemon bars.

Once nap time was over Nathan, Ella & Nicole made the lemon bars.

Finished lemon bars

Fun with static electricity.

Tonight's dinner was Thai food.   We called in the order and then walked to go get it. Again we had plenty.  We also ate some of the Indian food left-overs.  

After dinner the adults played a round of 8, 7, 6.  We had too many people to start from 10.  It was fun.  As usual, I lost.  Jamie won.

We left at the kid's bed time. 

On the way back to the hotel we had an incident.  There is one road that has a lot of stop signs and one in particular is not well lit.  George saw it just in time and slammed on the brakes. Unfortunately, a cop was right there.  We immediately pulled over, when the cop's lights came on.  George told the cop that we were visitors and we didn't see the sign.  The cop gave us a warning instead of a ticket.  But he reminded us that not seeing the sign was not a good excuse. We were not the first to have trouble at that intersection, and he did agree that we did actually stop. Maybe we will find another street to go down next time.

Friday to California

 George and I left the house about 8 am to pick up Nathan.  Then we picked up Rebecca from her job at Amazon.  From there we went to the airport.  Rebecca took the car home so that she could use it for the weekend while we were in Glendale, CA visiting family.  The flight was uneventful.

Portland Airport

We flew into Burbank and rented a car.

We saw where the train station is that Debbie and I will arrive at in January when we take the train down.  It was right beside the airport.

We headed to our hotel.  We were allowed to check in early.  We are at the Brand Plaza Hotel. Luckily, we only had to do one flight of stairs.  Nathan headed out on a walk to go to Trader Joes for some "essentials" (wine). 

Our room

The lobby.

About 3:30 pm we headed over to Sharon (my niece)  & Michael's place.

Some neighborhood Halloween decorations are still out.

We had a lot of fun play time with Ella (6) and Nicole (almost 4), at least Nathan did.  George and I watched.

They have banana trees in their back yard.

Real bananas

Nicole

We played a modified version of soccer where they got all the points and we got none. 

Jamie (my brother) came in with all the food we had ordered for dinner.  We ordered Indian food tonight.  

Sharon set everything out.

What an array.

Ella and Nathan

Ella, Jamie, and Nicole.

Uncle Nathan is a big hit, their new toy.

Jamie, me, Sharon, Nathan, Ella, Nicole

Origami stars that Michael makes, Ella helped.

Ella discovers static electricity

Nicole is getting sleepy

Time for bed.

The kids were going to bed and so we headed out.  Hopefully, we will see Pam tomorrow.  She had been sick and so was trying to not expose anyone. But we found out she was playing pickle ball so I guess she is ok.

Halloween or Christmas lights across the street.

We got back to the hotel and relaxed a bit before we played a rabble rousing game of 10, 9, 8.  

This room is quite small and there was not a good table to play on.  But I was comfy.