LA Vaca

This past weekend I took a quick trip down to LA - my only trip to California since going to Disney Land when I was 5. My friend Sydney lives there because her husband Hunter is in school at Fuller Theological Seminary. So my friend Anne, who lives in Austin, and I took a vacation to visit Sydney's new home. Anne and I went to Hillcrest Professional Development Elementary School together, Sydney and I went to Lake Air Middle School together, and the three of us were best friends throughout our four years at Waco High School. It was great having a little reunion, which is rare since we all live in different states now.

Anne and I arrived in LAX on Friday evening. Hunter picked us up from the airport and we braved the horrendous LA traffic. We picked up Sydney from their Pasadena apartment and headed to dinner at the Green Street Restaurant. Then we strolled around the downtown Pasadena area near city hall where we window shopped. Then Sydney and Hunter took us to their favorite frozen yogurt spot simply called 21 Choices. This place was amazing - you can choose from 6 frozen yogurt flavors and then add any of the 21 choices of toppings and they mix it all together for you. I choose chocolate yogurt with red velvet cake mixed in - delicious! And while standing in line I won a gift certificate for answering the trivia question (Q: What is the average number of times a human blinks in 1 minute? A: 16). Sydney lost her purse after she set it down while we took a picture with the Jackie Robinson statue and was obviously upset about that Friday night.  We headed back to the apartment to cancel all of her credit cards and everything.  At 11:00 we heard a knock on the door and opened it to find a police man holding Sydney's purse.  Someone found it and turned it in - there are still good people in this world!

Apparently every year Southern California experiences "June Gloom", a term for a weather pattern that results in overcast skies with cool temperatures during early summer mornings. Just my luck - I leave Portland on its most gorgeous sunny weekend and head down to LA during its cloudiest month. Anyway, Saturday morning was a little "gloomy", but we headed to the Pasadena Farmer's Market then picked up an early lunch and brought it back to the apartment to watch the US vs. England World Cup game.

Saturday afternoon we hit up all of the touristy LA scenes: Hollywood Blvd where we hopped out of the car hoping to find a famous sidewalk star and had to settle for Lawrence Welk and the lady from Murder She Wrote; Beverly Hills where we stuck our heads out the window and "ooh"ed and "ahh"ed at the California abodes (including the Father of the Bride house, which is actually in Pasadena); Rodeo Drive where we did some serious window shopping (but of course I didn't spend a dime); and Santa Monica Blvd and Pier where we walked on the beach and then had an amazing seafood dinner.

Sunday, we started with breakfast at Green Street, then Sydney gave us a tour of the preschool where she works, and then we went to the Los Angeles Arboretum. We fought the traffic again to get back to the airport where Anne and my planes departed at 5:00, exactly 48 hours after we arrived.

So it was a quick weekend, but it was great getting to see where Sydney lives and to spend time with these dear friends!