It Never Rains in California

Manhattan Beach

"It never rains in California, but girl don't they warn ya..." I thought a lot about the song lyrics to the 1972 song by Albert Hammond while on a recent trip to the Los Angeles area to visit our daughter. Since she lives in a one bedroom unit (as the landlord calls it but it is really a loft with no doors), we decided to rent a two bedroom, two bath home on Manhattan Beach through AirBNB so she could stay with us.

It was a lovely place just one block from the beach with nice ocean views from the large deck. But what I didn't realize was that the whole area would be shrouded in fog all morning the whole week. I had only checked the weather for LA (my bad!) and packed accordingly. It was a good ten degrees cooler in Manhattan Beach, and without benefit of the sun it seemed even cooler. I only had one pair of jeans and a nice pair of slacks with me, so I had to launder those to get by.

Outside of the gray, though, Manhattan Beach was a great place to stay. It's very walkable, with grocery stores and restaurants to choose from. We were lucky in that our house had a garage, so our daughter could park her car there for the days we wanted to head out and play tourist.

We spent time in downtown Los Angeles visiting the museums, went to Huntington Gardens (my favorite place to visit) and sat down for High Tea there, took the ferry to Catalina Island and played some pickleball. It was great to spend a week with our girl and celebrate her birthday. That doesn't happen too often anymore.

Scenes from Los Angeles

Coviditis

mask up!

It's been two months since the CDC (followed by most states) lifted the mask mandate in the United States. I expressed my concerns about this decision in my May 15th blog post. So now that some time has elapsed, what has happened with Covid numbers in this country?

Fueled by the new Delta variant of the virus, which is more easily transmittable, U.S. cases as well as deaths are up significantly in the past couple months. Experts have been quoted as saying that this is now a pandemic of the unvaccinated as they account for 97% of the hospitalizations here. Cases are up in 49 states, despite the fact that 336 million doses of vaccines have been administered. Only 48.9% of our population has been fully vaccinated.

What has been the response to the rising case numbers? Los Angeles County in California is the first to take a step backwards and tighten restrictions. An indoor mask mandate has been put back in place, regardless of a person's vaccination status. Seven other California counties also issued mask mandates, despite the fact that California just lifted all restrictions on June 15th. Will other communities follow suit?

Here is an update on overall Covid statistics. North Carolina has had 1.02 million cases and 13,533 deaths. In the United States there have been 34 million cases and 608,000 deaths. Worldwide there have been 189.2 million cases and over 4 million deaths.

My observation from being out and about is that people are acting as if there is no pandemic. They are crowding into restaurants, concerts, amusement parks, stores, etc. My husband and I are still wearing our masks when indoors, but we rarely see anyone else doing so. Can you imagine trying to get all these people to start wearing masks again? It will be like trying to stuff cats in a bag. Stay safe out there!

Los Angeles

The benefit of taking a cruise out of Los Angeles was that we were able to tie in a visit with our daughter. It is hard to believe that she has lived there four years already. While Jim had seen the apartment that she now lives in, I had not as she had moved since the last time I was in LA. Her unit is three stories and has an unusual floor plan. But it works well for her. As a mom, I appreciate the fact that the underground parking is gated, and even then you need a key to access the staircase to the apartments. I like knowing that she is safe. The real beauty of the apartment, though, is that she can walk to work. That is almost unheard of in Los Angeles. It certainly saves on insurance as well as gas and wear and tear on her car.

After we arrived at her apartment we visited awhile before going to the Road to Seoul Korean barbecue restaurant for lunch. After all, Jim and I had hardly made a dent in our 10,000 calories per day that we had grown used to on the ship. The restaurant brings the food to your table, and you grill it yourself. That really turns your meal into an event. Although the irony of paying so much money for lunch and then having to cook it yourself was not lost on me.

Korean barbecue

After lunch we went to the Petersen Automotive Museum. Jim was interested in the architecture and re-purposing of the building, but we decided to go inside as well. Opened in 1994, the museum is an exploration of the history of the automobile and its impact on American life and culture. From early automobiles to extreme luxury cars to vehicles used in movies and TV shows, this museum has a little bit of everything. We all very much enjoyed it. Just down the street outside the art museum is an exhibit called "Urban Light." Consisting of 202 antique lamp posts, it makes quite a display. It was fun to see the ways that people were interacting with the lights.

Urban Light

Malibu Creek State Park

On Sunday after a late breakfast we drove about an hour north and west of Los Angeles to visit Malibu Creek State Park. Consisting of over 8,000 acres, the park opened in 1976 on land that was once owned by 20th Century Fox Studios. There are 15 miles of hiking trails through prairies, canyons and up steep hills. We chose the trail that would take us to the site where some of the television series M*A*S*H had been filmed. While everyone says that this is an easy hike, I noticed that most people coming and going were 20-30 years younger than me. It was two and a half miles to the site, with challenging hills that near the end shrunk to single file, rocky paths. Thankfully we had hats and our water, and managed to get to the show location. And more importantly, back out again to the car. It was a good 5 mile hike round trip, and made me feel better about all I had been eating.

MASH location

On the way back to Katie's apartment we stopped for dinner at a restaurant in Malibu that sits right on the ocean. The service and food were mediocre, but you could not beat the scenery.

Malibu

The next morning we flew home, thus ending our vacation. But not the celebration of Jim's birthday. There was more to come!

Cruisin'

beautiful sunset

As my husband's birthday loomed, I was trying to determine where to take him to celebrate this new milestone. He, too was turning 60. (Yes, I am a cougar. I married a younger man - younger by all of 5 months.) Originally we had planned to go to Australia/New Zealand in February, and that was going to be the trip. But due to an American Airlines new route issue, we decided we could not pull off a huge trip such as that one in the limited time we had. Our friends from Minneapolis (who were originally going to join us in New Zealand in February) suggested a cruise to the Mexican Riviera as an alternative. We have been to the Eastern Caribbean as well as the Western Caribbean with Kathy and Paul, so this would definitely be a new route for all of us. As the cruise originates and ends in Los Angeles, an added bonus is that we would be able to see our daughter as well.

We booked the cruise back in January, planning the dates around another birthday surprise that my family had in store for Jim in early March. We flew to Los Angeles on Friday, February 19th, and the security line at Lambert Airport was unreal! In my 37 years of using this airport, I have never seen so many people. When the line finally advanced, I noticed a sign that read "American Priority Access", and there was no one in that line. Lo and behold, our boarding passes had those exact words on them. So we were able to hop over to the non-line. The TSA agent said that probably saved us 45 minutes in line. Yay us! The flight was on time, and the plane was a newer one with built-in entertainment units in each seat. That sure helps a four hour flight pass more quickly. We arrived in LA in the early evening, and used Lyft (similar to Uber) for the first time to take us to the hotel, which was located by the Port of Los Angeles. That worked really well, and with the $10 new customer coupon they gave me, we only paid $17.33 for the ride. Our friends got in a couple of hours later than us, and we waited for them before walking to a nearby restaurant to grab dinner. They took Uber from the airport and paid $60!

Warner Grand Theater
San Pedro

Our check-in time for the cruise was not until 1:30 on Saturday, so the hotel gave us a later check-out time. Following breakfast we walked to old town San Pedro. Located on the southern end of the Palos Verde Peninsula the area was first settled in 1769, though the Port of Los Angeles wasn't founded until 1907. We enjoyed walking through the old town area before heading down to see the USS Iowa. Now a maritime museum, the USS Iowa was originally commissioned in 1943 and served during WWII, the Korean War, and the Cold War. The ship was decommissioned in 1990 and moved to Los Angeles in 2012. Jim and Paul decided to do the ship tour, but Kathy and I thought the timing was a bit rushed, so we took a leisurely walk back to the hotel instead.

USS Iowa

The hotel shuttled us over to the Princess cruise line port, and check-in was a breeze. We checked out our staterooms, which were located next door to each other, and then grabbed a late lunch before touring the ship. Finally we went to one of the top decks to watch the ship leave port, which was around 5:00 in the afternoon.

our stateroom

on our balcony

This was an unusual cruise in that we were on the ship for two full days before arriving at our first port of call. We filled the time with eating (surprise, surprise), visits to the fitness center (to combat the eating), sitting on the many decks, attending shows, and participating in lots of trivia contests. By the end of Monday we were eager to get off the ship the next day.

2014 is Snow Laughing Matter

Jim and I traveled to Los Angeles on New Year's Eve to ring in 2014 with our daughter as she was unable to come home for Christmas. Unlike last year when we visited her in January, the weather was perfect. We had sun every day, no rain at all and temperatures in the upper 60s to low 70s. It almost made us want to live there. I say almost because I simply cannot handle the area traffic. Let alone there being lots of it, people cut in and out on the highways without signaling all the time. It seems so dangerous!

We arrived in time to take a cab to Katie's office, where we were able to meet her boss and many of her co-workers. It is fun to now be able to visualize her sitting at her desk. Everyone seems very nice. From there we went to her apartment to drop off our luggage, and then walked to a nearby Scottish restaurant for dinner. I love where she lives because you can walk to many different places and leave the car in the garage. The next morning, New Year's Day, we drove north to Ventura where we met my college friend Karen Smith and her husband for lunch. While they live in Washington, DC, the navy has transferred Mark to Ventura for a couple of years. It was so much fun to reminisce about our days at Iowa State.

Karen Smith and me

After lunch Jim, Katie and I boarded the Island Packers boat for a three hour tour (okay, it was three and a half hours, but most of you will know my reference to a three hour tour) of Channel Island National Park. The park encompasses five islands and the ocean that surrounds them. Officially this was a whale watching excursion, but we saw sea lions, dolphins, many birds and whales. We actually saw a humpback whale, which is unusual this time of year as they are normally further south on their migration to Mexico for the winter.

dolphins at play

humpback whale

whale tale

sea lion waves hello

sun sets on a great day

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Katie had to work on Thursday, so Jim and I drove to work with her in the morning so that we could drop her off and use her car for the day.  We headed to Santa Monica beach, which was fairly uncrowded due to the early hour, and then down to Venice Beach with all of its uniqueness.

Santa Monica Pier

fitness, Santa Monica style

California sledding at Venice Beach

another glorious sunset in Venice

Friday after we dropped Katie off we went back to the Getty Center. We had gone here last January, but it was cold and rainy so we did not get to enjoy the gardens. I'm so glad we went back as it is absolutely beautiful!

Getty Center

Getty Center gardens

Jim and me

everyone's a star

After lunch at the Getty Center we headed over to the Getty Villa. From a beautiful, clear day we drove a few miles into cool fog. Weird. The villa is nice and its museums are interesting, but if I could only go to one of the Getty options, I would go to the Getty Center.

Getty Villa

Saturday we took it a little easy before making the two hour drive to Joshua Tree National Park. Located east of Los Angeles this 800,000 acre park is made up of two deserts. Obviously we should have arrived early in the day to see more of it, but what we were able to experience was really cool. We had asked the park ranger for the best spot to capture the sunset, and she definitely directed us to the right place.

Joshua Tree National Park

Joshua trees

Sun sets over the mountain

We had been touching base with home about the snow headed to St. Louis, so I wasn't surprised to find out that our flight home on Sunday had been cancelled. Unfortunately American left me a voice mail in the middle of the night so by the time I retrieved it on Sunday morning we had few options for rescheduling anything. They had booked us on a flight Monday night arriving in Dallas at 9:35 p.m. That didn't look too bad until we realized that the next flight for us didn't leave Dallas until 9:35 p.m. on Tuesday night! When I tried to call American I was informed there would be a two hour wait on hold. Yikes. No changes were allowed online at all. We decided to just go to the airport early on Monday and hope for the best. In the meantime, that left us with the opportunity to spend Sunday with Katie. We enjoyed a nice brunch in Glendale, walked around the outdoor mall in the area, and then drove the short distance to downtown so that Jim could see one of the urban parks in the area. We picked up brats for dinner and watched the season premier of Downton Abbey.

We drove to work with Katie Monday morning and then took a cab to the airport. The couple in line ahead of us had just returned from a 17 day cruise to the Panama Canal, and were trying to get back to St. Louis as well. I jokingly said that they would probably get the last two seats on the non-stop flight going out at 7:25 a.m. Tuesday morning. It turned out that they couldn't get any flight at all until Thursday! When we got up to the agent she was puzzled by the flights we had been given since they normally do not make you wait so long between flights. But she could not find any better alternative for us.

In Dallas we headed to a Comfort Inn near the airport for the night. Everyone on the shuttle bus had a horror story. The next morning my brother and his wife came to pick us up at the hotel, and we spent the day with them, my niece and my two great-nephews. That was the silver lining in the black snow cloud that was hovering over us.

Once we arrived back in St. Louis we were faced with clearing 12 inches of snow off the car - with no winter coats or boots! Luckily the shuttle bus driver helped us remove snow from behind the car so that we could get out. That was pretty nice considering it was nearly midnight and 16 degrees outside.

snow on our patio

What an interesting beginning to 2014. I wonder what the rest of the year will bring?

A Technological Christmas

Andy and Megan made it safely to our house on December 23rd, and we celebrated with Andy's favorite meal of Imo's Pizza. It is a must-have when he comes to town, so we figured we would just get it out of the way. On Christmas Eve Jim and I got a workout in at the rec center before the day's festivities began. I made my traditional Italian beef for supper, followed by our new tradition of Cranberry Cosmopolitans while opening gifts. As I mentioned before, Katie was unable to come home due to lack of vacation days, so we did the next best thing. I put my Macbook on the entry foyer steps where she normally sits during our gift exchange, with a Cosmo next to the computer for a virtual toast. Through the miracle of Skype we set up the laptop and my iPad so that she could see us opening the presents and we, in turn, could watch her open her gifts. It amazes me that we could keep in contact with her for over two hours at absolutely no cost to anyone. Thank you, inventor of Skype! Below is a fun gift I received to commemorate my trip to Switzerland this year. I really need to find the connection between this Kubler family and mine!

Kubler Absinthe

MoBot Train

While the kids were here we made our annual trip to the flower and train show at the Missouri Botanical Garden. It was lovely as always, and surprisingly uncrowded on the day after Christmas. We also visited the Art Museum to see the new addition for the first time. While I am not a fan of the architecture it was interesting to see the new exhibition space. I particularly like the exhibit shown below that looked like a fabric quilt but was in fact made from liquor bottle caps. The interactive glass block exhibit is cool as well.

Jim on repeat

I was, however, very offended by this painting.

Jim and I fly out to Los Angeles tomorrow to bring in the New Year with Katie. Kirby will remain here with his favorite dog sitters though he always prefers to be with Jim. Speaking of Kirby, here is the gift I had made for Jim. He loved it, as you might imagine.

Kirby mug

Happy New Year to my readers. May 2014 be everything you hope for and desire!

It Never Rains in California...

Last Thursday we flew from Denver to Los Angeles to see our daughter. Our flight was a little late getting in, and it was raining when Katie picked us up at the airport. Since she lives in a studio apartment, we arranged for a place to stay through airbnb.com. It is an interesting website where you can find anything from a tee pee to a full house to rent. We located a one bedroom apartment behind a home in an area very close to where Katie lives. It was nice to have a kitchen where we could make a meal if we chose, and to have hot tea every morning. Plus we didn't have to listen to anyone above, below or next door to us. The one weird thing is that the bathroom was off the bedroom and in lieu of a door it had beads. Jim immediately dubbed it the beaded throne.

beaded throne

On Friday we went to the Getty Center, where it rained most of the day. It never rains in California? Girl, don't they warn ya...it pours, man it pours. The architecture at the Getty is really cool, and I imagine the gardens are amazing as well when not viewed from the shelter of an umbrella. Fortunately there are many museums to go into, so we didn't get too wet.

view from Getty Center

Getty Center

Saturday was shaping up to be a nice weather day, so we decided to drive to San Pedro to see the Point Fermin Lighthouse. It was built in 1874 and is a beautiful structure. We signed up for the 2:00 tour, and wandered around taking photos to pass the time. And watched the fog roll in. By the time we climbed to the top of the lighthouse you couldn't see squat. "I have never seen it like this!", exclaimed our tour guide. "Normally you can see all the way to Catalina Island, and there are usually a few whales down below." Bummer. We ate a late lunch at a biker bar in town, and that made for interesting people watching. When we arrived back in LA the weather was still beautiful there.

Point Fermin Lighthouse

Walker's Cafe

Sunday was also a nice day in LA. We set off to Griffith Park to see the observatory and take pictures of the infamous Hollywood sign. From there we drove to Angeles National Forest to see the San Gabriel Mountains. It was like driving in Colorado, with a two lane winding road and sheer drop offs. We stopped at the only restaurant in the park for another late lunch, and when we came out it had begun to sleet. "I've never seen it like this!", exclaimed a native. Of course you haven't, I thought to myself. We decided to go back to LA and the weather conditions worsened. The sleet turned to snow, which began to build up on the road. Great - slippery, snow covered two lane winding road with sheer drop offs. We slowly inched our way back to LA which was - you guessed it - sunny and dry.

observatory

Hollywood sign

San Gabriel Mountains

sunset in Los Angeles

Monday Katie came over for a last breakfast with us, and we waited for our taxi to take us to the airport. Katie did not have enough time to take us there and get to work on time. The driver called and said he was going to be late. "I have never seen the traffic like this!", he exclaimed. Of course you haven't, we all thought to ourselves. Nevertheless we made it to the airport in plenty of time, and arrived home safe and sound. To temperatures in the 60's. "I've never seen it like this!", I exclaimed.