California, Here We Come

You are back! Come on….let’s continue this journey on to California! Our sweet son and daughter in law are living in California. Our son is an animator for a major animation studio. This is our second trip out since they moved there. I miss them so much! The main attraction is…..they have the cutest little boy and we got to see him right after he was born and now heading back to get some more hugs! He has grown so much and even sweeter than I knew he would be. Our first trip, we went out and about each day sight seeing. Disneyland was one of the main things we did plus so much more. This time we had 7 days to just play with little one. Our son was on crunch time with a movie he is finishing so he was pretty busy. When he got loose from work, we would go out to dinner at a nice restaurant and visit. Our kids are 100% vegan. We went to several vegan restaurants that were delicious. In my mind I thought, oh, this is going to be great, I am going to lose so much weight on this trip. I was wrong! You know, vegan food is very delicious and so fun to try. Our daughter-in-law is an amazing cook. I could write an entire blog post on all that she does, but, she might get on to me, so I will say this. She made a vegetable lasagna that was delicious. She is amazing, trust me, in so many ways.

As I got ready to choose my pictures for this post, I realized it’s mostly pics and videos of little one. I will do better next time with scenery pictures. I couldn’t keep my eyes of this precious one…

Our kids just moved into a new house, so there were a few projects to do. We played with cutie pie while they were able to do a few things and Jim built some shelves in a pantry. I enjoyed the entire week. My favorite was when we talked them into going out for a bit and we would watch little one. That was a big step for them as they haven’t been away from cutie pie since he was born. They finally managed to go to the pool one evening and out to do errands the next morning. Cutie pie was a piece of cake. Did I mention what amazing parents they are? So much fun to watch. I could watch them in action all day!

I’m a fan of nice boutique hotels. I got spoiled to them when we went to Vancouver, Canada to see our kids when our son was working on a movie there. ( Here is a link to that trip in case you want to see the boutique hotel.) Jim and I found a little hotel in Burbank that looked very nice and quaint. We got a suite since we would be there so long. When we pulled up it was so pretty and the lobby was really nice. We got to our room and evidently they don’t believe in decor of any kind. A huge room with a bed and a hard as a rock sofa and chair. Very musty. The bathroom was okay…had a walk-in shower which was nice and that’s about the nicest thing I can say about it. Since the room was non-refundable, we endured and we made it. I told you I was a picky traveler and that I’m getting better at accepting things that aren’t….perfect! I know….I know….

The best part of this hotel was that it had a very nice little restaurant. The staff were exceptionally friendly. We enjoyed visiting with them each time we went in. We would either do breakfast or early lunch. Then head over to the kids house for the day.

We did a little bit of shopping for things for the new house during the week. I saw plenty of things that I will go back to when we return for our next visit. I saw some great shopping areas with some cute boutiques….which are my favorite. I loved driving the neighborhoods. The houses were so cute and flowers galore with picket fences around the front! Some peoples front yards were like a flower garden with these huge flowers everywhere. You have to remember, I’m from the desert part of Texas where I’m lucky if our geraniums don’t catch on fire from the dry heat…oh, and the dirt storms. Anyway, I loved the homes there. The Burbank and North Hollywood area are quiet, clean, safe and friendly. Lot’s of history around there. Jim and I did drive to see the walk of fame in Los Angeles area, but, it was so crowded I had no desire to get in the middle of it all.

We had a sweet time. Our kids are very calm and peaceful so life is calm and peaceful when around them. Very good for the soul as they say.

It was hard to leave this sweet little family to head back home! We will stop in Scottsdale, AZ to break our very long drive home back to Texas. I love when we drive on our trips, you get to see so much more than when we fly.

Here is a link to the video. One of many that our son did for Super Simple Learning.

I’ll see you in Scottsdale!