Wonders, Mishaps, Blunders and Joy.. commentary on my life as a mom in the form of letters to my son
Yesterday, I took Lucas to LA to spend the day with his aunt Leah and her friend Tracy, who was visiting from New York.
The four of us went to the famed Griffith Park and enjoyed Travel Town, an outdoor train museum.
Lucas is obsessed with trains right now and loved playing conductor, riding on the miniature railroad and seeing all the old retired locomotives, passenger cars and street cars on display.
Sadly, your dad had to work all day today, in fact, it’s after 9:00 PM and he is still working, so I decided to take you up to LA to visit your Aunt Leah.
It’s been less than a week since Leah moved to LA and she is already completely unpacked and for all intents and purposes settled in. Aside from a couple of odds and ends, she made creative use of all of the space in her new place and her room looks great!
We had a nice visit and lunch at a fun place called Giggles ‘N’ Hugs, the friendliest kid-friendly restaurant I have ever been to or heard of. It offers a healthy, mostly organic menu and a large portion of the restaurant is devoted to a play area. Unfortunately, you are a bit too young yet to use the see-saw, drive around on the tricycles, or go down the slides, but you enjoyed watching all the other children and playing with the colorful kid-size utensils and some other just-your-size toys in the play area. I appreciate Leah finding a place for us that is not only tolerant of toddler behavior, but celebrates it. This alone helps a mother relax immensely!
After lunch, we indulged in Crumbs Bake Shop cupcakes, where the “Elvis” (pictured above) is the cupcake of the month. Just listen to this decadent description: vanilla cake filled and frosted with banana cream cheese frosting, topped with a swirl of real creamy peanut butter and edged with peanut butter chips. Yum, and I don’t even like bananas, but I love love LOVE cupcakes, so this stop was a real treat.
What wasn’t such a treat and what I will HAVE to learn to deal with better, is the traffic! We spent about as much time with Leah, as we did in the car. Aggghhh! It took us two and a half hours to get to her house and back home….that’s five hours, plus all the driving around we did while up there. Traffic drives me (no pun intended) absolutely insane! As always, you were a good sport, but your poor mommy lacks the patience to deal with look-lous, red lights or grid lock. I don’t mind being in the car or even driving, it’s just all the stop and go and waiting that kills me. I am trying to focus on the nice time we had and the fact that Leah now lives so much closer, but it’s hard.
The best is yet to be.
To document her adventures in Los Angeles, Leah has started her very own blog, LA ‘n’ LA. I can’t wait to read about her new life in the City of Angels.
I am also looking forward to getting to know LA better myself. From what little time I have spent there, I haven’t been very impressed. After graduating from college, your dad lived in Brentwood (a neighborhood in west LA) for 10 years and loved it and would probably move back in a heartbeat if I was on board. He says it’s because of the anonymity the city offers offers and the endless options. I, on the other hand, have always felt that it was too congested, full of horrific traffic and shallow people, but I’m keeping an open mind and can’t wait to experience a different side of LA from the view point of a frequent visitor. 🙂
Leah included this Frank Lloyd Wright quote in her first blog posting: Tip the world over on its side and everything loose will land in Los Angeles and I like it! I am so happy that she has landed there. All the best, Leah. xoxo
The best is yet to be.
Last night my sister arrived in San Diego with her 10′ moving truck in tow and today I helped her move into her new house in LA….sort of.
It was a very long, hot and frustrating day that didn’t start off the way either of us had planned; but when is moving day ever fun?
Her best guy friend was kind enough to drive her U-Haul out here from Phoenix while she followed in her car and he was going help us unload it, but he unfortunately had a rough night last night (I’ll just leave it at that…and no, he wasn’t over served) and needed to fly home this morning. Your dad, still recovering from his ankle sprain stayed home with you and so, that left Leah and me.
I got to drive the U-Haul, which was super fun, but once in LA and knowing full well that we couldn’t get her bed, enormous desk, dining room table, or heck, even TV up the two flights of stairs by ourselves, we did what any two savvy women would do and hired two beefy hombres from a Home Depot parking lot. I am 100% confident that we over paid for Ivan and Orlando’s help, but who cares, the entire truck was unloaded in under 90 minutes. Oh, and they put her bed together too. Bonus!! I don’t know what we would have done without our handy helpers, God bless them.
I think Leah is second guessing her decision to move to southern California, but I hope it’s only because today was so stressful and she is running on empty. I hope that she soon realizes that it will take a good 30 days or so to learn her way around her new neighborhood and that before she knows it, things won’t seem so foreign. I am super excited for her LA adventure to begin, for her to land a fabulous new job and make new friends. I applaud her for making this move and am thrilled to have her closer.
Leah’s new place is great and so are her roommates, who thankfully made themselves scarce while we (I mean, our new friends) moved in.
Once Leah gets settled in, I look forward to taking you to visit her in her new digs.
The best is yet to be.
