Tourists in LA

One of the reasons we planned this trip was that I knew that I would be exhausted. With my mom’s surgery, Mary’s visit, the orchestra rehearsal and concert, I was unable to gather my strength when it all ended. What worried me is that I have an appointment with Dr. K. next week for a full run of PFTs and a CT Scan. I wanted to be rested and feeling great for those tests.

We planned this trip to rest, get out of our routine and just relax. For the first time in a few weeks, I started to feel good again on Tuesday. My strength was coming back. I think all the walking through the gardens and the museum was good for me.

On Tuesday, we played tourist! We went to the hot and hip “The Grove” which was nothing more than a lot of fancy chain stores. I guess this is where the stars go to shop. Not impressed. What was impressive was the old Farmer’s Market right next door. We had been there years earlier with Mary and Joe and we were happy to see that it has been cleaned up and much less of a maze. We had breakfast sitting on a stool at a small table across from an old character actor. Another well-known face joined him and we listened as these old friends chatted. It was such an LA moment.

Afterwards, we drove to Grauman’s Chinese Theatre where we strolled the avenue of the stars and compared our feet to the footprints of many stars. There were just a few other people there. We strolled across the street to see where Jimmy Kimmel tapes his late night show – William has worked there many times. From there, we made our way to the Griffin Observatory. On the way up the mountain, we passed the Greek Theatre where William has also worked. It was fun to see it. The Observatory had great disability parking and we were able to walk around the entire observatory to see the glorious views. It was breathtaking. We chatting with people and just drank it in.

The weather kept changing throughout the day from cloudy, showers, rain then sunshine. It did not stop us from doing anything. It was cool enough for me to breathe well so we were happy.

For lunch, we tried a famous Tommy’s hamburger! We had to try them. They were amazing. All their hamburgers come with a bit of chili on the patty. The heaven’s opened and the angels began to sing! Heavenly.

We hopped back into the car and drove Sunset Blvd past all the famous comedy clubs, nightclubs, and theatres. It was so LA. We headed to the beach. That was so interesting as we just don’t have beaches like those in LA with their wide, flat beaches leading to warm waters. We walked the Santa Monica pier to the very end where we sat in the sunshine. I spotted something in the water. It disappeared. There it was again. It’s two! There were two dolphins swimming just off the pier. We were there all alone – a rarity on the pier – and we grinned at each other as we shared such a treat together.

We walked back to the beginning of the pier and I knew that there was no way I would be able to walk up a huge hill back to our car parked on the street. Michael had to drive back down to pick me up. We then drove north on the Pacific Coast Highway to Malibu then back to Sunset Blvd. to head east. We wove our way through several communities and arrived back at our hotel. Dinner was again some appetizers and a cocktail for Michael.

We left LA by 8:00 Wednesday morning, stopped to pick up an engine for a friend, grabbed some lunch at Harris Ranch and arrived home at 3:00PM. What a great getaway. It felt like we had been gone for weeks. We slept like babies.