Back Home from LA

 Anna and Doug have the perfect setup for their three grandchildren. Anna has everything so well organized and spotless that everything looks so comfortable and welcoming. She even bought a new bedspread for her guest bed! For us!! What a woman.

Doug is doing so amazingly well after his brain surgery just months ago. A bit of short term memory issues but, wow. His tumor was the size of a tennis ball.

Anna, Michael and I took Michael's mom, Mary out to lunch the first day. It was a Vietnamese place just down the street from her home. Here is a photo of the Spring Rolls. HUGE!! Thomas, from Michael's work, told us to go to this place in Garden Grove named Brodards. They sell about 10,000 of these spring rolls per day. Yes, 10,000.

We talked and talked and returned the next day with Doug and Aunt Patty (Mary's sister) in tow for all of us to go to a German village for a fun sausage and sauerkraut lunch. And beer. Huge beer steins!

We took photos on Mary and Patty's front porch. Doug is in the white jacket, Michael in black. Anna and Michael are on both sides of their mom.

I had a ball talking with Anna's two of three children, April and William. Just plain fun.

On the drive home yesterday, we stopped just south of Santa Barbara in a tiny beach town for lunch sitting at a counter. Michael's favorite type of place to eat. It was fresh and delicious and we didn't need dinner! But, we did make a quick stop in the town of Solvang. The entire town is filled with bakeries, pastries, windmills and tourists! It was pretty quiet for a Tuesday.

We only bumped into some rush hour traffic in Castroville, of all places. It is a tiny agricultural town but access to Highway 1 goes right through it. Once we were on the Highway, we never slowed down.

It felt good to sleep in our own bed, there was frost on the car this morning and it is fall. Definitely fall. We are even expecting some rain on Monday!