Vacation, Part 6 - Home Again

Friday morning we thought it might be prudent to check flight status, given the snow, before going out to DIA. All showed normal.

Sucker! We got to check-in 2 1/2 hours before flight time, and the flight was showing delayed an hour and a half. (Eventually they told us the captain, coming in from San Francisco for this Denver-DC-Munich flight, had called in sick.) So we got a chance for a leisurely breakfast, and chance to wander the shops, and to deal with security without time pressure.

The flight was good though. A Boeing 777, nine seats across, 9 channels of video at each seat, etc. We got in at a quarter after five, and were in our car with bags by about 6:30. Fought the traffic for 90 minutes, and had dinner in Fredericksburg. From there it's 105 miles home. Too bad it rained the whole way, as that slowed us down a bit.

We got home just before 11, schlepped all of the bags inside, brought in a huge pile from the mailbox, and went to bed. I was asleep in about two minutes.

This morning we reclaimed the dog children from the kennel (oh, were they happy to see us!), got settled in, and opened presents. Ah, it's good to be home!

The final funny bit we discovered just as we got home. In our haste to get moving a week before, apparently the door to the house never got locked. Neither did the back door. Not that where we live is small town or anything...

Vacation, Part 5 - Denver

The morning of the 26th we were off to Denver. This trip was uneventful, after an easy drive back to LAX. Except, if DIA is supposed to be such a wonderful airport, why did it take 45 minutes before any of the baggage arrived at the claim area? We visited with my parents in the afternoon, and had dinner with them. All seemed peaceful.

In the night the snow started to fall. By breakfast time it was getting ugly, and I'm out of practice driving in this. We spent the morning on a couple of short stops. Winnie had found a job to apply for just a day before we left home, and had spent spare moments filling out the application. The last step was to stop at Kinkos and mail in her transcripts.

The second stop was at Sheplers. I had been looking at Stetsons for years. Traditionally, Colorado School of Mines students got one when they got to be seniors. The tradition had kind of died out in the 70's, which I attribute in part to one weird student that no one wanted to be "like". None the less I kept looking at them, especially now that I'm so bald and in constant need of using a hat.

So, I got a salesperson's attention and asked if they had the Open Road hat I wanted. No, it's a very popular model, but they didn't carry them in the store. Just as a matter of interest, how much would it be if special ordered? $164. So, I'm hedging when Winnie says

Shut up and order the damn hat. You've been whining about this for 25 years, and I'm tired of hearing about it.

So, under orders, I did. It should arrive in a couple of weeks.

We spent the rest of the afternoon at my parents, with my sister's kids, and new great-niece. Isn't she cute?

Later, all of the family in town, 14 in all, went out to dinner, and had a great time. I went over to my sister's house, after dinner, and visited for a couple more hours. Then, a perilous trip back to the hotel in the snow, and get ready to travel.

Vacation, Part 4 - Christmas Day

Christmas Day we went over to Mark and Erin's again, had breakfast, and opened our respective gifts. Then we all jumped in Mark's car, and he took us out to Malibu. We got a chance to see crazy CA drivers. There was a wreck on the Santa Monica Freeway, and cars were moving a right angles to the lane markings to get over onto the parallel collector road. Yikes!

We had coffee and snacks (since almost nothing else was open), and walked on the beach for a bit. It was pretty nice, but very windy. Good thing there were no fires that day! Beautiful setting for houses, but it looked very perilous.

Back we went to their place, where a trans-Atlantic call to Mark's family was used so each side could open their presents together. Later Erin made us another yummy dinner, we drank a lot of wine, and eventually said goodnight and goodbye to them. (Yes, we ate a lot in Pasadena.)

Vacation, Part 3 - Christmas Eve

This is what comes of being married to someone who was first a geologist. Our entertainment for Christmas Eve was to visit the La Brea Tar Pits. This is Pit 91, from which they have removed over 250,000 fossils. The most common large fossil recovered has been dire wolves.

In the evening, we went over to Mark and Erin's and had a yummy duck dinner, but tried to get out at a reasonable hour, so they could get a little sleep.

Vacation, Part 2 - Pasadena

On Sunday we got to see a little of the town. We met Erin and Mark over at the Paseo, and did a little shopping. Erin and Winnie looked for clothes, and I found a bookstore to amuse myself. When we finished there we walked the few blocks down to old town Pasadena, and had lunch.

After lunch, we went back to their apartment for a while, and met Buster. He is a rowdy little dog, but not the hell hound Erin sometimes makes him out to be.

Later on we to the Huntington Botanic Gardens. We stayed there wandering the grounds until the guards chased us out near sunset.

Later we had dinner at Porto Alegre, which is a Brazilian steakhouse place. This meant "meat on a sword" as Erin stated it. It also meant eating until I nearly popped. The deal is they come to your table with whatever is just off the grill, slice you off pieces, and go on. That along with the huge salad/sides bar constitutes more dinner than bears thinking about. I should have taken a second statin before bed.

Vacation, Part 1 - Arriving in Pasadena

A week ago tonight we left on vacation. Our first stop was to Pasadena to see Erin and Mark.

In order to keep to non-stop flights, we left via Dulles in DC, which meant a 175 mile drive after dropping the dogs off at the kennel. We got there in plenty of time, and the flight went off without a hitch. Well, except the usual part about being squashed in coach.

What I don't understand came at the other end. We get to Hertz at about 8 pm, 3 days before Christmas, and there are four agents on duty at LAX. It took an hour to get a car and get our of there.

The drive up to Pasadena was surprisingly easy, and we got in touch with Erin right away, informing her that daddy was hungry. They met us at our hotel, and we walked over to the Paseo Colorado for dinner, which is only a block away from the Sheraton.

They started out trying to take us to the Yard House, which we rejected when they told us it had a 45 minute wait (around 10 pm). That was fine with me. It was a screamingly loud club, which isn't what I really wanted then. Actually, it's not what I ever want.

Instead, we wound up at Islands, which was good, and what I needed at that time of night. Pork tacos, and a shared Kona Pie.