Right after school dismissed Thursday, the boys and I boarded a plane for California. We had a full agenda, plans to see a lot of folks and cover a lot of ground in four days.
We started our day with morning Mass and my dad at St. Anastasia’s. I really enjoyed sidling up to him in the pew and I have a sneaking suspicion he fancied the time with his kids by his side.
After Mass, my dad played tour guide. The boys expressed a desire to have lunch at a favorite restaurant of my dad’s, a place he had taken us to many times as kids. Logistically, it worked out perfectly because Philippe’s is located in downtown Los Angeles and was about 20 minutes from Grandma Suzanne’s house.
We explored a few other places downtown since we were there anyway.
Driving by the California Science Center
Nuestra Señora Reina de Los Angeles
Lunch was lovely! The French dipped sandwiches were fantastic. I also partook in their $0.45 cup of coffee and the spicy hot mustard.
We parted ways with my dad and then drove to see Grandma Suzanne who lives near Pasadena. The weather was just so lovely; we spent a lot of time outdoors in the backyard playing with Grandma’s new puppy, Barney.
Mason was thrilled to play Ms. Pac Man. He is (secretly) hoping this game comes to live at our house some day. Neither of the boys wanted to say goodbye to Grandma Suzanne which made me feel so good about the visit.
For dinner we met Rachel, Jerry, Joey and his girlfriend, Mia in Covina. Walker was an excellent navigator and with the use of Google Maps, he navigated us the distance on surface streets avoiding all the Friday evening traffic. What a relief! It was great fun to meet Mia and to catch up with the gang. I could not help but marvel at how grown up everyone was. To watch my boys dote on their cousin and carry on conversations independent of me was awesome.
After dinner, we trekked back to Manhattan Beach. Again, with the help of Walker in the co-pilot seat, we rerouted around a horrible accident and saved a lot of time. For those playing the mileage game, we logged approximately 105 miles.
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