Going Back to Cali

25 November 2009

California, here we come...ten hours flight from Fiji on Air Pacific and we're in Los Angeles, and grateful to cousin Patti Murphy-Pattinson who graciously came to collect us (after the 40 minute wait for our bags and some increasing panic about bags making it just fine through Kazakhstan and then getting lost in my own country). Patti took us to In-n-Out Burger for luscious American cheeseburgers and fries and then on to her canyon-perched home in Tujunga, north of LA.

Dinner at a Chinese restaurant (and really, Chinese food is ever so much nicer when you're not in China) with my cousins Christie and Sean, children to another cousin, Ike, and who are evidence of the strength of Irish genes--Sean looks more like my brother than I do.

Monday morning,  and we collected a little rental car and took ourselves off to Santa Monica. Personally, am very excited about the idea of a town called Monica, and not just because I am self-absorbed. Okay, because I am self-absorbed. I have a t-shirt that says Monica in pink. And many photos of things saying  Monica on the pier. It was all terribly exciting. For those of us called Monica, at least. Played on the swings and ogled the thong-clad butts of random denizens of the beach. As you do.

A spot of shopping at the 3rd Street Promenade and we are proud owners of skinny jeans and ballet flats and jumpers and other things that make us look like normal people again. I looked in a mirror and saw me instead of a hippie, which was nice for a change. Mexican food for lunch...sigh. Life is good.

Driving tour through LA: Wilshire, Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive, Hollywood, La Brea, etc. Dinner of leftover Chinese food in front of the big screen tv, perhaps one of the best evenings we've had in ages. Tuesday and perhaps the best day ever--both Taco Bell AND Target! Mmmm...meximelts.

Then the requisite touristy thing and we went up to Griffith Park. The Observatory is iconic LA (as seen in modern classics such as Rebel Without a Cause and TV's Angel), overlooking the Hollywood sign and the Los Angeles Basin. This is the view you still see in movies, all the grid spread out below you to the Pacific, with the ocean glowing in the late afternoon light.

The Observatory is home to free displays on astronomy and telescopes and infrared cameras, as well as a Planetarium, and since neither of us had been to one since we were about 10, we spent our 8th anniversary afternoon pondering the wonders of the universe. Yes, eight years, and no, we don't look a day over 25. I will thank you all for agreeing.

Old Pasadena for dinner at an excellent Peruvian restaurant, including David's appetizer of marinated heart. Very romantic. But tasty. And then to see New Moon! Twilight, yay. David was very good and only checked his watch twice. Good to be home in a place where we are not a novelty and everyone speaks like us and you can buy anything you want for practically nothing. America is good.