Quick trip

Grace and I took a quick trip to San Marnio (Pasadena area) over the weekend to visit Nana since Steve was on call (weekend call now means 7:30AM Saturday to 7:30 AM Monday, but not just hanging out at home waiting for the pager to go off - going to the hospital for about 12 hours Sat and Sun and spending the nights getting awakened. UGH.). So anyway, knowing we wouldn't see Steve much anyway and there was guaranteed to be some sun in So Cal, we took off.

Rode the carousel... several times.

Played in Nana's pool. Grace is still not very interested in swimming. In fact, she has started to become fearful in some situations, and seemed pretty worried/scared by the pool. Eventually she settled down and maybe kind of liked it a tiny bit.

Played at Lacy Park.

Explored the Children's Garden at the Huntington Library. This is such a neat area - there are all kinds of things for kids to play on, climb, etc. And there are lots of different water elements. Grace, however, was interested in only one part - some fountains she could touch. If we dragged her away to see something else, even if we went down several paths, she would turn and scamper back as soon as I set her down. I don't know how she found her way, but she was determined!

We also went out to San Dimas to visit Great, Great Aunt Florence. This woman is so amazing - she so sharp and quick-witted. We've been watching the Ken Burns documentary on World War II so it was interesting to ask about her experience of that time. Her husband had been on the Arizona, although was already out of the service (or home on leave) at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Grace also had fun chasing cats in Nana's yard and being the most wiggly little monkey so I could not get a photo in focus.

When we lived in San Diego, we avoided the San Gabriel Valley this time of year (when Steve was growing up, they actually had "heat" days, like snow days but too hot to go outside or operate the schools without a/c). We were lucky, though, and got a weekend of temps around 80 rather than the norm of high 90s - it was beautiful. All the photos are here.

Nevertheless, I was very glad to get home. It's kind of interesting how leaving and returning to a place make it seem more like home. The slightly gritty streets near the 101 and seeing the fog intensify as we drove up the hill all felt pleasantly familiar. Obviously it will take a while before everything here doesn't feel new and different, but we're on our way.