Mom Spring Break 2013 - Los Angeles (Part 1)

As I posted on Facebook about packing to leave for my trip I decided to call it "Mom's Spring Break".  Then I decided that I really liked the sound of that.  And then I decided that I really liked the idea of that and that this little type of trip should become an annual thing.  So watch out - assuming Lance and my budget allow it (HAHAHA!!! Lance having to allow it... oh dear, tears from laughing), this may become an annual post.  Fingers crossed.

Anywho, my Uncle Dale (my mom's older brother) was getting remarried and I decided I wanted to go to the wedding because I knew all of my mom's family would be there and I never get to see my mom's family because they're all spread out across the Western United States and don't have bi-annual family reunions like the Ropers do.  (I can see this is going to be a post of horrid run-on sentences...)  So, I checked to see if Lance could watch the kids while I was gone and then cashed in some credit card points to buy myself some tickets.

I left on Wednesday night around 6pm.  I was super excited - I hadn't been on a trip all by myself since... well, not since I had been married.  Wait - there were a few business trips when I worked before we had kids, but those didn't really count because I didn't appreciate them enough.  I was amazed at just how easy planning and packing and getting ready for this trip was when I didn't have to deal with taking my children!  Driving to the airport?  A breeze.  Parking and riding to the terminal?  Piece of cake.  Getting through airport security?  Laughably easy when it was just me.

No really - I've never seen as airport so empty.  It was just me going through security.

I have to admit, though, as I waited to board my flight that I started to really miss Lance.  I wish he could have gone with me.  I really am grateful that I have such an awesome husband who is also an awesome father.  I never once truly worried about him or the kids because he's such a great dad.  Sure, hair might not be combed and outfits might not match, but I knew the kids would have a great time with him!

I had to run to catch my connecting flight in Chicago, but other than that things were pretty easy.  I read and napped and enjoyed my time alone. 

I got to L.A. around midnight and didn't get to my hotel and into my room until close to 1am - which was 4am Indiana time.  Needless to say, I was pretty wasted. (Sorry, I didn't take any pictures of the hotel - it was super late!  But I stole these nice ones from the website.)

My dad was generous enough to pay for my lodging and food while I was there.  And by generous I mean he let me sleep on the couch in his suite.

But you know what?  I was so tired I didn't even care.  And to be honest, it was a pretty comfy couch.  And free makes everything better. 

I slept as long as I could, but by 6:30am my jet lag decided I was up for good.  My dad and I had a decent breakfast, looked at the fish, ducks, and turtles in the pond, and decided what to do for the day.

 

For whatever reason, LA doesn't believe in opening anything of interest (museums, botanical gardens, anything with a tour) until noon.  Which meant we had several hours to kill.

So of course we went shopping.

We went to the Glendale Galleria, which is an impressively super-mega-huge mall, and is where that mall scene from Terminator 2 was shot. (You know, where he rides the motorcycle through the mall.  Anyways...)

I was enthralled with the gorgeous weather, the blossoms on the trees, the green green grass, and the flowers everywhere.  Seriously, you would have thought that I had lived in the arctic all my life and had never seen spring before, that is how long and cold our dang winter has been.

Oh - and I saw a sign that reminded me of one of my favorite people.

We met up with my younger brother, Kyle, and had lunch at a pretty good restaurant.  I had a fantastic shrimp salad, and my brother accidentally ordered a vegan meal, which, of course, we had to tease him about.  (It was actually pretty good.)

That afternoon we decided to go tour the Huntington Botanical Gardens.  Neither my dad or I realized just how LARGE these gardens are.  Seriously - they are HUGE.  (207 acres, people.)  We walked and walked and walked, probably a good 2-3 miles, and we still didn't see everything!!

Of course I took tons of pictures of plants, which is silly because no one ever really wants to see those.  But I did get one random one of my brother as he talked about and explained every single plant to us.  (He got a degree in lawn mowing landscape management.)  (His joke, not mine!)

Here's a selfie of me.

 

Kyle actually helped install some of the Chinese gardens during an internship he had, which was pretty cool.  We sat and admired his work while eating some outrageously priced macaroons my dad had bought us.  (They were also outrageously delicious.)

 

The gardens really were great.  And the whole time I just kept thinking "My kids would hate this.  This is so awesome."  And they would have.  And it was.

Randomly, we found this:

Who knew you could grow hamburgers?

Burgers put us in the mood for Armenian food.  What?  That's not what you think of?  Well, Kyle and his indefinite girlfriend, Sarah Beth, knew a great Armenian restaurant called the Burger Continental.  I want to call it a hole in the wall, but that's not quite right.  What it really was was a restaurant placed in the alley between two brick buildings, with plastic boarding (like they put on shanty houses?) for the roof.  Plastic chairs and tables, low-key decor, slow service... excellent food.  And that's what really matters, right?

Well, I thought I'd get my whole trip blogged tonight, but this post has gone on long enough.  More to come tomorrow.