Griffith Park & Things

29 Jan 2012 1 Comment

by Ingies in California Tags: ,

We finally managed to make it to another of the places on our “Must Do While in L.A.” list this weekend.

Griffith Park . . .

We biked along the Los Angeles River . . . .

Water by G-d. Cement by man. Growing things by miracle. Chris’ comment was, “I don’t know if I should be appreciative or appalled. It is a place to bike . . . ”

Freeway on one side, cement river filled with litter on the other . . .

I have to say it never occurred to me that the giant culvert with water trickling through it that we had driven by a half dozen times was a “river.”

We (we being the three of us who don’t puke at the very sight of a merry go-round going around) rode the famous Griffith Park Merry Go-Round.

The Merry Go-Round was built in 1926 and has been in Griffith Park since 1937. The horses are beautiful . . . each one is hand carved.

They are also quite old . . . some of them more than 100 years old actually. Which means every horse has lost it’s tail. It is a little disturbing.

It is amazing to think of all the people through the years who have brought their children and grand-children here . . . all of the people from all over the world who have ridden this merry go-round.

The weather was incredible and the skies exceptionally clear so we also went up to the Griffith Observatory.

Which gave us a nice view of the Hollywood sign.

And downtown L.A.

We learned a few things and saw cool stuff from space.

And for good measure we drove down Sunset Boulevard on the way home.

Oh, and it wouldn’t have been a day in L.A. without driving past at least one movie shoot . . . which you can only see evidence of via the white trailers way in the back in the parking lot because I’m a little slow with the camera on a drive by.

Cheers,
D

A New Post

23 Jan 2012 1 Comment

by Ingies in Stories about life in Alaska

I haven’t posted anything in awhile. Why? Hmmm . . . . either because I’ve been lazy or because my children haven’t done anything outrageously funny or adorable lately.

I think I’ll go with the former.

Heaven knows I wouldn’t want to strain myself on this first post of 2012 so I’m going to keep this one simple . . . uncomplicated . . . sort of ease my way back into things . . . I thought I would share a few snapshots from the time we spent in Alaska over Christmas. This isn’t because there is a great story to tell but because this blog is really for my children because one day they might like to know how they spent the Christmas of 2011 . . . at least G will. R has a memory like a steel trap and will be able to tell me what the pattern was on the wrapping paper.

So here we go . . .

This is R with the roving Elf and Santa at the Seattle Airport . . .

This is a photo of my children playing in the backyard at our house the morning after we arrived. (The children are part of that giant dark blob in the middle of the photo that is actually a fort and slide.) I believe it was around 9:00 a.m. This is just to remind us about how happy we are to be spending the next two years where the sun comes up at a reasonable hour even in December.

This is G tromping around in his daddy’s snowshoes . . . at around noon after the sun came up.

One of the primary reasons we went to the snow and cold last month was so that we could visit friends and family . . . including R’s best friend A  . . . and A’s little brother. Cutie pies!

Speaking of missing . . . we also really miss Grammie B. A lot. We did get to see her several times and even managed an outing to see the gingerbread village at the Captain Cook Hotel.

And my life just isn’t the same without these two wonderful people living around the corner . . . H and her youngest boy, O.

We also managed a visit to Auntie K and Uncle C’s house . . . which had the most impressive Christmas tree I’ve seen in ages . . .

Auntie K introduced the kids to Shrinky Dinks . . .

And let the kids just hang out . . .

And be kids . . .

Speaking of hanging out . . . we got to visit Nibblet . . . who had to stay behind because hamsters have to fly in the belly of the plane when they travel by air and after much consideration and even some initial preparation we decided not to give the poor little creature a heart attack and left her in the care of our housesitter. She is, however, the world’s most laid-back hamster. How many hamsters do you know who will lay on their back and just hang out to get a tummy rub?

Of course we celebrated Christmas, too . . . we opened stockings . . . (Yes, we took the dogs with us . . . much less expensive that boarding them BION)

And cooked Christmas dinner . . .

This will be known as the year we all learned to tie knots and developed a special relationship with paracord . . .

And we still had time for the usual sibling business . . .

This of course wasn’t all we did . . . we had a most lovely Christmas Eve Morning Breakfast Block Party with the neighbors and had neighbors over to play and eat food and visit throughout the week and a half we were there. It was so nice to see so many of the Alaskans who bless our lives.

Whew!

Gettin’ back in the groove,
D