The last time we visited Los Angeles was for my cousin Marisa's wedding in 2009. She got married in the chapel at Loyola High School and it was beautiful. Her oldest brother - my cousin Jeff - passed away New Year's Eve and we went down last weekend to attend his funeral. The service was also at the Loyola High School chapel. It was beautiful in a very different way. I've been thinking a lot about death and people's stories. And how the intersection of your story with theirs might not play out the way you would expect. I thought we'd all get old together. Well, we are all getting older but Jeff was not old enough. Neither was our friend Todd who died in August. They were 39 and 38.
The trip - although it was for an awful reason - was a gift to us. We spent 2 nights in Bakersfield and saw our parents. Then we stayed at a hotel in Hollywood for 2 nights and the four of us had a mini vacation. We were definitely in need of a vacation. I feel like I've been working all the time. Too many evenings and weekends. My love for Los Angeles (which was huge in high school) has been revived! Maybe it was the 65 degree weather. Maybe it was seeing things through the new eyes of the children. Or maybe it was that I saw a bunch of things I had never seen before (Hollywood Boulevard and all the theaters there, the stars, Olvera Street, and Union Station). We rode the Metro and bus like tourists with our camera and felt like we had travelled across the world to a whole new city. It was LA from a pedestrian perspective and it was a lot of fun. Doug is already researching hotels in Santa Monica and Hermosa for our next So Cal getaway. I want to go more often and spend time with family. I miss them. And we could have used at least 3 more days at the beach.
Of course Blythe went to LA too.
