Los Angeles, Day 2

We started off the day with an exciting drive through morning rush hour to the California Science Center and the California Natural History museum. Neither was spectacular, but both were free, so it was a nice way to pass the morning while we waited for the day to warm up a bit.

They had a huge lever outside, so the boys were quite impressed with the fact that they could pick up a 5400 pound truck:

Puppet show:

At the 'skeleton museum':

We met up with James that afternoon to start our drive up the PCH. We wanted to avoid the worst of the traffic, so we stopped in Santa Monica for a couple of hours of playtime on the beach. There is basically a huge jungle gym set up on the beach with rings, pull up bars, swings, etc. We wished we would have known about it before so we could have spent more time there!

We caught just the beginning of the sunset before we got back on the road, headed to Ventura for the night.

Dinner with Dan

We met James' cousin Dan for dinner last night. We got to see his house, which is only a few blocks from the ocean in Manhattan Beach.

Los Angeles, Day 1

Today turned out to be chilly and overcast, so we decided it was a good day for museums. We started the day with an un-eventful drive to the LaBrea Tarpits. I somehow expect every drive in the LA area to involve some sort of getting-lost-major-traffic adventure, but managed to avoid it this time!

The boys feeling what it was like to get stuck in the tar:
The museum had a lot of information about all of the animals skeletons that they've pulled out of the pits. Brady was quite impressed with the number of dire wolves (over 1600 skulls):

The kids were quite impressed with the tar pits - both the actual pits outside and the accompanying museum. Brady really seemed to take it all in and even Rudy remembered some of it that evening and the next day; he kept talking about the 'an-mals' getting stuck in the sticky water.

Brady felt bad that I wasn't in any of the pictures and insisted that he take one of me as well:

After the tarpits, we headed over to the Farmers Market...an odd combination of old-school farmers market and food court with fancy upscale shopping center. We picked out our lunches (pizza for the kids, crepes for me!) and the boys picked out a chocolate bunny from the bakery for a snack.

Rudy really liked the balloon mural on the creperie and asked me to take his picture:

Happy camper after eating the chocolate bunny:

The Farmers Market had a trolley ride through the shopping area...

...and a fountain designed by the same person who designed the fountains at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. (Both kids were quite enthralled by it!)

The boys fell asleep in the car when we left the market. I entertained myself with a drive to the coast, where I got to read my book for a while, overlooking the ocean. (Not bad!) When the woke up, we made our way over to the Getty Museum. Earlier in the day, I'd told Brady about all of the museums we could choose from and he really wanted to see the art museum.

There was a kids' room where the kids got to design their own sculpture to look like the one on display outside the museum:

Rudy was more interested in playing dizzy-duck in the galleries, but Brady was really interested in the artwork. He had a minor mishap when he decided to touch one of the frames...we got the evil eye from one of the docents and then we had one docent assigned to practically follow us around th enext few galleries. Between that and my appalled reaction, I don't imagine he'll ever do that again!

We each picked out our favorite pieces (no flash allowed, so they are a bit fuzzy):

Rudy apparently did not agree with my selection!

The building and setting were almost as interesting as the artwork inside. We spent a lot of time wandering around the grounds:

Finally, we haeded back to the hotel to pick up James for dinner!

Desert Drive

We left Phoenix Tuesday morning about 10:30. Google maps told us to expect about a 6.5 hour drive, but we were planning to mosey our way across the desert to meet up with James in LA. Apparently, we did a lot of moseying because we didn't arrive until 7:30!

Our first stop was an emergency pit stop about 1o minutes before our first planned stop in Quartzite, AZ. After watering the desert a bit, we proceeded to lunch in Quartzite...a strange little town that seems to exist solely for the flea-market style shops. We stretched our legs a bit while browsing and then got back on the road.

Next stop: General Patton museum. The boys saw all the tanks on the side and wanted to stop. The museum was disappointing, to say the least, but they were impressed with the tanks.

Next stop was to drive through the desert. I'd been telling the kids that we'd be driving through the desert to get to California. Apparently, the highway didn't count for Rudy, so we got off a found a dirt road to drive on for about a half a mile. That seemed to satisfy him!

The final stop was in Cabazon, CA. I'd read about the dinosaur 'musuem.' It looked like it was about the same 'quality' as the General Patton museum, so we just stopped for some quick pictures with the dinos and to get a snack.

The plan was for the boys to nap between Quartzite and Cabazon...but they didn't actually fall asleep until 6:30. They napped until we pulled into the hotel outside of Los Angeles. Even so, they were great travelers and entertained themselves quite happily the entire drive!

Rudy's observations

Rudy to Cooper at breakfast:

Why your hair is up today? Mine is down.

Nana: Ru, are you hungry?
Rudy: All of the time!

Desert Botanical Gardens

Desert botanical gardens sounds like a bit of an oxymoron, doesn't it? These gardens are certainly different than those that aren't in the desert, but it's the perfect time of year to visit the desert. Warm and sunny...and the plants are in bloom. Plus, we had the added bonus of the Chihuly glass exhibit at the gardens!

Brady assumed the role of tour guide and took charge of reading the map and identifying butterflies for us:

There was a kid station set up and Brady created his own Chihuly sculpture. He designed it to look like the sculpture behind him in this picture:

All the boy sin blue, with the blue sculpture:

Crazy cactus and beach ball Chihulys:

Ride 'em cowboy

This is what I found going on when I got out of the shower today. (And, yes, it is 4:15 and I'm just now getting out of my PJs...one of those lazy days!)

The boys don't really seem to want to play with me today. Which is fine really, considering the amount of QT we'll have on the flight tomorrow. It should be an interesting trip - we're leaving at 6:40 pm and arriving at what will be about 1:00 am our time. I'm really hoping and praying that they are on their very bestest behavior for me. Did I mention that it's just me - James is not flying with us??



On a side note, I'm not really a big fan of the matching outfits on children but I do have to say it makes it SO much easier to keep track of them in public places. It's so much easier to spot two Batman shirts than trying to remember each kid's outfit!

In other news around here...well, there isn't any lately. It's been quite nice to have a few weeks of not-a-lot-going-on. The boys visited my parents for a few days 2 weeks ago; then my parents had a free hotel night so they took the kids to DC for a night. Otherwise, it's been a lot of quiet nights here!

Couch cushions

Over the past few (rainy) days, the boys have entertained themselves for hours with our couch cushions. They've done the traditional cushions-as-islands game, of course, but have also expanded to a variety of wrestling matches and jumping competitions. Today, the cushions were just a new place to play jets.