January?

Have I somehow time-traveled to a different season?!?  It is still January, right?  My entire trip I've been wearing gloves and a winter coat and driving through snow and ice (even in Arizona and New Mexico), now I'm sweating in a t-shirt and flip flops!

For the past two days we have frequented Daddy's regular breakfast place (Elysee) for coffee and pastries.  I swear, one of these days I'm going to start eating healthy again so I can fit into my jeans... but not this week.  Yesterday after breakfast we went to Dad's lab and I got a lesson in DNA sequencing. 

Daddy's favorite instrument



He also shared some special treats (Columbian Ants) that someone in the lab had brought back on a recent trip.  You can tell by my expression that it was super delicious.

In the afternoon we headed down to Orange County to visit my brother Erik and his family; Geenie, Thunder, Steel, Heaven, Jewel, Mercy and Love.  It was wonderful to see everyone again and the girls were so energetic and fun!  I really wished I lived closer and could see them more often.  The grown-ups ditched the kids for a nice dinner at Las Brisas in Laguna Beach.  The restaurant was overlooking the water and we got a fabulous table right by a window.  When dinner was over I caught a glimpse of the bill, almost $300.  Yikes!  I knew California was expensive, but ouch we didn't even have booze.  As we looked a little closer and compared the itemized bill to the credit card slip, something was amiss...  I joked, "maybe they thought we were picking up their tab to" pointing to the table behind us.  When the waiter came back it turned out that's exactly what happened.  He had accidentally put their food on our bill.  Phew!  Glad that got sorted out.

Today Dad and I hit up the Norton Simon museum in Pasadena; we did not see the little old lady even though we drove up Colorado Boulevard.  There was a special travelling exhibit of Hiroshige wooden block prints that was pretty cool.  They also had a fantastic outdoor space with some interesting landscaping, sculptures and a nice little cafe.





Hehehe, the person who we stopped to take our picture seemed to disapprove of our original pose; standing solemnly side-by-side a foot apart, but he was very pleased with this pose.  Not sure yet, what the plan is for the rest of the week in LA, but I did book all my hotels today for the trip north.  I'm stopping in San Francisco, Eureka (not an interesting place, but in a convenient location), and Portland before I hit Seattle.  I'm excited!