Dinosaurs and a hat

This was our last full day in LA. We had plans to meet up with my mom, go to the movies, then have lunch at The Hat. I called mom to give her a pick up time, but she informed me she was sick. :( Apparently, she had developed a sore throat, had chills and felt pretty crummy. She did not want to get us sick, assured me that she was stocked with plenty of soup, medicine, and tissue. Then she ordered me not to go near her. :(

We were sad to not have another visit. But we decided to still carry on with the rest of our plans. The kids wanted to see Walking with Dinosaurs. Oh look, a photo op.

 The movie was fine. And by fine, I mean that I didn't fall asleep. If you hear me say that I didn't fall asleep in a kids movie, that's the equivalent to Siskel and Eberts two thumbs up.
The kids really enjoyed the movie. You can't go wrong with dinosaurs with my kids. After the movie, we headed to The Hat. This place is junk food Heaven. I ate many high school meals at this joint.  So good!

OMG! The Hat!

Since it was in the high 70's (in the winter!!!), we decided to sit outside.

Here is just a sampling of what we ate. Cheeseburgers and chili fries. 

After lunch, we decided to high tail it back to the in laws before rush hour. Traffic starts early in Southern California. As we were driving back, I spotted the San Gabriel mountains. When we still lived here, Alex and I had a perfect view of these mountains from my home. I rag on California allot. Mostly because it really is not suited for my family. Special education is pretty bad there. The traffic is a nightmare. Homes are ridiculously overpriced. Smog. A lack of four seasons (I love fall foliage and a good winter snow storm). And people are not as friendly. I mean, who wants to be friendly after sitting in traffic for an hour? But there is some beauty to the state.

Hakuna Matata!

When we decided to visit LA over the holiday, I checked to see if ant good musicals would be in town. As luck would have it, The Lion King is touring, and had performances during our visit. I booked our tickets a couple months early. I was not able to find any discount codes, so had to pay full price. At $112 a ticket, it wasn't cheap, but we were only 10 rows from the stage. A few weeks later, my sister, nephew and mom decided to see the show. The closest seats were only 2 rows behind us.

The boys had really enjoyed our previous Broadway musicals, so they were very excited to see Lion King. To get a jump on LA's horrible traffic, Alex and I decided to head over to Hollywood at 3. We figured we could walk around a bit, eat at world famous Pink's hot dogs, then head to the Pantages Theater. We did run in to some traffic, but it was light by LA standards.

We got to Hollywood in 1 hour. Believe me when I say that is fast. Oh look, here's glamorous Hollywood.

We did get a bit of street traffic. Hey, there's the Hollywood sign!

We made our way over to Pink's. This is one of those fast food joints where you can find yourself in line with either a tourist from Ohio, or George Lopez. This place gets crazy packed.

See what I mean? It was a long line. This night, it was filled with Ohioans, not George Lopezins. Yeah, that's a word! Anyway, we waited in line for an hour. Can I just give a shout out to my sons? They were so patient in line, despite the fact that we were standing in a long line, and on a busy/loud intersection.

When it was finally our turn, we ordered an assortment of hamburgers and chili dogs, plus sodas. It came out to $26.  We sat at the outdoor patio and enjoyed our junk food. Was it worth standing in line for an hour? Hell yeah! My boys patiently stood in that line.  Boom! Learning opportunity right there.  Mastering the fine art of waiting patiently is something that our family could not do a few years ago. So yay us!

By the time we had finished dinner, it was time to meet up with the rest of my family at Pantages Theater. We paid $20 to park (OMG!), then looked for my family at the front of the theater. 

We had time to kill before the doors opened, so I bought a program for the boys, then checked out some of the stars. Aaaaaeeeeyyyy! It's the Fonze!

One the doors opened, we headed inside. I had read that the Pantages does not allow photography, but everyone was taking pictures. I had left my camera at my in-laws house, so all I have are bad cell 

phone pictures. They don't do this place justice. The theater was gorgeous. It was built in 1930, and was the home of the Academy Awards for many years.

We walked around for a bit just to soak in the atmosphere. Of course, we made a stop at the souvenir stand. $65 for 3 Lion King stuffed animals. It was getting closer to curtain call, so we headed to the orchestra area. We spotted Lion King masks and snapped a quick photo.

We had great seats, only 10 rows back. Check out the beautiful interior of the theater.

My mom, sister, nephew and niece were just a couple rows behind us.

And the stage before show time.

The show was excellent. I did let the kids wear their noise reducing headphones. I gave them the option to not wear them, but once the music started, they both put their headphones on.  My favorite part was just watching my kids leaning forward in their chairs, with the look of pure joy on their 

faces. What a night.

It was 10:30 when the show ended, so we just headed home. We did get a nice view of downtown. 

And still some traffic.

Tomorrow, The Hat and a movie.

Lunch with Benny

One of the things I love about visiting California, is that I get to visit dear friends. We all worked in the same office when I lived in California. We always meet for lunch at Bob's Big Boy. It's tradition, dammit. This time, it was just Benny and I. But it's not a party without Benny, so I was happy.

Now , I have met some awesome people here, but they can't hold a candle to Benny's awesomeness. He brings it to a whole new level. When we get together, two things will happen. We will insult each other like crazy. And we will laugh hysterically. With my group of California friends, I can be me. That means there's allot of joking around.

Anyway, Benny was nice enough to offer me a ride to Bob's Big Boy. Joke #1 had him asking me if I needed a fork lift to get into his car. We had a nice lunch, chatting about life, talking about the insanity of my former and his current office, laughing and making fun of each other and the friends who stood us up that day. Good times.

The highlight of the meal involved the waitress asking him if he wanted a Diet Coke. Poor Benny. That didn't stop me from laughing at him.

Here is our food.

We failed to take a picture of each other. Wait, no we didn't. Here's Benny and I.

Actually, this is Bob and I. Bob is thinner than Benny. We had a fabulous time. I miss my friends so much. I'm blessed to have them in my life. Now get married, Benny. You're getting old, dammit! And it's finally legal in California. Find some dope and get hitched!  See you in July, my friend. I'll buy you a DIET Coke.

Christmas is here!

The next day was Christmas Day. We had stayed up really late the night before, as evidence by this picture.

We spent the morning opening gifts with Alex's family.

Then we headed over to my sisters house. More celebrating. More eating. It's what we do. 

We had a very nice visit. But it was getting late, so we headed back to my sister in law's house. Poor Noah quickly crashed out.

Tomorrow, we have a date with Lion King.

Santa's coming tonight, tonight. Santa's coming tonight!

Day two of out trip was Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve is a huge celebration with Alex's family. My Mather in law makes barrels of tamales. Yes, I said BARRELS! OMG they are so good. So they day started out with us just relaxing. Weather was glorious, so the kids spent plenty of time outside.

Well ok, I spent some time outside too.

The kids love their Abuela's orange tree.

I made the kids take a picture with me in between bites of the orange slices.

After a slow morning, we helped my mother in law start cooking the tamales. This involves neatly making a tower in the tamale pot.

This is just a small portion of the tamales.

After watching us prep the tamales, Noah needed a break. 

  

We all headed to Alex's sister in law's big Christmas Eve party. There were so many people that we had not seen in a couple of years. It was so nice to see everyone. 

There was minor issue when carolers came over to sing. Lyrics were skipped, and this set Noah off on a bit of a melt down. But other than that, a good time was had by all.

The kids enjoying the party.

The carolers.