LA for the Weekend

So, we hopped a plane to LA for the weekend... like we were fancy or something... or because Suzi's cousin said, "Why don't you come out and stay with us?"

And so we did... and it was nice.  They live in an gentrifying area called Echo Park, which seems to be 20 minutes to just about everywhere in LA.  I think we Mid-westerners (and the rest of the world fed by satellite TV, for that matter) seem to think that LA is all red carpets and glamor and gang-bangers and Lindsey Lohah running into things all the time.

But it's not (well, not all the time)... it's quite like any other urban area where people are working very hard to scrape together a living.  Of course, some of them are producing products that millions of folks will line up to watch/ eat/ smell, but at the end of the day, it's a job.  And we all know what that means... a job is work.  And work is what you do when you're not at home with your family, on the back porch enjoying amazing weather.

Near the ocean.

Which is what separates SoCal from the landlocked bunch of us... ocean... nice breezes.  Mountains in the morning.  Surf in the afternoon.  And that's just what we did.

Well, we didn't surf.  We kinda stood near the edge of the waves and let Cooper get wet in the salty stuff for the first time.  Which he thought was pretty cool... and totally cold.

There was no way I was getting in that water.

We drove up to Mt. Wilson Observatory... and it became clear why the fires a few years ago would have been so devastating to this national scientific treasure.  Cooper got to plod around in high elevation and his parents kicked themselves for leaving the stroller in the car...

(Carrying an extra 30 lbs of tired li'l boy on a mountain trail = "Here you take him for a bit." )

It's always nice to hang out with locals when you go to a new city... they take you to their fave haunts and off-the-book eateries.  And let you scab off their internet and crash in their space.  It was a plus that Cooper was so unbelievably comfy... it was just quite a relaxing weekend.

All the pictures are over here...