Monday, March 12, 2007

Back Again…

We arrived back from sunny, warm California yesterday afternoon.  We arrived in turbulence, rain and wind.  It was nice to be home, but at the same time I already miss the sun.  Spring will be here soon though…

Wednesday
I arrived in CA about 7pm.  Hubby and his brother (FM) picked me up from the airport and whisked me off to the house where we picked up FM’s wife (JM) and went to dinner.  It was an early night, JM had to work the next day and we were all pretty tired.

Thursday
We started with a driving tour of various places.  We drove through Hollywood, down Sunset Blvd and Rodeo Drive.  FM asked me if I wanted to get out and walk around and I said no, I really just wanted to see it, but I didn’t feel like I needed to get up close and personal.  Also, I was pretty excited to get to our final destination – the Getty.
The Getty was amazing.  They had so many great exhibits and the buildings themselves were incredible.  I’ve never been to anything like it.  They had an entire exhibit on French Illuminated Manuscripts – the guys thought they were manuscripts that were lit up – they were incredible.  I could almost see the men that worked for years to create these amazing pieces of work.  We spent hours there.  It was fabulous.
That night we headed out to the MOST amazing part of the trip.  We went to the Magic Castle.  This place is a members only club for magicians.  It was absolutely incredible.  We got to get up close and personal with the magicians and see all kinds of “tricks.” The food was great too. 
In one trick, and if you want to hear about more tricks you will just have to email me, the guy asked for three gold rings from the audience.  People passed in three of their rings.  He put them in a bowl and did some magic and pulled them out – all hooked together.  He then passed them around the audience – we got to touch, feel, and see the rings hooked together.  Then he took them apart.  It was like nothing I have ever seen before.  The whole night was that way.

Friday
We had an ultra-relaxed morning since we were out so late the night before.  We finally headed out about noon and went to the Norton-Simon, another museum.  This one has the largest exhibit of South Asian artifacts outside of Asia.  It was a beautiful exhibit and I am glad that Hubby wanted to take me.  We had an easy going afternoon, mostly in preparation for that night.
JM and I went to get pedicures and run some errands, the boys stayed home to play dominoes.
FM had one of his buddies get reservations for us at a local Chinese restaurant and we went for some authentic food.  We had a large party, 9 of us, and we laughed and ate and had a wonderful time.  We stayed at the restaurant for 3 hours.  It was so fun, we laughed so hard. 

Saturday
Saturday was Santa Monica day.  We walked on the pier, looked at the beach, and watched the performers and people walking around.  We spent the majority of the day there, just watching people and looking at all the little vendors wares.  That night we stayed in, bbqed some meat and watched a movie. 

It was a fabulous trip, very relaxing with lots of sun.  Just what I needed!