Spring Break

Since the last time I got away for spring break was in 1986, I figured it was high time to do it again. Being old now, instead of being a couple of crazy college kids, it was me and my mom and Carole, hitting the road for Southern California, where we could visit Alisa and Erwann, and hang out on the beach, enjoying the sunshine and sand.

At least that is how I pictured it in my head.  Sadly, the weather was not playing nice this weekend.  We kept hoping and hoping for one good beach day.
 This:

is as good as it got.  Notice the jackets.  When the wind stopped blowing, it wasn't bad.  It was at least warm enough to huddle on the beach and soak in the sun.  But the wind blew almost the entire time, and it was cold.  We sat on the beach for about 10 minutes, then we realized it was not that fun.  And it was getting colder.

So we walked down to the pier, where it was  REALLY cold and windy.  And that was about as good as the beach ever got for us on this trip.  Wah.  Oh well.  That only means that I get to go back soon for a make up trip.  But, when you are in California and the weather is crappy, every body who lives there says things like, "it's NEVER like this here.  We have blue skies and sunshine every day!"  And it really doesn't make you feel any better.

So instead of the beach, we spent alot of time here, at La Petite Sourie ( I'm pretty sure I just massacred that spelling.  But massacre is French,and I got that right).  The food here is so good, and I ate way too many croissants, and palmiers and baguettes. Gained four pounds, thank you very much.  I blame the weather.

We did get to hug some palm trees. though.

 And we met these cool birds at the Santa Monica Pier.

Alisa thought this bird had peed on her head.  The owner had squirted her with a squirt bottle to freak her out, and it worked.

Then we got grandly photo bombed at the end of Route 66

 

And, the highlight of the trip for me was finally getting to the Getty.  The Getty is a HUGE art museum somewhere near Los Angeles.  They have original paintings by Vincent Van Gogh, Monet, Renoir,  Cezanne, Degas,  a sketch by Rembrandt, and a whole bunch of other artists I had never heard of.  We only saw about a fourth of what was there, and I took a whole bunch of pictures, but they would probably be really boring, so I am only posting my favorite, a close up of Van Gogh's signing of Irises.  It was amazing to see the originals.

This is one of the trees in the garden area.  These blossoms are huge, and they hang upside down on this big tree. It was as impressive as some of the paintings.

No trip to visit Alisa and Erwann would be complete without Erwann making something French for us.  These are gallettes and they are delicious.  It's like a different kind of crepe filled with ham and cheese and an egg on the top.  I even ate the sunny side egg and liked it.  Me!  Who can only stomach my eggs dry and cold.

The last night we were there, Alisa and I stayed up really late talking.  Then we got giggly. Then we decided to take a self portrait of the two of us.  It just kept getting sillier and sillier.  I thought my face might explode, I was laughing so hard.   Notice how Alisa can laugh and look beautiful, and I laugh and I look like an ogre.

When I grow up, I want to be just like Alisa.

I also want to be just like my aunt Carole.  Here she is , sipping soup with her straw at Denney's on the way home.   This was just after she had shot her straw wrapper at me, missed, and hit the lady behind me in the head.  It was pretty darn funny. Carole also drinks diet coke and loves to shop, so she can come on my Spring Break anytime.

And now we are back home and back to reality.  Reality proved to be too much for me to handle though, so after two days back at work, I decided to take today off as well. and pull off another four day weekend.  The kids are on spring break today, Monday and Tuesday, so I figured why not.  Now I am off to catch up on laundry and plan a jaunt for us this afternoon.