Thursday January 27-Thursday February 3, 2011

Thursday January 27, 2011 and Nancy and Bob are up at 0500 and getting ready for their trip to Long Beach. I checked outside and a light snow was falling. The taxi was on time and we headed to the airport for our 0800 flight to Chicago. The Bradshaw's are taking care of Ms P and had picked her up on Wednesday. The flight to Chicago was uneventful as was the flight to LA. It was sunny and 75⁰ when we arrived in LA at noon. We got the Hertz shuttle and picked up our rental, a Nissan Versa.

We drove to LB and once again I missed the 710 South ramp so we got off at the next exist. We arrived at Steve's and found the key in Steve's secret hiding place. We unpacked and head out to Alessandra's day care to pick her up. Of course she was as adorable as ever. Steve picked up Lucas at school and when he arrived he was given the royal treatment by his grandparents. We all had dinner at a local Tavern and then headed home. Nancy and Bob headed to bed early.

Friday January 28, 2011: Alessandra is staying with us today. After Steve and Veronica headed to work we got in the Nissan and drove to Lucas's school, Prisk. We got there early so Lucas played on the big kid's playground. At 0845, the gate to the Kindergarten playground was opened and Lucas and his classmates headed inside. Lucas loves going to school and is doing quite well.

Nancy has the name of a vendor that sells scarf's to the hospital gift shop. We had their address and drove to their store. Nancy purchased a big supply of scarf's. After this stop we headed home so Alessandra could take her nap.

Alessandra always takes a nap at day care but rarely takes a nap at home. On one day I took her for an hour walk in the stroller and she slept the entire time. At 1330 we head back to school to pick up Lucas at 1400. I am surprised at the number of men picking up their kids at school. Normally Lucas goes to an after school camp run by the school. Veronica picks up Lucas after work. Lucas is happy that he is being picked up after school.

Every day after school we have a special treat. One day we stopped at Jamba Juice and another day we stopped at McDonald's for a cone. We even stopped at Pizza Hut for a pan pizza and on the Wednesday before we left we had a double dip cone at Baskin Robins. Life is good.

Veronica brought some takeout for dinner. Steve and Veronica say that Lucas crashes every Friday evening. Lucas goes to a full day kindergarten without a nap. I went to a half-day kindergarten with a nap. Lucas can write his name and knows all his numbers and letters and can even read. I could not tie my shoes or ever pick my nose at his age. Letters and numbers forget it.

Saturday morning and both kids have gymnastics. Grandpa is not going. Every morning I walk to Starbucks and have a coffee and read the papers. I downloaded the LA Times so I can find out what is going on in LALA land.

After the grandkid's morning classes Steve ran some errand. I accompanied him. Saturday night Nancy and I babysat while Steve and Veronica had a date night. I picked up two pizzas at Pizza Hut for dinner. We watched movies.

Sunday was the only day that we had rain. We all went to Costco and Steve and I got caught in a shower loading up the car. In the late afternoon the sun came out. Except for the shower on Sunday we had perfect weather. Sunshine and blue sky with temperatures in the high 60s or low 70s.

Monday morning and Steve and Veronica are up early getting ready for work. They have a system for getting the kids ready. As I have always said "parenting is a young person's game". Today Nancy is feeling poorly so we are taking Alessandra to day care. We drop Lucas off at school and head back home. While Nancy takes a nap I get in the rental and head for Huntington Beach and a walk on the paved beach walk. The beach walk was loaded with runners, walkers and bikers. A lot of folks are retired like me. I walked for 1.5 hours. It was a great day for a walk. I would like to rent a place near the beach so I could spend a good portion of a day riding my bike along the beach. Maybe next year. I head home and pick up Nancy. We head to Lucas's school and pick him up and then we get Alessandra and head to McDonald's for a cone. Cones are good.

Tuesday morning and Nancy is feeling much better so Alessandra is staying with us today. In fact after we left Lucas off we head downtown. Nancy is taking Alessandra to story hour at the downtown library. We got downtown early so we walk around. On our walk we saw a large building with apartments for rent. We stopped by and talked to the rental lady. We were surprised that the rents seemed reasonable. While the girls were at story hour I headed to the newspaper room and started reading some local papers. Steve stopped by to see how we were doing. Of course we were doing great. After picking up Lucas from school we headed to Target and got a small pizza at their pizza cafe. Lucas ate a whole pan pizza. I did too.

Wednesday and our last full day in CA. We dropped Lucas off and head for the Lakewood Mall with a unplanned stop at a Dollar store. We walked around the Mall and at 1130 we met Steve at Panera Bread for lunch. We had a pleasant surprise because Veronica joined us. It was a pleasant lunch. We picked Lucas up from school and headed to Baskin Robins for an ice cream cone. Both Lucas and I had the double dip. Nancy and Alessandra had a single scope in a bowl.

Thursday morning and today is departure day. We said goodbye to the kids and at 0845 we headed to LAX. Our flight from LA to Chicago was pleasant because we had clear skies. I spent most of the flight looking out the window. I am always surprised at how much open space the country has. We flew over vast deserts, big mountains and huge plains. When we got to Chicago we checked our tickets to GR and were surprised that we had been upgraded to first class. Both Chicago and GR had a lot of snow but the runways were all clear. We took a taxi home and found our driveway was plugged with snow. We had the taxi park at the neighbors drive. Our sidewalk was plowed. I think a neighbor plowed it for us. Our driveway was plugged and the snow was about 20" deep. It was tough getting our suitcases up the hill. We checked the house and saw that everything was ok so we headed to bed. It was a great week but I am always glad to get home.