Ahoy,
The madness of March seemed to carry over straight into April. That final week of March, we had a brief visit from A's sister. O and H arrived for that first week of April. They are probably our favorite long-distance couple friends.
We celebrated H's birthday with a weekend of magic. We started on Friday with a visit to Universal Studios for a visit to the Harry Potter World. I think we watched Harry Potter that night, and all the nights. The following day, we had a slow start before walking to downtown and returning home to get ready for the Magic Castle. We definitely stayed out past our bedtime. The next day we went out for coffee before taking them to the North Hollywood Wat Thai Temple for a big lunch. This was a bad idea because we were way too full to climb at Hollywood Boulders after that. I feel like I had only started to digest all that about 2 hours into the session. We stopped at a Ktown grocery store before returning home to watch more Harry Potter. A weekend of magic.
The following weekend, a trip to Yosemite was cancelled due to unfavorable weather. So it opened up for a weekend of birthday extravaganzas. There was a tamale birthday party on Friday, and a barcade party on Saturday.
The following weekend we got to go see Into the Woods downtown. I loved it. I was particularly impressed that most of the production is put on by the actors. Everyone stayed on-stage the whole time to play instruments, make sounds, move props, etc. Some actors had multiple roles. It was so clever. We also went to Knott's Berry Farm that weekend. The last time I was there was a Thursday in fall, so there were no lines for anything. This time, we waited over an hour for many rides. I think we went on only a handful of rides. Our friends were so kind to gift us an annual pass to Knott's, so we could just go back another time. I had a lot of fun my first time there, but the lines really do just eat all of your time. I have to figure out a better way to do this.
The following weekend was Earth Day and Festival of Books. I volunteered at a creek clean-up Saturday AM - a great Earth Day activity. The following day, I managed to drag A to the Festival of Books. We didn't buy anything this year. Good job, us! We watched a talk from the authors of Run Fast, Eat Slow that influenced our salad game significantly. Salads have become a regular part of our diet and homemade dressings are the only kind we have in our fridge.
The last weekend in April was the big weekend I had been waiting for. I made the reservations 6 months earlier. We managed to wrangle our friends L and E at the last minute to come with us. We left Friday morning and arrived in the afternoon to a gorgeous bug-free campsite. The following morning we embarked on what would be an approximately 15-mile hike beginning with the East Rim Trail up to Observation Point and ending in the main park. This would be our longest hike to date. I was really nervous about this because L and E are super hardcore because they are avid backpackers - so this would be a walk in the park for them. Like anything challenging in life, it was fine. We got some epic views, few crowds, varied landscape, diverse topography, and a lot of sun. It was a great way to experience Zion. The following morning, we went up the iconic Angels' Landing before parting ways. I had done it solo last time, but this was definitely preferred. A and I stopped at the visitor center to watch an informational video before heading home at a leisurely pace. We left a night early, which I was ready for. We had done a lot and I was excited to go home and shower. Also, I love playing hooky with A so we had a great time the following day running errands.
splendid daily,
jt
The madness of March seemed to carry over straight into April. That final week of March, we had a brief visit from A's sister. O and H arrived for that first week of April. They are probably our favorite long-distance couple friends.
We celebrated H's birthday with a weekend of magic. We started on Friday with a visit to Universal Studios for a visit to the Harry Potter World. I think we watched Harry Potter that night, and all the nights. The following day, we had a slow start before walking to downtown and returning home to get ready for the Magic Castle. We definitely stayed out past our bedtime. The next day we went out for coffee before taking them to the North Hollywood Wat Thai Temple for a big lunch. This was a bad idea because we were way too full to climb at Hollywood Boulders after that. I feel like I had only started to digest all that about 2 hours into the session. We stopped at a Ktown grocery store before returning home to watch more Harry Potter. A weekend of magic.
The following weekend, a trip to Yosemite was cancelled due to unfavorable weather. So it opened up for a weekend of birthday extravaganzas. There was a tamale birthday party on Friday, and a barcade party on Saturday.
The following weekend we got to go see Into the Woods downtown. I loved it. I was particularly impressed that most of the production is put on by the actors. Everyone stayed on-stage the whole time to play instruments, make sounds, move props, etc. Some actors had multiple roles. It was so clever. We also went to Knott's Berry Farm that weekend. The last time I was there was a Thursday in fall, so there were no lines for anything. This time, we waited over an hour for many rides. I think we went on only a handful of rides. Our friends were so kind to gift us an annual pass to Knott's, so we could just go back another time. I had a lot of fun my first time there, but the lines really do just eat all of your time. I have to figure out a better way to do this.
The following weekend was Earth Day and Festival of Books. I volunteered at a creek clean-up Saturday AM - a great Earth Day activity. The following day, I managed to drag A to the Festival of Books. We didn't buy anything this year. Good job, us! We watched a talk from the authors of Run Fast, Eat Slow that influenced our salad game significantly. Salads have become a regular part of our diet and homemade dressings are the only kind we have in our fridge.
The last weekend in April was the big weekend I had been waiting for. I made the reservations 6 months earlier. We managed to wrangle our friends L and E at the last minute to come with us. We left Friday morning and arrived in the afternoon to a gorgeous bug-free campsite. The following morning we embarked on what would be an approximately 15-mile hike beginning with the East Rim Trail up to Observation Point and ending in the main park. This would be our longest hike to date. I was really nervous about this because L and E are super hardcore because they are avid backpackers - so this would be a walk in the park for them. Like anything challenging in life, it was fine. We got some epic views, few crowds, varied landscape, diverse topography, and a lot of sun. It was a great way to experience Zion. The following morning, we went up the iconic Angels' Landing before parting ways. I had done it solo last time, but this was definitely preferred. A and I stopped at the visitor center to watch an informational video before heading home at a leisurely pace. We left a night early, which I was ready for. We had done a lot and I was excited to go home and shower. Also, I love playing hooky with A so we had a great time the following day running errands.
splendid daily,
jt
