It's So Good to Be Home

That old expression, "There's no place like home" has special meaning for me this morning. We've been on vacation in Los Angeles and San Diego for a week and just returned late last night. It was a wonderfully relaxing week and was just the vacation we needed as a family. We went from temps in the high 80's out in Southern California and plunged back to the cold wintry weather of KC, but I couldn't be happier to be back.



We were visiting relatives in both cities - some cousins in LA and a niece and her young daughter in San Diego. We had a simply fabulous time. We were constantly on the go, and ate out most of the time, so I've gained even more weight than I started with, but I'll just have to work on it - otherwise I'll have to go on a full-blown shopping spree at Lane Bryant's and I'd rather not do that.



Anyway, back to the trip - I knit a little bit, but surprisingly, not as much as you'd think, instead I've been reading a fascinating novel called "Middlesex." The plot and main character sounds bizarre from reading the description on Amazon, but it really is an absorbing read.

I did knit one pair of Karen's Cupcake Fingerless Gloves and I'm going to take an embroidery refresher from her this afternoon over at The Studio to do some embellishments on these gloves. I think they're really cute and will post a photo later today or tomorrow, after I've unpacked and done some catching up with errands here on the homefront. But if you're looking for some quick holiday gifts, these gloves would be a good choice because they knit up fast and easy. She has a pattern for both adult and children's sizes.

Believe it or not, while gone, I did not visit a single yarn shop. I had sort of planned on it, but knowing that there's more than enough yarn at home, and our suitcases were already bursting, it curbed my yarn cravings. Stopping at yarn shops just seemed like a waste of precious time, especially when we were trying to do some many fun activities all in one trip.

Some of the highlights were: eating at all the best deli's in LA, watching the movie THE CHANGELING at a theatre in Burbank, shopping with my daughter in several of the little shops on Melrose, going in a charming little vintage shop called Hidden Treasures, going to San Diego's Sea World, visiting the spooky Queen Mary ship, idling around Balboa Park, spending time with Jamie and Katelyn at their ranch and seeing her realize her dream of living on a horse ranch. Spending time on the beach - it was cold, but fun to walk along LaJolla's beach front and get our feet wet in the sand/incoming tide.

The people in California were so nice to us! We met so many friendly and hospitable people. Of course, the driving out there is crazy to me, but luckily Bob drove, and that's the one time I knit, to keep my hands busy and my eyes off the road because it was nerve wracking. But other than that, yeah, the people were extremely nice and helpful, even though we were typical tourists, they welcomed us and it was a blast to be there.

Unfortunately, as we drove back up to LA and spent the night in a hotel in the San Fernando Valley, we woke up with the smell of smoke and it was "snowing" the ash from the huge fires that are going on out there. The hotel where we were staying was 20 miles away from the fire, but they lost power for a while and had been incoming residents who were fleeing their homes. We talked to a few of them as we were checking out and heading to the airport on Saturday morning. This fire is really tragic and sad for those suffering through it. It seems trite to say, "my prayers are with them" but it's really true.