It was a hard decision, but Mr. Kirk and I ended up spending Thanksgiving in Pasadena with Kids #4 & #5 this year. But don't worry, Kids #1-3 survived just fine without the traditional TG insanity at our house, I swear! We all did miss each other, though.
This was our fifth trip to SoCal this year. The first four we drove, and three of those road trips happened in the last two months. To say we were really tired of driving would've been an understatement, so we made the decision to fly this time.
In an airplane.
With a lot of other people.
For the first time since Covid.
The day before Thanksgiving.
Oy, vey. But, hey, we did survive, mostly because we took a 6:00 a.m. flight to San Diego.
In case anyone's wondering, here's what the butt-crack-of-dawn over the Bay Area looked like the day before Thanksgiving.
In an airplane.
With a lot of other people.
For the first time since Covid.
The day before Thanksgiving.
Oy, vey. But, hey, we did survive, mostly because we took a 6:00 a.m. flight to San Diego.
In case anyone's wondering, here's what the butt-crack-of-dawn over the Bay Area looked like the day before Thanksgiving.
Once we arrived in San Diego, we picked up Kid #4 and drove (yes, despite everything, there was some driving involved) to our favorite Italian restaurant, Sonny's in San Clemente, to pick up our rather untraditional Thanksgiving dinner. Then onto Los Angeles to pick up Kid #5. We finally arrived at our cute little AirB&B after 6:00 p.m. So, yeah, still a long day.
Besides eating Italian for Thanksgiving, what else did we do? I'm glad you asked! Two words: Movie. Houses. Most of them were from the Back to the Future movies, of course. The Gamble House (Doc Brown's mansion) was walking distance from our AirB&B. (.5 mile or so.) If you're interested, the links to both houses used for Doc Brown's residence can be reached by clicking their photos below. All of us highly recommend the self-guided interior tour of the Gamble House. The docents there are a-ma-zing!
Cool little factoid about George, Loraine, & Biff's homes: they're all on the same block, separated only by a couple of houses between each. At one of the homes, the owner saw us drive up and came out to kindly invite us onto the front porch to take pictures. Very sweet, but we felt a little awkward about that and opted to take pix from the sidewalk. (If the said owner reads this, we appreciated it and thank you so much!)
After our little BttF tour, we went back to the AirB&B and watched the first two movies. Didn't have time to watch the third one, but will do so once the kiddos come home for Christmas.
Cool little factoid about George, Loraine, & Biff's homes: they're all on the same block, separated only by a couple of houses between each. At one of the homes, the owner saw us drive up and came out to kindly invite us onto the front porch to take pictures. Very sweet, but we felt a little awkward about that and opted to take pix from the sidewalk. (If the said owner reads this, we appreciated it and thank you so much!)
After our little BttF tour, we went back to the AirB&B and watched the first two movies. Didn't have time to watch the third one, but will do so once the kiddos come home for Christmas.
Two other movie houses we saw: The Victorian used in the original Yours, Mine, and Ours starring Lucille Ball & Henry Fonda; and one of the houses from the 1991 remake of Father of the Bride with Steve Martin, Diane Keaton, and Martin Short. (The basketball scene was filmed at a very similar house because this place did not have a basketball hoop.)
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As it turns out, Pasadena is rife with movie houses. But with only a couple of days available, we weren't able to visit any others so we're saving them for another trip!
On the last night we were there, we went to the Rose Bowl stadium and watched the 9.5 point underdogs, Cal/UC Berkeley, trounce UCLA. (33-7) We all wish it'd been a closer game, but sadly that was not to be.
Usually, the rose outside the stadium is red & green, but for UCLA games they change it to blue & gold.
On the last night we were there, we went to the Rose Bowl stadium and watched the 9.5 point underdogs, Cal/UC Berkeley, trounce UCLA. (33-7) We all wish it'd been a closer game, but sadly that was not to be.
Usually, the rose outside the stadium is red & green, but for UCLA games they change it to blue & gold.
So after a whirlwind year of traveling, Mr. Kirk and I are finally home enjoying the empty nest with no trips planned for the foreseeable future. Well, actually, that's not quite true. I do have something big in the works with Kid #1 in 2024, but more on that later....
In the meantime, I wish all of you a safe and happy holiday season!
~Lea
Prophecy series
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In the meantime, I wish all of you a safe and happy holiday season!
~Lea
Prophecy series
Silverstar Mates series
Subscribe to my newsletter
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