LA, California – Day 1 (Sunday, Aug 3)

Yesterday was a long day! First of all, mom flew in Friday night. The timing was perfect – she landed in Orange County right as we finished up dinner and since we weren’t far from the airport, Dana dropped me off to pick up mom and our rental car. It worked out really well so that mom didn’t have to find her way to the hotel in the dark (even though I gave very thorough directions!) I was so happy to see her and to know that our girls trip was set to begin. It was hard to go to sleep because I just wanted to stay up and hang with her. But it didn’t take long for the exhaustion to set in (me from my day of work, mom from her travels).

So back to yesterday… It started with an early morning wake up – I had to get ready for work. One more day to go, and then we are on vacation – woohoo!! While I was working, mom went running all around Orange County. She went to several scrapbook stores, one in Huntington Beach where she was right on the water (great views), and of course, collected some great “California style” paper and goodies. She has to be the only person crazy enough to travel all the way from Texas to California to buy paper, punches, and scrapbook paraphernalia. Then she went to Southcoast Plaza – the premier shopping destination. She walked, and walked, and walked all around the mall. I laugh when I think of her shopping bags… scrapbook stores, Target, and Payless. All that distance for stores she has in Houston – how funny! I really thought I’d be done no later than dinner time, so after a bit, I told her to head over to St. John to pick me up. Well, that didn’t turn out to be the best move. Luckily mom is very flexible. She brought in her book and got quite a few chapters read of Story Telling (Tori Spelling’s book). It turns out, instead of being done with work around 6:00 pm like I expected, it was almost 11:00 pm!! I couldn’t believe it – but as mom always says – it is what it is. We still had the aprox 45 min drive from Irvine to Los Angeles, so on the road we went – LA here we come!!!

We arrived our hotel (thank you Gypsy – mom’s GPS – the greatest investment she ever made) close to midnight. We got checked in pretty quickly, unloaded our bags in the room, and with our tummy’s growling, headed down to the bar for a little something to eat. We ordered some food at the bar and talked about what we were going to do the next day. It was great to just be spending some good time together the two of us! With mom’s food, she got sweet potato fries – the start of her obsession for the trip.

Finally, off to bed we went. We were exhausted!

So that brings us to today…

First on the agenda was the President Reagan Library in Simi Valley. It was a bit of a drive, but a beautiful one (and easy – again thanks to Gypsy). The freeway took us right through mountains and it was amazing to see the landscape and how development is all different in the mountains versus in flat Texas. We got to the library very early (by 11:00 am), and beat the crowds. It was really perfect. There was a great short video highlighting Reagan’s path to the Whitehouse and his presidency. Short, sweet, and to the point – very well done.

Then we moved into what we really wanted to see… the exhibit of Nancy Reagan’s wardrobe. There were dresses, suits, and gowns from all different designers that she wore during her time as First Lady. It was absolutely amazing! First of all, the condition of these pieces was pristine. I was surprised at how well they were taken care of. They looked like they had just come out of the designer’s studio. Secondly, and even more amazingly, the styles were so classic and timeless. I could see a woman wearing nearly all of them today! I was overwhelmed by how the styles seem to be so modern and clean. It was also really cool to read about all of the occasions and events for which Nancy Reagan wore the designs. Very interesting! There was a great deal that was also devoted to telling the story of how she and “Ronnie” met, fell in love, and lived. It was really neat to hear.

Next up was the exhibit of Reagan’s journey to the Whitehouse, starting from him hometown, stint in Hollywood, time as Governor, then as President. We probably spent about an hour at Nancy’s exhibit, and about 10 minutes at Ronald’s!! The most interesting part was the section on the assassination attempt. All in all – 10 – 15 minutes was good enough.

Our final destination at the library was to tour Air Force One. They have open to the public the Air Force One that was used since before Reagan and to the current President Bush. It was extremely cool to see, but I have to say I was surprised at how “not fancy” it was. I really expected more. That is not to say that it wasn’t really neat – it was. Most overwhelming is the communication ability that is set up on an airplane! The first section is devoted to phone lines and communication connections. The president can essentially talk to anyone, anywhere in the world with a secure line on an airplane. I really wonder what the new Air Force One looks like? Is it fancier than the old one – afterall, this one had been in service for over 20 years. Surely they’ve modernized it at least a little!

The last stop at the Reagan library was to see a piece of the Berlin wall that was torn down during Reagan’s presidency. It looked like a big block of cement with graffiti on it (graffiti being something we’ve been getting really used to seeing in LA). But to know how much meaning and history is behind this decorated piece of cement was remarkable.

Well you would think that would have taken us all day, but we were done with all of that by 2:00. By now were starving though, so we stopped at a nearby Chili’s for lunch and to plan the rest of the days events. We picked a good stop for lunch, because we had a fabulous waitress who gave us directions to get to great stuff for the rest day…

Next stop was the Topanga mall. We got to see where the new Neiman Marcus is being built (well is already done being built and getting ready to open). And most importantly, they had a H&M – my one criteria for shopping in CA. It is this great store – comfortable, stylish, trendy enough without being out of style in one month, and cheap! Last time I found several things there for a total bill of less than $100, and I did it again – YIPEE! Topanga also had a very interesting and odd feature… a Target in the mall! We were shocked! It was the strangest thing.

From Topanga, we drove down to Santa Monica. (Did I say THANK GOODNESS for Gypsy yet?) The Santa Monica Pier was a highly recommended stop. Thanks to some strategic driving skills, we found parking right on the beach (thankfully NOT having to walk over the high bridge to cross the Pacific Coast Highway). So, for $10 in parking, we got to be right at the pier. We wandered up and down, stopped to buy some post cards, watched a guy doing a big break dancing routine, looked down at the not crystal blue water, and within 20 minutes, we felt we'd seen it all! The water wasn't as pretty as we'd expected (not as dirty looking as Galveston, but definitely not the clear blue in Mexico or Jamaica), but it was a beautiful view. We're just not people who enjoy looking at the beach, and since we were definitely not interested in swimming in the ocean, getting sand all over us, our clothes, in our shoes - we were done. As they say (I don't really know who "they" is... we came, we saw, we left!

Since we still had some time in the day, we decided to drive along PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) towards Malibu. I remembered that there was a great restaurant right on the water that Lauren took me to during my last visit to LA, and I was pretty sure it was in Malibu and I'd remember it when I saw it. Sure enough, we arrived at Duke's, and thought it would be beautiful to have dinner on the water as the sun set. So, we valeted the car (everything in and around LA is valet - pain in the butt!), went inside, put our names on the list (45 min wait), went to the restroom, and then decided... we don't really feel like waiting 45 minutes, and we weren't very hungry for a heavy meal, so maybe let's head back to the hotel afterall. Now you know me - I'm thinking - I hope I don't have to pay the $6 valet for 10 minutes! Well, sure enough, they had already parked our car, but he gave us the keys and let us just get it out and go. So, we drove back along PCH, all the while admiring the view of the huge beach houses along the mountainside, and headed for our temporary "home". As we were beginning to find, pretty much nothing was more than 30 minutes from our hotel, so we made it back relatively quickly. We unpacked the car and took everything up to our room, and then headed out grab a quick bite to eat. Since there is NOTHING open around the hotel past 6:00 ish (downtown LA shuts down after work hours!!), we ended up across the street from our hotel at California Pizza Kitchen - service stunk, food was good and light (we shared a pizza and salad - way to keep the points down), and before long, we were back at the hotel, CRASHED!

It was a long, fun, day!

Enjoy these pics from the in the hotel and the Reagan Library...