Day 2

I had lunch with my friend Susan today at the place where she has just recently started working - The Huntington Library. There are huge botanical gardens there, and after we ate, we walked the grounds soaking in the scenery. It is a lovely place and it had been years since I'd been there. The Huntington family was a huge driving force in Pasadena history (really the whole San Gabriel Valley) and there are more things named after them than you can shake a stick at, but this is without question the crown jewel of the family name.

Even though Susan isn't a blogger, a lot of you already know her through her comments, both as my two cents and as Mrs. Weasley. She has fifteen year old twins and we've been friends since they were around a year old. They were in a Mommy and Me type class with Sasquatch and the rest is history.

I didn't take any of these pictures, by the way, because I'm having camera issues. You can thank Google for the visuals. These are all pictures of the Huntington. (Or at least that's what Google says).

I also made a pit stop at Trader Joe's, which was just as wonderful as it always is. Sadly, I forgot one of the things I specifically went for and will have to go back and do it again tomorrow. Oh, well. I guess it can't be helped.

Later in the day I went to Susan's house and ate cheesecake and visited with her family. And that's all I'm going to say about that because this one deserves a post all its own. Stay tuned.

Last, but not least, we had a big family dinner with all of the people I've grown up with, who may not be blood family, but are certainly closer than a lot of blood relatives. I call this bunch The Usual Suspects and don't remember a time in my life when they weren't there. You've never seen a more respectable bunch of reformed radical hippies in your life. They were the friends my mom made when we moved to California and they developed lifelong relationships. All of their kids (like me) grew up together and now we're all married and have kids of our own and it's just a riotous bunch. And while it was quieter than usual without my gang, there were smaller ones who tried their hardest to bring the noise level up to par. It was great.

And I think that's it. Who knew relaxing and taking it easy could be so tiring?