Day 4 My American birthday!

Day 4 LA and an American birthday

Woke up at 7. Teagan had made me a lovely card for my birthday and Troy sang happy birthday. I walked with Teagan and Susan down to the school and then back to have breakfast.

We left about 9:30 for a trip to Downtown LA. Susan drove the scenic route to show Deb the lovely parks and gardens close to LA. We paid for parking downtown and walked across to Olvera St and the Mexican “Day of the Dead” stalls.

All the colour reminded me so much of Susan and Oscar’s wedding celebrations. Then onto Union Station, which has restored its amazing Art Deco interior. We drove to through the Arts area with the most incredible art graffiti on many of the walls. Past Skid Row where the homeless of LA have tents on the footpaths, past The BROAD and around the streets to get a general view of some the new and old buildings in LA.

We parked again intending to have lunch at Clifton’s, only to find it closed for a function! So we walked further to The Ace Hotel-another lovely Art Deco building complete with a gorgeous roof terrace and great views of the city. Downstairs to have a light lunch where I had my first birthday candle of the day. On our way back to the car we stopped at a random shop (Gentle Monster)  selling sunglasses which had an incredible art installation inside. It was a theme of “harvest” The artists were Jung Uk Yung and Miso Ababa.

Incredible doesn’t seem adequate to describe the intricate workings of the “machines.”

After lunch we drove home for a short stop, where I downloaded this morning’s photos, before taking Troy and Teagan with us to the Odyssey Restaurant, which has lovely night views of the valley. A beautiful meal. Unfortunately Oscar had to work so he missed out.  When we had eaten and taken some photos we drove to Joanne’s, where Deb and I were overwhelmed by the huge range of fabric and every other craft. I am looking for a particular cutter but couldn’t find it here. I did however find gorgeous colours in open ended zips. We only had half an hour before closing time so there wasn’t a lot of time to cruise. More like a fast rush, but we saw most of the stock. The nearby Walmart was enormous, lots of last minute Halloween shoppers. Susan bought an enormous bag of lollies for the Trick or Treaters. She drove us back via Newhall which has undergone an upgrade. Back home at 10pm to start the diary. Oscar came home early because of a breakdown in the equipment at work. I downloaded the rest of today’s photos and typed up the news.

It was a great day. One to remember