Thank you all so very much for your comments on yesterday's post. A wonderful thing happened after this trip, actually. Really, until we went, I felt as if I had firmly shut the door on our life back there. I almost had to. But going back to L.A. and visiting our friends Debbie and Mike and their kids somehow allowed me to open that door again and enjoy all the wonderful memories we have of that place. I'm not saying I didn't have wonderful memories of the time we lived there, but of the place? Well, I realized that I just didn't let myself think about it too much. Before I start sounding too crazytown, let me tell you about the heart and soul of our trip. Our visit with our friends.

We felt so well hosted and tended to during our time with them. The family we stayed with are friends who lived in Virginia who moved back home to California about a year ago. Their kids are like cousins to my kid, and it was both wonderful and not at all amazing to see them fall in together as if not a single day had passed since they'd seen each other.

Part of what made this visit so lovely was how well incorporated we felt into Debbieand Mike's day-to-day lives. They were busy, and still they comfortably fit us in. We knew where the waffles were and what time the coffee started brewing. We knew where to put the silverware and the cling wrap too. It was easy being there. Homelike.

We spent most of our time at home sitting outside. Our meals were out there and the kids moved in and out, from the pool to the sofa and back again. It's that California weather that lets you do it. I felt for Neel, back home fighting 100+ degree heat and beating off derechos. Not in sunny California!

We shared some amazing meals together. Grilled chicken from a local butcher one night and Mediterannean food for take out another.

There may have been a cocktail or two.

One of my favorite evenings included another set of dear friends from Virginia who spend their summers in California. Debbie, Tracy and I would meet regularly for lunch when Debbie was still living nearby, and now Tracy and I carry the torch. Just the two of us. Sniff. Five kids in the pool giggling madly, five grownups sitting around the table catching up. We played Running Charades after dinner (Has anyone heard of this? I'll explain sometime if you want me to.), adults and kids together, and we just had the best time. One of the clues was Sugar Sugar (try acting that one out!), and after we were all done and having dessert (I made that trifle again), everyone was gathered in the kitchen, rehashing the game and someone led us off singing that famous chorus. I can't sing, at all, but hearing everyone belting it out? Well, my heart was full.

It's funny. I'm usually really detail oriented when I'm taking photos, and this time I keep thinking of things I missed. The yellow bucked filled with blue and white striped towels that they keep out by the pool. The tower of white towels in the guest bath. The guest bath that about has me convinced that we don't need a shower in our master (Debbie, I may need you to send photos so Neel can see...or we'll just come back. But I think we'll need a bathroom sooner rather than later.). It's funny to me that I missed all that. I was busy just soaking it all in, I suppose.

Evenings were my favorite. Twlight time.

Once the chill hit the air, we'd gather around the heat lamp or the firepit. I dearly love California evenings.

We'd listen to music (Cachao or old Simon and Garfunkel) and sit around the table as night fell, and one night the kids made s'mores.

I could go on and on I guess. About the breeze (right, Erin?), or the mountains and the palm trees. I could talk about shopping in my old grocery store chain, and how when I came home I told the cashier here that I had a Von's card. I could tell you about how right hills feel to navigate, and how I loved wearing a sweater in July. I could talk about how surprising it was that it was so much fun to see all those iconic L.A. sites. I could talk about how lovely it was just being outside so much. And the clarity of the light. I could talk about how different the landscape is from here, all dusty pinks and beiges instead of deep, deep greens. I could describe my surprise at seeing a street in Pasadena (must get back there) lined with magnolia trees, and how happy I was to see bougainvillea and jacaranda again.

But when you boil it all down, it's being with these people again. We could be sitting in my muggy, buggy backyard instead of feeling the waters of the Pacific rush over our toes and I'd be just as happy, I think.

Thank you, my friends.

I suppose I should tell you a bit about my history with California before we go much further. In the late 90s, immediately after he finished graduate school, Neel and I lived in San Diego for about six years while he did his post-graduate work. When we flew there for Neel's interview, I knew before our plane even landed that I'd come home. Callum was born there, and in more ways than one, Neel and I felt like we grew up there. I love where we live now, and we're so happy here in so many ways, but leaving San Diego was one of the hardest things I've had to do. We took Callum back over his Christmas break a couple years after we'd moved away and that was another one of the hardest things I'd had to do. I sat in this restaurant and cried so hard that our server actually asked me, "Ma'am, are you okay?" San Diego is the only place I've lived where I didn't think about living someplace else.

Pathetic, isn't it? This time, going back was a delight. I'll tell you about staying with our friends tomorrow and what wonderful hosts they were, but today I thought I'd show you some bits and pieces of our trip.

Our friend Mike gave us two great driving tours of L.A., which I never would have been able to do on my own. He was an awesome tour guide.

We climbed up into the Hollywood Hills and wandered around the Griffith Observatory. It was packed, but I could have spent hours there. The kids loved it too, just wandering around and watching the sun set over Los Angeles.

It's not a bad view.

Of course I took Callum to a Dodgers game (they lost).

And we took the kids to the Santa Monica Pier.

Mike's driving tours went past all the iconic L.A. sites.

Cal and I did the trip to Manhattan Beach to meet with Teri and Theresa on our own. I've always maintained that I continue to drive like a Californian here in Virginia, and I'm pleased to learn that this is, in fact, true.

We met at the Shade Hotel, and I would love to stay here sometime! Even the bathrooms were gorgeous! We eventually got booted out for a wedding, which would have been fun to stay and see. More than that I would have loved to have stayed and chatted with these two amazing women longer than we did. I could have stayed all day!

We shared a great meal (Theresa, we should have had champagne! Next time!) I have to thank Callum for being such a good sport by hanging with us (and being our personal photographer!) for so long and listening to all of our bloggy chatter. Teri has a gorgeous fall of brunette hair and Theresa wore these stunning braids wound into a bun that I'm still trying to figure out how to replicate. As you saw, Theresa was in red, of course (with tan and red nail polish...so stylish!), and Teri was beachy in chambray and white. Perfection. They seemed so easy together and we all felt easy with each other. Who would have known it would be like that? I should have known. Now I do.

Being with friends, the old ones and the new ones, was the best. That, and this. This view. That blue, blue ocean and those vistas. Every single moment of the trip was a dream (aside from the migraine I got on the first night, but I took care of that handily). And you know what's funny? We met some really cool people on the plane. Each time we were in a three-seat row, I sat next to someone cool. On one leg a momma with a seven-month old (she picked me and had her husband sit elsewhere because she figured I'd be patient with the baby!). On another, another mom, headed to CA to spend the weekend with her college-aged son who was working at a camp out there. I could see me in her someday. Although she was far more glamorous than I'll ever be! And on one of our last legs, we met a woman who was meeting her boyfriend's family for the first time. They'd been dating for four years and the whole family was hooking up for a vacation at some cabins at a lake over the Fourth. She thought he might propose! It kills me that I don't know what happened!

Our toes in the sand at the Pacific. Who could ask for anything more? Our first day home was the Fourth of July, and it was so nice to have Neel home with us all day. Cal slept late, and we scooted to the beach for a couple hours. It's a push to get Neel to the beach with us (He's a little like Erin that way.), and Callum and I were so grateful to bob away in the Chesapeake Bay with Papa for awhile. We told him all about the trip as the warm water gently lapped over us. We had a great time, and having been born there, Callum feels very connected to California. Neel asked him what he loved so much about the place, and Cal said this: "It's not something you feel with your brain. It's something you feel with your heart."

Yes.

well-tended {life}

dreamin' {life}