Even though most of my family lives in California, I rarely see them, even when I was still living in the state. I lived in between 6 to 16 hours drive away from all of them, so it was quite rare that I would be able to pop down for a visit on the weekend. Unfortunately this meant seeing my lovely grandmothers about once a year, if that. I was so happy that I could meet up with them while I was in Los Angeles and spend the entire day with them!
We had lunch at Marie Callendars, it was surprisingly difficult to find something on the menu that was vegetarian… I decided on the Crispy Chicken Salad, minus the chicken. I love eating (and if you continue to read the blog, you’ll see how much this lass can put away) but the definite highlight of my day was driving around the Encino Reservoir and remembering all the good times we spent there as children. My grandmother is great at telling stories, she loves to tell me about the local history and how things in the present day have been affected by the past.
We even stopped by the model air field and watched some guys fly their beautiful model airplanes.
It was quite the show. There were probably about 30 planes and a bunch of different people working on their custom birds. There was one guy who had a trick plane and was doing some amazing flips and spins and rolls and free falls, I was impressed! My dad used to fly model air planes back in the day, although I think my mother would have killed him he he dropped the same amount of cash on these planes and some of these guys did.
It’s open to the public and they often have meets, so if you’re in the area and fancy a fun afternoon with the kids, stop by! It is very close to a large park as well, so its perfect if you’re wanting a nice picnic outside and away from the big city.
After the drive through the park and a long play date with my grandmas new dogs, we sat down and started piecing together a quilt. my grandmother is a beautiful quilter, I feel blessed to have been gifted a few of her quilts in my life, I cherish them so dearly. She is teaching a class at a community center to help underprivileged women learn skills, quilting being one of them. We were testing out different ideas that she had for the class and I was using my knowledge as a teacher to help her plan out the course. It was great fun! and we even pieced together a good portion of a little 4 square quilt! I quite like it, unfortunately it is going to be raffled off and I can’t steal it, but it has given me a bit of inspiration for the next time I get my hands on my machine!
My grandma always has such wacky fabrics and odds and ends around, is like a treasure chest full of memories!! Finally around 8 o clock I had to hit the road as a television show that my grandmas have been waiting ages for was going to be on and they didn’t want to miss it!! I gave my final hugs goodbye and set fourth to Hollywood to find the beautiful people and bright lights!
stay tuned for S in LA Part 3
voigtlandervoyages 