An Adventure for 2, Part III: The Rest of Our Week in Pasadena

We've not even been back a week from our Family Vacation out West, but I never finished up my series on Toby's and my trip to California. Things got very busy in the week and a half we had between returning for California, working, planning, packing, and then heading back out on another one of our epic road trips. (Then things were both tragic and busy upon our return from the Family Vacation. Toby covered that,  here and here, so I won't say more about it right now except that I have been deeply grieved by it.) Since I spend a good bit of time on my posts, I never turned to finishing that up. 

Anyway, this is the last post in The Adventure for 2 Series. Then I'm switching to our Family Vacation, which I'm dividing up into five parts. It has truly been an adventure-filled summer and we are very grateful to have been able to experience so much! 

Once we got back to our hotel on Sunday night, we showered and crashed. Toby needed to be up bright and early to go work at the client's offices and I had a number of legal assignments waiting for me as well. As the week wore on, more and more came my way. But I had a very comfortable working situation and never had to leave the hotel during the day. It was extremely productive. 

My little desk. In the right hand corner, you can see the little Sequoia Tree sapling we bought at Kings Canyon. I planted it in a pot this week which I'll be showing in an upcoming post. My inner green thumb came out. Anyway, I had everything I needed, including great natural and artificial light.

I rarely work away from home. A few days a month, I might go out with Toby and work remotely remotely with him, but primarily, I work from home with the children with me. I homeschool them, run them to and from their "away-from-home" classes, and then manage the calls, emails, research and writing, as well as domestic duties all right here. It was very strange to not have all that. There was no laundry to do, very few calls, no meals to make, no beds to make, no housework really at all. No one needed help with their homework, nothing needed to be graded, no one needed a PB&J sandwich or glass of milk. Work came in at a rapid pace, including some things that needed a quick turnaround, and all I had to do was see to that. I actually worked full time+ hours while we were away. One or two evenings, Toby came in and I was only then finishing up my day. I confess that it was a bit of a vacation to only have to work during the day. Of course, as we gear up for the new school year, I'm excited about it and I will manage all my duties as I always do - sometimes far less gracefully than others - with Toby's ever faithful, supportive help. Still, vacations are nice and sometimes a vacation is simply having less to do of one thing and more of another. That's been a strange realization for me over my adulthood, but it is a truth. 

The evenings were ours and only ours. Neither of us had to work and Toby enjoyed taking me to some of his favorite spots. I cannot express how wonderful it is to have a spouse that wants to take you with him on trips and experience things with you. To be able to combine work and pleasure is a real gift. I am blessed. 

The first Monday evening, however, was almost a disaster. We had to take the rental car back to the place near LAX. That was a nightmare. LA traffic is its own beast. I get aggressive driving, I'm a Texan; but this is straight-up reckless driving...as the norm! Then we needed to fill up the rental and there were places that only took cash. Really? What the....?! Long, long story short, we finally got that done, returned the car, and procured a Lyft. That guy drove like a maniac as well, but we managed to make a reservation at Roy's to try to salvage an absurdly stressful evening. We had a lovely meal and drinks. It reminded us very much of some of the food and drinks we had on Oahu in December. That was a very nice memory to add to this lovely trip. 

I opted for a surf and turf with a crab fried rice. Not pictured is the asparagus I had. Only slightly pictured is my Mai Tai and it was the best, most authentic I'd had since we were in Honolulu when our dear friend, Earl (read the first review), at Trees made them for us. 

Tuesday night Toby just brought us take out from Father Nature and we stayed in. We'd both become a bit tired of being on the go all constantly and wanted some down time. Toby wanted to work on some pictures and I just wanted to continue reading my latest John Muir book. Sometimes I like to simply "sit and be" which is usually easier said than done. One thing we're learning is that while we want to get as much out of a trip as we can, if you're killing yourself to get it all in and are tired, you're not really enjoying it. It's not a marathon. So we had a quiet evening in to recuperate. From Monday night to Wednesday night, I did not leave the hotel. It was not so unlike some days here. I'm OK with that. I had plenty to do, liked my surroundings, and was peaceful and productive while getting some much-needed rest in in between. 

Wednesday night, Toby very much wanted to take me to Sage, a vegan restaurant that he just really loved. Wednesdays in Orthodoxy are almost always fast days, usually strict fast days. This was to be quite a treat. Or was it? Upon reading the menu, although much is marked gluten free, there is a huge warning on the menu to basically not eat there if you have a severe allergy. Um, what? Sometimes restaurants do this and then really do take special care so we've learned to inquire. We were told by our waitress that they used to have separate fryers for gluten free stuff, but they stopped doing that. What on earth?! Then nothing there is really gluten free once prepared. It turns out no real precautions were taken. I could not eat there. Toby was disappointed. I rarely get angry about such things anymore. It's just the way it is for me. However, when these vegan places have the pretense of being so progressive, in-the-know, tolerant, inclusive, and in your face with their awesomeness and superiority (they didn't even serve almond milk because they claim that this harms the bee population and takes too much water), I take issue with it. We had already ordered a pitcher of Sangria and brussels sprouts, which Toby has raved about for months, so I drank wine and Toby ate his appetizer, we listened to the live jazz music in the courtyard down below, then headed elsewhere for dinner. (Because I stink at this blogging thing, I took no pics of anything this night. I recall now that I forgot my phone that night in the room. Oh, well. Check out Toby's blog where he covered our Pasadena Tour and his Flickr page where he got pics of things I never thought to, even when I remembered my phone.)

Where we ended up was a gift, Cafe Santorini. No, it was not vegan and I did not stick strictly to the fast very well, but I ate a safe meal. I had a mushroom risotto, grilled veggies, and some really excellent martinis: a fresh pear and then a fresh peach. The night was saved! On the way back to the hotel, we heard / saw an accident happen and Toby pulled out his rig to take some pics as if a citizen journalist. I practiced recreating the accident as I often do for work with the help of experts. I was able to accurately ID the crashed up vehicle. 

Thursday night was our last in town. Friday we'd be heading back home and eat at the airport. We made the most of it! We had dinner in the hotel again with Father Nature providing us nourishment. We wanted to maximize our time walking around the town and hitting a few places Toby really liked. And, we discovered some of our own together! 

We started by heading to the extremely picturesque and architecturally accurate and interesting City Hall. 

This is the front of the magnificent building. 

Here is the back side of it. 

I mean, how many places have a City Hall like this? It was far more like a museum than building housing government bureaucracy. I enjoyed it tremendously and got to take pics of my beloved taking pics. 

As you walk through the breezeway from the front to the courtyard in the middle of it, you see all these great details. 

Once you get to through the breezeway, you see that great fountain just above Toby's left shoulder there. 

Here are some other shots from the courtyard.

Ferns! 

He was enjoying himself so much and squiring me around his stomping grounds. 

I like taking pics through arches or other things that seem to frame the object of my photograph. This was fun.

Not the clearest, but I liked the lights.

I tried to capture the mountains in the background, but without much success. 

After this, we headed to the Westin, where Toby has stayed a time or two. He had a great Grapefruit Shandy there before and wanted me to join him. I got something fruity, but I can't remember the name of it. 

We had a drink and then headed to our next adventure.

After this, we were going to go to the bar at another hotel he frequently stayed out when in town, the Hotel Constance, which had live music. We had intended to end our evening there enjoying that. But....on our way, we were sidetracked by hearing "our song" played by a band in The Mixx and it drew us in for the rest of the evening.

September by Earth, Wind, & Fire has always been special to us. (Of course, by the time I started filming, it was almost over. We'd stood on the sidewalk listening, debating about whether to go in or not or head to the Constance.) Fall is our favorite time of year and to hear this just seemed to be a sign. We ended up enjoying this cover band, Jump City, all evening. We've never had a night out like that as a couple and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, the music, and each other. 

The band was enormous with a horn section and several vocalists. They did a great job! 

We had to have some champagne. This had a bit of Chambord in it and was fantastic! 

This may have counted as a bit of a honeymoon. (My poor sunburned face is still visible.)

They did an OK Amaretto Sour, my favorite. Toby makes the best and is the one who found this drink for me last summer to accommodate my love of Amaretto. It was a great way to end a really great week! 

The next morning, I finished up some very stressful work, packed up, and we headed to the airport. Fortunately, unlike what we experienced when we were there in December, we found a restaurant that could accommodate my food allergy, and had a nice meal and drink before the last bit of our trek home. 

This was another pretty good take on a Mai Tai. California does a lot right!

The children were very excited to see us when we got back as was Carl. We enjoyed giving them the gifts we'd purchased along the way. We spent the weekend having some family time. It would not be long until we were on the road again. 

I have to say that I love California. Texans like to make it a whipping boy, but that's not fair (politically, we're not as far apart as many would like to believe). It has so much beauty and diversity. I enjoyed sitting out in the evenings with low humidity and needing a light sweater even in July! I liked walking from place to place. Most of all, I loved being with my Toby. 

Thanks for reading!