The Final Day In California

This is getting long but I want to share all the cool things I got to do while in California.

My friend Karen and her baby and I had our first stop at a neat little bakery 

for some pastries and coffee.  

Well, for Karen and I not the baby.

She's too young for coffee, silly!

Then we drove to Griffith Park Observatory.  

Here we are!  

Karen wanted LOTS of photos, LOL.

The Hollywood sign was very visible here.

Great view of LA, although there was quite a haze that day.

Everywhere I went there were beautiful Bird of Paradise flowers.  They don't grow for long in MI.

Got to see a Tessla coil.  Very interesting.

Visual aids to see how our sun compares.  

We are one of those teeny tiny yellow dots to the left of the gigantic yellow ball.

Cool painted ceiling.  

 Next up was walking around Santa Monica.  We walked toward the pier.  

Beautiful view.

There were these cool dino topiaries so I took a photo of Karen and the baby by one.

The outdoor mall with no car access was nice.  

If we had had more time it would have been fun to shop there.

 We went back to her house and I got to spend some time with her and the kids. 

 Later her hubby and son arrived home and we had dinner.  

A typical Brazillian meal (she is Brazillian) followed by a surprise dessert.  

She always loved when I made pumpkin cheesecake.  

When they left for California she asked me for my recipe.  

This night she made it for dessert and it was fabulous!  

Such a sweet gesture, from a genuinely sweet woman!

I got to hold the baby fresh out of the tub.  Not much smells as good as a freshly washed baby!

Thank you to all of my friends, both old and new for making this an amazing trip!  

I hope we get to do this again very soon!  

I miss you all already!!

~XOP~