Los Angeles (3/31 - 4/1): Southland Reunion

The trip from Albany to LA was considerably easier than Seattle to Albany.  Just two legs this time.  First a trip from Albany to Chicago, then from Chicago to LAX.  I even had some time in Chicago to sit down and get some work done online.

I arrived in LA pretty late -- around 10:30 p.m. if I recall -- and was picked up by Jenn and Wang Wei, who were nice enough to come get me and let me crash at their place for the night.  But first we were going to go meet up with Matt, Peter and Kathy over in Westminster for a late night bite to eat and hang-out session.

It was nice seeing them all again since I didn't have much time to socialize at the CMAT the week before.  We stayed at Mae's (May's?  Mai's?) Restaurant until around 1 or 2 a.m.

Peter, Wang Wei and Jennifer

Matt Wong

A blurry Kathy takes m picture

At the apartment I spent some time talking with Jenn and Wang Wei for a while, discussing their future plans and just life in general.  I think I finally got to sleep around 3:30 or so.

Originally I had told my dad that I'd be available the next day after around 10 or 11 a.m., but I guess he got excited about planning out what we'd be doing so he had scheduled to pick me up at 9 a.m. from Jenn and Wang Wei's place.  I was a little out of it, but jet lag being what it is, it's easier to get by on less sleep when your body doesn't know what time zone it's dealing with.

We (My Dad, Elaine (my step mom) and myself) drove over to Manhattan Beach (via Costco) to my step-sister's (Judy) family's home to visit with some family.  My step-brother Travis and his family were about to fly out to Haifa so this was their "cya later" brunch.  I got to see how grown up a bunch of the kids are and catch up with some of the family.

A much taller Yana next to my Dad and Travis

More significantly taller kids

Elaine eats a bagel while Paul and Judy work the kitchen behind her

After my dad drove Travis, Katya and the kids to LAX he came back and then we drove (I drove Travis' van and Dad drove their car) over to La Mirada to my other step-sister's (Cindy) house.  We dropped the van off and then headed down to The Block at Orange to catch a movie.

We ended up watching "The Last Mimzy", mainly because it had some good ratings and also because it had Rainn Wilson, who we had known back in the day in Seattle (I used to hang out with Rainn when I was a teenager and he was an undergrad at the UW).  The movie was pretty good but afterwards it was time to get some grub.

We called up Walt and Cindy and they came on down to meet up with us for some food at a nice little Spanish-ish tapas-type of place next to the theater.  The food was pretty good.  After that it was more good-byes and then the three of us drove off to Orange County so that I could catch my flight to the Bay Area.

Walt and Cindy at the restaurant

Not a super long stay in L.A. -- just 23 hours or so -- but it was nice to connect with so many people while I was there. 

No videos of this leg of the trip, but I did take some nice pictures during the next (and final) leg, so you can look forward to that.

You can see all the photos from this part of my trip here.