We picked up our food and beverages at a vegetarian/vegan place. It was both a store and a deli of sorts. Alice recommended their veggie Reuben which I agreed to split with her and Abby ordered the "Hungry Hungry Hippie", a sandwich jam-packed with greens and other goodies. We each selected a beverage concoction from their enormous display fridge filled with odd health drinks, none of them straight-up juice. We tossed into the bag a chocolate peanut butter cupcake for birthday celebration purposes and headed out the door and off to park.
Other Los Angeleans clearly had the same idea as parking was difficult to find. I'm learning that parking is just a big part of life here. Turns out that a Reuben sandwich is great for breakfast and a veggie Reuben tastes just as good as the corned beef variety. Zack joined us for the food and drink and the short hike that followed.
Almost immediately, I had a mini scare when I almost tripped over a small rattlesnake. Turns out it was already dead but it helped me notice the "Watch out for Rattlesnakes" sign and made me more aware of my open-toed sandals. This park has a cave, and not just any cave. It is the cave that was used to film the exterior of the Batmobile exiting the Batcave in the TV series, Batman. Of course.
We walked through the man-made cave, tossed around a nerf football and then headed back to the cars to take care of the apartment shopping phase of our day.
It was a tough day in general for Abby as she was getting sick. She has a real sore throat and body aches and being sick on vacation is no fun.
We stopped at a coffee shop first for our social media maintenance (Alice is still working on getting wifi for her apartment) and a caffeine jolt and then hit a hardware store, followed by Costco (the busiest one I have ever seen), Target, and Lowe's. That much driving and shopping in LA eats up a bunch of time and energy. We snacked for lunch, dropped off Zack and unloaded all of our packages at the apartment.
Abby rested while Alice and I unpacked stuff, installed Ikea shelves, cleaned drawers and hung her new birthday Duren chicken painting on her yellow wall.
We cleaned up and and then launched for birthday dinner at Sage, another great vegetarian restaurant. We were joined by Zack and another couple, Phil and Sylvia along with their one year old son, Oliver. The food was really excellent. I always enjoy meeting Alice's friends because she gravitates to very cool people. It turns out that Phil's identical twin brother live only a couple of blocks from me in Grand Rapids. Oliver, it was clear, at one year old was already in love with Alice and I think the feeling is mutual. He was strapped to a high chair but he kept trying to leap across the table into her arms.
We swung by at Alice's former apartment before heading home. Nice little place and I'm happy to have a better visualization.
We were home early enough for some more Ikea installation and clean up. I'll need one more trip to a hardware store to find a better fastener for plaster walls. I brushed my teeth before turning in this time. It was a good day for me and I got to express my dad nature to its full extent. Tomorrow I'll try to be more chill for Abby's sake.
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