La La Land

Oh, Albert Hammond, you have set the theme for these few days!

Our sweet friends had made note of the weather forecast this morning and soon, Plan B was swung into action.  That’s the Rainy Day plan, by the way and shortly after 10 this morning, we were driving through pretty heavy rain towards Thousand Oaks and a very spiffy cinema.

Even though we didn’t have far to go between the car and the cinema, we still got soaked.  Not what we’d imagined, though thankfully, we did wear our raincoats!

Going to the cinema here is a comfortable experience, especially when our sweet cinema-going friends book the super-duper theatre for us.  The slightly reclining seats were large, plush and yes, there were still bits of popcorn everywhere!

We were there to see the film we’d wanted to see since we first heard of it. 

La La Land. 

How appropriate!  We settled into our seats and as soon as the opening scene began, we knew we were in for a treat.  So many familiar locations, such sweet characters and the music…oh well, Albert Hammond’s little earworm was immediately overwritten as we began to hum or whistle a new, equally insistent tune.

We loved it!

It was a great way to close the first half of the first part of our adventure.  Whilst my hero went to pick up our rental car, Ellis and I listened to the soundtrack again, mulling over what we loved about the movie and thinking what a brilliant idea it had been to watch it whilst we are here.

Saying a temporary ‘bye to Ellis and Mary (we’ll see them again soon), my hero and I headed for the freeway and with an ever-changing sky above us, made our way into Los Angeles.

Turning onto Santa Monica Boulevard, we were on familiar territory again and we smiled as we spotted landmarks from previous visits.  Have I said how we love it here?

In little more than five minutes, those skies had darkened again and threatened more rain. 

But thankfully, the rain held off and we reached our hotel on Avenue of the Stars in the dry.  From the balcony of our suite on the 5th floor, we have a fine view of downtown and an ever-changing arrangement of clouds which I love to watch.

We’d arranged to meet Mary and Diana to go for supper tonight and as we arrived in the hotel lobby, there they were.  We sat in a couple of plush sofas to catch up a while and decide who was going to drive, which car we’d take and so on and as we did, a couple walked past, doing a double-take as they did.

“Gill and Mark Thomas!”  

Good grief.  There we were, sitting in a Los Angeles hotel lobby and someone recognises us!?  What?!  

It didn’t take long for us to recognise them too.  We’d met Sue and Don from Iowa when we were in South America last year and sure enough, their travel plans for Sunday bear an uncanny resemblance to ours    How lovely to seen them again!

Our dinner plans were focused on an LA institution: The Apple Pan.  We snagged four seats at the counter and placed our orders for Hickoryburgers and fries.  We made sure we left room for dessert – Mary went for a slice of pecan pie and my hero couldn’t resist his favourite apple pie, but Diana and I had to share a pecan slice and ice cream between us.  Delicious!

We’ve had such a great couple of days and as we returned to the hotel, we reflected on how lovely it is to have such sweet friends.  What lucky ducks we are!