Santa Monica

Dallas and I have been extremely blessed lately.  At the end of October I was offered a position at the school I used to teach at when we first moved to the bay area.  I have been so excited to teach again and to know the other teachers and staff already has been a major blessing.  

Over the summer Dallas and I planned a vacation with our good friends and neighbors, the Aydelottes, to Disneyland.  We figured that the first week of November would be the perfect time to visit since it would be between holidays and not very many people.  Since it had been planned so far in advance the school district was more than accommodating in allowing me to still go.  Dallas and I left Monday morning and drove down to Anaheim where our hotel was literally a couple blocks from the Disneyland entrance gates. We shared a condo/suite with our friends from Monday to Friday, but there was no way I was going to be able to convince Dallas to go to Disneyland for more than a couple days.  So we decided to spend a day in Anaheim so we could meet up with one of my best friends from college, Maren.

We parked at Santa Monica Pier and were pleasantly surprised by the lack of people around.  I guess we are not much for crowds anymore.  It was so nice just to relax and enjoy the pier.  Dallas has been working insane hours lately and we haven't been able to spend much time together, so this trip was exactly what we needed.  We had fun watching the numerous "crazies" which reminded us of home and bought ancient churros from a street vendor.  Needless to say we threw them away after one bite.  We also rode the ferris wheel and got some great shots from the top.  It was such a perfect, beautiful day.  As we were leaving the ferris wheel we noticed camera crews setting up and were able to watch a little of the filming of NCIS:Los Angeles with Chris O'Donnell and LLCoolJ.  Dallas was underwhelmed with the whole process, saying they were "B list" actors, but I felt like the paparazzi.  He dragged me away after a half hour to see the street performers further along the pier.  We watched a gorgeous sunset while listening to a hippy guitarist play classic Led Zepplin.  Basically it was a perfect way to end the afternoon.

(Make sure to click on the image to enlarge the pictures.)

After watching the sunset, we walked up to the promenade to meet up with Maren.  She took us to an incredible pizza place on the roof.  We had so much fun catching up, eating great food, and spending time with our Maren.  I'm so glad that she moved to LA and we are now at least a little closer.  We love ya, Maren!  Thanks for the fun night!