Flashback - Visit from David, Dave, and Josh

 This past June, Uncle David, “little” David, and Josh flew out to LA to see a couple of Dodger games at Dodger stadium. Twenty-three years had passed since I’d seen my uncle and cousins, and this was Christine’s first opportunity to meet some of my NC family.

As a special bonus, the Dodgers happened to be playing the Seattle Mariners, so we won either way. For the record, the Dodgers won the first game, and the Mariners won the second.

As another special bonus, we got to re-connect with cousin Gina (from Paw Paw's brother Henry's family). Gina and Tom gave the guys the royal LA treatment, including Hollywood, the Hollywood sign, and a lot of cool sights around LA.

Cousin Dave got his first taste of a Dodger Dog, and all the guys enjoyed the reasonably-priced $11 beers.

On the way into the game, I caught my foot on a bump in the parking lot. I fell forward, launched Jonathan spinning in the air, and watched helpless as he fell and whacked his head on the ground. The security and medical staff at Dodger Stadium were helpful and attentive with ice packs, comforting, and lots of compliments for how cute Jonathan was, even with a goose egg on his forehead. Jonathan was pretty quiet and reflective during the game. :(

After the game, we got to go down onto the field and watch a fireworks show, which Jonathan loved.David, Dave, and Josh reveled in the opportunity to touch the grass on the field. All three laid down on the soft green turf, like pilgrims reaching their Mecca.

Jonathan liked the grass, too, and he loved being able to run around a bit after being cooped up in seats for a couple of hours.

We visited the beach in Santa Monica, took a quick tour of the Santa Monica Pier, and walked the beach path for a while.

The guys were amazed at how "long" the beaches were. I said, "Dudes, the beach runs up and down the whole West Coast!" They said, "No, it's deep." How the heck could they tell how deep the water was? Then they said that the length of sand, from parking lot to ocean was four times as long as it was on the East Coast. Ah! Now we're on the same page.

Lastly, we gave the guys a driving tour of Pasadena after lunch at the famous Pie-N-Burger diner, a ma and pa burger joint, built in the 60s and not updated since. We showed them the Rose Bowl, City Hall (an amazing building that looks like a state capitol, with its large dome and regal architecture), Tournament of Roses Headquarters, the Gamble House (classic craftsman-style architecture, seen in Back to the Future movies), and the Colorado Street Bridge (seen in scores of movies, commercials, television shows, print ads, etc.). We loved spending the time with the guys and can't wait to see them again.