Grace and I got lucky enough to get a few days off in a row (which won't happen much in the future as my days off now are usually Tuesday and Thursday) so we took advantage of our flight benefits (thanks to Steve's job with Horizon Air) and flew down to Los Angeles. Our plan was to meet a couple of new babies, to go to a Kimya Dawson show and to hit Disneyland. I worked until midnight the night before our 6am stand-by flight and ended up packing and cleaning until it was time to leave the house at 4am. We got on the flight and were seated next to a Romanian/Transylvanian surfer named George. He and Grace were making great conversation across my sleep-deprived stuporous self. The weird thing was he looked remarkably like my brother Billy (only with a Romanian accent and a larger nose). If I wasn't so tired I am sure I may have been a little more interesting to talk to than a 5 year old. Or maybe not. Grace is pretty engaging.
We landed at LAX and headed to AVIS and got our rental car- a little blue Kia Spectra- and drove to West Hollywood. Our hotel was off Santa Monica Blvd- within walking distance to the Troubadour where the concert was that night. I had researched the hotels near the venue and read a lot of reviews and wasn't disappointed with my choice. The LeMontrose Suite Hotel was one of the nicer hotels I've stayed in and the customer service was excellent (and the bed was SO comfortable!). They had a roof-top pool and hot-tub that we made sure to take advantage of. We tried to take a little nap but I was too excited to sleep so we headed out in search of food and to check out the neighborhood. The weather was perfect.
We decided to eat sushi and then Grace saw a nail place and wanted to get a mani-pedi- so we indulged in a little pampering- she picked yellow polish with silver sparkles and they painted red flowers on her thumbs and big toes.
Later our friend Lindsey tracked us down at the hotel and introduced us to her new baby, Hunter. 
We had some room service (turkey club sandwiches) and they decided to come to the show with us. It was Hunter's first concert and he seemed to really enjoy it! The opening act was a bit R-rated (Andy Milonakis) and loud but Grace was too exhausted to notice. She fell asleep on the bench before Kimya went on. I was able to get her to wake up briefly and she called out to Kimya in between a song- Kimya heard her tiny voice and said "Is that Grace?" and ended up inviting her on stage to sing a song with her! Grace picked "Alphabutt" (even though Kimya had already performed it) and I managed to get most of it on video! Grace got a huge applause- she did great! Lindsey wanted to get a picture of Hunter with Kimya after the show so we went down and introduced them to her afterwards.
The next day the sun was shining and we wanted to go down to the beach but when we got there we discovered there were strong cold winds- the sand was blowing right into our eyes.. So we took a photo and got out of there!
We headed north to Tujunga to spend some more time with Lindsey and Hunter- we went to the 'Golf N Grill' and ate Mongolian Grill and played 18 holes of miniature golf! It was fun :) 
We also got to watch some episodes of 'The Dog Whisperer' that featured their dog Curley.That night we went in the hot-tub and prepared to check out the next day and head to Disneyland!
It wasn't too bad of a drive to Anaheim, we found the parking garage and then took the tram to the park. We had to go through security then wait in a long line to buy our tickets, then wait in another line to enter the park! Finally around 11am we were at Disneyland! I let Grace choose the rides- first on her list were Alice In Wonderland and the Teacups. The lines were long... After those rides we headed to the new Finding Nemo ride and waited over an hour to board the submarine. We checked out the Tree House and went in the Haunted Mansion (a bit too scary for Grace) and waited in really long lines to meet Minnie and Mickey in Toontown. Despite the crowds, we had fun.
We left the park by 7 to head to Riverside to visit our friends the Standerfers.
The Standerfers are friends of mine from my Pullman years (they were both in my wedding) and they have a 6 yr old son and 5 mo old new baby girl. They gave us a warm welcome and settled us into Jackson's room for the night. The next day we hung out and let the kids play and just caught up. It was nice to spend a relaxing day with a friend. They took us to a sushi place for dinner since both the kids are sushi fans and later we watched "Bedtime Stories" on DVD and made the kids a fort.
Saturday was our day to head home- we got on the standby list for a flight out of Orange County and the Standerfers decided it would be fun to have lunch together at Fashion Island which is close to the airport. We checked out their awesome koi pond and let the kids play in a little kid fountain then ate fish tacos at Wahoo's. Fashion Island is great for people watching- lots of real 'OC' people strutting around in fashionable clothes with fancy dogs. We only went in one shop (This Little Piggy Wears Cotton) but I didn't buy anything (hard to believe, I know!) Then it was time to part ways...we said 'see ya later' and went to the airport. When we checked the standby list I found we were number 9 & 10 (of 10) so I figured we would be camping out for a later flight. But we got lucky and the huge family in front of us on the list weren't all able to get on the flight so they decided to wait. An old client of mine was sitting in the row that Grace was in (we couldn't get seats together since the flight was so full)- and so she offered to switch seats with me so we could sit together... small world!
