So Wednesday morning we loaded up the pooch and three days worth of luggage and headed to Beverly . . . "Hills, that is. Swimmin pools, movie stars . . ."
The wife had a get together with some work-types which the dawg and I begged off. The dawg and I walked around West Hollywood - found a park, spread out the blanket and relaxed in the sun.
Once the wife joined us, we had a picnic with all the left-overs I had cleaned out of the fridge as I didn't want them to go bad while we were out of town. We checked into a Motel 6, spent some time at another park and then repaired to the hotel room and ordered Chinese food to be delivered.
Thanksgiving morning, I awoke in the darkness (as I usually do) and quietly loaded up the dawg and headed out to look for something to do while the wife slept in like any normal person would.
All I had packed was shorts and a t-shirt (and my Thanksgiving duds that I didn't want to get dirty yet). We stopped by a Starbucks for a bucket o' Latte and then headed back to Warner Park. It was COLD. Okay, not cold by Nanuck-of-the-North standards but plenty cold by So-Cal standards. We walked the entire 20-acre park and then loaded back into the Jeep.
Only - try to find something to do at 6:30am on Thanksgiving morning in LA, WITH A DAWG. I stopped by McDonald's, refilled the coffee and headed back to the park by default.
I let the dawg off the leash and wrapped a beach towel around me for warmth. I sat at a picnic table and read one of my vacation books. I thought to myself, "You know, if it wasn't for this dawg, I would be warm and cozy inside a Starbucks right now. Not sitting on a concrete picnic bench which might-as-well-be carved out of ice, freezing my yarbles off."
That's when I realized again, if it wasn't for this dawg, I would not have sought out West Hollywood park yesterday. If it wasn't for this dawg, we would not have had a picnic or walked through Warner Park yesterday. If it wasn't for the dawg, I wouldn't be up, outside, watching the sunrise in the cold. If it wasn't for the dawg, my life would be less adventurous.
I picked up a cappuchino for the wife on my way back to the hotel around 8am.
We went out to breakfast and then for a 2-mile nature hike (again courtesy of the dawg) along the crest of the Santa Monica Mountains and then went back to the hotel to freshen up for the Thanksgiving gathering where we joined up with this guy and his family. . .
Thanksgiving was a great success and a good time was had by all.
The wife and I headed back to the Motel 6 and turned in.
Friday morning was a replay of the previous morning - up in the dark, loaded up the dawg and headed for the park. There was another dawg off-leash at the park in the pre-dawn stillness. The two had a great romp while I chatted with the other dawg's owner.
Since it was the "Day after Thanksgiving" the local Barnes and Noble was opening at 7am. The dawg and I got a cuppa-joe and settled in to one of their reading chairs.
Around 8:30 we picked up some coffee for the wife and headed back to the hotel where we packed up for the drive home.
On the way back to San Diego, we stopped by to have lunch with these folks and then stopped off in Manhattan Beach for a stretch and some sushi.
Then it was home-sweet-home.
It was a nice, drawn out, relaxing Thanksgiving. Just as it should be.
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