We took off twice on Friday from Seattle to LA. After loading a very small plane and having a nice smooth take off I was feeling pretty free. Then we were turned around 15 minutes later because the pressurization was off in the plane. So, we had to land again in SeaTac and wait to see if they could fix the plane. In my opinion it didn’t seem like it took nearly long enough to fix it. I really wasn’t sure if we should get back on the plane and just as I was about to freak out, our good friend Michael (who is a commercial pilot) happened to call Jon. Talk about perfect timing! I shrieked "answer it, ask him if we should be be boarding this plane!!!!" I was starting to panic. He informed Jon that it really is an easy fix and that we had no reason to worry. So thanks to Michael I was able to relax for the flight and enjoy my new book "Eat,Pray,Love". We had a pink sunset landing due to our little delay, which was quite beautiful! I was a happy girl to have my feet on solid LA ground once we landed. As we were waiting for our luggage to pop out of the conveyor belt I noticed a girl sitting alone with a pile of leopard skin suitcases and shoes that matched. I stepped out of my comfort zone and asked if I could take a photograph of her. I have become a real wimp about photographing strangers. While I tried to get a good shot of her with the awful LAX lighting, we had a nice little chat. I found out she was sitting there all alone trying to figure out what to do next in her life. She had just arrived in LA for love but wasn’t sure if she should stay, she said it was complicated and didn’t share the details. I do wonder which direction she headed that evening in her leopard shoes.


The main purpose for our trip was to sell some of Jon’s Miniature Pottery at the Miniature’s West Show in Culver City. The second motivating factor was a day of sunshine! Below is a brand new gorgeous set of pots created by Jon last week for the show. I love the way the different shapes play off each and how the 22K platinum glaze sparkles under the lights. These are some beauties!

Our plan for Sunday was to enjoy the sun in Santa Monica with our friend Dan and his family who live in Ventura. Sunday morning started off slow for us (surprise, surprise) and Dan never called us or answered his phone. Then we discovered that our hotel no longer offered a complimentary shuttle to Santa Monica and that a cab ride would run 40-50 bucks one way. Determined to see the beach and get some sand between our toes we headed out to find a bus to take us there. Once we found the bus stop we instantly started to meet one character after the next. First there was the lady at the bus stop who asked to borrow a pen. Then told us all about her tragic life as a widow since her husband of 40 years died in his sleep 1 year and 3 months ago. She told us if she didn’t talk to someone she was going to explode, we were happy to listen. She was returning from a nice visit to her sweetheart’s grave. She was eager to get home to her new companions, two stray cats she found and had named Ali and Mousey. Once on the bus there was the little guy with no front teeth who was on his way to church. He sat down and started telling us biblical stories in an interesting fusion of english, spanish and I think latin. He really liked to use his hands to gesture while he spoke and every few minutes he would laugh really loud about something he was saying. We couldn’t really understand him but we tried to follow along and would laugh when he would. Then there was the woman with one glove giving the happy toothless guy really dirty looks. Oh and the lady with headphones on who wanted to talk but wouldn’t take off her big headphones so she could hear us. The characters just kept coming and going, on and off the bus as we cruised along Sepulveda Boulevard.

We jumped off the #6 to catch the #7 which would take us to the beach. Only to watch it roll right by us while we were waiting to cross the street. As we waited for the next bus to come, we decided to call Dan one more time and this time he actually answered! Dan had been calling us all morning but had called our home phone instead of our cell and didn’t realize it. Dan had already been surfing and now was in the car and driving to Santa Monica to meet us (hoping that we would finally answer the phone). It was such a pretty California day! It was so refreshing to see flowers, to feel the sunshine and to see so many people out and about. Everyone in Washington has been in serious hibernation. We met Dan and Christina and sweet Aviana for a yummy lunch. It was nice to catch up with them and to finally spend time with little Avi. With our full bellies we headed to the pier with sunglasses and smiles on our faces.

For the rest of the afternoon I was either staring at Aviana and making goofy faces or focusing my camera on her and making goofy noises (or some sort of combination of the two). She is so cute I couldn’t help myself!

I would have a photo of Jon leaning on a palm tree to share if he hadn’t broke my #1 camera rule and deleted it without asking me first. Well, all in all, it was a fun, silly little weekend trip. It was so nice to see the sun, it gave me hope that someday we will see it again in Tacoma. Next stop New York……