Apr 2007

We take a short bike ride and then meet Jen for lunch near her office. We say our good-byes :-( , run an errand or two, and then head to Dodgers Stadium. Traffic on the 405 is horrible. So we crawl along to LA and finally to Dodgers Stadium. We get tickets for the game and walk around the top of the stadium before they close the gates at 5pm for the game. Then we try to park – that stadium has the most confusing parking system of any stadium we’ve been to, plus they charge $15 to park. We see people going into the stadium so we get out to go in the stadium, only to find that it’s only the expensive lower seats that are allowed into the stadium. The cheaper seats open at 5:30. This is the first stadium we’ve gone to where you cannot get down to the outfield to watch batting practice and try to catch a foul/homerun ball. There are 3 levels of seats and each level is locked out of the other level. Oh well….anyway, good game and we had a lot of fun waving our free rally towels during the last 2 innings.

It was cool and cloudy for the weekend, but today is beautiful. We do chores/schoolwork and then take a bike ride to the marina area.

Here's a view of Jen's apartment complex from the other side of the marina:

I bike longer and do some birdwatching by the canal. A helpful birder stops and helps me identify several shorebirds. And then later we go over to Jen’s for dinner.

I get up early and decorate the hard-boiled eggs with markers since I couldn't find the Easter wrappers that I wanted to use to decorate them. Then I place them on the window for Joe "to find":
We pick up Jen and head over to the little Lutheran church in Venice that we attended last Sunday. The service is nice, but a little long since they take communion and there's a full house.

We stop at the store to buy a few things for lunch and then Jen cooks us a great brunch back at her apartment. As she's cooking, Joe is searching for his Easter basket and eggs that are hidden throughout Jen's apartment.

When we finish eating, Jere's sister (from Irvine), father and new wife arrive. Granddad and Darlene drove up to Judy's from Mesa AZ for the weekend.

We show them the apartment and then go for a walk along the marina and around the apartment complex. Jen cooks the beef kabobs that Judy brought over for dinner and we enjoy dinner with Joe's birthday cake for dessert.

We pick up Jen and Jason and all head down to San Diego. Traffic is pretty good for most of the trip and we arrive in time to take a tour of the Padres Stadium.

We walk around the gaslight district of San Diego and then have dinner near the stadium. We get to the stadium early, enjoy the game and stay for the fireworks after the game. Then make the long drive home. At least there's no traffic late at night.

We run errands today, including buying a small TV for Joe's room since the original TV fell off the shelf and broke several weeks ago. We're getting better at packing up the RV for the road, though Joe's hangers still sometimes all end up on the bottom of his closet on really bumpy roads.

Jen stops in at the RV park after work to pick up Joe. We joke that we could probably pick up her Minicooper and put it in the back of our pick-up truck :-)

Jen takes Joe to her apartment for the evening, where they play on the wii all evening. Jen's boyfriend, Jason, has a wii. Jere and I have a big evening out on the town: we go shopping for Easter candy and have dinner at a family diner :-)