golden girl(s)

the hub's grandfather mentioned in passing last week that he was feeling kind of bad, because he'd been off on various fishing trips, doing charity work in mexico (he's part of a group that raises funds to build houses for needy families down there), and meeting up with buddies for golf on a fairly regular basis. this usually left grandma at home to care for great-grandma, who's 94 and living with them full-time.

so the hub decided to arrange for his mom to go and hang out with great-grandma while he sent the grandparents away on a well-deserved quickie getaway. he booked them a lovely room at the hotel del coronado, faxed over his credit card information, and they were thrilled. hell, who wouldn't be? it's the del!

on tuesday (the day they were due to return home), MIL and great-gram piled into our car and we headed out for a lovely afternoon of sunshine and strolling the shops at the grove and farmers market. great-gram had never been, and she was quite surprised to find herself "all the way out in los angeles to do some shopping." we got her settled in her wheelchair, strapped the bean in her stroller, and got down to the serious business of shopping for hats and shoes for great-gram.

she decided she didn't want a hat after all, but she had fun trying some on.

and she was astonished at the prices of shoes, even something as simple as a pair of sandals to wear to a birthday party. she loved these gold ones, and i took this picture just before she flipped it over and damn near had a coronary at the $285 price tag.

"is there a kohl's here? i know i can find something there."

haha! nope, grandma, not here, but we'll find you one another day.

i was slightly surprised at the line of folks waiting to get in the apple store. on a wednesday afternoon! ha!

and i literally screeched to a halt and did a double-take as we walked by the entrance to abercrombie & fitch. i love how they think a half-naked dude is what it takes to sell overpriced polos and tees. but great-gram seemed to enjoy the view.

lunch. i love me some corned beef & cabbage. so delish.

while we were there, i met up with a fellow nestie from the l.a. local board, mindymo25. she works there, and she brought us a fun farmers market goody bag, led us to a nice, private room to change the bean's diaper, and took a pinkberry break with us. and that cool-looking fruit stand next door, eple, is owned by pinkberry. apparently, the grocers at the market have suffered somewhat from the grove, because it's not all that easy to just pop in and buy groceries anymore. parking is pretty hellish. and pinkberry was told that if they wanted to open a store at the market, they'd have to open a fruit stand of some sort, too.

by then, great-gram was tired and was ready to head home. we bid mindy good-bye and braced for rush-hour traffic all the way home. it was just before 5:00. ugh.

but i was pleasantly surprised to see that the carpool lane was magical, and we breezed right through traffic and found ourselves pulling up to the house only an hour later. whee! and we ended our day with dinner at chili's - i had a giant burger topped with thick-cut bacon that had been rubbed with brown sugar and chili powder. it reminded me of "pig candy" - something nanette mentioned a while back. i can't remember if it was on her blog or in e-mails, but you know me - bacon is my kryptonite. heh.

hell, i want some pig candy right now. it sounds so damn gross, but oh, was it tasty. [drooling]