Tournament of Roses Parade and Burbank's Entry

What fun to be out here through the holidays this year and be able to see how excited this town gets over the Rose Parade! Truly a fun morning! We did not make it to Pasadena to see the parade this year, but I suspect we will in the near future! (Not quite that brave yet!)

But we had some fun right here in Burbank! For starters, as we waited for the parade to begin, we were able to get our own personal "fly-by" by the B-2 Stealth Bomber that flies over the parade signifying the start of the event!

I was tipped off by a friend that we might see the Stealth, so I was watching... It circled with a couple of F-16s for about a half an hour - but off in the distance... And Just when I thought it was done circling, the B-2 flew right over our neighborhood - waking up all of Burbank with it's thunderous blare. The picture above is the Stealth and the two F-16's quickly flying AWAY from the house... They caught me by surprise! Less than a minute later we were watching this same bomber fly right over the parade in Pasadena on television! Very exciting.

Second, our own Burbank entry came home two days ago and has been accesible to all in the area. So we visited the float today! What an amazing accomplishment! Here is a link to the details of the float: "Free Dog Wash" - http://burbankrosefloat.com/history/2007/2007_float_entry_fact_sheet.html

One of the things that is so exceptional about this float is that it is one of the very few that was constructed by the city of Burbank, itself - not by a professional "float building" company! Makes us proud!

Click up in the links section to see more pics of the float, and read a few of the details about it!

Fascinating!

Anniversary in Beverly Hills

Beverly Hills for an anniversary! Not a bad deal, eh? :) Well, when you live less than 12 miles away from the 90210 zip code it takes a little of the "wonder" out of the place. But, it still made for a very fun destination for Christy and me (and Jeffrey! :)) for our 11th anniversary this past weekend!

We enjoyed nearly a day and a half away from the "regular" world of 517 Cypress Ave in Burbank! Beginning in Burbank, though, we had arguably the best meal of our little outing!! We are very proud of the new Granville restaurant that has recently opened here! Wonderful food: http://www.granvillecafe.com/

Then on "over the hill" to the "Hills!"

Christy and I stayed at the Meridian Hotel of Beverly Hills: It was indeed a very nice hotel. Probably too nice for our tastes! But, it was fun to be "spoiled" on our anniversary! From there we enjoyed going to the Grove:http://www.thegrovela.com/ Only a mile away from the hotel. There we saw a fun movie and ate more good food at the Kokomo Cafe! http://www.kokomocafe.com/ (see a trend here? :))

The following morning we had brunch at The Farm of Beverly Hills: http://www.thefarmofbeverlyhills.com/ Another wonderful spot! Terrific brunch!

Then, of course we did the "obligatory" walk up and down Rodeo Drive - as you can see! And finally, it was time to head home!

And this is where things got interesting... For some of you it will not come as a surprise to you that I pushed our little Lumina too far, and we ran out of gas! In Beverly Hills! Which, when one swallows his pride over the whole deal, is not a terribly bad place to run out of gas. Rather picturesque, at least...

We walked the street of Beverly to the corner of Beverly and Sunset: and the Beverly Hills hotel. The Meridian was nice. The BH Hotel is quite possibly one of the nicest in the nation... Whoa... There, we bummed a taxi back into town to buy a gallon tank, and then a gallon of gas! Taking the taxi back to our lovely parking spot at the corner of Beverly and Lexington - pull out your star maps if you have one! I have no idea who lives at that lovely corner, but they've got pretty nice digs!

Gas in car. Car to gas station to fill tank. And an hour later we are back on our way over the hill again into the wonderful... Valley! :)

It was a wonderful adventure, but more than that a lovely 28 hours away from home!!

We did some figuring up while we were on this little outing! For our anniversary in 2001 we got away for two nights! That's the last time Christy and I have been away without another little one accompanying us either inside the womb or outside... (And if you're figuring this one out in your head... well, let's just say that Will was born in September of the following year...) So! The goal for our 12th anniversary - next year (and we are almost CERTAIN this is attainable!) - is for our celebration to finally just be THE TWO OF US!! :)

For more pics, check the link to the left!

Visiting the Getty

To the left there is a link to webshots giving a brief account of our most recent visit there. The Getty museum is an LA destination spot with amazing architecture and views, and occasionally beautiful collections of art and photos! Click here to find out more about the museum: http://www.getty.edu/

And click on the link under the links column to see our visit!

Merry Christmas!!

Finally! A new post! Not too long today, but there is a link to pics of our fun day yesterday! Check up in the LINK section of our blog to go to Webshots and see the pictures! There will be more pics posted soon!

Merry Christmas to all!

Rick

Above is a picture of the day after Christmas at the Getty Center - Christy's family with us!

L.A.'s Oldest Fire Station on Thanksgiving Day!

We're catching up here... About two weeks late. But, for Thanksgiving our family went down to Fire Station One in Los Angeles. This is the second oldest fire station in LA! Our good friends, the Mokraceks invited us down. Kevin has been a fireman for years! And, this, of course, was a real big deal for our two older boys especially! While we were there, the firemen on duty had an actual call, so we got to see them in action! It was a different Thanksgiving holiday for us this year. But, our visit to Station #1 was easily the highlight of the day! Thanks Mr. Kevin for showing us around. Very cool!

If you'd like to see more photos of our little adventure, just click on the link over to the left of this blog!

GO GATORS!!

Yes, I live in California - and have not called Florida "home" for more than 20 years... But, my roots are there and I have never waivered from my college football loyalties!! (This is not true of other loyalties - it's been hard to be a Buc fan since Dungy left, and since Dr J hung up his sneaks in the 80's I've not had an NBA team either - although there is something mighty appealing about them "lowly" LA CLIPPERS... Priofessional sports are an entirely different matter, really! But the college game, that's different) And, the Gators have made it back into the Championship Game! http://msn.foxsports.com/cfb/story/6234416?FSO1&ATT=HCP&GT1=8901
To my fellow Michigan friends out there - I do have them: my forth child is named after two of them - I offer you my condolences. Sincerely. The BCS is a mess when it comes to stuff like this. There's been controversy before, and there's been more since, it was established. But, if the shoe were on the other foot, and you Wolverines were keeping the champions of the SEC out of the BIG GAME when you, yourselves were not champions of your own conference, well... The controversy would be even greater, I think... Where would we have played? The Sugar Bowl? Against Notre Dame? (well, that would have been easier, no doubt... :) )
Anywho. The congrats to the Gators. Let us enjoy this while we can... OSU looks awfully tough.

More Photos!

Hey There!
We are setting up links to our web photo site: webshots.com so that you can go see larger quantities of our recent family photos! Just look over to the top left of this blog spot to the "links" section and click and go see some or our photos!!

Blessings,
Rick