Pumped Up Kicks

From the Huntington Beach Pier

A new round of company showed up for the Labor Day weekend: Shelby, Jessica, & Steve. And I've missed those people. A lot.

With only two days, we got a relatively early start on Saturday and headed to Huntington Beach, my sister's new place of residence. Given that she only lives TWO blocks from the ocean now, we used her house as our home base. We discovered this great little Mexican joint only three blocks from her house. And so after filling our bellies with cheesy goodness, we strolled across the PCH and plopped ourselves in the sand. The gang amused me as they were pummeled by the high, turbulent surf. I opted to read People and pretend that I was warm despite the strong ocean breeze.

The remainder of the day was spent wandering around downtown HB, strolling the pier, and eating burgers at a small joint on the PCH.

The next day we opted for some culture at the Huntington Library, which I think has much cooler gardens than books or art.

The Chinese Garden was by far the group favorite.

I hadn't been to the Huntington since I was a kid, so it was interesting to see what I remembered. Pinky and Blue Boy, of course. And the Japanese Garden that is under renovation.

After we had museumed ourselves out, we discovered a flea market on Melrose and then headed to Trader Joe's to grab ourselves picnic food for the evening's culminating event: viewing Spinal Tap on the lawn of the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. I'm not sure what it was with me and cemetery's this week, but it is what it is.

Earlier in the week, I had been wishing for a thunderstorm, but had little hope of getting one in this land of constant sun. However, nature provided.

And it made for a killer sunset.

This movie-watching at the cemetery is something I will definitely do again. We picnicked and people-watched and listened to the DJ spin his music and then, we had a bit of fun with the phone's camera.

Spooky, right?

It's difficult to be too scared in a city that never really gets dark. Ever.

The crew left early on Monday morning and I miss them already.