Adventures In Paradise, Or Close To It

     Last Friday Tom and I flew into Los Angeles for a visit with our daughter, son-in-law, and   grandbabies.
     No matter how many times I've traveled from Columbus to Los Angeles, for me there's still always something about arriving, stepping outside the airport terminal,

...and seeing palm trees.

... and that clear cerulean blue sky,

... and feeling and smelling the balmy air -  I swear the West Coast smells differently from the East Coast though I can't describe how,  - that gives me a warm, enchanted feeling , as if I've just stepped into Paradise.  Or at least one its suburbs.
     So good does it feel to be in Los Angeles that Tom and I upon arriving generally

ditch the endless airport taxi line,

...in favor of taking the airport shuttle to the Metro Rail station,

...from whence we take  a train  to Manhattan Beach,

 ...and then walk, luggage in tow,  the 1.2 miles from the train station to my daughter and son-in-law's house,  as we did this time.

     The game-plan for this visit was that we would spend the following week - this past week - baby-sitting our two grand daughters. 
      But as soon as we dropped off our luggage at the house we  headed over to our granddaughters' day care to pick them up early and get a head start on our week together, starting by spoiling our dinners with a 3 pm linner (the meal between lunch and dinner, right?)  at  Johnny Rockets, a place that my granddaughters, aged 3 and 5,  found fascinating,

...especially the counter with the high stools, at which we of course had to sit,

...the vintage jukeboxes with buttons that could still be pressed, and the little paper bowls inside of which were painted ketchup smiley faces.

     So much did we all enjoy that first visit that over the past week the four of us have rather become lunch-time regulars at Johnny Rockets and the waiter gives us extra bowls of ketchup faces.

     Turned out, though, that we didn't spoil our dinners that first day after all, so much was there to do for the rest of the afternoon,

...including a trip to Ralph's for groceries,

...cleaning the corn we bought,

...folding the laundry,

...trying out the gifts of flashlights from Grammie and Grandpa while making a peach crisp for dessert,

...and chicken, corn on the cob,

       ...that here's the recipe:

...and a batch of oven-roasted tiny potatoes. which were such a really yuge hit,

      Oven Roasted Tiny Potatoes
      1 bag of tiny gold potatoes
      2 tablespoons of olive oil

      1 teaspoon Lawry's Garlic Salt

     Preheat oven to 400 degrees     
Mix the olive oil and garlic salt in a bowl.  Add the potatoes to the bowl and roll them around in the oil and salt.  Bake on a foil-covered sheet for 20 minutes.  Turn the potatoes over and bake for another 20-25 minutes until the potatoes are soft inside when pierced with a fork.
     Enjoy!

     After dinner there was some playing left to do,

...and toys to be tucked in before bedtime,

...to revitalize us after a long day - which started two time zones ago for Tom and I -

...for another day of little adventures on the outskirts of Paradise.