My parents came to Southern California last week. We had a very busy four days. We visited Grandma's cousins - Aiko Yamaguchi, who celebrated her 96th birthday last week, and her sister Mineko Hashimoto - and Grandma's friend Ruth Kubo, who used to live in Cortez. We took Aiko and Mineko In-N-Out burger for lunch and they loved it. Seeing all of them reminded me of Grandma, which made me both happy and sad - happy that we spent some time with them and sad that Grandma couldn't be there also.
We also spent an afternoon and evening with Uncle Kenji and Auntie Janie, April, Don and Jocelyn. We had a good time. Auntie Janie made us "snacks," which included sushi, shrimp and ribs(!). I see it more as a "preliminary dinner." :-) We also went to a nice Japanese restaurant for our actual dinner, which included a huge sashimi boat that Uncle Kenji ordered. So in short, we ate a lot. (Sound familiar?)
You'll be happy to know that Jocelyn's summer schedule is busier than mine, even though I'm the one with the full-time job. I feel like a slacker.
We (Mom, Dad, Esther and I) saw Julie Andrews at the Hollywood Bowl. She had throat surgery, so she can't sing like she used to, but if anyone has earned a free pass, it's her. She was very graceful and charming and the crowd was very supportive. She and other singers performed lots of show tunes and then, in the second half, they performed a musical version of a story written by Julie Andrews and her daughter.We got to the Hollywood Bowl early and had a picnic dinner that we brought from Whole Foods. Esther found us a nice picnic table near the top of the hill, which gave us a great view of Hollywood. We were there really early, so we could relax and enjoy the scenery.
We also saw the musical Wicked, which I thought was great. I thought the way they tied it in with the Wizard of Oz was very clever. The songs were good (Esther and I catch ourselves singing, "Loathing, unadulterated loathing...." even a week later. I especially liked "Defying Gravity" and "For Good." The performers all have amazing voices.
The Friday we went to the Hollywood Bowl was very busy. That morning, we ate dim sum in Monterey Park. We took my friend Ryan, who I met at the Glendale News-Press about 10 years ago. We bonded over our mutual love of Star Wars and basketball, and we've been on several camping/fishing trips through the years. Ryan may also come out for an apple-picking trip, which I need to talk to the Elder Cousin and Uncle Ernie about...
Anyway, we had a nice breakfast and then...we watched The Dark Knight. Great movie! But I'll save that for a separate post on summer movies.
Unfortunately, we missed Jeff's departure for Chicago. But we already have plans to visit him. And we can always have the cousins' challenge at the Chicago Marathon. :-) (Or maybe our challenge can be finding the best deep-dish pizza).
So we had a busy, fun long weekend. I hope everyone is doing well. Please let everyone know how your summer is going. I hope to post our soon-to-be annual Summer Movie Review soon. But you don't have to wait for me. Feel free to post your thoughts on anything you've seen recently.
Bonus video: The original Broadway cast of Wicked performing at the Tony Awards:
