We began our road trip on a beautiful, sunny day in Seattle. Yes, seriously it was sunny! My Seattleite daughter and I wanted to squeeze in one last adventure before our move back to California.
My husband and I had been living in Seattle for 8 months while our 1937 fixer upper in Pasadena, CA was being renovated. We chose to live in downtown Seattle so we could live closer to our daughter Alex and experience the “city” way of life. We loved it.
It has been months and months since I wrote about Instagram in Midlife. Finally, I see that many more people of my generation are embracing this social media platform.
I am thrilled to welcome my friends from Facebook as they join “IG” or “Insta” for short. Facebook is so 2015… Instagram is simple, no politics and it is perfect for all generations. No one cares how old you are, they just want to look at your photos.
I absolutely love the creativity and fun Instagram brings. I hope to encourage those of you who have not yet joined who are taking photos on your smart phone. With the IG app on your phone, it is a snap to share a photo.
Because really… If I don’t take a photo did it really happen? Ha!
Meg, my bi-coastal bestie, is my New York City restaurant secret source. Her latest suggestion was to go to Salvation Taco, which was created by Single Michelin Star chef, April Bloomfield and her partner Ken Friedman who was recently awarded the JBFA Award for Best Restauranteur. Just last night Meg said “You and Craig would love Salvation Taco. The food is fabulous and the views from the rooftop bar are amazing! My dear friend knows what we like and it was just as she suggested! Only three blocks from our hotel, we strolled over to have a casual, tasty, taco lunch.
As a fan of clever design, I especially liked the colorful atmosphere and kitchy Mexican vibe. Located in the Murray Hill area of Manhattan, the restaurant is only about a year old, we had a a really great meal and the service was outstanding. The design of the rooftop deck is something out of the movies. It honestly looks like a movie set, just beautiful.
Lately I have been receiving email requests for ideas for fun things to do with your adult kids. As our kids have gotten older and become adults, the family dynamics have changed and we seem to put more thought into what we will do as a foursome when our schedules allow us to all get together.
Our moving from Seattle to Los Angeles has put a cramp on my ability to gather news from the web. We drove for two days and then we flew off to New York for a week, so life is especially busy and a little confusing. We are camped out at Craig’s mom’s house about 13 miles east of Pasadena, so we are still vagabonds for another few weeks. The fixer upper home we are renovating is almost finished. Can I get an Amen!
The excitement of the America’s Cup has returned to the East Coast. For the first time in nearly 100 years, the race was held in New York City on the Hudson River. Team New Zealand won the event after a number of qualifying races in order to pick a challenger for the defending Champion, Oracle Team USA. My husband Craig works for Oracle and we have been Americas Cup fans for a number of years.
This morning we leave to drive back down to Pasadena for the last Road Trip. Craig, Rocco and I are packed to the gills with all of the crap we have collected in Seattle for 8 months. We sent 12 boxes back to So Cal and will be vagabonds for another month while our home …
More progress, more decisions, more changes, rinse, repeat. It does seem that the little house in Pasadena has made some significant progress, but with that progress came a couple of setbacks.
Every time we are cruising along at a healthy pace, something happens that slows it all down just a bit. The tile that I had originally picked for the front of the fireplace arrived and I was taken aback at what I had chosen. There was nothing about it that I liked. The architect urged me to choose something more traditional, more “old Pasadena” and we made the choice together. I now see that the colors were wrong, it seemed old fashioned, but I made this decision in the middle of the last few (horrific) months of my dad’s life. I made a mistake.
Since we began the renovation of our house in Pasadena, Craig and I have spent a great deal of time flying back and forth from Seattle to Burbank to stay involved with the project. We are loyal to the Hyatt Hotel brand and almost always stay in one of the their properties. We believe in brand loyalty and because of this philosophy, we have been awarded a Hyatt Courtesy Card (a unique and special status) and stay over 150 nights per year in their hotels.
Sitting in the quiet of Saturday morning, with a big cup of tea, Craig and I spend an hour catching up on what’s new on the Web. We each share with the other anything that would pique our interest. We are bombarded by news constantly (mostly negative) and I think it is helpful if someone else curates a few stories for me.
Throughout the week I receive updates and posts from various news sources and from other bloggers. When you subscribe, the articles that are sent to you are literally custom made for your interests. Ah, the convenience of technology! Here are a few links we found interesting.
The amazing Vin Scully gets an avenue of his own – We just love the Dodgers and have enjoyed listening to Vinny’s gilded voice since we were kids. This is Vin Scully’s last season broadcasting for the Dodgers, he is 88 years young!
