Wi Spa Koreatown, Los Angeles

After 15 years in L.A., my husband and I enjoyed our first Korean spa experience last night at Wi Spa in the Koreatown area of Los Angeles.  We decided to visit after my parents offered us overnight care for our littles, now 8 and 10, (not so little).

But first, a little backstory. We had gone back to our old L.A. neighborhood the previous weekend for an Indian dinner at Electric Lotus before attending our first concert at The Greek (Bastille) with the whole family.  Seeing the old hood whet my appetite for a return visit, especially after seeing Joker advertised on the marquee outside the theater on Vermont Ave.  I normally would have zero desire to see the movie, but with Joaquin Phoenix in the lead role, it was tops on my list.  Joaquin, (or Leaf, as he was known in Tiger Beat in 1985) is the younger brother of River, who was my teenage heartthrob.  I started following his career after seeing Stand By Me, which was really my coming of age movie, along with Goonies. I never watched all those Brat pack flicks with Molly Ringwald et. al but I loved Stand By Me with all my heart.  Maybe it was because my father grew up in the fifties, maybe I just loved the greaser look but River was my guy.  I learned about the family with gusto; the hippie parents raising their five children in a commune/cult in Puerto Rico. River was the oldest, followed by Rain, Liberty, Joaquin (Leaf) and Summer. I was fascinated.  A couple of years later, in Spanish summer camp in MN, I bunked with a girl from California who said she was friends with Summer and knew Leaf in Rancho Santa Fe, CA.   I was starstruck. Of course, River OD'd outside the Viper Room on Halloween 1993, when I was a sophomore in college.

For whatever reason, he's been on my mind of late. So, I knew i needed to see his brother in this role.
For our birthday date, we had a late brunch at Fred 62 and caught the 4:10 matinee of Joker. Afterwards, we ducked into the indie bookshop next door to the theater (Skylight Books), and then headed to Wi Spa in nearby Koreatown.

Summer

Today marks the summer solstice for 2019...summer begins now and lasts until my mother's 74th birthday on September 23.  I have been itching to come back to blogging for a while now, looking for an outlet for writing more than I can in a facebook or instagram post.  It is a cool, cloudy morning in Southern California.  Both kids had sleepovers last night. Delaney at Olivia's, and Andre over here with Owen.  This morning the girls head to their last day of Girl Scout day camp, where they learned a ton of songs, made projects and had a general blast. I will take the boys to the skatepark for a few hours, and then Owen and I will work on making his birthday cake for his 10th birthday party tonight.  He has a dozen friends coming to Tag-Ops indoor nerf arena, and then over to Vincenzo's for pizza after.

I spent the week packing up my classroom, room 12 at Wiley, after 12 years there (well, 2 in room 14 across the hall). I spent 5 hours myself M and T, 7 hours W (1 with Laura packing my books) and Owen came to help me finish up today. I turned in my keys at 12:00, and we drove over to my new school to pick up the keys to room 16. Then O and I had a late breakfast for lunch at the Way Station, and headed to Von's to pick up ingredients to make his birthday cake together.

Spring break day 5 (Monday)

We drove down to San Diego Wednesday night and stayed at the Blue Sea Beach Hotel right on Pacific Beach.  Thursday we all slept in til about 8:30 and then walked (or scootered, in the kids' case) down several blocks of beachwalk and over to the Breakfast Republic. We sat down about 11 AM, enjoyed a great meal, and then headed back toward the hotel to get the car and head to Mision San Diego de Alcala for Owen's mission project.  We enjoyed walking around the mission and taking lots of pictures, then found a coffee shop for a little snack (Better Buzz). Then we headed to the hotel and rested a bit before hitting the beachside pool deck and hot tub.  For dinner we just walked next door to World Famous Seafood and had a beautiful sunset view.  Friday we basically did the same thing, except after eating we went to a fun store called Pangaea and then headed up to a mall for a stop at Van's and Justice.  The kids entertained themselves on the four hour drive home (Delaney singing along to a dozen of her favorite songs and Owen watching shows). We got home a bit after 8 pm Friday night. I loved having the whole weekend ahead of us.

Saturday Derek prepped for his Germany trip and Owen played outside on his new scooter all day.  I took Delaney to dance class and then a quick Trader Joe's stop for just a few things.  Then I worked on the stairs, vaccuumed, and sorted a bit. Delaney went with grandma and grandpa to pick out a new bike. They went to four stores but didn't find just the right fit.  I made a box of spaghetti for dinner.

Sunday Derek left for Germany a little after 7.  I cleaned out the fridge and grandma and grandpa picked up Laney about 10:45 to bike shop more.  Then they met us at Red Lobster to eat lunch with Gretchen and Jack.  After lunch Laney rode her new bike a bunch, we put out the trash, and my parents stayed with the kids while I had a GS leader meeting for a couple of hours. Last night the kids watched The Grinch (animated) before bed.

Today the kids got up about 8 and I slept until 9:30 (whoo-hoo!) I am going to do some work around the house (sorting piles) and kids just had breakfast and are heading outside.  Later I'll take Laney to a dance makeup class and stop by Trader Joe's for a few more things.

Bolivia! Part 3 Sunday, 12/30/18 drive to Samaipata

Sunday morning we slept pretty late, probably til about 9:30 or so, and then we packed for the country house and I went to pick up saltenas with Pili. Saltenas are delicious half spheres of sweet dough filled with stew, either beef or chicken and lots of savory thickened broth, chopped boiled eggs, olives etc.  Last Mother's Day Derek found a place to buy them in LA and surprised me with a dozen for a picnic with the kids at Lake Balboa Park. It was so great. So we were excited to eat some authentic ones in Bolivia.  After our brunch, we packed up Sili and Dardo's truck and piled in to the extended cab for our two hour drive to Achira camping.  It was a gorgeous day and beautiful views.  Upon arrival to the country house, we put our things in the room next to Gladis' downstairs.  Each room had a wooden sign above the door engraved with the names of the four daughters. We were assigned Mili's room, which had two twin beds and a larger double in a raised alcove, plus it's own bathroom.  Dardo (Sili's husband) offered to take us into town to get some food.  It was about 2:30 pm, so we piled back into the truck and headed into town, about a ten minute drive. We parked near the main plaza, and headed into a restaurant. Inside we met Dardo's adult son Dardo, and also immediately saw Andrea (Tila's younger daughter) who was there with her boyfriend and other friends. We ordered some food and drinks, and eventually saw another relative, Tia Rita's youngest son Alejandro, sitting outside with some friends. He came to say hello.  He is a nightclub owner in Santa Cruz.  After lunch we headed over to a small shop for bug spray, sunblock and a couple of large bottled waters.  When we got back to the house, it was nearly time for dinner. My favorite, a typical dish called Majadito. mmm. i salivate remembering it now. It is a mixture of rice and meat topped with a fried egg and a side of plantains. mmm. After dinner we went to bed.

synchronicities

Yesterday Derek and I both experienced tech-related universal alignments that were quite unbelievable. His moreso.  Here is what happened to both of us. 

My story:

I drove my parents, Jukka, and the kids to the local VA for my dad's appt. and then headed down to LAX to take Jukka to the airport.  A thought crossed my mind. Should I take a short drive on Mulholland Drive to show him the view? Then I dismissed it.  There might not be enough time.  The car nav directed me to turn right on Sepulveda.  I missed the turn.  Suddenly, the nav began to direct me strangely.  Instead of heading back to Sepulveda, it took me up into the neighborhood behind Ventura Blvd. on narrow, twisty roads.  Are we heading up to Mulholland Dr? I wondered to myself. Indeed we were. So crazy. So we took five minutes in the opposite direction and Jukka got some shots from up there. Then we continued on to LAX. What?

When Derek got home, I related the story.  He said I've got one even stranger than that. "I was listening to a song on the way to work, and I was trying to work out a lyric.  Just when I figured it out, the dictionary app word of the day popped up. It was the same word from the lyric.  And not a common word." The word was "empresario". 

So there you have it.  Now he just has to figure out why empresario is important. I love synchronicity.

Bolivia! Part 2- Llegada a SCZ (12/29)

Upon our arrival to Santa Cruz we purchased visas which are valid for 10 years.  That's good because they cost $160 each. We landed early but were delayed with visa paperwork for at least 45 minutes. We were greeted by Gladis, Pili, Lissy, her husband Paulo and ten year old son Leo.  They made a lovely welcome to Santa Cruz poster too.  Then we loaded up and headed to Pili's house for breakfast.  On the way home they informed us we would leave the next morning for the country house in Achira camping (about a two hour drive southwest near Samaipata.) and we would be celebrating New Year's there. After breakfast we napped until lunch and then napped again for a bit until we loaded up to head over to Lissy's house so the kids could swim and we had tea.  Tea is like a light dinner usually consisting of coffee, milk, bread and cheese (or cheese in bread) of some form and takes the place of dinner.  Lunch is the big meal of the day.  The kids enjoyed the pool and Lissy's condo complex was a project she worked on as an architect.  The city of Santa Cruz has grown from 4 rings to 9 and her neighborhood is on the outskirts near the airport on the 9th ring.  It is gated and has a lot of recreational areas (2 pools, basketball courts, bbq's and a mini-market/event room.  She lives there with her mother (Gladis' sister Blanca), husband, 2 boys (17 year old Paulinho and 10 year old Leo) and a little chihuahua named Punky (Poonky).

Bolivia! Part One- Miami/Fort Lauderdale (12/25-12/28)

After 21 years, I returned to Santa Cruz, Bolivia to visit my host family and this time I took along my husband, 9 1/2 year old and 7 year old.  Preparation for the trip began with research, travel clinic appointments, and phone appointments with infectious disease doctors.  4 yellow fever and 3 typhoid vaccines later, we started packing our bags to leave on Christmas day.  We had been thinking about a return trip for several years, but the sheer distance, travel time, and flight costs kept us from the trip until now.  On Christmas morning, we ubered to LAX and flew to Miami for a three day visit before continuing on to Santa Cruz.  We landed Christmas night about 8 pm, picked up our rental car and drove over to find some Cuban food for Christmas dinner.  Then we headed up to Fort Lauderdale and checked into the Riverside hotel on Las Olas, directly across from Derek's old apartment on the New River.  South Florida felt just how I remembered it, warm and sultry in the evening. Our room had a wonderful east-facing balcony and we could watch the yachts and water taxi maneuvering in and out on the New River.  The next morning we headed out to find some coffee and pastry and ended up at a delicious Italian bakery across from the hotel.  A colleague of Derek's met us and brought chocolate oranges for the kids (big hit!). After breakfast we decided to go on the water taxi.  So many memories and wonderful sights. We got off beachside and wandered down to the beach to watch some kite surfers for a bit, then returned on the water taxi.  For dinner that night, we met up with a big group of Derek's friends and some former colleagues at an Italian place and then went back to the Italian bakery for gelato.  We ended up hanging out at the hotel patio for a bit and then went to bed.  Thursday morning we hit the bakery again, this time with another friend of Derek's. Then we drove down to Miami and walked around the UM campus with the kids.  After that, we had lunch at Derek's favorite Thai place in Miami, Bangkok City.  The owner recognized him when we went in. So fun.  Then we drove back up to Fort Lauderdale and went swimming at the hotel pool before meeting another friend of Derek's and his family for dinner at a fun restaurant on Las Olas.   Friday we checked out of the hotel and met my buddy Megan and her son at Jaxson's ice cream in Hollywood and then went to play at a park before heading to the airport for our overnight flight to Bolivia.