Francis-ing home from the airport

This morning Grace and I went to pick up Hannah.  Her flight was delayed because of the winter storm that has been pounding Utah the whole last week, but it took off and landed with every soul accounted for and that is the sum of my "good flight" criteria.

We missed her and were happy to pick her up.  Imagine what the fall will be like?

We decided not to go straight home. In our family we call that Francis-ing.  When Great Uncle Francis Thacker died we went to his funeral and learned that he was notorious for taking different, meandering routes to where he was going.  This was probably especially good for him since he lived the whole of his life in the same Michigan town.  Whenever we take a different, new, unusual route we say we are Francis-ing.

Anyway Hannah is being interviewed for a photography internship next week and she asked that I bring Clementine (her new camera) with us to the airport and that we stop at the beach on the way back so she could work on her portfolio.

We went to the Santa Monica pier and had a really fun, really nice day.  After finding some "convenient" $20 parking (for the record we were ripped off, there was cheaper parking available) we headed to the 3rd St Promenade and browsed the shops and got some lunch.  We saw fun fun stuff and took our time smelling things, reading funny cards and signs, admiring cute clothes and soaking up the sunshine.  Isn't this music box the cutest thing ever?  It took all my will power not to bring it home.  Oddly later I had the same struggle over some darling "pop"  figures.

Also I wanted this sweatshirt.

We didn't buy anything.  :)

 After browsing and eating we headed to the pier.  They have a cute little aquarium that my friend Beth told me was fun so we stopped in a enjoyed the touch tanks and the sharks and the fish.  It was small but nice.

 We walked on the pier and watched people.  No one knows what to wear.  There were kids in bathing suits in the water and people in parkas and ski hats and everything in between.  We were comfortable in pants and short sleeved shirts.

Also as a side note it was pretty busy and every 3rd person had a dog.  I told Hannah that had we known she should have taken a photo of each dog/person duo and she could make a book "Dogs of Santa Monica Pier" out of it.

Then we went down to the water to play.  It was a beautiful afternoon!!

 I got to hold every one's stuff while they romped in the water....until I dumped it all in the sand to join the fun. Clementine went in my purse, don't worry.

 Then it was time to go:( Too soon for some of us.

A little ice cream for the car ride helped cheer her up.  I also had some ice cream, in a cup, but I didn't like it so after a couple of bites I put it in a trash bin...where less than 10 seconds later a homeless man picked it up and ate it.  I would have given it to him but I am glad he got it.  You see the whole gamut of humanity at the Santa Monica beach.  I guess the moderate climate makes it a popular place to be homeless (sad) and every walk of life likes the sand and the sea.  You can buy a $ hot dog or a $$$ seafood dinner 10 feet apart from each other.  Something for everyone.

And then the traffic home.  

Oh well.

In other news Clayton had his knee surgery yesterday and it went very well.  We've been keeping in touch to see how the recovering is going and he's in good spirits and resting up. Abe is a good comfort dog. 

And another aside we went to see "Hidden Figures" yesterday and I really loved it.  Might be a top ten favorite. 

Also yesterday Grace and I went to help the Packam's clean out their house, they moved to Atlanta yesterday evening and were doing the final clean up.  We have enjoyed their friendship and will miss them.