Long Beach Visit

Last weekend, we were in Southern California for my Dad's birthday. On Saturday Steve helped my parents out around their yard. They just returned from a cruise to Spain and needed to catch up on a few things around the house.

Mom cleaning the windchime (notice the beautiful kitchen remodel they did last year, it looks fantastic):

Dad harassing his favorite rabbit, Buster:


We later had dinner with my grandparents. My dad was actually born on the same day (in the same year) that my maternal grandparents got married, so we had a joint anniversary/birthday celebration.

Dad with cake:

We had some time on Sunday morning to ourselves, so we decided to wander around Long Beach a little. The area has changed a bit since we were in high school. We noted that great efforts have been made to improve some neighborhoods by adding restaurants, pedestrian walks and shopping. Many of the buildings were entirely or partially vacant (no doubt due to the tough economic climate at the moment). We wandered down Pine Avenue for awhile and had lunch there.

Murals on the Press Telegram building (the picture doesn't do them justice, the young painters were amazing with a can of spraypaint):

Sculptures of "flying" dolphins that amused me:

We had lunch at King's Fish House on Pine Avenue. The food was fantastic and the ambiance was charming. I didn't want to annoy everyone by taking a bunch of pictures, but I did get this one of Steve mainly for the purpose of showcasing the ceiling.

On our way back to my parent's house, we stopped briefly at the marina. It was a beautiful day.

We really picked a great weekend to go. Long Beach was sunny (if a bit windy) and in the 70's. Santa Cruz had a heat wave, with the Santa Cruz mountains getting into the 90's. We're pleased we managed to miss that.