I got an early start on the trip and broke it up a bit by laying over with Adrienne, Aristotle (and, of course, their charming roommate, Delanie) for a couple of days. It was actually meant to start a day sooner, so I'm very glad I had this buffer of the day or two in LA or the whole trip would have been knocked off kilter! Laura and I were half-way to the airport when I got a text telling me that the flight was an hour late. Then I got another one in a minute, pushing it back an other hour. We were just deciding what to do about it when the third text came in, pushing it back yet another hour. I looked on line and saw that there was no way I could get to Los Angeles that day on that flight (to St. Louis) or any other. Since we were that far south, Laura had a couple of things to pick up at her house so we swung by and she took care of that business while I waited on hold with southwest and booked a flight for the next morning. So here I am, the next morning, on a flight that stops in New Orleans (hence the first picture) and goes on to LA. Adrienne will pick me up at noon.

Adrienne and I hiked Laurel Canyon and then Adrienne, Aristotle and I went to this elegant mostly-vegetarian restaurant in Studio City, The Gadarene Swine . After dinner the kids dropped me at LAX for my late night Eva Air flight through Taipei to Singapore. Inexplicably this Taiwanese airline has a (Japanese) "Hello Kiltty" theme going on.

I was in a middle seat of a 3-seat window side row. Ugh. But my two seatmates were nice and we cooperated well on bathroom breaks, etc. I especially enjoyed talking to the one who is vacationing with friends who retired (at 48) to Thailand after making bank with a successful mobile marijuana company.

NOTE: I'm switching to this travel blog called Travelpod. It doesn't let you control the photos the way I want, but it is better than the one I was using (blogspot). It just groups them down at the bottom of the page, so please be sure to click on those below to see the pictures and their captions or you can click on 'slide show' if you prefer.