LA

I woke up about 9, but the others were still sleeping and the room was exceedingly dark, so I showered and went down to the lobby, thinking I could get a cup of coffee. They had just cleared away all the breakfast things. I got a drink from a machine and made a reservation for the shuttle to take me to the airport. The woman at the desk said the trip took 10 to 15 minutes. I was surprised that we were that close.

I went back upstairs to find everyone still sleeping and asked if they wanted to get up. We had planned a trip to eat dim sum. When everyone was ready to go, Susan wanted to take Dora's picture. Dora was taking hers at the time. She is no bigger than a minute and full of fun. Susan was ready to go in the pink Dora shorts and


backpack. She also took Silvia's picture. I had to help a little with the camera. The breakfast/lunch was wonderful with a large variety of dishes. We went into a nearby grocery to get Garrett's sticky rice lunches. I got 14!

The plan for the day was to go shopping--a quilt store for me and the Lego store for the others. The quilt store was not far away; we were in Orange County somewhere. The shop was impressive and I enjoyed an hour there. Fei went to Barnes and Noble, and the others looked at fabric until Susan got tired. There was a children's play area with Legos, so they had fun playing. We drove south and west (I think) to get to Highway One on the coast. There are a lot of businesses and homes all along there. When we got to Anaheim, we turned east and looked for the Disneyland area. It is greatly changed from 1961.

The place we went was called Disneyland Downtown, a sort of shopping area. The Lego store probably had every known set. There were quite a few large pieces, including a 15-20' giraffe, Darth Vader and some other Star Wars figures, an Empire State Building. Susan and I had fun building with the Legos at the tables in the middle of the store with other children and adults. Silvia, Dora, and Fei bought several things. We were hungry when we came out. We had had bubble tea in the afternoon, but it hadn't stayed with us.

What is bubble tea? It is made with tapioca and a drink. The tapioca is dark colored and not as big as marbles, but larger than the food we are used to. You drink it with a large diameter straw. Dora had green tea with milk and flavoring. I had a peach smoothie. I can't remember Fei's. Silvia and Susan wanted water.

We had to pack. Silvia had brought Garrett some food in her suitcase: hot cereal he loves, dried fish, seaweed. She brought me a jeweled hang-up for the car mirror and a brayer for clay. The best thing she brought is called a digital picture frame. You load your pictures onto a compact flash disk or a memory card and insert it in the back of the frame. You plug it in, and the device shows a continuous slide show of pictures about 6" by 8". It is wonderful. I had sent most of Susan's things in the mail, but she had Legos and diapers to fit into her suitcase. It's a good thing I brought the little bag for Susan's clothes. They were going to Costco and somewhere else the next day, but would ship those things.

I had told them I would take the shuttle and had already arranged it, that it would take 10-15 minutes. They told me I was going to the wrong airport, John Wayne instead of LAX. They would take me, even though it was an hour away with good traffic.