Road to Nova Scotia

Settle in this is a long one, what was meant to be four days in LA turned into a 3 weeks, but I’ll do my best to recap.

We returned to LA to spend some time with Hans, my sister Hannah and her husband Tanner, while helping Hans move into his new home. We rented a truck here to help him haul new furniture finds and mattresses. Night one we hauled in our camping chairs and tables and had a lovely time hanging out with everyone. Hans ended up staying a few days longer delaying an upcoming trip he was taking and we enjoyed zipping around LA with him collecting pieces for his place. He found some neat accent chairs and when we went to pick them up we were stopped in our tracks entering the home, they had the exact same painting that we had grown up with hanging in our dining room. They were extremely kind people and allowed Hans to take a picture of the painting and they proudly showed off the home they’ve been building the last two years.

Hannah, Tanner, and Hans had discovered the Grove during their adventures, it’s a neat dog friendly outdoor shopping center, it has a farmer market attached to it, a dancing fountain designed by the same person who did the fountain at the Bellagio, and a trolly designed by the last imagineer hired by Walt Disney himself. Most importantly though they had a coffee shop, La La Land. The entire group rapidly formed an obsession with La La Land and it became a near daily fixture. We enjoyed a trip to Santa Monica with everyone where we wandered the pier and found yet again Meghan’s favorite restaurant Din Tai Fung.

Tanner had to fly home to work and Hans eventually left for his vacation. Hannah and Tanner were there initially to pet sit Hans’ 8 month old Bernese Mountain Dog Theo. With the change of plans earlier on this meant Hannah was going to be alone for the next week, and she ask if we would mind staying until hans got back, so we packed up the cats and a few necessities, and moved in. We were parked at the same RV park we stayed at originally and I spoke with the owner who allowed us to stay parked there free of charge for the next week!

We spent the majority of the week watching Theo and Kida endlessly play tug and wrestle, indulging in La La Land, and watching some movies and shows together. Hannah surprised us one night by taking us to a comedy show, Hannah Berner, the show was awesome and such a fun time! Thank you Hannah! Hannah and Meghan went on a farmers market adventure together to enjoy some good food and returned with super cute free tote bags! It was such a fun week of relaxing and chatting and I’m so thankful we stayed, great memories!

Hans and Brady returned, Brady had to fly out the next day for work but we enjoyed a night of conversation and dinner before he left early the next morning. Hannah flew home shortly after, of course before that, more trips to the grove were made and we went on a group trip for pedicures.

We spent a few days hanging out with Hans and I did a few projects around the house fixing window latches, doors, and installing new hardware on the laundry and pantry doors. We also had a lovely day at the dog beach with Kida and Theo!

We ended up talking with Kenzie, Meghan’s sister, who was quite ready for a break from Minnesota winter, we talked with Hans who was excited about the prospect of Kenzie visiting, she booked a ticket that night and flew in for a long weekend!

We were booked a busy bopping around with Kenzie, we went out on the town night one, experienced a Waymo (similar to zoox an autonomous uber like thing) went to the club the song Pink Pony Club is written about, grabbed some food at a Taco Bell cantina and accidentally happened across the Hollywood walk of fame! The next day we hit the Grove, rode the trolly, snagged some food, and did a little shopping. That night Meghan and Kenzie grabbed dinner at the Tesla diner. We made another trip to Santa Monica and the pier after a morning hike to a viewing spot of the Hollywood sign, had lunch at Din Tai Fung, and dinner at Nobu. Meghan enjoyed spotting celebrities while at dinner. The next morning Hans and Kenzie went to Pilates in West Hollywood, then we all loaded in the car to head to the airport to send Kenzie off.

After that we started making trips back to the RV to repack everything we had hauled over when we had the truck and were winding down our LA part two journey. Brady returned from work, and we enjoyed spending time chatting and hanging out with him. Hans’ friend Elsa flew in late the next day, and we finished moving back into the RV the following morning. We joined them for a fun night of dinner and drinks and a soak in the pool to conclude our three week stay!

Absolutely incredible memories and time spent with family that we will cherish forever. I’m so happy that we were able to spend the time with everyone and so grateful for the opportunity, thank you Hans and Brady for the hospitality, and being the catalyst of such a fun mini family reunion.

The following are plant pictures for Thomas as requested.