What a Wonderful Visit

All good things come to an end I suppose. And I was definitely fighting off some hard core tears when I arrived back at my apt after dropping my bro at the airport. We just had such a good time and it was such a once in a lifetime thing that it's sad to see it come to an end. We truly had an amazing time.

Beyond what I've already shared on my blog, we had a couple more days where we packed in even more. Saturday we got up and got some breakfast at my favorite Jewish Deli, Bagel Nosh. Shawn said the lox were the best he's had. And then drove east to hit Griffith State Park where we did another hike up to the Griffith Observatory. The hike was great and we got some awesome pics of the Hollywood sign. And the Observatory was quite cool too...Shawn was into that. After our hike Shawn wanted to check out the famous hot dog stand: PINK's. He got a hotdog that was Ruben style w/ pastrami...i got something that i'd never eat again. Not sure it was worth the over an hour wait in line but it's a thing you do once and I'm happy I can say I did it. From there we went home to shower and get ready for our evening downtown. We met up w/ my friend Sarah and she had a perfect little spot picked for dinner--Shawn loved it! And from there we hit some bars on a quest to find good dance music--that didn't seem to happen but we enjoyed checking out the different scenes, including a rotating bar at the top of a hotel. Cool way to see downtown LA and all its tall buildings. That was a late night--we were beat.

Sunday came and we slept and then made a big breakfast feast at home which was so fun. From there we hit Venice--we saw the canals, the beach, the pier and of course the crazy boardwalk. We did some shopping for Lisa and the girls too :) And by then it was late afternoon and we did a quick pit stop at the plant store so Shawn could get me hooked up with some stuff to revive my indoor plant and we met up with my good friends Mike & Nikki for the end of the Steelers game. I'm glad Shawn got to meet them as well as Sarah...and we got to quickly say hello to two other girlfriends who were out in Venice on Sunday. It's always nice to put a face to the name and now he can picture some of my life out here.

Shawn and I both said we can't quite find the words to say how incredible the trip and visit was. We just talked and talked and talked and I loved every minute of it b/c I can never get enough of him on the phone or when I'm home b/c life is so busy and it's always the whole family I have to compete with :) So I was just so thrilled to have my bro to myself. And it really means a lot to me that he can now see where I live and hopefully truly understand why I'm here...what brought me here and why I love it. That even though it's horribly far away from he and the rest of the family, it's still an amazing place and I'm happy here.

So all in all, a wonderful visit. Can't wait to do it again w/ the whole crew!