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Chapter 4:
Back in Pasadena, with Devlin,
for the August Party
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Mark and Devlin enjoying a gooey chocolate dessert at Smitty’s (or see the bigger version). |
From Maine, we did not go directly back to California. Rather, we stayed a few days with Nancy and Ellen before meeting Devlin Tuesday morning, the ninth, at the Providence (Warwick, really, of course) airport. M’lyn was thoroughly panicked because Nancy, Mark, and I were (a bit) (somewhat) very late getting to the airport, and she doubted strongly that we would get onto our flight. In the event, though, all was well, and we winged our way westward to our plane-change in Cleveland. At LAX, Nancy transferred immediately to a Southwest flight to the Bay area, where she could spend time with a girlhood friend, the two of them driving back to Pasadena just in time for the Party.
As soon as we returned, we had to get to work preparing for the big Party the coming Saturday. As a result, maybe there was less sightseeing going on in those days. But Wednesday was my birthday, so Mark and Devlin and I went out to dinner at Smitty’s on South Lake Avenue, one of our special restaurants.
Next day, August 11, since Devlin had expressed a strong desire to get to the famous Rodeo Drive, we took the car and parked in the neighborhood, and played tourist and window-shopper. I hadn’t realized that it’s just a short stretch of street, but packed with the fanciest shops imaginable. Devlin had a ball.
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The next day was devoted to preparations for the August Party, and even on the big day itself, Saturday the thirteenth, I took no pictures, but the estimable Carla F. took the snap over to the right of the two of us, and you can also see a larger version. The party itself was loads of fun, as always, and we had a pretty good bunch of Lubin family there, even if the only Kings were Linda and Howie. Two important guests who are not, or at least not quite, family were Nancy and her girlhood friend Diane, who had driven down together from northern California the day before.
But there were adventures still to be enjoyed: Devlin had a long list of things she wanted to do; not all of them could be fit into the time we had, but we could try…
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Devlin said she wanted to go right up to the Hollywood Sign, but I had read only a few days before that it’s not an easy hike, and that you don’t get much of a view of it when you’re right under it anyway.
The day after the Party, Sunday, 14 August we thought we could take Devlin to Hollywood and Highland, where I had read you could get one of the best views of the famous Hollywood Sign. There was no way we were going to be able to park around there on a summer weekend, so we decided to go by LA Metro: walk to the Lake Avenue stop of the Gold Line, then transfer at Union Station to the Red Line, the only real subway in the city, and get off at the H&H stop. So up to the left you see Mark and Devlin on the Lake Avenue platform (big image, small). In the pictures to the immediate left, we’re on the Red Line, Mark and Nancy before, Diane and Devlin aft; and below that, all four are on the ground-level plaza of the H&H complex, casing the whole joint.
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| Devlin with the Hollyood Sign in the background (big image, small). |
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The picture above is not the one I had in mind when I snapped the shutter. We were all in deep shadow, so when I pointed the camera beyond Devlin to show the Hollywood Sign in the distance, her face was totally underexposed. When I got home, I realized, with some help from Mark, that I should have used fill flash to break the shadows. Instead, all I had was the everpresent, everhelpful Photoshop. With it, I brightened up her face, without washing out the rest of the image. And to my eye, the result looks very artificial.
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At any rate, we went to a section of the complex where people could get snacks and sit and rest a bit, and Devlin could do a bit of shopping. That’s where I took the pictures to the right. I liked Devlin’s laugh in the big one on the left (big image, small); and on the upper one on the right, I think Devlin is coveting an iPhone like her Dad’s (big image, small). Below that, Diane and Nancy relax (big image, small).
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| Big image, small. | Big image, small. |
We hopped on the Red Line to go back, and decided that we would have supper at La Grande Orange, a pleasing and unpretentious restaurant at the Del Mar station of the Gold Line. That’s two stops before our station of Lake Avenue. No pictures from there, but the two to the left are of us waiting after our meal on the Del Mar platform. Devlin is on her phone, chatting with family or friends.
It’s about a ten- or fifteen-minute walk from the Lake Avenue station back to our house. The oldsters look properly tuckered out in the pictures to the right, but Dev clearly was still full of energy.
The next day, Monday, 15 August, was our day for Disneyland. Diane had already left for home, so it was just the four of us—Devlin and Nancy and the dads. I took my big camera along with me, but did not take all that many pictures.
To the left, we’re all starting out at the Magic Kingdom (big image, small). What fun! For Mark and me, it was the third trip to Anaheim in calendar 2011, and we had to keep always in mind that it was Devlin’s first ever, and Nancy’s first in many many years. I grabbed the shot of N & M to the right (big image, small) before either of them had become footsore. Thus the bright smiles.
We did lots that day, for instance Devlin rode “California Screamin’” more than anybody else in the family, always excepting Mark, who had gone on every single run of this high-acceleration roller-coaster that any member of the C-H family did. Quite a few runs of “Soarin’ Over California” as well, but at least all four of us did that. But no pictures here.
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| Big image, small. | Big image, small. |
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I finally remembered to pull the camera out when we were having a soft ice-cream, shortly before leaving for home that evening.
There were other unmemorialized adventures, such as Jonathan and Nancy’s managing to lose or abandon Devlin’s backpack, which had been entrusted to us. Two visits to Lost and Found did not avail, but Devlin left a detailed description of its appearance and contents, and in due course, it appeared within a week or so on the Greene doorstep, courtesy of Disneyland’s excellent customer-service facilities.
The next day, Tuesday, Nancy and Devlin flew back to Rhode Island, bringing to an end these delightful four weeks of relaxation and adventure.