That said, we were thrilled to see her and Siena loved having a chance to get to know someone new! After some gloomy weather stretched her travel day to California into what must have seemed like two days she arrived in Orange County. In true vacationing form we jumped right into the sight-seeing the next morning. A trip to Laguna Beach and the cruel reality of the Pacific Ocean, it’s beautiful, but it’s cold. However on such a beautiful day, no one really seemed to mind. Bella and Siena were having fun at the beach, so we stayed for a sunset dinner with a family of dolphins playing along the coast. Southern California put on its finest show for day one.
For the next stop on the tour, we headed to Disneyland for a day in the park. A lot to see and it is questionable about whose head was more on a swivel taking it all in, Siena or Elizabeth. A few days later Lisa, Siena and Elizabeth visited California Adventure as well, off season is great for two parks for the price of one offers.
Since Elizabeth is a performing arts type of gal, the lure of Hollywood was too much to pass up. So off to Hollywood they went. Day one in Hollywood was the Walk of Fame, hand and feet prints at Grauman’s, the sign and then the paparazzi run of stars homes. But what might have been the highlight of the trip for Elizabeth (and Lisa) was day two in Hollywood. They attended the filming of a few episodes of the Doctors followed by a studio tour at Paramount. Yes, since things were filming on the lot, there was a star sighting, Chevy Chase. (Side note on Chevy Chase, he is possibly one of the funniest men ever. Fletch may be my all-time favorite comedy and it surely was the highlight of many college parties. That said, he looked pretty old in the pictures they took of him, an indictment on me too I guess.) If you missed my Facebook postings, Lisa and Elizabeth got some TV face time in both shows due to some very good seats. Exciting to see the shows I am sure, even more exciting to see yourself (or in this case your wife and sister) on TV.
It was a whirl-wind of activity and the week simply flew by. While there was a lot of fun, the best part of the week was getting to know Elizabeth better. For Lisa and Siena it was a first chance to get to know her. For me it was simply some conversations that were way over-due. She and Nick were at such a young age when our dad died and life has been more challenging for them then it is for most kids. We both lost our dad, but it is clearly harder for her and understandably so. I had him there to help me through some of the toughest hurdles in life of getting from teenager to adult. Our dad had a great impact on all of us, and was so important to Elizabeth. While we can’t replace him, hopefully after her visit Elizabeth feels she has a few more family members to help fill the gap.
We loved her visit and getting to know her better. In today’s society, you can often gauge how a person is doing by their Facebook postings. I think Elizabeth enjoyed her visit; the Facebook postings had smiley faces.
