Tag Archives: LA

Return to Burbank – Açaí jungle, magnolia Park vintage, Porto’s, Skyline Drive home and country club canyon road

Glad to be back to Burbank visiting my brother and family after too long. Last time I was here in early 2020, the pandemic was just starting. We still wore masks on our flight to LAX but are less worried about Covid. (Knock wood).

Skyline trail

We tried to take the flyaway bus from the airport but there wasn’t one readily available (40 minute wait) so we took an Uber. $86 and 1.5 hours since we arrived during rush hour. (thanks to a one hour flight delay.) unfortunately we didn’t have the Lyft app downloaded, which were told could have saved us $20 or so. (It’s now downloaded.)

At The Commissary, a beautiful server we guessed is an aspiring actor served us coffee and a delicious morning bun, a curly mound of croissant dough with a crispy cinnamon sugar crust. Lunch was excellent salads at açaí jungle. Then we visited the resale shop It’s a wrap (which sells clothing worn on various shows that film in the area) and nearby vintage and interesting gift shops in what’s know as Magnolia Park.

Last stop, the famous Cuban bakery Porto’s where several staff told me “ I like your shirt!” ( I was wearing my cheerful Harris-Walz tee) and a woman visiting from Arizona asked if she could give me a hug. She and her party are also Harris-Walz supporters. They are cautiously optimistic about the tickets chances in Arizona.

Porto’s

We were the only hikers and on a narrow trail high above Burbank, where we could see the silhouette of downtown LA in the distance, a little further off than the downtown Chicago silhouette from our apartment. Although the mountain bikers were in on the secret, which wasn’t that big a deal. (It’s off skyline drive.) we also drove on a narrow canyon road past a lovely pink Spanish style stucco house with terraced gardens that was the club house of a long gone country club.

Açaí jungle

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Hectic trip home on Southwest from LA

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Not in LA anymore

At 5 a.m. we got a text from Southwest telling us that our flight home was cancelled. At first I thought it was our Las Vegas-Des Moines flight, due to snow. But it turned out to be our Burbank-Las Vegas flight — no snow but instead due to labor unrest with the mechanics union, a bunch of flights were cancelled. argh.

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Ditto

We ended up getting a flight from LAX which involved considerable hustle and hassle to get there (a much long Uber ride at 6 a.m.) but we made our close connection without a hitch, thanks in part to a nearly 1/2 hour early arrival. Phew! One trick I learned: I could NOT use the Southwest website to find an alternative flight. It didn’t work. At first I called and pressed the number for the “change existing flight reservation” (or some such)…and the wait for a callback was 55 minutes. So we called back and pressed the number for “make a new reservation” — miraculously, that was an 8 minute wait. (Why help existing customers when you can get new paying customers, right?) As it turns out we didn’t really have 55 minutes to spare because we had to hightail it to LAX for our alternative flight. Live and learn. Bit disappointed in Southwest, which I’ve long flown and liked.

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Sycamore Kitchen, LACMA/LA and Burbank playgrounds

356711D7-13FE-4E6B-9CF1-BA272F0A4507An art exhibit I was dying to see in DC turned out to be in LA this trip, hence our first trip to LACMA, which was a great option on a chilly Sunday. The show, about the interplay between untrained and trained artists, was fascinating and as I suspected, one of my favorite Kansas sights, The Garden of Eden in the small rural town of Lucas got a prominent nod in  the exhibit (“Outliers and American Vanguard Art.”)

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Dora, Denise and Dirck at LACMA

We parked for free on a residential street near LACMA.  Before the museum, we had a good quick lunch at Sycamore Kitchen – the fried cauliflower side was a favorite (in a hot red sauce with a cool creamy dressing).

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Dirck and Dora at Sycamore Kitchen

In Burbank, we have done the tour of playgrounds, thanks to our 6-year-old niece Lucy who prefers Johnny Carson Playground and Betsy Lueke Playground. Dinner tonight was in Venice at my cousin Jenny’s house, with superb food by her husband Jay. We enjoyed walking down the narrow sidewalks lined with beautiful cottages, bungalows and  modern showpieces, plus dense gorgeous foliage and flowers.

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