Labor Day Part II

Well, look at me back in my favorite chair with my feet up on my ottoman.

It was a great day. We took Layne and Paula down to Chinatown to introduce Layne to Dim Sum. I had forgotten how they don't even wait for you to sit before they offer a tin of this and a plate of that. To the uninitiated it can be quite intimidating. But Layne rolls with the punches and soon our table was full of interesting things, mostly filled with shrimp as it would turn out. There was fried shrimp with sugar cane, rice balls filled with shrimp, spring rolls with shrimp, honeyed shrimp and walnuts, fried wontons filled with shrimp and a platter of fried prawns whose black eyes stared right through me. We also had pork bao and chicken bao and some other chicken dish which I can't begin to explain except to say that it tasted good and I wouldn't want to know which parts of the chicken were used. We used chopsticks, even the boys, and nothing went flying across the room (miraculously) though one of the chopsticks was broken in half. After we filled our bellies, we browsed the shop, marveled at the delicate plates, bowls and cups, turned our noses up at unfamiliar fare (like mung beans - what is that?), and sampled the teas until we finally felt like we'd tested fate enough with having two six year olds in a china shop, and left. On our way back to the car we bought some snap pops for Jack (little explosives that you throw onto the sidewalk) and a fan for Dean. We took the long way home and showed Paula and Layne around downtown Los Angeles. Through the industrial area, a quick (very quick) foray into East LA, circled back through the garment district, the fashion district, past the Convention Center and the Staples Center, through the jewelry district and the historic district and closed the loop back at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Then onto the freeway where we headed for Burbank to drive by my office and have some ice cream in Downtown Burbank.

They left shortly after we returned home and the rest of the evening was spent with the boys and I at the table putting together the legos (a gift from Paula and Layne). Tomorrow is the last day of summer vacation for the boys and then it's back to school. I am ready for fall, craving crisp air and crunchy leaves, sweaters and boots (though I don't know how I'd get my swollen feet into them), frost on the grass and roof tops. There's something about the transition to 'back to school' that makes me long for the fall.

Then again, I was at the beach just yesterday and already mourning the loss of summer so, there ya go.