January 10, 2010
Los AngelesWe were happy we got to spend some time with Alyssa and Karl’s younger brother Mark and his girlfriend Marie. One night we went to dinner at a Brazilian Churrascaria (steak house) prior to leaving on the cruise.
On another night we went to see the Glory of Christmas which is performed at the Crystal Cathedral. It is the story of Christmas performed with great music, fantastic sets and costumes, flying angels and live animals. Vayden was not being her good natured self that night so Karl had to take her outside. The cast was very nice to her. A lot of the cast is outside at times during the show and Vayden did get to meet some of them including all three wise men. One of the wise men actually held her for a bit and Vayden got to touch one of the camels and several of the other animals.
When we got back from the cruise we went the famous PhiliPpe’s and downed a dozen French dip sandwiches.
After Philippe's we walked Olvera Street. We also went to Hollywood and the ‘Walk of Fame’ We met some stars as you can see by the pictures in the Photo Addendum. We also drove to Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive.
Walk of Fame
We also went to the El Teypeyac Café for some of the best Mexican food you can find. We ordered a Manuel Special Burrito and two tacquitos which fed all of us. The taquitos come with about two cups of guacamole. The Manuel Special Burritto weighs about six pounds.
El Tepeyac is in deep East Los Angeles. We needed a few thing for the hotel so we stopped by an El Mercado in East Los Angeles near the El Tepeyac Café which is an experience Lori will remember. There were armed guards, no one spoke English and the formula which we wanted to buy was locked up. Blonde Lori was wearing a pink shirt and hat and stuck out like a sore thumb. Even the manger approached her confused by her presence there. He must have thought she was lost. We didn’t end up getting the formula out from under lock and key, but we did buy the kids a pack of Canel’s Mexican gum and some pork rinds which they loved and ate for the rest of the trip.
Karl, Christian and Vayden went to the Museum of Natural History one morning.
Lori, Brittney and Shelby went down to the Santa Monica pier one evening.
After all the hustle and bustle of being down town Los Angeles for several days with all the crowds, standing in line, valet parking we thought it would be nice to go somewhere calmer. We stopped by Whittier, ate at Rocky Cola Cafe and spent an afternoon at Penn Park before meeting up with Mark and Marie at Miss Knott’s Famous chicken restaurant. The chicken and the boysenberry pie there is deleicious. But the real star is the biscuits, butter and boysenberry jam.
As an explanation for these shirts, Mark as many of you already know is battling a brain cancer right now. While mark was still medicated and in the hospital to undergo surgery to move his brain tumor, he nick named his brain tumor (bt) ‘ben thomas’ for some reason. The name stuck and the shirts followed. 
