How is it that tomorrow is the last day of 2013? It really feels like it wasn’t that long ago that I was writing my last year’s end of the year post, yet I find myself here again. This post started off to be a summary of the year, but I think that there will be several parts to my year 2013 in review

A year that seems to have moved pretty quickly in the grand scheme of things, yet slowly enough to remember some key points in the year.

Last year at this time we got word that my cousin Josh had just gotten engaged and his wedding would be in 2013 and it would be in Chicago. It was early in January that our whole family booked tickets for the family wedding in the windy city.

Thankfully the winter was broken up by an amazing visit with B in Los Angeles. Could not have asked for a better weekend. Los Angeles is such an amazing city, really one of the great ones, and there is so much to see and do, it is great to have someone who lives there to be able to have different experiences every time you visit.

This visit consisted of going to the J Paul Getty Museum, which is a really amazing place. To sum it up, here is a quote from their website:
“The J. Paul Getty Museum seeks to inspire curiosity about, and enjoyment and understanding of, the visual arts by collecting, conserving, exhibiting, and interpreting works of art of outstanding quality and historical importance.”

You take a tram up the hill to this amazing sprawling displays of beautiful

 architecture (you can take tours), gardens, walkways and more. There are galleries with beautiful art exhibits, there are amazing gardens and I would love to go back some day when the garden is in full bloom.

The next day it was off to the California Science Center to see the Space Shuttle Endeavor. One word – WOW! Really, it is an incredible sight to see. You walk through an exhibit of what is in the space shuttle, photos of all the different space missions, etc. Then you watch a time lapse movie on how they brought the shuttle from the airport through the city and to the Science Center. After the movie, you walk to the pavilion where shuttle calls home. You can walk all around it, underneath it, looking at the tiles that you hear about that burn up on re-entry to the earth’s atmosphere.

On the last day of my weekend in LA we went to high tea at the Langham hotel in Pasadena. The hotel itself is a luxury oasis not that far outside of Los Angeles. Beautiful views surround the property. The rooms and public areas are classy and elegant.

They offer high tea in their tea room. They offer a special tea called The Tiffin Chocolate Tea. There are chocolate inspired teas like Mayan Truffle tea and Chocolate mint truffle, and all of the sandwiches, pastries, etc have some sort of chocolate component to them. There was a pink chocolate fountain, with handmade marshmallows and more for dipping.

They had a harpist and a pianist playing and when they overheard us at the table talking about my birthday, out came this beautiful plate of chocolate dipped strawberries and truffles. It was really a wonderful birthday celebration with B and his friends.

I was going to make this post about the year in review, but I only made it to February.  Stay tuned for the rest of the year in review. I wish good health and happiness for all of you for the coming year.

Thanks for reading, and always stayed tuned for more, I always have a story to tell.