Union Station in Los Angeles, California
Tucson to L.A. takes exactly one night. We get on at 9:30 PM and arrive the next morning at 8:30 AM. The kids slept great, I slept poorly, I don’t know if Zac slept at all, and I woke up thinking “hey! We are in L.A.!” Well, there were some orange groves, and then there were some mountains, and then there were some houses, and then some industrial wasteland, and then it seemed to cycle in that order for the next 100 miles. Ok, I’m exaggerating, but it did go on forever. Yet, it is so oddly beautiful mixed in with mountains and weird houses, and junky houses. The view from the railroad tracks is one of a kind. People fix their houses up streetside, but no one goes out of their way to make the backyard look nice for the train people. The backyards are full of secrets. and broken cars. And scrap metal. and lots of spraypaint art. and lots of spraypaint cans. When we finally got to the station, it looked like a real city! There were several train terminals, and we were undercover. As if it ever rains in L.A.?~?! We followed the signs to Union Station, and it was a huge art deco station. The wood beams in the ceilings were unreal, and the tile on the floor was jagged and strange. Josh was rushing through the station with a furrowed brow, when we hollered out and he saw us. I guess L.A. traffic at 8 AM makes you furrow your brow. Or yell into your cellphone. Or honk and cuss. Luckily, I wasn’t driving.
Union Station from the outside
Josh and Arlene are old friends of Zac’s from North Carolina. from back in the day. But now that I have known them for 9 years, I would like to claim them as my old friends too. That makes L.A. to be a very comfortable stop, a stop full of good food and friends. We get back to the house in Pasadena after a not so bad drive, and Arlene has outdone herself. Three bowls of fresh fruit out, Josh whips in on some pancakes, they start a fresh pot of coffee, and the kids, somewhat dazed, greet their new environment. My goals of the day were simple. Eat, drink, and wash the food out of the kids hair that inevitably accumulates when you don’t bathe them. We were playing at a hair salon, and I reckoned I wasn’t allowed to bring Eureka in with a big tangle full of mystery stickiness on the back of her head. And the layers of food caked on their clothing, I hoped to do something about that. And you know, when you have all day, you take all day. So it took me all day to complete my simple tasks, and Josh and Arlene, just like pros, had a steak dinner on the table by 4:30. Unreal. I forgot, Arlene, Iris, Zephyr, Eureka and I had to take a trip out to a 99 cent store. I had to get some rollers for our hair salon gig. The dollar store just happened to be by a thrift store. And dollar stores in California are a breed of their own. They have everything. I mean everything! Plants, a full grocery section, a pretty stocked pharmacy aisle, and I didn’t even get to the rest. I can’t imagine. Think of the money I could have saved!!! Then we went next door to the thrift store, and Eureka tried on every pair of high heels in the store, and Iris bought my kids a bunch of stuff out of the vending machines. That is money well spent, because they think that is the highest value a quarter could yield. And I never let them do that.
Getting to the gig early meant plenty of time to set my hair.
In usual Zac and Cheryl fashion, we got to the salon about 1.5 hours early. Krikey! Why do I do that? I just hate hate hate being late, and these guys were gonna come and shoot a video and blah blah blah….My dad’s cousin in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Mina Dornbush has three kids. One of them is named Ryan, and he and his wife, Jennifer, live in L.A. Years ago, they bought a CD through the mail, and since then, we have kept in loose touch. Well, when Jennifer heard we were coming to L.A., she was determined to get us a gig. It is always a mixed bag to lean on your friends to get you a gig, because most people don’t know or care about how musicians line up gigs. And I am here to tell you firsthand, it is such a pain in the neck, I would love to pay someone a huge percentage to do this in the future. A percentage of our profits, of course. BUT Jennifer went beyond the call of duty, and talked around to land us a gig in a hair salon; Scissors, Paper, Rock in Pasadena. Her friend Yolande is the owner, and in the summer months she hosts music events every Friday night. We were the kickoff band of Summer 2010.
Playing at the salon with one heck of a crazy backdrop.
Eureka, hoping the papparazzi wouldn't recognize us
Since we were super early, we went for a walk around the neighborhood. I was enjoying the walk, until the three younger kids decided it would be great fun to run up and down the end of a steep driveway, and it was really really fun until Eureka’s shoe tripped her and she skinned her knee. Her sandals are coming apart, note to self: glue. We went back to the salon, and hung out and talked till showtime. I forgot to mention that second cousin in law Jennifer is in the “business” and her friend was going to come and shoot our set to bulk up his reel and make a vid for promo in high def so we could get famous quicker. His name is Graham. He did show up, and he did shoot some vid, and as of today, we aren’t famous, but I’m guessing in the next week or so. We got started, and played a long set for these nice people, and we played till the yawning became too evident. And Zephyr fell asleep sitting up on a stool leaning on a counter, and I had to move him mid set, so that was one bored audience member out. The show went well, and no one really commented on my hair rollers, so I can only assume they thought it was incredibly hilarious, or so supremely dorky that commenting was unnecessary, but I suppose to some degree, I bring this on myself.
We sold some CD’s and made some tips, and ate some popcorn, and took some photos in the stainless steel hair dryer things that were beautiful, and Josh and Arlene left with all the kids, and we had to ask Graham for a ride home, which was generous of him.
The next day we woke up in a bit of a haze, wondering why on earth would anyone do anything but drink coffee and hang out and talk? We indulged ourselves until the sight of the children sitting on the computer for too many consecutive hours got on our nerves, so we threatened them with a hike into the wild wild mountains of Pasadena. We went out to a canyon with the dog, Astro, and hike around the Yucca and the scrub, and found ourselves at this beautiful creek, where we hung out and built fairy houses and stared at the walls. Wondering, what did go on there? Why the concrete? Was it damned? Was it a damn?
Hiking in the wild mountains outside of Pasadena, fighting off gangs and mountain lions
Then the realization came that we had only packed water, and not food, and the first cry of “I’m hungry!” jerked us back to reality, and the staring ended, and you knew you had limited time to get these kids back to the vehicle which would bring them back to calories. And yes, another night of great food. Lamb ribs, fried plantains, fresh salad….and a mixed berry peach pie for desert. Oh, yum. and in true California fashion, dinner was all wrapped up by 11 PM. I guess that makes it bedtime.
Zephyr, rocking on a rock.
Of course, the extra trips to the grocery stores to restock fruit, coffee, half/half, sugar….we went to this one grocery store where things were so darn cheap, and it was so packed with all different kinds of people from all parts of the world, with all kinds of food… except they didn’t have pomegranates, which is the one fruit Zephyr keeps talking about. Bless his heart.
Day 3 in L.A., seems you have to see the Pacific Ocean if you have kids that are present who have never seen the west coast beach before. Slowly, we load the car, and the guys hang out and read and play the guitar and go get gas, and the women pack loads of clothes and all the food we could find and sunscreen and blankets and toys and water, and we blaze out of Pasadena no later than noon. I remember my mom always putting off beach trips till later in the day for sun protection purposes, which wouldn’t have been a bad idea, as there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. We went to Malibu beach, which sure makes you feel like you are headed right into a movie set.
At least we were the coolest people there.
We unload at the beach and start our fun in the sun day, which to me meant, try not to burn, which to Eureka meant dance happily at the edge of the water, which to Zephyr meant dance, then sit for a while, then chase some girls around, which to Xolan meant digging a huge hole, which to Iris meant to boogyboard, which to Arlene meant to walk on the beach, and to Josh, chase Xolan, to Zac walk with Arlene.
The day wandered on and on, and before we could all agree to leave, it was 4:45. A great time to exit, we thought we would stop in Silver Lake on the way home and see some friends, Steve and Anneliese, who I can’t believe I missed, but to descend on nice people like that with 8 hungry kids just isn’t right on any level. We headed home and put the chicken in the over, Zephyr fell asleep on the way home and slept through the night, and we had dinner on the table no later tha 8:30 PM. and I am not complaining because Arlene did all the cooking and I am so grateful to have friends so excellent that they cook for you and treat you like royalty even when you are still essentially acting like a 25 year old in this world. Thank goodness for friends.
Dinner, hangout, bedtime, and in the morning we got up, got all our gear ready, threw it in the car, and took the gold line back in to Union Station where we caught the Coastal Starlight up to San Luis Obispo.
Eureka, California dreaming with the views of the L.A. River
If I were going to sell my L.A. trip on Ebay, my keywords would be:
coffee shopping fruit media talking desert hiking yard sale bargain beach good friends yum wine