October 19, 2023: The L.A. Update!

My birthday present from Akemi – a birthday pillow to add to my growing collection!

As usual, very little sleep the night before our flight out.  We woke up at 5:30 a.m., breezed through security, sat at the gate for two hours, and finally caught our flight to L.A., getting into our hotel a little after noon.  Akemi suggested checking out a place called Nonna’s Empanadas, a short walk from the Sofitel.  We tried four varieties.  Overall, better than your average empanada but the truth is I’m not a huge empanada fan.

We came across an L.A. location of Magnolia Bakery, a place I wanted to check out while in NYC last week.  I had their famed banana pudding.  Highly recommended.

For dinner, we met with recent LA transplant and former neighbor Kevin and his girlfriend Elle.  For dinner, we enjoyed half the menu at Pine and Crane in Silverlake.  Delicious.

I got the hotel to send up two foams pillows to add to the two feather pillows that came with the room.

The next morning, we enjoyed a fantastic breakfast at Republique Bakery.  I did the wild mushroom rice bowl and an excellent matcha latte.  Oh, and about four different desserts, all equally fantastic.

Finally, the time had come!  We went to Pug Nation of L.A. where we picked up our little guy, Sharky.

I’ll save a proper introduction for this weekend’s Sharky Sunday post, but suffice it to say he is a very sweet pug.

Super relaxed.

We flew out at noon the next day.  He was exhausted.

And a surprisingly great flyer.  We made it back home a little after 8:00 p.m. and, following a final walk of the night, he settled in quite nicely on the bed, lying between us sprawled out and taking up as much room as possible, reminding us very much of Lulu in that respect.

He’s settled in nicely.  Loves his new home.  But I do think he needs a friend…

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