A post with no baseball, no Jed videos, no kids featured at all

Several weekends ago Peter and I celebrated our 12 year wedding anniversary.  As we try to do every year, and as always with the help of our family, we were able to get away for the long Memorial Day weekend and spend some time alone with just each other. 

While past jaunts have included stays in Long Beach, San Diego, La Jolla and Laguna Beach, this year we headed back to where it all began for us, the tri-city area of Altadena, Pasadena and Los Angeles. 

There are a lot of memories in this area for us, and we hoped to be able to relive some of them and remember the part they played in those early years of our life together. 

(We were not, however, able to make it to some other places of note in our relationship, including the LA Temple where we were married in 1997, our favorite Thai restaurant in Sierra Madre, and the Flight of the Conchords show at the Greek Theater.)

Here are some highlights of the places we did make it to.

Places we used to live:

our first home together was in the basement studio apartment of Pete's friend's aunt's home, located on the last street on the right at the top of Lake Ave in Altadena, right up against the San Gabriel mountains. 

Located on scenic Alpine Villa drive in a cozy cul-de-sac

This was our driveway/parking spot/front entrance. Ours was the bottom door on the right side of the house.  Behind that iron fence was a pool in the front yard of the house. 

Learning (at five months along!) that we were actually expecting two babies, we moved out of the studio and down the hill a bit to a two-bedroom apartment located on the corner of New York Dr. and Altadena Ave. in the city of Pasadena. We stop by and I pose by our old front porch.

One of the best things about this house is that it was

 located literally across the street from this place:

Sunday morning Pete and I spend a bit of time here. 

I rediscover some of the hiking trails, while he takes off for a run in the hills.

I find thousands of these beautiful Matilija poppies, 

aka the fried egg poppy for obvious reasons

Pete returns triumphant from his run.  

The next morning he returns on his own 

and runs all the way up

the mountain to Henninger Flats -  

those trees at the top of the left hand side mountain

We also drive by the house we almost bought all those years ago:

Located up the street from our apartment, it was vacant

for the year and a half that we lived near it. I walked my

baby twins by it nearly every day, and often peeked in the windows and

explored the back yard. 

There's a good chance if we hadn't always planned on living overseas

for a couple of years, we would live in this house today. 

Sunday mid-morning we attend our old Pasadena ward in its new building, 

after learning the magnificent

 old building where we always met has now been condemned. 

Although we miss that meeting place, 

we see many, many friends from our time here. 

 Wonderful.

Sunday afternoon at the Norton Simon Museum

in the sculpture garden

Pete joins Rodin's Burghers of Calais

NSM's cast of Rodin's The Thinker

Other notable places we make it to this weekend include downtown LA and a

movie at The Beverly Center, a perusing and ultimately book-buying binge at

Vromans, several delightful restaurants

 along Colorado Blvd in Old Town Pasadena, 

a visit to some friends' home located way up the hillside

 in a community that wasn't even built when we lived 

here, and multiple trips down memory lane. 

After a leisurely Monday morning we check out of the hotel 

and pack up the car.

 And before driving back to OC, we join the throng of people waiting to enjoy

a late vacation day breakfast at this place:

I couldn't ask for a more awesome person to be married to.

I absolutely adore you Pete!