SERENDIPITY

Pure serendipity led us yesterday afternoon to the Los Angeles County Arboretum.  It was a Luka weekend.  For most of Saturday and Sunday, we relieved our daughter of his care so that she could get a major project finished as she nears completion of her M.A. program.

The pleasure was all ours.  Saturday we took him first for a long drive.  We actually took advantage of his need for a nap to explore the residential hillsides around Silver Lake while he slept in his car seat in the back.  Once he woke, we took him to his favorite place for lunch--a small bakery on Los Feliz Boulevard that serves good soups and sandwiches, which has a staff of pretty young women with whom our Luka flirts outrageously.  He's now a good-looking lad of thirteen months, with an irresistible smile and an engaging flow of words that only he can understand.  He sits in his high chair, bangs his spoon, and scoffs down an amazing amount of not-so baby food: scrambled eggs and apple sauce and, at the end. a few bites of cookie provided by the bakery's owner who had been persuaded by one of the girls to emerge from the kitchen to admire him.  After lunch, we took him over to the playground near the Carrousel in Griffith Park, where he played happily on the swings and slides...

... and met up with a few youngsters of about his age.  

We had not, frankly, expected Sunday duty, but apparently the project required more work, so we gladly volunteered.  Our plan was to take him to the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena to see (well, for us to see) the Van Gogh self portrait that has recently arrived there on loan.  On the way there, though, I recalled that there was a public works art project that I wanted to see, out along the 210 freeway, so we took that detour.  Having remembered only vaguely the directions to the site, we took an Arcadia exit pretty much at random---and found ourselves at the gate to the Arboretum.

So our plan changed.  We found a parking spot and spent the rest of the afternoon wandering through this wonderland of trees, plants, lakes and fountains...

We made a stop in the hot and humid orchid house, admiring the incredible array of exotic blooms...

...and on through "Australia," rich in an astonishing variety of eucalyptus trees, ending up at the Queen Anne Cottage where we waited in line for entry into this late Victorian home of an early California magnate--but managed only half the tour because Luka simply became too heavy for his grandfather to tote around a moment longer.  He ended up a bit tired himself...

All in all it was a great weekend... but we were happy enough to surrender our grandson to his Mom at the end of it all.  Little babies may be great teachers, but they are very demanding ones.  We ended up quite exhausted, and were happy to veg in front of the television set in the early evening, watching "60 Minutes" and the penultimate episode of "Homeland."  Sometimes, we think that show gets very silly...