I realize it’s been a while since I started writing about our latest couple’s therapy session in Los Angeles, which actually happened over two weeks ago. I have one more post to write to finish it up, but first I want to share a little love for the city of angels. And, to let everyone know that me and Blue Eyes have a lot of fun together on most days.

This past week I was actually supposed to be on a road trip to Disneyland with a friend. He had some life goals he had achieved and he really wanted to celebrate with a trip to Anaheim and he asked me to go with him. But the night before we were due to commence the approximately 16 hour drive, his grandma was admitted to the ICU with six broken ribs after a fall in the bathroom of her senior apartment. It wasn’t the fall that brought her to the ICU, but the complete renal failure and partial heart failure. Trip cancelled. She died the next night. She was 92.

Last week went from strange to even more strange. Because I was home and not on a road trip to LA, I was able to attend with Blue Eyes the funeral of his good SA friend’s father, who died the day after my dad. While at that funeral I received a text from my step mother letting me know my dad’s best friend had just died. This on the heels of our sweet neighbor’s death from esophageal cancer, passing just after his beautiful pyrenees, Rosa. All that death was followed by increasingly dire news about the Coronavirus. This past week was a blur. I feel like I’m in hibernation waiting for something good to happen. The funeral for dad’s best friend of nearly 70 years, plus the neighbor’s memorial, have been canceled.

Back to LA. As mentioned in previous posts, I really do love that city. Despite its smog and traffic, it’s got a lot to offer. Two weeks ago, after our couple’s therapy, Blue Eyes was working away in our hotel room and I was sort of working, sort of vegging out reading, and checking social media. A Portland Facebook friend posted a video of a donut shop that had these amazing strawberry donuts. They looked so good, and I was recuperating from therapy and really needing some comfort, and strawberry donuts all of a sudden seemed like they would do the trick. If only they were in LA… but wait, they WERE in LA. Well, sorta. Los Angeles is a HUGE sprawling city. We were in Santa Monica and the donuts were in Glendora, way over on the other side of the town. There was too much traffic on a Friday at 6:00pm to even consider venturing over there, but then I started mentally planning on going over to The Donut Man the next day. Could I convince Blue Eyes to make the drive? He’s not a big fan of donuts and definitely not a fan of LA traffic, but somehow he was up for it. Probably saw how much I needed a distraction. So the next morning we jumped in the rental car and as a consolation to Blue Eyes, we first went through the In-n-Out drive through for sustenance to get us through the long drive to the donut shop, about 45 miles of California highway.

On the way to Glendora we passed Alameda Street on the freeway, which prompted Blue Eyes to ask if I wanted to go to Olvera Street, a historic cultural market filled with Mexican crafts and food, on the way back. He has fond memories of visiting on a school trip when he was a child. I was game.

But first, the donuts. OMG, so good. The Donut Man has been there in Glendora for decades. The donut shop was originally surrounded by strawberry fields. At one point one of the strawberry farmers came by for a donut and suggested the owner figure out a way to use some of the over abundance of fresh strawberries in his donuts. So he did.

A large soft golden glazed donut that’s stuffed to capacity with the freshest strawberries and all smothered with our signature glaze. We get our large and ripe strawberries daily. They are hand picked, washed, and cut for the highest quality. We make the strawberry donut 24/7 so you will always get a freshly made one. (thedonutmanca.com)

After sharing one of the donuts, we headed back to Olvera Street Market. What fun. So many different crafts made in Mexico.

Olvera Street Market, LA

Pretty blankets. We purchased a couple for the beach house.

Much more to Blue Eyes’ junk food taste, famous taquitos and chile relleno with avocado sauce from Cielito Lindo. The line for the taquitos was way longer than the line for donuts.

Pretty little church near Olvera Street

Union Station, Los Angeles (conveniently located across the street from Olvera Market).

We made it back to Santa Monica just in time for sunset and a walk along the beach.