Long Beach Adventure, Part 2 of 2

.....and then we went to Long Beach in our cute little Nissan Sentra -- discovered the luggage problem (see previous entry), and fell into bed like big lumps. The TNNA convention in Long Beach, the summer show, is held in the L Beach Convention Center, which is a really nice facility just off Ocean Drive. It features some marvelous close-at-hand cafes, including a gorgeous little crepe restaurant that made me want to move in, and very few of the usual beach-y kitsch shops. So it's civilized. Here is the entry hall, with the Yarn Tasting exhibit:

There are hundreds of exhibitors -- and of course we bought quite a lot of wonderful yarn-y things, some amazing shawl pins at good prices, and some more Ozark handspun:

We got some table-top MACHINES, the identity of which I am keeping a surprise until they come. And, because Ellen Taylor and I are cooking up a spring surprise (think GINORMOUS FLOWERS), I bought some eccentrically wonderful yarn made from T-shirt strips --by Skacel -- called Tee Cakes. Here is one example:

and then we met up with Larry's son Bobbie, who is the executive chef for the vast Yahoo empire in San Jose/Santa Clara, with his wondrous partner Chris (Bobbie is on the left).

....whereupon we went to an amazing pier, walked the full length, ate fattening 1950s style ice cream treats at a cafe on the end of the pier, drove ALL OVER Los Angeles to have a close look at Hollywood (it smells funny), Melrose (a great, funky neighborhood), super fancy drives with zillion-dollar homes, and a place unlike anything I've seen before called Sweet Lady Jane's Cafe, where we had desserts (ambrosia, I tell you -- just gorgeous stuff) and coffee for lunch. All in all, a great, great trip. We got to rest. I didn't have to think about students or book manuscripts or ANYTHING. When we came home, I expected that the cats would be mad at us. Does Sheba look at all mad?????

Love to everyone. svb