With my last “easy” weekend of running until, well, August, we took advantage of the gorgeous, sunny day on Sunday to do a little exploring downtown. We’d been to the Disney Concert Hall and MOCA before, and Aimee had recently been to the Cathedral on a field trip, but the walking tour we took tied everything together nicely. We started off the day with a hearty breakfast at the legendary Pantry, which was just what I wanted: pancakes, eggs, hash browns, coffee we didn’t even order, under five bucks. We sat at the counter, which cut about 20 minutes off our wait time. It was definitely an experience, and though the food wasn’t spectacular, it was tasty, and the atmosphere was great.
Our walking tour took us through the pleasant gardens behind the Disney Concert Hall, through MOCA, down the steps by Angel’s Flight, through the amazing Grand Central Market, into the Bradbury Building, through the gardens and fountains around the Civic Center, through the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, and into the Music Center (more fountains). It was a very pleasant day, not many people around, except for the people filming a GMC commercial in which a car gets completely destroyed by falling cinder blocks – watch for it soon… Photos from the walk.
We returned home and then got the very exciting and eagerly awaited news that my brother’s wife had just given birth to a bouncing baby girl, which we’re all extremely excited about – congratulations, Scott and Sarah! I even got to hear some baby talk from young Camden over the phone, very exciting. We’ll be out to see the family before too long, I hope.
After my run, I met up with Michael off the 101 and we headed back into downtown to catch the Lakers’ last home game of the season, a possibly playoff-clinching affair against the Seattle SuperSonics. I never followed basketball all that much, but I feel fairly aware of names in the sport; I didn’t recognize one player on the entire Sonics team. Oh well. Our seats, courtesy of StubHub, were not that bad, in the first row of the very top section, with just a little glass and a lot of height between us and the court.
The Lakers got out to a huge lead, thanks to Kobe’s 17 points in the first quarter, and we were hoping for another 50-point night. He sat out and was pretty quiet the rest of the half, it seemed, but once the Sonics pulled to within one, he got energized again and pretty much did whatever he wanted, sinking some crazy fadeaway shots and driving through the lane like there was no one around. He ended up with his 50, and the Lakers won, clinching a playoff spot (with a 41-40 record? Ugh). More photos of the evening.
