We’ve been somewhat holed up at home for the past few weeks, trying to teach Grace how to love napping. Or at least enjoy it, or perhaps just tolerate it. She’s gotten the hang of it to some extent, so we decided to spend our Sunday exploring a bit rather than just counting the hours between naps, to see how she fares in a more realistic setting. Our day also served as a sort of dry run for our trip to Paris and Amsterdam next month; we brought along the new, lightweight umbrella stroller to see how she did spending most of the day rolling around in it (and napping in it). She did great, which was a relief. We went to another of the “small towns” recommended in Los Angeles magazine, Montrose, which is a part of Glendale. We were excited to visit this cute-sounding town we’d never been to before, but as soon as we got close and started looking for a parking spot, we realized we’d been there before, three years ago almost to the day. It’s amazing to me that we’ve been here long enough to have already forgotten some of the places we’ve visited.

We didn’t spend much time there the first time around, and always said we wanted to visit again, so it all worked out. We enjoyed breakfast at the City Hall Coffee Shop, took Grace on a nap walk, which she complied with nicely, and then wandered up and down the Harvest Market for awhile, waiting for the ice cream place and the candy shop to open. Priorities!

The Danish ice cream at Paradis was delicious, really tasty, and we had a nice conversation with two of the owners about, well, ice cream and Denmark. Grace, the poor thing, had to settle for broccoli, but I don’t think she knew the difference. Now we’ve definitely been to Montrose, and can recommend it for its delightful main street, great old bowling alley, impressive cake and baking supply store, and other great-looking restaurants and shops we weren’t able to try this time around.