Quality Time with Great Aunt Jean

We spent Sunday morning bumming around Aunt Jean's yard. The kids just liked the chance to be outside without jackets on.  

 

They also thought it was fun to pluck the grapefruit right off of the tree....but we never did get around to eating them. 

We wandered back to explore the little guest house, where I remember sleeping as a kid. Here are Pete and Frederick coming up the walk. 

I thought the guest house was the absolute coolest place in the world. Aunt Jean had plenty of stories for us. Here she may have been talking about Otis the owl, or about when Uncle Don made her that little side table because she had mentioned needing a place to set her coffee. I liked this cap with all of the Burlington Steamboat Days pins on it too. 

Here's one of Aunt Jean's roses. It's so nice to see such lovely flowers in the middle of winter. 

 We also checked out the 'big room,' where several of Aunt Jean's antiques are. Frederick tried out the old children's barber chair. I think he liked it. Later he tried to eat it.

 Here's a chair that belonged to Uncle Don when he worked on the TV show Medical Center.

 We also checked out Aunt Jean's new Ford. It's actually Pat's, but it's from the year of Aunt Jean's birth (1923). Pat, of course, has really pimped it out.

Pete would have really liked to have taken it for a spin.

 Also, while at Aunt Jean's, Frederick spent lots of time just hanging out in the living room.

Sunday afternoon we went up to the Griffith Park Observatory. We weren't sure if we were going to get there- it was crowded and the parking lot was full and blocked off. Finally I got out and asked a parking/security guy whether we could drive up and drop off my Great Aunt who had, by the way, forgotten her handicapped parking pass. He ushered us right in and let us park right in front. Another perfect example of how it never hurts to ask!

The kids loved looking at the Hollywood sign. 

 Henry took this photo of me and Pete.

 The observatory is a beautiful building.

 Henry was fascinated by the big pendulum thingy that had something to do with the earth's rotation. He could probably explain it to you better than I.

 Aunt Jean and Frederick just rolled around in their seats.

This is a gratuitous baby-blue-eyes photo.

While in the observatory we checked out the exhibits, watched a film hosted by Leonard Nimoy, had a snack, Clara broke something in the gift shop and the kids held a meteorite.

 They also checked out how much they would weigh on the moon.

 When we were leaving there was this cool view of rain out across the valley.

 That night we got some pasta delivered to the house and sat around listening to more Aunt Jean stories. One of my favorites from this trip was a story I had never heard before about her and Uncle Don going to a party hosted by George Englund and Chloris Leachman. According to the story, Ms. Leachman answered the door and offered Aunt Jean a drink, which turned out to be an entire pineapple filled with vodka, with a straw stuck in it. She apparently got a little bit sauced.

Frederick, especially, seemed to enjoy listening to Aunt Jean's stories. Another favorite moment was when we were talking and someone said something about Betty White. I said "Aunt Jean, did you ever meet her?" Without missing a beat, Aunt Jean said "the only time I met Betty White was when she was just an assistant for..." I swear. Aunt Jean has a story about everybody.