First Two Days in Los Angeles

Checking out the merchandise in L.A.'s fashion district. This area of L.A. feels like Mexico, the Philippines or most any country in Asia, Latin America, etc. Bonnie and Heather were especially on the lookout for fabric, much to Lennie's delight.

We attended the Los Angeles Temple. Doug and Heather's apartment was so close to the temple that you could see the Angel Moroni from their front yard.

The first night we were there, we watched Smokey Robinson perform at the Hollywood Bowl. For a 70-year old, he is still fun to watch.

Heather and Doug's love nest.

Bonnie and Heather at the Santa Monica Pier.

These are highlights from our first two days in Los Angeles. Unfortunately, we have no pictures for perhaps our most memorable highlight. Bonnie and I stayed in a bed and breakfast about one block from the south part of Beverly Hills. On our first morning, we got up and went for a walk, with the idea of walking to the area where the celebrities' houses are in Beverly Hills. On our way, a man and his dog were blocking the sidewalk. The man was reading the newspaper on one side, the dog was sniffing around on the other side and the leash was suspended across the sidewalk. Bonnie walked up to the man and said, with a bit of an attitude, "Excuuuuuse me!!!" The man looked up from his paper and said, "Oh, I'm so sorry", just as I approached him. His voice sounded very familiar. When I took a closer look, he looked a lot like Neil Diamond. I went up to Bonnie and said, "Do you realize that the guy you were just rude to is Neil Diamond?" She looked back and said, "No, he's too old and too skinny!" We walked up to the corner then turned right. We soon decided we were going in the wrong direction, so we turned back to the corner. By that time, "Neil Diamond" and his dog were at the corner. I told Bonnie that she should ask him if he is Neil Diamond. If he says yes, tell him, "Do you realize that you helped me deliver my third baby?" (That's a long story). She said that she didn't want to bother him, so we just walked on. We later told our Neil Diamond story to Heather, Doug, Cat and Boo who really didn't believe that he could be Neil Diamond. I don't think Bonnie fully believed it either, so I suggested that we Google "Neil Diamond" to get a recent picture of him. Bonnie looked at some pictures and thought it could have been Neil Diamond, but still wasn't 100% sure, so I suggested that we Google "Neil Diamond's Dog". Sure enough, there was a picture of Neil Diamond's dog and there was no question that it was the very dog that we saw on the sidewalk. That was our rather intimate, accidental encounter with a celebrity.