Congress hikes on romantic Persian planetarium Mission
“A trip to the zoo, Dan. You’ll love it.”
“Is the zoo open?” I asked.
“It’s always open.”
“Congress shut down everything.”
“Dan!”
“Sorry, I was rambling. I know that the zoo has nothing to do with Congress’ lack of arithmetic knowledge.”
“Arithmetic?”
“Congressman can count to 20 only if they take off their shoes and socks, so they don’t understand that the 46 isn’t a majority of the 100 Senators. Luckily, in order to avoid embarrassing the country, they’re lawmaking with the sublime and subtle dignity of a Miley Cyrus performance - but without the talent.”
“Are you..”
“They think that getting their way is ‘as easy as taking candy from a baby’. A view taken by someone who has never tried to take candy from a baby.”
Photo of typical US Congressman
However, I digress. It was a beautiful day on my birthday. (Nazy made the weather arrangements.) The zoo grounds featured flowers (and several animals). Later, Nazy took me to a great Santa Barbara restaurant (Stella Mare) for dinner.
Additional birthday events were scheduled in Los Angeles the following days. In keeping with our goal of visiting all 21 California Missions, Nazy and I stopped at our 5th - the Mission San Fernando Rey de España on the way. I planned to visit Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, which was also in the area, on the way home. Nazy also wanted to stop in Westwood, home of LA’s large Persian Market. (A photo is at the left.)
We had lunch with Mitra and Stefan and then drove to Griffith Park - the largest (4200 acres) municipal park with urban wilderness in the United States. [They like to do ‘BIG” in Los Angeles.]
The park features an observatory, a planetarium, several hiking trails - and a spectacular sunset. We began with a hike along the hills of the eastern Santa Monica mountains. Mitra suggested that Stefan lead because: “Stefan is an experienced hiker, Dad.”
“Stefan hikes at night, Mitra,” I replied. “He might get confused on a sunny day.”
“That’s..”
“When you went hiking with him, you had to pretend to be a bear.”
“It was fun, Dad.”
“I want to be a lion. A fully maned lion.”
“There are no lions in the park. Only bears.”
“Ah! In that case: Stefan! Lead on.”
The trail featured views of downtown Los Angeles, Santa Monica, the Hollywood Hills and the Hollywood sign.
We returned to the planetarium where we met Melika and Tom. The show featured a story teller with the cadence of a kindergarden teacher and the enthusiasm of a juvenile cheetah chasing a hedgehog.
“Wasn’t that romantic?” Nazy asked.
Flashback
Atlanta, Georgia 1971
I had just met a beguiling and beautiful young lady from Persia in the ‘bullpen office’ that I shared with several other teaching assistants. I adroitly eliminated collegial competition by oozing suave charm and knowledge garnered from my collection of National Geographic magazines. ( knew that ‘Persia’ was ‘Iran’ and, unlike my colleagues, I knew that Iran was not a state ‘Up North between Ohio and Iowa’.)
There was a small flaw in my debonair and sophisticated approach. I forgot to get her phone number. However, I compensated for the fly in the ointment by inventing ‘computer hacking’. I wrote an algol program to extract student contact information from the university’s database. My position on the operations staff helped me bypass the (then) limited security procedures.
Our first date was a trip to the planetarium at the Fernbank Science Center.
One thing led to another and less than two years later we were married.
End Flashback
“It was very romantic,” I prudently (and accurately) agreed. “How could I ever forget?”
I turned to Melika. “Did you know that the amount of time between the moment I first saw your Mother and our marriage, is much less than the time you and Tom have allotted for your engagement?”
“How much time elapsed between the first time your Dad saw your Mom and their marriage?”
“Enough,” I replied - repeating what my Mother had always said.
“I wonder how they defined ‘enough’ in those days,” Melika muttered.
[Disclosure: Melika and Tom measure in ‘years’. Nazy and I used ‘months’. My Mom and Dad used ‘weeks’ or ‘days’.]
After the planetarium show, we watched the sunset, looked at Venus through a large telescope and went to a less than subtle comedy club (for a very short time). The next day Melika and Tom had invited us to “The Wizard of Oz”, a Andrew Lloyd-Webber musical at the Pantages Theatre.
We stayed at Mitra’s home and slept a bit late. It was, therefore impossible to visit to the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel. It was also impossible to visit the Persian markets in Westwood - a fact that Nazy pointed out. Many times.
“We don’t have time,” I explained after Nazy asked (again) whether we could stop on the way. Naturally, Nazy was understanding:
“Hrumph.” she hrumphed. “We will get to the theatre early because of you.”
“Perhaps you are right, my dear,” I replied. “But we won’t be late,” I thought. “Traffic in Los Angeles is unpredictable,” I explained to justify my approach.
“Traffic is flowing smoothly,” Nazy accurately observed. “And I really wanted to see the Persian market.” Nazy mumbled to herself (but loud enough for me to hear.)
“Next trip,” I replied - astonished that the drive to Hollywood had been construction-free and stop-light friendly,
“We would have had time to stop. Right Dan?” Nazy asked. Rhetorically and pointedly.
“Soak up the atmosphere of Hollywood and Vine, Nazy. And rejoyce! We have time for a snack.”
The musical was really nice. Tome and Melika have arrangements for great seats at the Pantages. The play told the original version of The Wizard of Oz. Some of the classic songs (e.g. Somewhere over the Rainbow) were reprised, but Lloyd-Webber also wrote some new material. Toto, the dog, was live and unfazed by the loud noise and bright lights of the Kansas storm. We enjoyed the show, but had to leave quickly in order to be home for an Artsy event that Nazy had booked. (More about that next week.)
P.S. Photos from the birthday weekend are available here.