hospitality

I haven't been great at taking pics the last couple days (sometimes I just forget!), so some of these are from the time in San Diego earlier this week. Wednesday, Heinrich and Kai took off on their own to wander around Hollywood and West Hollywood while I caught up on some work. While we didn't get much rain at the beach, they apparently did further inland. They insist they had a good time, but I have my suspicions. After they were back, Heinrich cooked us dinner. Heinrich is a chef, so when he offers to cook for you 1, get out of his way - he won't let you help, and 2, enjoy. Its a treat. Today was more rain. The boys wanted to go shopping, so shop we did. I'm usually not one for shopping and certainly not for malls, so this was an experience for me. Not that I minded, it was just new. But it was fun to watch them like kids in a candy store when it came to stores with sneakers or levi's (which apparently cost about 5 times less here). But who knew shopping could be so exhausting? I really have to heap some praise on the cashier at Macy's. When they went to ring up their purchases, she did the usual credit card offer, and they said they were just visiting. Instead of going ahead and ringing them up, like she easily could have, she stopped and asked if they had a visitors discount pass. We had no idea what she was talking about, so she literally led us across the store to the jewelry counter, where another sales person got them a pass good in any Macy's for 30 days giving them 11% off. Everyone we encountered at Macy's really bent over backward in being friendly and helpful. I admit I was a little shocked, but pleasantly surprised. The guys have said the same thing for people from Metro and most everywhere they've been in LA, which again I'm a little surprised, but very glad to hear. A little kindness goes a long way.