This morning, I had to get used to where stuff is in my luggage and laptop case – all new, thus new places where things are. Got more “money” put on my Cellular Abroad phone. Had to call in since could not do it online (change relevant cc). Will spend the day with Jill.

Right now, I am sitting in the Star Alliance Lounge at LAX. Nice. Had a yummy chicken wrap and some prosecco. Not bad. But back to today.

Got up around 7:00 and did some writing. About 8:30, went downstairs and got coffee and yogurt. Checked out, read USA Today, waited for Jill who came at around 10:45. We went to her house to leave my luggage there instead of dragging it around all day. Met her landlords (had met them five years ago, but …) who are really nice.

(Wait. Attendants just came around and served Swedish meatballs, noodles, and lingonberries. Had to pause to eat some.)

So, Jill and I headed over to Huckleberry Bakery and Café in Santa Monica. I had seen this place on some food TV show and it’s near Jill’s and well thought of. Great food. Neat place. We did eggs and skipped the terrific baked goods. Enjoyed ourselves. This was really brunch. Next, Jill drove me to the Getty Museum and dropped me off while she went home to work on food costs for her business plan.

I spent a few hours at the Getty. Before taking the tram from the drop-off point, a volunteer asked if I had any pocket knives on me. She was satisfied with my “no” answer. So much for security. The only exhibits I went into see were in the West building. Upstairs are European paintings. Went to the Impressionist gallery. Then all the way to the lower level to the photography exhibits where I spent considerable time. Saw works by Thomas Annan from the late 1800s and Chris Killip from the 1980s. All monochrome. Lovely works, most of which would have been “passed” at Camera Club since they mostly went from middle tones to black or were all middle tones. Tch Tch.

Then I spent quite a bit of time just wandering around outside on different levels, in different gardens, taking in the views and architecture. Lovely. Interesting. Well worth the visit if you neer went inside.

Took Jill over 30 minutes to come to get me. Lots of people were waiting for Lyft and Uber cars that sometimes didn’t come. Traffic here is horrendous. I don’t think I could stand it. Takes 30-45 minutes to go 6-7 miles. Freeways are bumper-to-bumper. Jill uses Waze to route her over back streets, but even then, it’s quite a long time to get anywhere. We went to Jill’s where she worked on her food costs and I entertained Eddie who vacillated between coming over to be petted and barking at me as an intruder.

6:30 we headed to LAX. Took good part of an hour before she could drop me off at the International Terminal. Fairly fast checking in. then found my way to the First/Business Class TSA line. Even here, it was slow since they were mostly doing full body scans with only a few just going through the metal detector. I identified myself as being 76, put my stuff on the belt for the scanner and walked through the metal detector…clean. So, up to the sixth floor for the Star Alliance Lounge where I am sitting, sipping, and writing waiting for boarding around 9:45.