"Huston, we have a problem!"

We have a problem (with our car that is), but no one knows what it is. It all started two days ago when we were in the middle of Hollywood Blvd. and our car stalled twice in the middle of an intersection (SCARY!). Then it stalled again on our way to the beach yesterday, so we pulled off at a gas station service center and a very nice man, named Mike, took a look at it. He couldn't find anything wrong, though. No lights inside the car were coming on...so he sent us on our way. The car worked fine until last night in the middle of another busy intersection in Beverly Hills when it shut down again. So, Gene's on his way right now to a Nissan dealership to have them look at it. Hopefully they can diagnose the problem and we can be on our way!

So...on a brighter note. Yesterday we had tons of fun playing in the Pacific Ocean at Huntington Beach. We took lots of pictures from the Pier and strolled through the shops along Main Street. Phil enjoyed putting his toes in the sand, too.

After the beach we headed towards Beverly Hills to meet up with my 2nd cousin, Lori, for dinner. She showed us around The Grove, a gorgeous outside shopping and restaurant area. We ate dinner at a BBQ restaurant and then sat and people-watched by this awesome fountain that was put to music. One of the highlights of the evening was listening to Lori fill us in on what she's been doing at work. She works in Entertainment and gets to have meetings with famous stars (that's my abbreviated version of her job description). Her company's clients are all the big stars, Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise, etc. She told us how her assistant had to deliver a package to Tom Cruise's house the other day. Of course she didn't get any closer than the curb before a guard whipped away the package and she was told to leave, but she was still excited to be able to get that close!

Our drive home from The Grove should have taken us 30 minutes since traffic had died down a bit, but it ended up taking over an hour because one of the main freeways that we needed to take was closed. Gene was very tired and "disgruntled" (to put it nicely) by this time. We were only 5 miles away from home. In MD when they close a road they put up detour signs for you to follow. In CA they don't tell you that the road is closed until you are getting ready to take the off-ramp and you are faced with big orange cones. Gene said it is a good thing that his wife knows how to read a map (a skill that I DID NOT get from my mother...right, Mom?)!

So, I'm just waiting for Gene to get back from the dealership so we can move on with our day. It's our last full day in L.A. before we move south to San Diego tomorrow. I hope to have a fun-filled day to report to you later tonight...not one that consists of sitting in a dealership for most of the day!