Another Benner in the House

We just said goodbye on Friday to dad and father-in-law Ray Benner! He came out for a week of LA living and had a great visit! Thanks for coming to see us Ray!

He came in Saturday night and we welcomed him with a big steak dinner. You can guess who gets the props for that...thanks for cooking for us Benner! We had steak, asparagus and potatoes. Some of the potatoes were purple. I like purple potatoes. Ray had a bit of an annoying flight due to crying babies which we can relate to, but thankfully he made it here safely.

On Sunday Ray woke up first and brought us Starbucks coffee (that jet lag worked to our benefit) which little did we know would be a tradition for the week. Thanks Ray! Coffee makes me happy.

We started off the day with a hike at Griffith park and then fish tacos for lunch in Los Feliz.


Father and son. Doesn't Ray look so LA in those shades?


Father and son bond over throwing rocks.

Then we went to Malibu and stumbled on the Malibu invitation surfing contest. Those guys make it look easy. The waves were great that day. As big Benner and little Benner went for a walk along the beach, I took a cat nap on the beach and then we went to Beachcomber restaurant for dinner.



Here we are on the Malibu Pier. It was a beautiful day.









A table with a view and good company to boot.



One big happy post dinner Benner. :)

My friend Katie had reccommended the place and what a great spot. It's walking distance from my fav stretch of Malibu beach and the waves crash literally beneath you. There is a big glass panel offering picturequse views of the ocean. We so enjoyed it! Ray treated us for our anniversary and it was delish. Cheers!

On Monday Mike and I had to go back to work, but Ray entertained himself with trips to Venice beach and swimming at our pool. He makes friends with strangers everywhere he goes, its pretty funny. Kids in our apartment building that he met in the pool are asking where "the big whale" went, strangers at the Hollywood Bowl gave him beer, and we're sure there are some guys at a Venice Beach bar who miss Ray Benner from Narberth. He's always cracking jokes, making us laugh and our apartment is pretty quiet now that he (and his big loud cough) are gone. Rhianwen is missing the coffee that effortlessly made it's way into her hand before work each morning. Ray happened to be here the week that we had a murder in the neighborhood and potential bomb scare (both tied to the same event) and we slept a little easier knowing the big dude in the living room was with us.

Anyways, on to more highlights from the week:

Monday night, Ray and Mike hit the Phillies/Dodger game for some father son baseball watching. The Phillies lost but it was nice for Benner to enjoy the game with someone rooting for the right team! And Ray agrees with us that Dodger dogs (the official team hot dog) are totally overrated. It's refreshing to have some Philly perspective around.

Tuesday night we took Ray to Hugos Tacos, one of our favorite places in LA and then watched some of the early material of the show Mike has been working on. The animation isn't finished yet, but we all laughed heartily and it was cool for Rhianwen and Ray to see what Mike has been working on these past 9 months. I can't tell you guys how much you will enjoy this show when it comes out in January!

Wednesday night, Ray took us to see Herbie Hancock at the Hollywood Bowl. Ray got us in the mood by playing Watermelon Man - one of his favorite songs from high school - on Youtube. What we didn't know is that it was Herbie's 70th birthday that night, so there were special guest appearances all throughout the night. It was a great show and Herbie is one talented guy. It was a cool multil cultural experience with musicians from various genres and countries came together to jam. I particularly enjoyed the dancers and when the crazy annoying girl sitting behind me left early. Ray applauded and I sighed a sigh of relief.







Our camera isn't great but this shows the venue.

Thursday night we got sushi, tried to go bowling and ended up crusing in Ray's rented Dodge Charger. Benner enjoyed driving a car with actual pickup and Ray enjoyed having a chauffer. I enjoyed sitting in the backseat and hearing Ray's philosophies on family, work, politics and life. It mostly boils down to: "Be liquid and don't owe anyone anything." We agree!

Thanks for coming Ray!

Ray turns 50!!!

Maureen timed her wedding perfectly considering Benner's dad's birthday was just a couple days before. We decided to make our visit a surprise and assemble the family together for a surprise birthday bash on Sunday. Originally it was going to take place during the Narberth music fest, but it was rained out. Thankfully McSheas always has open doors for the Benners and we had the rear portion of restaurant all to ourselves.

Many hands pitched in to make the party a success. Just moments before Ray arrived, we decorated the tables with a "royal theme" for King of Narberth, Ray Benner. The tables were covered with gold cloth, candies (jewels), balloons, candles and pictures of Ray throughout the years. There was a huge birthday cake big enough to feed the entire restaurant and some more to take home.

It's always fun to get together with the Benners. Maddie, Regan and Steven are such cool kids and we enjoy hanging out with them. Ray was a good sport and wore a gaudy crown we got him, fitting for our theme. Chris, Ray, Natalie, Janet, Aunt Marge, Grandpop, Leah, Dave, Aunt Carol, Uncle George, Steve, Grandmom, Babe, Barb, Robert, Will and my parents came too!

Ray, you're an awesome dad and father in law and you're a king everyday to us!!!!!!

A couple of Benners and a Baumann come to visit

That's right folks. Grandmom, Aunt Marge and Dad/Ray came to visit us in LA last month. Here's a slideshow of their visit, followed by some of the many highlights.


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

- The first night they came, we visited the original Bob's Big Boy in Burbank, CA, where they hold classic car shows every weekend. You'll notice Dad in the photos standing with a bright yellow Charger that he just might have stolen if he weren't with his mom at the time.

- There was an obligatory stop at Rodeo Drive, where Dad stood next to a bright yellow Ferrari. Something about bright yellow cars and that man.

- Grandmom, Marge and Dad went to a taping of the Ellen show, after which Rhianwen took them on a tour of the Warner Bros. backlot. They got to see the spots where many shows and movies were filmed, including parts of Spiderman, ER and Pee Wee's Big Adventure. That's where those photos with the statues of Bugs and Daffy happened.

- Dad and I went to see the LA Dodgers play the SF Giants. We wore Phillies gear. The Dodgers fans in right field didn't really know how to deal with us. (In related news, the Phillies beat the crap out of the Dodgers last night, 7-2. Woo!)

- All of us checked out Grauman's Chinese Theatre, the famous Hollywood cinematheque where films are premiered and stars put their hands and feet in the cement. There were many interesting celeb prints, but clearly the best ones were R2D2 and C-3PO.

- Marge got to stalk her crush, George Clooney, quite a bit. Not only did she get to see his parking spot on the WB lot, we took her to his house around the corner from us and she stood in his driveway. "Oh George," she called. "I'm here for you!" We're not sure, but we think we spotted Clooney shaking his head and shutting his window blinds from the bottom of his driveway.

- Griffith Park Observatory was on our list of stops, as it's quite a landmark. It's the site of the famous knife-fight scene from James Dean's Rebel Without A Cause, and it also offers one of the best views of Los Angeles in the entire city.

- Dad didn't seem that impressed with In 'N' Out Burger, which I just don't understand.

- Grandmom was definitely impressed with that giant donut you saw up there. The thing was huge!

- The biggest celebrity we saw the entire trip was James Cromwell. That might sound a little disappointing, but it just about made Aunt Marge's life.

Thanks so much for coming to visit us in Hollywood (Note the song we sang all week together)! We had such a great time and miss you already.