Saturday, October 30, 2010

Staycation Travelogue 10/29/10

On Friday, we scratched my sister's shopping itch. We shopped some local favorites before ending up at the Americana at Brand. Lunch at the Cheesecake Factory... too stuffed for cheesecake! Then we admired the dancing fountains.



I was a bit upset that my sister was seeing this beautiful outdoor mall for the first time and yet there were all these cranes and cherry pickers there. It occurred to me that they were putting up Christmas trees! OY! It is that time already!

And sure enough they were... but hey, that tree's kinda naked...


We soon realized... they were ADDING BRANCHES! To a LIVE tree!!

These guys were on the ground keeping everything organized:



All the branches were skinned where they would be attached to the tree. They were treated with a fire retardant and a green dye! (Oh, the joy of a real fake tree!) Each branch also had a row number on it.



The guys in the cherry pickers would come down and pick up dozens of braches and then hammer, saw and screw them into place.


After a little more shopping, we headed for home but had to stop for milkshakes from In-N-Out. We've forgotten about Halloween but there we found Robert, who had to make his costume for school. He went dressed as his favorite burger joint and won the costume contest. So naturally mom took him out for a burger to celebrate. You would have thought that the folks at In-N-Out would've been so impressed with his ingenuity, they might just comp him a burger or a shake at least... but noooo! (Bad move In-N-Out!).  But Robert was so cute... I just had to share him with you! 


8 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a great day that was-and the tree and the kid made up for the ugly cranes spoiling the view. I agree, the burger joint should have comped the kid his meal. Maybe they didn't want to encourage imitators-then they'd have dozens of kids wanting a free meal.

Linda@VS said...

I found the info about the Christmas tree to be very interesting. Who knew there was such a thing as "branch extensions"?

Glad you and your sister are having fun.

the booker man said...

miss creekhiker,
whoa! it's like build-a-bear, except it's build-a-tree instead! heehee.
umm, robert so should have gotten a free burger!!

*woof*
the booker man

Levi said...

What a crazy thing about that tree! Wonder if they still let us pee on it?

Maggie Mae and Max said...

I can't beleeve it! Kinda like plastic surgery fur a tree!

Woofs and Licks,
Maggie Mae

PeeS One of our local radio stations is already playin' Christmas music!

♥ Sallie said...

I really like your blog! I hope we can be friends!!

Hugs,

Remington said...

Hi Remington here! Thanks for stopping by my blog. I like your blog. I am going to follow you -- don't worry not around your living room -- just in Blogland. I hope we can be great friends.

violett said...

Thank you for the visits on my Blog.
My mummy loves Rottweiler and California. Every year she goes to her old aunt in the nearness of Victorville/Barstow, in the middle of the desert.
Now I will call in on occasion here.
Lots of love
Mischka from Germany in the near of berlin