Sunshine and Breezes

The thing I notice most about Los Angeles (from here on out "LA") is their misconception of "hot" weather. Having left my fair homeland of Florida when it was a sweltering 94 degrees outside, you can forgive me if I think 78 is far from "hot." Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the weather here, but I find the weather person a bit too quick calling things hot. :-)

While Danielle was here we ran around town and did lots of the touristy things. Along the Hollywood Walk of Fame I snapped a photo of one of my favorite stars.

After the walk of fame we headed to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. We had a lot of fun posing with the "stars" in here. Below are a few of my favorites.

This one is for Mom, a lover of all things Jackie Chan. Pardon the workout clothes, we had just come from hiking runyon canyon... where I almost fell down a few times but made it out ok.

This is as close as you'll ever get my clumsy self to skateboarding. I find it funny that even on a board that is affixed to the ground I still look scared and like I am bracing for a fall. :-)

I couldn't resist.

Since I have yet to find a steady job, I have had some free time on my hands during the day. I have started to fill some of this time by hiking in Griffith Park. You may know the park as the place near the Hollywood sign and where the Griffith Observatory (from lots of movies, like the second Charlies Angels) or the Greek Theater are located. The park is huge and has lots of hiking trails. The problem I found pretty early on was that the trails are not marked, and I couldn't find a map.

So what did I do? I started following other people (particularly single girls, cause I figured if they felt safe enough to do a trail, it would be ok for me). Hiking for me is an extreme sport. I don't mind the climbing up part, but the coming down part is quite the experience. As mentioned above, I'm clumsy. The inclines tend to be pretty steep, but they also tend to be covered in gravel so it is VERY easy to slip and slide on the way down.

Everyday I hoped that I would find the trail to the Griffith Observatory, on the day depicted in the photos below I didn't make it to the Observatory. After hiking for quite some time and getting quite high, I decided to call my mother and ask for her recommendation. I could do one of two things:

1. I could keep going, across a tiny bridge I had just come to, up another very steep incline, and then it seemed like the trail would start going down... pretty quick.

or

2) I could turn around and head back.

I decided for option 2. I figured it would be best to learn where the trail went before I committed to navigating the trails back down.

One more shot.

One of the next days I was sitting on the couch and I smelled smoke coming from the kitchen. I panicked. I had not been cooking anything yet that day, but I figured that didn't mean that something wasn't on fire. As I headed to the kitchen I started to see a bit of smoke, but I couldn't see a source in the apartment. That's when I looked out the window and saw this.

The store down the road from the apartment had caught on fire and the wind was kind enough to blow the smoke into the window and the apartment. I was thankful the apartment wasn't on fire, but not happy that someone's business was.

After a few more attempts hiking to the observatory (I'll admit, it was somewhere around 6 or 7) I finally found a map that clearly marked the trails and made it all the way up there!!

Another thing that added in the success of this hike was that I had a new friend who joined me. We made a few wrong turns, but recovered pretty quickly to make it to this view.

Another weekend I got to explore downtown LA with two of my favorite Pasadena natives, Catherine and her son Evren (whom you may remember from my adventures in Italy last summer since Catherine was a classmate).

We started the day at the Museum of Contemporary Art, and then headed to Evren's favorite place, Little Tokyo. In Little Tokyo we got lunch at a noodle place that was highly rated on yelp.

Here's my meal... it was fantastic! Real ramen, not the stuff that comes in the plastic wrapper with the packet of "flavoring."


While exploring downtown we walked into the Bradbury building and found Mr. Charlie Chaplin having a seat.


You may recognize the Bradbury building from some movies. My favorite is from the last scene in 500 Days of Summer. The architecture is gorgeous!

I still have some catching up to do, but there is a tease of some of the fun things I've been doing in LA.

New Adventures

This is a picture deprived posting, but I am sure that once I am in LA you will be overloaded with pictures so don't worry!

It seems as though May brings about changes in my life. Last year on May 31st I spent the night in the air on my way to Amelia, Italy. That was followed by three months of amazing adventures. This year on May 1st I start my trek across the United States. Kelly is going to be going on tour with the Buzzcocks and she needed someone to watch Bella and the apartment, and I figured it may bring about good job luck for me to try some new scenery. So new adventures here I come.

I'd like to thank everyone for their suggestions of road trip stops, I think we have a pretty good list started. I am really looking forward to seeing the worlds second largest pecan which is about a block away from the worlds largest mobile pecan. What exactly constitutes a mobile pecan? I am not sure, but rest assured I will let you know when I figure it out.

Now, back to my old random ranting blogs. I went to Publix yesterday to do some grocery shopping and I picked up a bunch of random items including a box of Snyder's sourdough pretzels (yumm yumm). After driving home, putting away the groceries and then reaching for the box to have an afternoon snack I realized something was wrong, the box was way too easy to open. Usually I have to be careful not to give myself a huge paper cut when trying to open the top of the box. Once I looked inside I realized that something was definitely off, the cellophane bag in the box was turned on it's side. I reached inside to find that the bag had not only already been opened, but a pretty good portion of the pretzels had been eaten.

This was all slightly annoying, but it got me thinking... who does that? For those of you that are not fortunate enough to have a Publix near you, they are definitely an upper level grocery store, always clean, always courteous. In fact when I returned later that day to exchange the box of pretzels the manager couldn't stop apologizing. I didn't really mind, it's not that far out of my way to swing back by and they are never rude, but still... who does that? I mentioned that maybe a small child picked up and opened the box and bag (a pretty big task) without the mother/father realizing (pretty impossible I think) and the parents just thought the child had an unopened box in their hands and returned it to the shelf. When I posed this scenario to the manager she disagreed. She said it isn't uncommon for people to eat items while shopping and then place them on the shelf before they leave. Who knows what person put my mystery box back on the shelf, but I think it goes to remind us that it is never ok to eat someone else's food without asking... especially before they've even had a chance to buy it. :-)

Has anyone else bought something at the grocery store only to get home and realize that someone else had enjoyed it previously? If so, please share. I have a feeling this could lead to some pretty entertaining stories.

California or BUST!!

I am super excited to be heading to LA soon to housesit for Kelly while she is on tour May-June, and while this alone is pretty cool I have also decided to drive as opposed to fly, so I get two adventures in one. I was hoping that you guys could help me out with some ideas though. My best friend Danielle has graciously offered to drive with me, and we are planning on leaving May 1st and want to arrive in LA by May 4th. Our tentative route is Tampa to San Antonio, Texas. Then San Antonio to Phoenix to LA.

What do we need help with? Does anyone know of any fun stops to "stretch" at along the way? You know like the worlds largest _____ or whatever? Send me a message if you have any ideas. :-)

Thanks in advance for any help!

I have a new blog in the works, but need a few more photos before I can post, look for it soon!