The Long Road Home

I write this from the hot and humid comfort of Tampa, Florida. While I sincerely enjoyed my time in LA, circumstances have brought me back home... for now. Here are a few of the adventures along the long road home. (How long you may wonder? 2, 592 miles to be exact)

I was fortunate enough to head to Venice Beach to watch the Fourth of July fireworks with a few friends. It was a pretty spectacular show.

The next few days I tried to get my fill of things I would be leaving behind, here is a panoramic view (thanks to a new app) from my favorite hike up to the Griffith Observatory. This isn't quite to the top, there is still one more pretty steep climb, but it's still a good shot.

A few days later I started packing and getting ready for the drive back home. Danielle was awesome enough to agree to fly out and accompany me on the road trip.

On my last day in LA before we headed back, we got to see The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. We weren't allowed to take any picture inside, but it was a pretty awesome show, Steve Carell, Jane Lynch and a younger comedian were the guests. It was a HILARIOUS show.

Our first potty stop on the way outside of California was close to the California Arizona border. (For those of you that don't do cross country trips often, it is imperative that you take advantages of restroom stops prior to Arizona because ALL of their rest stops are closed.) We left BEAUTIFUL 76 degree LA weather and when I stepped out of the car a measly 3 hours later to take this picture, it was 100 degrees and climbing. It's a beautiful view though.

About an hour later in the car we recorded this... yep... thank goodness for air conditioning.

We made a stop at the National Petrified Forest (also referred to as the painted desert). Thanks to my new panoramic app you guys also get to experience these beautiful views. I asked the guide how far in we had to drive to "see anything" she said that two miles in was an adobe house. Here is our first stop, about a quarter of a mile in. WOW!

Stop #2, I'm a giant. :-)

The house the girl mentioned. I would live here... if it had air conditioning. The views are beyond spectacular.

The next day we stopped at Cadillac Ranch. Here is the sign at the gate on your way in. This is an eccentric millionaire's public art project (my kind of guy), where they strongly encourage you to leave your own mark on the buried Cadillacs.

The cars and the other "graffiti artists."

I really like when I am allowed to do "something bad." I've never been in the situation to spray paint on someone else's property in my life (you know, without it being wrong), I had way too much fun!

That's the car I wanted to "tag," but the mud around it was insane and since we had literally just started driving I didn't want to be covered in mud for the rest of the day.

The bunny is my sister and the crown is me. :-)

Our car.

Our next stop was at the Oklahoma City Memorial. It was awe inspiring. So much thought and planning went into it and I believe it was executed perfectly. Below you see one of the black walls, and you see the backside of the other. One of these was marked with 9:01 and the other 9:03, because the explosion occurred at 9:02. In between the two walls are the chairs that represent the lives that were lost and the reflection pool.

We finally arrived at our stopping point, Memphis, TN.

I was SUPER excited to be in the land of Elvis. I'm a huge Elvis fan. My favorite song that my poor family had to listen to way too much (a la Michele Tanner on Full House with Baby Beluga) was "Return to Sender." I LOVED that song. When I was in middle school my dad brought me home one of the Elvis clocks where his hips sway with the seconds and when my sister was in high school she got me a velvet painting (that our parents have not been able to locate since our move about 15 years ago). My lovely sister used to let me commandeer the TV for two weeks every summer to watch the Elvis movie marathons on TBS, that's the level of addiction. :-)

Here I am at the gates to Graceland. We arrived too late to go on a tour, so that I get to save for later.

Here I am trying to get a stealthy picture of the Elvis impersonator at the gates.

Walking on Beale Street. I LOVED this building. They demolished the "guts" of the building, but created this support system to keep the facade. Inside there is a courtyard bar. I really enjoyed how Memphis preserves its past. In the lobby of our hotel there was a facade of a 3 story building, perhaps the best lobby adornment I have ever seen.

Ahh, Guinness, the drink of my people... you know, besides Whiskey.

The next day was the marathon 14 hour drive back home. We didn't really stop much so there isn't much to share.

All in all a good trip with fun adventures.

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.

From Coast to Coast

Hello from bright and sunny Hollywood! I made it over and had a lot of fun along the way. I have to apologize for my complete negligence in not posting more quickly upon my arrival. My arrival in LA was similar to my arrival in Amelia last summer in the internet sense. AT&T has cancelled my internet service 4 times, but I think I am online now.

Onwards to fun! So I started the trek from Tampa to LA on May 1st. I was fortunate enough to bring my cat Cleo and have a good friend accompany me and we all had a lot of fun. The first leg of our trip started out a bit late, we left Land O' Lakes at 1pm because of a charity walk we were both participating in that morning. Since we were not sure when we would tire we didn't make any concrete plans as to where to stop night one. We contemplated Tallahassee, but pulled up and went right on pass with energy to spare. We started to tire out as we neared Mobile, Alabama, but we decided to push on for 2 more hours to hit Gulfport, Mississippi. Unfortunately when we pulled off in Gulfport every hotel was booked solid, thanks to the epic BP oil spill. So sadly, the closest town we could find with a room was in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 2 hours further down the road. So, we put in a serious day 1 and didn't make many stops, so no pictures or video for you to enjoy.

The next leg of the trip was from Baton Rouge to San Antonio. We got a good start in the morning and made some fun stops in Houston. Stop #1, to see a large sculpture of an armadillo.

A new feature to my blogs, video!!! This one has a real live cowboy complete with 2 revolvers in hip holsters! I apologize ahead of time for being a bumpy walking camera girl.

After the Armadillo we made one more quick stop in Houston to the Beer Can House. Listen carefully, the beer cans make a pretty wind chime like noise... when I'm not talking.

After Houston we made the push to San Antonio and got there with just enough light to see the Alamo and the largest mosaic of the Virgin Mary. Let me fill you in on how we pick places we stop at. The iPhone has this great app that finds weird roadside stops along the way, that's how we pick all of these.

After our fun in San Antonio we went back to the hotel to get ready for the longest drive of our trip. The next morning we partook of the continental breakfast which included Texas shaped waffles!! How cool is that? Just so you know little Cleo was with us every step of the way, she got to see the Alamo and all the other sites (except for the Biosphere 2, which is coming up, there the gift shop lady kept an eye on her). I don't film her cause I try to not draw attention to the cat in the bag.

The next day we woke up with a plan... a plan besides make it through the drive and end up in Tucson by evening. We wanted to stop and see Stonehendge 2, which was located 60 miles outside of San Antonio on our way. We drove through a really adorable town on our way there and then we rounded a corner and were greeted with this site. And to think that some people go all the way to England to see this. :-)

Here I am, proof!

They also had some random Easter Island Heads. I am giving this one a kiss.

After San Antonio we focused on the finish line... which was about 11 hours away. For lunch we stopped in Fort Stockton... mainly because of the huge road runner sculpture. Here I am preparing to race the road runner.

Here we are ALMOST in Tucson. We stopped at "The Thing" because it came highly recommended by Kelly. A shot by the mountains.

And "The Thing." I can't tell you what it is, you are going to have to visit yourself one day.

Sunset in the desert on I-10.

We made it to Tucson, got some dinner and went to bed. The next morning we started out on our journey to Biosphere 2 (Biosphere 1 is the Earth, a good trivia question). It was a little out of our way, but since today was our last day on the road we decided to make a good stop. The biosphere is most important because it reminds me of the fantastic Pauly Shore movie, Biodome.

Here I am in the big part of the biosphere. The biosphere was the place of a great experiment in the 90's where they sealed scientists in to see if they could sustain life without any outside interference... no outside oxygen, no outside water, etc. They lost some weight but successfully spent 2 years in the biosphere. For future (on the moon) plans, they would need to find more ways to get the inhabitants calories.

This is the "ocean" which is quite covered in algae for one big reason... the glass that creates the roof blocks UV rays, so they have not quite figured out how to prevent the growth of algae without the UV rays.

The Biosphere 2 from outside.

Our last stop on our trip (before landing in LA) was at the Joshua Tree National Park. Sadly we were not on the side that had joshua trees, but it was still a good stop and a pretty place to stretch our legs.

That night we arrived in LA and Kelly surprised me by still being there (I was under the assumption they would have left in the morning and we would just meet them). All in all a fantastic trip. We only got stopped once by immigration and after answering a very tough question ("Are you both US citizens?"... "Yes") we were sent back on our way.

Next blog is all about the fun filled first few days in LA.