Another Journey's Ended

Writing from the comforts of home, with a purring Vesta kitty on my lap, Boo happily chirping her weird-kitty welcome mews to us at random intervals as she wanders the house; it feels good to settle in. The last couple of days have been a whirlwind, and with little internet access, I just decided to wait til we were back to record the rest.

We spent the last bit of our time in the Prius, a damn fine companion in bumper to bumper city traffic on a workday in Los Angeles! We drove out for a little sun-fun at an elusive public beach (seems most beach-side land has been ensnared into private ownership) in Malibu, though neglecting to bring actual beach wear (d'oh!), we were a bit too overdressed for the occasion, so after a brief picnic we continued driving along the coastal highway for some relaxed mansion viewing. I'd become sick with a fever that morning along with my sinus pressure/headaches, coughing and had felt like shit with little sleep for the past couple of days, so the drive time was a welcome relief for me being all achey. That evening (Monday), we walked around the Hollywood strip to do some people watching, which ended abruptly when a mentally unstable homeless man, who we'd seen up and down the street collecting cans and talking wildly to himself-generally scaring all who came near, went totally apeshit on some random dude on the street, screaming and lunging at him with fists pelting the poor guy in the face without warning or provocation. It was a smelly, violent, whirling dervish, his cans forgotten for the moment, the entire block seemed to clear like a beach where someone has just spotted JAWS, we decided to follow suit and get the fuck out of there pronto to find somewhere mellow to eat and be thankful for our sanity. Yikes. The cool Thai place, the Pink Pepper, was very yummy, and other than a small drama including me and their plugged toilet, a relaxing time was had before retiring for the evening.

The next day was more time in the Prius with our first stop of the morning was the Hollywood Bowl where we enjoyed watching the Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestra during their free rehearsal! It was a grand sound, the mountains all around with birds seeming to flit and fly about in tune. Very much our style in this casual setting, the musicians wearing their casual clothes and the conductor stopping them occasionally to dance around, barking instructions for more emphasis here or there.

Then off to the Hollywood sign, which we drove up to, but then learning there's a two mile hike AFTER parking in the lot and me still feeling crappy, we took a picture of the winding road and said, 'Good 'nuff' and left off to find the La Brea Tar Pits. A couple hours in traffic finally brought us there where the stink of the pit was pretty profound in the afternoon heat, but very cool to see what all the fuss is about. Another wonder of the world that is most intriguing. We decided to skip a trip to the City of Industry and just head off to Anaheim to make sure we made it to the game on time. Angels Stadium was really cool, we got free sun hats at the gate (unfortunately, too late for me to utilize it on our sunny trip since I'd forgotten to pack mine) and I finally got to see the REAL Rally Monkey in action!! Well, on the screen anyway. I thought they'd actually bring him out onto the field for some serious rallying, but no, they just show a video of the monkey dressed in a tiny Angels jersey jumping up and down. Monkey!

And let me just go on record as saying that LAX sucks donkey balls. They had toilet problems there, too, and it stunk the whole place up since the whole airport seems to only be a tiny circle with a 12 foot radius. It's freakin' TINY! I guess I'd had always imagined an airport as famed as LAX to be of epic proportions. This is not the case. So we sat around the stinky, crowded filth of the airport until our flight time of 1:20 AM (so that's 3:20 AM central time) finally, FINALLY came and boarded. We were pleased to see that Minneapolis' own Fancy Ray was a few seats ahead of us. Complete with curlers in his hair and a kimono that he had dangling wide open showing off his bare chest, such chutzpah, I love it! I was tempted to get an autograph, but my utter lack of desire for such things took over and I passed out before we were even in the air. We both napped on and off throughout the flight, and every time I'd wake up, the view outside seemed to be completely different and amazing; winding city streets aglow in an organized labrynth, utter blackness, and misty clouds lit only by the red lights of the wings. At one point there was a lightning show off in the distant clouds that I wish I would've had the energy to snap a photo of, and the sunrise over Minnesota this morning was quite lovely to watch from that altitude.

A nice trip, but even nicer to get home to our wonderous Sleep Number bed after being up for a full 24 hours. The kitties were happy as clams to see us, and we even had a little baby bird fledgling come visit our balcony for several hours this afternoon, taking a rest as her mom would come now and again to try to get her off and flying, which she finally did! How sweet!

Anyway, glad to be back home safe and sound! Love to you all!
Thanks for reading ;)~
R&J