"There is science, logic, reason; there is thought verified by experience. And then there is California."

 --Edward Abbey

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 
Goin' Back to Cali

It has been a while since our last update, and boy have we been busy. After one last run in the arroyo with Amigo, Jake and Natasha we were on our way to Arizona. The scenery as we crossed New Mexico and on the way to Flagstaff was absolutely stunning. As the sun went down we stopped at an overlook, along with several other travelers, to take pictures of a particularly beautiful sunset ... in just a few minutes we had taken over 30 pictures. Thank goodness for digital.


We arrived in Phoenix and met up with our friend Sean and his girlfriend Tiffanie. Sean worked with us in Raleigh. He and our friend Adam both moved to Phoenix to work for the Phoenix Coyotes, and help open their new arena in Glendale. Once we got settled, and watched the Panthers clinch their Super Bowl berth (Yahooo!!) we went on a tour of the new arena. The facility was very impressive, and it was obvious that Sean and Adam were doing a great job.

The next morning we drove to Tucson to visit Niles' cousins David and Lynn. David is an architect who designs and builds very cool and fancy houses. We went out to lunch and David took us on a quick tour of the city. We were able to see several of David's houses and the campus of Univ. of Arizona. We were both very impressed with Tucson, and thought the university area had a very Franklin Street feel, but with a Southwestern flair. We left Tucson and returned to Phoenix, where we spent the night with Adam before setting off for LA to stay with Jenn, yet another of Amie's college roommates. While we were at Adam's he let us know that Stephanie Clark, another of our old Carolina Hurricanes acquaintances, had recently moved to Phoenix; however, we did not get a chance to catch up with her.

The trip across to LA was relatively uneventful, but we did drive through the windmill farms near Palm Springs. These things are just incredible, huge blades turning slowly in sync for almost as far as the eye can see. We had seen pictures many times, but one thing that never occurred to us is that it is actually REALLY windy there. It must be hard to light a cigarette or start a campfire around there!

When we got to town, we headed to Manhattan Beach to try and find a wireless network hotspot so we could send emails. We got lost though and ended up just pulling off to the side of the road and borrowing some time on someone's home network. Just a note to anyone with WiFi, make sure you encrypt it. We have been very surprised by the number of networks we have stumbled across that were not secure. After Instant Messaging Jenn (since we were 100 minutes over on cell-minutes) we got directions from where we were to Laddie?s house and headed that way. Laddie has become like Jenn's West-coast-foster-mom, offering love and emotional support as well as serving as the Hotel California for her and her wayward friends. Laddie has a great big house with a fenced in yard and 2 sweet dogs named Sweetie and Star. There were some brief get-to-know-you growls and nips at first, but the three soon became fast friends. Later at the dog park, Alex would rescue a scared Star when 4 bigger dogs were trying to play with her.

Jenn came over that night and was not feeling well, so we cooked dinner for her. We tried LA Yoga the next morning and then went to lunch with Jenn. After lunch we all decided that a nap was in order. We headed back down to Manhattan Beach and tried to snooze on the beach (Jenn may live between the oil refinery and the LAX airport, but she's 5 minutes from an awesome beach). It was a little too cold though and we ended up running off the people around us with all of our laughing and silliness. That night we headed to Long Beach to Niles' LB bar, The Yard House. Besides having 250 taps featuring over 180 different beers, the restaurant features a beautiful location adjacent to the marina and outside dining. We also got to meet Jenn's friend, Jeff. He works for DreamWorks as a computer animator.

The next day we set off for San Diego to visit our friend Ashley (another former Hurricane) and her roommate, Gemma. The drive down Ocean Drive took us through Huntington Beach, Laguna Beach, and Dana Point. The views were amazing. We arrived in San Diego just before sundown, and jetted over to Coronado Island where we took some cool pictures of downtown from a park across the harbor (we broke up a couple of teen make-out sessions in the park). Then we drove by the Coronado Hotel and took a walk on the beach and watched the sun set over the Pacific. We met up with Gemma and Ashley at their apartment in Pacific Beach. Eventually we decided to head out to eat in Old Town, a quaint area built around the original Catholic mission. After a filling meal of authentic Mexican (we were seated next to the tortilla grill) we headed back to Pacific Beach for a few beers and then off to bed.

The next day we got up early, and, after letting our hosts know that there actually ARE Chick-fil-As in California (I think they planned a weekend trip around Chick-fil-A) we headed out. First, we cruised around downtown and saw the new home of the Padres, Petco Field, which is located right in the middle of the trendy downtown area called the Gaslamp District. After grabbing a cup of coffee and a scone we decided that we should try a quick jaunt into Mexico. We got on the highway and headed for Tijuana. We only spent about 30 minutes in Tijuana, but it took us another hour to get back across the border. However we were entertained along the way by the vendors walking between the cars with quite an impressive variety of crap.

When we finally got back to LA, Jenn had planned a cook-out at her friend, Shannon's house. Shannon's chocolate lab, Kailua, and Alex wore each other out playing. Several of Jenn's good friends came over, as well as Pete (Amie and Jenn's college friend) and Dave, a Raleigh friend who just moved to LA. Dave and Pete shared some rather entertaining LA stories over beer and burgers, and Jeff beat everyone at Monopoly. Shannon's 9-year old son tried to teach Niles how to play a Scooby-Doo video game before we let Tyler go to bed and went to a sports bar (non-smoking, like all bars in LA). After Jeff beat us all at air-hockey we, too, headed off to bed.

Saturday morning (afternoon?) Jenn and Laddie took us to Good Stuff, a yummy casual place at Manhattan Beach. Pumpkin pancakes, turkey sausage, breakfast burrito, tuna melt?we could eat there every day. Good thing it's so far away from home. Afterwards we headed to West Hollywood to meet up with Niles? cousin. John moved to LA about 6 years ago, after attending UNC and Yale School of Drama. He's been in numerous plays, commercials and had bits in TV and Movies (check him out at www.IMDB.com - John Bland) and loves living in LA, except that it's so far from home. He drove us around to some very cool parts of the city, along with some places he "avoids like the plague" (touristy, crowded). It was great to see him, and then he was off to accompany a Academy-member friend to a Oscar-nominated film. Back with Jenn, she took us to a great sushi place where we gorged ourselves with fabulous fish.

The next morning we were up early; a quick run to the dog-park for Amie and Alex and then we were off to Disneyland with Jenn and Jeff. It was fun, but we won't go into details because everyone knows what's at Disney. Although we will say that the boys had fun trying to get Jenn sick on the Tea-cups but it didn't do anything except make us all dizzy.

We spent Monday catching up with laundry and stocking and washing the van. We had lunch at a Mongolian BBQ (fun and yummy) place at the ghetto-mall by Jenn's work; then we cruised downtown to see the outside of the Staples Center and the Walt Disney Hall, in front of which a movie crew was shooting a scene. BTW, LA traffic is horrible everywhere except downtown. That night we all cooked a birthday dinner of steaks and artichokes for Laddie. So many good times, but time to move on ... Tuesday morning we tried to go to the Getty museum on our way out of town but they wouldn't let us on the property with a pooch in our vehicle so we had to turn around and leave town. Mean-old Getty.

We took the Coastal Highway again, north this time to Ojai, near Santa Barbara. One of Niles? dad's friends, Bob, hosted us for the evening. Alex played with one of his retrievers, and we picked oranges, lemons and grapefruits in the backyard. Wednesday, Bob headed off for ski-trip and we headed north to San Francisco, which is where we leave you, dear readers, until next time.

Love,
Niles, Amie, and Alex


Don't forget to check out the latest pictures - there are lots of new ones!