California Dream'n

Time to get your comfy's on, put on some great music and grab a drink...it's going to be a long one!

Karrie put it like this in email to me a few days before I came....

Are you ready for long walks down the twinkling boulevard? Are you ready for long cups of coffee across the table from me? Are you ready for champagne by the pool laughing and talking into the night? Are you ready for peace and quiet and sunshine? Are you ready for taking in a flick in the best setting imaginable? Are you ready for the endless freak parade? Are you ready for laying on my floor in front of my stereo while I flip cd after cd trying to catch your ear? Oh oh are you ready to once again dance around to the violent femmes? If you aren't your ass better get ready fast because all of this and so much more is on its way.......

That really does sum it up but I'll go into more detail. =) Her apartment is less then a two min walk to this...

Grauman's Chinese Theater

The long walks down the twinkling boulevard lead us to the taking in a flick in the best setting imaginable here. We saw Rob Zombies Halloween. Creepy, of course, but good. The theater is amazing. I have no idea how many people it holds, but it's by far the largest theater that I have been to.

The famous hand/foot prints of everyone from Shirley Temple (it was dated in either the 20's or the 30's and her hands and feet were so very little) to Jack Nicholson and everyone in between. There are many performers dressed up trying to make a buck...we saw The Little Mermaid, a horrible attempt at Marilyn Monroe, Caption Jack Sparrow, Batman and more! I took pics for the kids- they love them! In front of it and across the street where we were standing are the Hollywood stars. It would take many moons to see them all, but here is my fav...

I heart him so.

We celebrated my first night there with a bottle of Veuve Clicquot champagne by the pool laughing and talking into the night. After a trip to Trader Joes, that is. I am keeping my fingers crossed that we get one here really soon. They have great variety of healthy foods. I kept saying "oh excuse me" to people, like we do here in good 'ol Idaho, which made Karrie giggle. She told me that I would be saying that all day if I kept at it. It was hard to just walk right in front of everyone though- I felt so rude! But that is the advantage and disadvantage of a city like Hollywood- no one looks at each other. It really is the for the endless freak parade she warned me about. They will run right into you, but they'll never care what you are wearing! Karrie calls all of the cars honking a chorus- it's crazy how much everyone honks at each other! Now I truly know that everyone means when they say "California drivers" I thought I was going to die a couple of times! We were off the bed pretty early that night, since I don't travel much, I don't do it well!

We ventured out on Saturday, but not for too long. It was SO hot there. And hot there is very different than hot here. With all of the buildings, black sidewalks, buses, and pollution that close to the equator, it was HOT! So, we didn't stay out too long. We stopped by Karrie's favorite little taco joint for lunch, grabbed some beer and went back to the apartment to escape the heat for a bit- the tacos were GREAT! After cooling off a tad, off to West Hollywood we went for the best pedicure I've ever had- it was so fun to see all of the gay men sitting in massaging chairs getting their feet and nails done. Next stop was Indian Food- a first for me! YUM! The seating at the restaurant was outside under a canopy of fabric and lights.

The night of nights followed a great day of pampering...the home videos from Twin Falls! We must have only heard 30% off what was actually being said through all of our laughter! Our faces hurt, our guts hurt. It was a feast of emotions that we never thought was humanly possible. Funny, embarrassed, sad, humbled, enlightened, terrified... There's the one where we stole the stop sign, me making chunky coffee, our goodbye to a dear friend who moved back to Hawaii, signing along to the Grease Soundtrack, Super (drunk) bowl Sunday. I brought them home to make a copy, they are too precious to only have one. We plan to make a "best of" tape of each person to send to them in the next year, marking the 10 year milestone since that time in our lives. Since we were all there away from home, we became each other's family. As time goes by, you can't help but lose touch and we think everyone would love seeing the videos of themselves! We sure did!

Anyhow, after that, we were beyond exhausted and the rest of the weekend was taken very easy. We woke up early, too early on Sunday but took advantage of it by taking a walk down to the theater in our PJ's to see it without the 1000's of tourist- it was such a different expereince. Back home to get dressed and off to the farmer's market. In an attempt to avoid the heat a bit, we took the subway and I never could have imagined how nice it was! It's pretty new and still extremely clean and nice. And so cool. You can tell when a train is coming because of the wind it creates in the tunnel- good thing that secret of how to avoid the heat didn't get out. The subway was pretty much empty while we were waiting. We walked down to the farmers market and had some fabulous Pupusas for breakfast while sitting near the guy playing the bongo. He even sets out little instruments for the kiddos- how fun! We browsed through a vintage clothing shop, trying on hats, wishing we had money to spend on some of our finds! The peace and quiet and sunshine she mentioned came next when we went back to home to COOL DOWN! We laid there with very little clothing in front of the AC for hours polishing off the rest of our beer while laying on the floor in front of the stereo while she flip cd after cd trying to catch my ear where we of course danced around to the violent femmes and eventually walking down to the store to get more.

We ended up down by the pool to drink our brewskies with our feet in the water- it was so nice! The pool is pretty private, and we were the only ones in there the whole weekend. The water felt so good that we decided to get in- with our bras and panties that is. It covers the same as a swim suit- right? Well, after being in their for a second, I realized that my phone was in bra since I didn't have any pockets. I took it out right away and took it apart, but it was a lost cause- I am now without a phone. =( However, the first thing I told Karrie was that it was going to make a great story, and it sure does! I am searching for a phone. What a mess I am! Gotta love it! The swim was great though- I think it finally cooled us off! Back to the apartment we went and apparently I took a few pics and drunk dialed Ocean to give her Karrie's phone number in case Marty needed to get ahold of me or anything. I wasn't quite ready to tell Marty about my mishap yet!

Karrie attempted to sleep in on Monday morning, but I was up early trying to get my phone to work and excited to go to the beach, but not feeling quite ready to come home! Since the beach is on the way to the airport, we wanted to make it all in one trip. We took Sunset Blvd all the way to the beach. Through Beverly Hills and Bel Air, we drove by the Roxy and the Comedy Store- we saw all of the sites! It was a long (45 min), hot (no AC in the car) drive, but we finally made it! Since it was a Holiday, it was PACKED and finding parking was impossible. Either the lots were full or cost $15+, no thanks! When we turned onto the Pacific Coast Highway, I looked out into the Ocean and saw surfers and dolphins- the heat just seemed to disappear for a moment- it was too cool. I did take a pic, but it's bad so you could have to take my word for it, I'll spare ya'll! After driving FOREVER, we saw a The Firehouse Restaurant in Venice Beach and stopped immediately! We were hot, thirsty, and starving! It was a great little place a bit off the beaten path, full of locals. We sat outside under a huge tree...and the food was great.
We left the car there after we ate and walked down to the beach. We were originally aiming for the Pier with the ferris wheel and such, but overshot that a bit! The part of the beach where we ended up was great. That is the life...laying on the beach reading a book while the kiddos build sand castles- oh my goodness I could get used to that! The tide was so strong, it almost knocked us down a couple of times.

I planned on getting the kids a little souvenir on the Pier, since that didn't work out and our next stop was the airport, I had Karrie finish her drink very quickly so I could get a bottle full of sand for them- they loved it! (I did find them each a cute key chain at LAX though)

The trip to the airport until the time I got on the plane was interesting- tons of dumb little things happening every 5 min, we were just too tired. The plane ride home was an amazing view of the sunsetting- too bad my camera battery was dead. You haven't seen a sunset until you have seen it from the air. I saw Marty and the kids walking in the doors to the airport as I was coming down the escalator with tears in my eyes, guess I missed them all more than I thought! All that relaxing and lack of clocks was FAB, but home is where the heart is.

By the way, Marty did a GREAT job with the kids all weekend. I did miss Cole losing a tooth and Alli pushing herself up to a sitting position all by her self, but I can handle that! The house was so clean when I got home and the kids were dressed in their Sunday best when they picked me up!

I can't wait to go back to see Karrie again though- there is still so much to do!

More pics....

A house on the beach that made me think of Ella

For Cole