What a wonderful, special and lively time I’m having in California. Here is a collage of the various things I did and saw my first two days here:
The plane ride was bumpy. I have never really flown in turbulence before. I was only about an hour late after the delays from the storm. Not bad at all. I was met at the airport by my brother, Sean, who I haven’t seen in about 12 years.
It was so nice to see him again. He carried my luggage (greatly appreciated) and we were off to my first Couch Surfing home. When we arrived at Laura’s home in Santa Monica we were greeted with a huge smiling face. Watching Blindside. Memories of Tennessee already.
She kindly showed me to my room so we could put my suitcases there. After that Sean and I headed out to find a place to have my first California meal.
We drove by the dark beach which was cool cause the ferris wheel on the pier was all alight..
We ate at a seafood market and deli. AWESOME!!!! Fresh fish everywhere. I had an Albacore tuna melt and a much-needed Fat Tire. After dinner I was totally exhausted and headed back to Laura’s. There I said my good nights and went to bed.
Early in the morning I heard Laura in the bathroom and not wanting to inconvenience her in any way I got up. I offered to take her to breakfast. She looked at me, sweetly, and said “well it is early maybe lunch or something”. I said okay and asked what time it was….6am! No wonder she was going back to bed. ACK. For those of you that know me I don’t EVER do anything before 9am. Being that my body is still 3 hours ahead it made sense, but still.
So I graciously went back to bed and we slept till after 10. Got up and went to work figuring out my course of action while Laura worked on her novel. Oh I think I forgot to mention my host is an author and she FINISHED her novel while I was there. So exciting!!!
We went to Souplantation for lunch. What a cool place. It’s a buffet with all kinds of salads, soups galore, pizzas, loaded potatoes, and a pasta extravaganza.
I ate till delirium. Afterwards we went back to her house to get more work done.
I found out Cricket phone customer service had LIED about how my service would work out west. Shocking! I decided then to begin using Skype. For only $7 a month I can use my computer to make phone calls with the Skype service.
After Laura finished her book it was time to celebrate. I talked her into a pub night. She led the way. We went to the Promenade on Third Ave. in Santa Monica. So cool. Live performances everywhere and people watching readily available at every turn.
Afterwards we went to King’s Head. An authentic British Pub. Lots of Brits that now live locally were there. Fun!
Laura ordered pate with truffle oil and toast chips appetizer. Delicious. A drunk jackal sitting across the way from us decided it would be appropriate to help himself to a bit. So rude. More Fat Tire for me and some karaoke to round it out.
Laura had never in her life been to a bar or pub for that matter. It was interesting so see someone so out of the comfort level. She was such a great sport about it.
Once home right back to bed. Jet lag began setting in.
The next morning I managed not to intrude on Laura at the literal crack of dawn. But got up and headed to the pier with my computer and backpack in hand, well on back.
I couldn’t keep the smiles off my face! I just LOVE the ocean.
I walked and talked with all the old fisherman. Smelled all the smells and listened to all the sounds. Heaven!!!!!!
Took a lot of pictures. Watched teams play volleyball. Saw the pier shopkeepers set up the stands and drank my coffee. I was there all day. I got back to Laura’s right after she finished her bike ride. We had something to eat and chatted for a bit before I got my stuff together to leave.
Sean got there about 6 to drive me to the hostel in Hollywood for my next three days…
AFEWCA 