Tag Archives: L.A.

General, Uncategorized

Dispatches From Colorado Springs

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We have sort of a long layover in Colorado Springs, so I thought I would get caught up on the rest of our vacation adventure–

Wordy & Jessica’s wedding was great.  The location was beautiful, the food was phenomenal, and we had a great visit with all of the guests.  Their ceremony was exactly what I would have expected; it was colorful, and had their collective personality.  We were both very happy to have been able to attend, and we’re looking forward to visitng again as soon as we can.

Earlier in the day on Friday, we took a ride to Zuma Beach with the Poquettes and Lorch.  It was a really nice spot, but the water was COLD.  I guess it is the ocean.  I didn’t swim much, but preferred to stay on the beach soaking up the sun or throwing the football.  Michelle renting a boogie board and boogied hard for a couple hours.  I don’t ever remember seeing her more delighted for such a sustained length of time.  She had so much fun, she barely noticed that her skin was getting red from the cold water…

We finally hooked up with Devin after the beach, when we went out for lunch at a place called Islands.  It was a sit-down burger joint.  I had a ‘Bleunami’ and it was pretty tasty.

Saturday, we slept in, seeing as we’d been up until all hours the night before.  When we finally got up, we decided we wanted to take a ride to a beach further south, like Santa Monica, so we could check out some different sights in L.A.  Michelle wanted to do a little more souvenir shopping in Hollywood before leaving town, so that was on the docket as well.   Lorch wanted to go with us and catch lunch at In N Out, so he rode along.

Leaving the hotel at about 11:45am, we followed the Garmin to the In N Out it instructed us to drive to, about 8 miles north on the 101.  That seemed like a long way to go for a burger, but we were all hungry.  When we arrived, some 25 minutes later, the restaurant was not there, and we bought some gas instead.  We decided to proceed south, avoiding the freeway, which was PACKED.  We thought we could just eat lunch some where along the way…

The drive down the 1 to Santa Monica took us nearly 2 hours.  And this was about a 25-mile trip.  We did make a short pit stop at Topanga Beach, but we quickly discovered that one was for surfing and not swimming (what with the rocks and lack of sand).  We finally pulled into a parking garage off the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica at 2:39pm.  We hadn’t eaten or done much with our day other than ride in the car up to that point.  We were all a little annoyed at how our Saturday was turning out, but we tried to make the best of it.  We had Mexican for lunch, strolled around the Promenade a little, then walked down to the Santa Monica Pier and the beach.

It was amazing how much warmer the water felt, less than 30 miles south along the shore.  Michelle and I went in, but Lorch hung out on the beach, wanted to avoid exposing his severely sunburned back and chest for a 2nd consecutive day.  It was a lot of fun “swimming” around as much as we could.  There were SO MANY people at the beach, it was hard to do much other than sort of float or tread water and ride the waves as they rolled in.  Still had a great time.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t any time left for other things with all the traffic that day.  After the beach, we headed back to the hotel, on the freeway this time, and we arrived back at about 6:30 or so.  Lorch left for the airport within an hour (his flight was at 11:30pm, but the south-bound traffic looked awful), and Michelle and I ended up having a quick dinner at California Pizza Kitchen just minutes before they closed at 10.

We were up bright and early on Sunday (about 4:30), and left the hotel shortly after 5.  Our flight left at 8, and we were both surprised that (A) there was not a lick of traffic that time of day, so we got all the way to the airport (about 35 miles) in just over a half hour, and (B) checking in and going through security at LAX took a grand total of 20 minutes.  It wasn’t even 6:30 by the time we arrived at our gate.  We were able to have a relaxing breakfast before getting on the plane…

Once again, keep an eye out for pictures!  I haven’t had time in the last day and a half to sift through all the shots I took, but I’m planning to do so this evening.  It was another great vacation.  Michelle and I always have a wonderful time on our trips, seeing new things and visiting with old friends.  We’re looking forward to doing it again soon.

General, Uncategorized

Catching Up On the Week

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We were without free Internet access for a couple days while we traveled to San Francisco and then back here to Thousand Oaks.  Finally, the Hampton Inn has free wifi!!

Right now, Michelle and I are getting ready to head to the beach for a while before Wordy and Jessica’s wedding this evening.  We’re watching The Price Is Right.  Did I mention that we saw The Price Is Right taped live, in-person on Monday?  Did I mention that Michelle got the call to COME ON DOWN??  Did I also mention that she got on stage and won a hot tub?!?  Well she did.  It was awesome.  I don’t want to steal her thunder on telling the story, so make sure you check out her blog in the coming days for the full tale…

On Tuesday, we drove up the Pacific Coast Highway to San Francisco.  Michelle was delightfully surprised at the scenery on the way up– we realized that California is the state she’s been wishing for every time she’s traveled: it has the ocean, mountains, cities, and beautiful weather.  I can’t argue with that.  It’s a helluva big state.  Our drive up the coast took most of the day, and we took a lot of really nice photos (which will be coming to the site soon).

Wednesday, we spent the day touring around San Francisco.  It was REALLY foggy in the bay all day long, but we enjoyed Fisherman’s Wharf, took a nice boat tour around the bay, shopped in Chinatown, and walked around Union Square.  Lot of good pictures to be seen here as well.

On Thursday, we made it back to Thousand Oaks by about 6PM.  We were kind of surprised how far north from L.A. the traffic congestion stretched.  We missed the wedding rehearsal itself, but we made it to dinner and got to hang out with everyone at the hotel bar for a while in the evening.  It’s going to be a nice, relaxing weekend!

I’d write more, but we’ve got to get moving to the beach…

General, Uncategorized

A Day-Plus In L.A.

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We left the hotel in Chicago on Sunday morning around 6:30AM for our 8:40 flight.  We made sure that Michelle’s mom would be able to get dropped at the bus stop for her return trip to Milwaukee, and hopped into the queue for United.  It was LONG.  In the course of the time we spent in that line, we discovered that Michelle’s bag was a bit overweight (about 58 lbs.), so we were shuffling through the line with our bags open, redistributing toiletries over to mine to even things out.  By the time we finished that process, we noticed Michelle’s phone was missing.  Fortunately, it had been quickly picked up by one of the airline employees and it was back on her podium.  One disaster averted!

As we finished getting through the security line, it turned out that we missed one item in Michelle’s carry-on: a brand new, 4.5 oz tube of Aveda hand lotion.  Although it was tough for Michelle to let go, it had to get tossed in the trash.  Cuz, y’know, if they let you keep your hand cream, the terrorists win.  Stupid terrorists.

We flew on a tiny jet to Oklahoma City.  Even the woman checking passes at the gate thought that L.A. via OKC was the dumbest connection ever.  But it was cheap.  We landed in OKC with only about 20 minutes to catch our connecting flight– which we quickly discovered was at the same gate, on the same plane.  So that was easy.

We made it to Wordy and Jessica’s place without incident– I like their new apartment.  It’s nice, roomy, conveniently located; I told Wordy it was my favorite place that he’s lived in here so far.  Sunday afternoon, the three of us went to In n’ Out for burgers while Jessica was at the spa.  We were thinking of taking a ride into Hollywood, but decided to rest up for the evening concert at the Hollywood Bowl instead.

We saw Ray LaMontagne, Jenny Lewis, and one other opening band whose set we mosted missed.  They sounded good, though.  The show was great– by the time it was wrapping up, Michelle and I were utterly exhausted after our Indian weekend and our travels, so we both caught a couple Z’s.  That fact was NOT indicative of our enjoyment; we really enjoyed the show, the venue and the company.

More to come on our full day in L.A.– sorry these posts are about 24 hours behind, but we’ve got to travel again, and Monday was exciting, so stay tuned…