kittenscribble (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kittenscribble) wrote2005-07-10 06:41 pm
kittenscribble) wrote2005-07-10 06:41 pm
CA report: Saturday, Sunday
Posting from my aunt's internet setup, which consists of a laptop hooked up to one of those split-in-half "natural" keyboards. This means that the screen is kinda small, the mouse is the small button in the middle of the laptop keyboard, and the keyboard I'm actually using is huge and set back from the laptop. Feels like I'm playing on the bottom half of an organ. And looking at very small sheet music.
The flight out to LAX was uneventful, made cool by the guy sitting next to me. He was a HP technical representative, and he showed off all of his cool toys on the trip -- his tablet PC, his mp3 player, etc. We arrived and impulse-rented a convertible for probably less of a deal than the Hertz guy made it out to be, but the view from it is incredible.
Had dim sum with uncle Jim, my cousin Peter, and my grandmother; I haven't seen her for years and the trip from eighty-some to ninety-some hasn't been great for her. She's getting pretty bad at remembering who she's talking to from moment to moment. But at least she's happy, and she still likes her food.
Then drove out to Wayfarers Chapel, which is beautiful -- I've never been inside and felt so outside. The redwoods and stones that make up the inside blend seamlessly into the surroundings. Very peaceful.
Putzed around the coast until dinner at "Alegria on Sunset," a Mexican place decorated in curls and purple paint, with, um, really expensive (but good! and oh so tasty!) guacamole, good fruit drinks, and filling entrees. Then my aunt took us around to where the stars supposedly hang out in Hollywood, but K and I were pretty wiped by then and fell asleep along the way.
Sunday morning we met up with K's friend B (theoretically the entire reason we're in California in the first place) and went to an In-n-Out Burger, which had been massively hyped to me for the past few days. (K's In-n-Out shirt caused more conversation from random strangers than any other topic.) For the record, it was definitely worth it. We have to go back and have more of them at some point. I can't believe K waited two years to go back to have more. And the fries? Fantastic.
Afterwards we dropped by the Hollywood Bowl, where they happened to be having a rehearsal of that night's show. It's amazing -- a natural amphitheatre that looks as if someone reached into the mountainside with a spoon and scooped it out. Then (after a bit of confusion) we found Mulholland Drive, and admired the houses that seemed to be falling off the sides of the cliff.
We had set aside the whole day to visit the Getty, an architecturally cool set of buildings in the mountains across 405 from Bel Air. You could see downtown LA in the distance, with its attendant layer of smog. We browsed the exhibits, which included several cool photography exhibits, and a large collection of Rembrandts. One room had Van Gogh's "Irises," with attendant guard, in a room with other gorgeous Impressionist paintings -- Degas and Monets and such, and people taking pictures with their cell phones. Then we wandered around the gardens, and took a lot of pictures. I carried an umbrella to protect me from the sun (which was kind of stupid as we drove there in a convertible anyway) and had an interesting time trying not to hit people with it on the garden paths.
Currently K is bonding with my aunt in the kitchen and I'm enjoying a sweet Saturn peach (my aunt has a Trader Joe's near her neighborhood). We've also had mulberries which are supposedly only in season for these two weeks, amazingly sweet and wonderful raspberry-shaped things that bleed on your fingers and melt on your tongue.
Tomorrow we'll wander around downtown LA, and Tuesday we'll start driving up the coast.
Should be fun. :)
The flight out to LAX was uneventful, made cool by the guy sitting next to me. He was a HP technical representative, and he showed off all of his cool toys on the trip -- his tablet PC, his mp3 player, etc. We arrived and impulse-rented a convertible for probably less of a deal than the Hertz guy made it out to be, but the view from it is incredible.
Had dim sum with uncle Jim, my cousin Peter, and my grandmother; I haven't seen her for years and the trip from eighty-some to ninety-some hasn't been great for her. She's getting pretty bad at remembering who she's talking to from moment to moment. But at least she's happy, and she still likes her food.
Then drove out to Wayfarers Chapel, which is beautiful -- I've never been inside and felt so outside. The redwoods and stones that make up the inside blend seamlessly into the surroundings. Very peaceful.
Putzed around the coast until dinner at "Alegria on Sunset," a Mexican place decorated in curls and purple paint, with, um, really expensive (but good! and oh so tasty!) guacamole, good fruit drinks, and filling entrees. Then my aunt took us around to where the stars supposedly hang out in Hollywood, but K and I were pretty wiped by then and fell asleep along the way.
Sunday morning we met up with K's friend B (theoretically the entire reason we're in California in the first place) and went to an In-n-Out Burger, which had been massively hyped to me for the past few days. (K's In-n-Out shirt caused more conversation from random strangers than any other topic.) For the record, it was definitely worth it. We have to go back and have more of them at some point. I can't believe K waited two years to go back to have more. And the fries? Fantastic.
Afterwards we dropped by the Hollywood Bowl, where they happened to be having a rehearsal of that night's show. It's amazing -- a natural amphitheatre that looks as if someone reached into the mountainside with a spoon and scooped it out. Then (after a bit of confusion) we found Mulholland Drive, and admired the houses that seemed to be falling off the sides of the cliff.
We had set aside the whole day to visit the Getty, an architecturally cool set of buildings in the mountains across 405 from Bel Air. You could see downtown LA in the distance, with its attendant layer of smog. We browsed the exhibits, which included several cool photography exhibits, and a large collection of Rembrandts. One room had Van Gogh's "Irises," with attendant guard, in a room with other gorgeous Impressionist paintings -- Degas and Monets and such, and people taking pictures with their cell phones. Then we wandered around the gardens, and took a lot of pictures. I carried an umbrella to protect me from the sun (which was kind of stupid as we drove there in a convertible anyway) and had an interesting time trying not to hit people with it on the garden paths.
Currently K is bonding with my aunt in the kitchen and I'm enjoying a sweet Saturn peach (my aunt has a Trader Joe's near her neighborhood). We've also had mulberries which are supposedly only in season for these two weeks, amazingly sweet and wonderful raspberry-shaped things that bleed on your fingers and melt on your tongue.
Tomorrow we'll wander around downtown LA, and Tuesday we'll start driving up the coast.
Should be fun. :)
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And it should be amazing for the coast. :)