Surf's up, Dude!! *People Notes*

Los Angeles is very interesting, diverse, high energy, busy, fascinating and BIG! And crowded! And did I mention big and crowded? Who knew we would end up here for a few months with our 18 million new friends? I think there are more people living on our square block than in all of Sevier County in Tennessee.

The weather is beyond fantastic. The restaurant choices are abundant. The activities are limitless. Arts, entertainment, dining, shopping, hiking, beaches, nightlife, history...it's all here. That being said, we will never have enough time to explore and experience even a fraction of Los Angeles. Therefore, we have have narrowed our search options to the following categories: Best Tacos (aka the SoCal Taco Tour '09); Best Dog-friendly Places; Best Farmer's Markets; Best People Watching Places; Best Scooter Ride; and Best Neighborhood. We might add a category for Best Vintage Clothing Store - not because we have any clue about vintage couture, but I think we might have some stuff we could sell them! That should keep us plenty busy.

Our apartment is nestled somewhere between downtown, Hollywood and Beverly Hills. I can honestly say that I have been utterly and totally lost since our arrival. There are mountains to the north, and coming from Colorado everybody knows that is just wrong. Mountains are always to the west! The beach is west, and south - which makes no sense either. Downtown is east, but you have to go north to get there. Give thanks for GPS. I know that if I exit our building and turn left I will run into El Toro Cantina, the restaurant responsible for starting the 'Taco Tour'. They offer dozens of different types of tacos (mushroom - the best!) and have $1 Taco Tuesdays! If I turn right, I will run into Trader Joe's - $2 bottles of wine - and it's good!! What else do I need to know?

We spent a day at the Santa Monica Pier and beach. It is the absolute end of the legendary and historic Route 66 (obviously, because you fall off the pier and into the ocean). The wooden carousel build in 1916 is breathtaking, and the pier itself is charming. The 3rd street promenade in Santa Monica is a shopper's paradise and became the first and second stop in our 'Taco Tour'. We highly recommend La Salsa as well as the famous Wahoo Fish Tacos. And beer.

Less than a mile from our apartment is the famous Farmers Market and The Grove. During the great depression the local farmers would hang out in the dirt parking lot and sell their produce. Hard to imagine it was ever a dirt parking lot in the middle of miles of farmland. Now there is nothing but concrete, streets, buildings and people with a tiny parking spot coming at a premium! Today it is less of a farmers market and more a maze of over a hundred stalls with some of the city's best butcher shops, bakeries, and ethnic restaurants. Bobs Donuts and Coffee, homemade ice cream, french cheese shop, gumbo, NY corned beef...yea, it's all there and we are committed to sampling everything! And for the 'Taco Tour' we have to give points to Loteria. And beer. And live music.

We decided to try the LA version of public transportation and rode the bus into downtown, the subway to Koreatown, and a bus back home. Let's just say that the public transportation system here is a bit lacking - but interesting. While downtown we stumbled upon the Grand Central Market. It is a huge, chaotic, open-air market offering cheap and outstanding produce, empanadas, Hawaiian BB-Q, Cuban sandwiches, coffee, spices...and of course - tacos! Don't know the name of the place where we ate - just look for the whole roasted pigs and don't ask a lot of questions! Definitely number one on the 'Taco Tour' for now - two giant carnitas tacos for a whopping $2. We walked through the downtown Civic Center district, Bunker Hill and edged into Chinatown, but alas, the smell of street vendors in the El Pueblo market drew us in for more tacos! Fresh fried tortillas, perfectly seasoned shredded beef, amazing salsas and a mariachi serenade earned this a solid #2 ranking - would have been #1, but no beer ;-(

A scenic drive up the Pacific Coast Highway landed us north of Malibu at Leo Carillo beach for a glorious day of beach exploring and relaxation. Odie loved the freedom and fresh air, but was less impressed with the size of the waves chasing him. He didn't do much swimming but was content to play fetch, roll in the sand and snooze in the afternoon sun. There was a music video being filmed right next to us on the beach - quite an impressive and complicated production.

Realizing that we have been here over a month it would seem that we haven't explored nearly as much as we would like. However, it is worth noting that I flew to Colorado for two weeks during that first month and Paul worked a lot. David happened to be in Los Angeles for business and was able to spend a couple of days visiting (while I was in Colorado). He and Paul had some nice meals out, scootered to Santa Monica, and had an all-around 'guys weekend'! I, on the other hand, participated in the 'Tri-for-the-Cure' (triathlon for breast cancer) with my nieces and friends in Colorado (don't be too impressed - I was only the runner on a relay team - my two teammates, Ashley and Jackie, did the hard part - bike & swim and they were awesome!!). Afterward, it was off to Grand Lake for a festive week with friends & family (the Grand Lake Brewery will always win 'best beer'!).

Yes, it is Deb & Hunter!! Realizing that they actually live in Alaska it is a bit strange that I have pictures of them in Florida and now Colorado!!

Hoping the next months are as exciting as the first has been...happy trails to all!

Surf's up, Dude!!

Here I am in Los Angeles, waiting for my big break...hoping to be discovered...yea, I'm gonna' be on the big screen someday. Yup! Can't believe we have been here a month already and not a single producer, director, casting agent or fellow dog/actor has even noticed me. C'mon...I am CUTE!!

Things are a bit different here, that is for sure. For example, the apartment that we live in has an ELEVATOR!!! Can you believe that? I had never even been in an elevator before, but now I know all about pushing the right buttons, turning around & waiting, not getting in the down when you want the up and vice-versa, not wrapping my leash around people's ankles, holding my bladder in the morning until we are out of the elevator and out of the building...yea, it is definitely different here than in the mountains!

Here's another thing that is crazy - we have a swimming pool on our roof!! That's right - if you push the right elevator buttons you can get all the way to the top and end up at a swimming pool. There is a pretty good view up there too - on one side I can see the buildings of downtown LA (that is were Paul works) and on the other side I can see the Hollywood sign and Runyon Canyon. Runyon Canyon is a big off-leash dog park in Hollywood that has hiking trails and hundreds of other dogs and famous people. I love going there!

And another thing - there are a LOT of people here. And cars. And dogs. And busses. And more dogs. And helicopters. And more dogs. And trucks. And more busses. And more dogs. And more cars. And trash trucks. And more dogs. And more cars. And cats. And more dogs. It takes me forever to walk just one block because I have to stop and smell everything and there is just so much to smell...

We got to spend a day at the beach...I love the beach!! We drove up the Pacific Coast Highway to a place called Malibu and Leo Carillo State Park. This is a lot different than the beaches in Florida - the water is a bit colder, there are big rocks, the sand is different, and the waves are a LOT bigger. But the Pacific Ocean still tasted exactly the same as the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. Bleeeechh!! Acccchhhhkkk!! How much fun it was to run and swim and chase the ball and roll in the sand and sleep in the sun!

In the afternoon we got to watch the filming of a music video. I was ready just in case they decided that they needed a dog as an extra...but they never even asked me. Damn.

We have a lot more exploring to do here in Los Angeles. If any of you want to come out an explore with me I would be happy to show you around the neighborhood! I know how to cross streets now and I can push the elevator buttons. So come on out!! Happy Trails!

California or Bust *People Notes*

We were excited to learn on a Monday that the next (travel nurse) contract was going to be in Los Angeles, CA - somewhat less excited to learn that we needed to be in Los Angeles by the end of that week. After several attempts at programming the Garmin GPS and comparing it to google maps and the atlas and the wall map...indeed, the fastest route from Sevierville to Los Angeles was going to involve driving 2,250 miles. Over 2,000 of those miles would be spent heading west on I-40. Yay.

Following is a complete list of all of the fascinating people, places, things we saw on our trek across the U.S. Yes...I said 'complete'.


Tennessee:

Apparently the secret to building the great pyramids has been unlocked by the friendly folks in Memphis. Who knew?! And the Mississippi River is always cool. OK, that's it for Tennessee.



Arkansas:

Hmmm - looks like we are about to become 'those people' who stop and take pictures of every state sign like we have never been out of our neighborhood before. The (only) other interesting thing in Arkansas was a place called Toad Suck Park...I thought about that for many, many miles and can't come up with any good reason for naming a park 'Toad Suck'.



Oklahoma:

Wins the award for the two worst signs on the entire trip - found hundreds of miles apart from each other. #1) Restrooms closed for remodeling. #2) Women's restroom closed. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? I may have to circumvent Oklahoma on all future trips across the country.




Texas:

Now, those are just friendly folks there in Texas!




New Mexico:

I pondered the spelling and pronunciation of Albuquerque for most of this passage. That was about it for NM.




Arizona:

This was the first signage for Los Angeles - comforting to know we were headed in the right direction after all.



California:

This is where the trip got bad. Our nine year old Xterra was feeling the strain of pulling a loaded cargo trailer across the entire country - through the Smoky Mountains, across the great plains, through the panhandle, across the Rocky Mountains, through the desert...but when we arrived in California (literally - at the state line) the trusted Xterra needed a break. At least that is how we interpreted that little gauge that was reading H - assuming that meant HOT!!! Indeed, it was hot. Flip-flop-melting-on-the-asphalt hot. One-hundred-twenty-two-degrees-in-the-shade hot. Twelve miles to the next town, middle of the afternoon, looking at crossing the Mojave Desert...not going to happen. We limped into Needles, CA, and holed up in an air conditioned hotel room while waiting for the sun to go down and the air to cool. At 2:00am we headed across the Mojave and it was STILL hot! But at least the sun was gone.



And now we are here! Arrived in LA around 7:30am on Saturday, drove to our 'hood, found our apartment building...parked the car & trailer, got keys, apartment looked fantastic, returned to car & trailer to unload and yes, we had our first parking tickets! Not ticket - tickets - plural! Same thing happened last summer in Colorado - is it something about Tennessee license tags? Maybe the 'Clampet' look and rocking chair strapped on the roof attracts attention? I don't get it. Guess California really does need the revenue!

We are in Central LA and it appears that we have a lot of exploring ahead of us. We are due west of downtown with Hollywood and Beverly Hills on the other sides of our 'hood! The hospital - USC University Hospital - is on the opposite side of downtown, so the commute will be interesting for Paul. He has already learned to refer to highways as 'the...101, the...10' etc. and we are both starting to use 'dude' in our daily vocabulary. Yea - we are definitely NOT going to be the cool kids on the block. We are decidedly the oldest people in our neighborhood, and likely the straightest. Odie is the only dog in the area that uses a 'flexi-leash' and harness as opposed to a designer leash/collar combo with rhinestones. And he doesn't wear clothes. And he has bad hair - always. However, that has not deterred his ambition to take advantage of this great opportunity to be discovered and become the next Rin-Tin-Tin or a stunt double for Toto. Dream big little dog, dream big.

Looking forward to some grand adventures here! There will certainly be plenty of places to go, things to do and people to see. Hope many of you can come visit us while we are here. Happy Trails!

California or Bust!

So there we were - happily playing ball, rock-hopping, swimming and chasing critters in Smoky Mountain National Park (which is my backyard) and the next thing I know the phone rings and my people start rushing around like crazy for a day and a half, and then we are in the car and on the road. And on the road. And on the road.

We drove across Tennessee....

...and across Arkansas...

...and across Oklahoma...

...and across Texas...

...and across New Mexico...

...and across Arizona...

...and across California...

...and as soon as me and my people get some rest, we will post an update! From what I hear Los Angeles is supposed to be a fun city so I am sure we will have some crazy adventures over the next few months! Happy trails to all!