California Dreaming, Day 7

Today, we had a big break between interviews and so we took an extra long lunch break and drove to Old Town, San Diego. I enjoyed using the filters in my camera app. Some sightseeing shots:

Since today was also my last day of recording in California, we decided to live up the rest of the day and after everything was packed and put away, we took the short drive to Sunset Cliffs, CA to enjoy a nice sunset. Some shots:

I love this shot of Alex in silhouette. Totally jealous that we couldn't replicate it with me. 

This is a horribly drawn K & Y within a heart. Cuz I'm sappy like that. 

All the fresh air left us starving and so we met up with Alex's friend Billy and headed to Phil's BBQ. We had to wait about thirty minutes in a line that snaked around the building, but it was completely worth it. Waiters would come out every once in a while and provide people with an onion ring to make the wait bearable. At Phil's, you order at the counter, pick up your food and stuff, then hope to try to find a place. I realize that most "tasty" BBQ places do this. Because I felt adventurous I went with the pulled pork, and a ginormous order of fries to share with Alex.

To boot they had malted vinegar, which was amazing. It took forever to eat this, and both Alex and I gave it a valiant try. I did eat more than he did, and I had a great time rubbing it in cuz ha ha! Reminded me of my High School years at Church, where on Saturday nights our idea of fun was daring each other to see who could eat more, or the spiciest thing, and stuff like that. I always won at the eat more contests, because Mama didn't raise no fool.

Now to get ready for New York! This trip was exhausting, everything from my thumb being hurt to the time difference from NY, which made phone calls to Mi Cariño short and unfulfilling. I'm glad that this is my last recording trip of the year!

California Dreaming, Day 6

Some travel days, I'm not in the mood for anything. Today, I ate in my room and watched episodes of Gilmore Girls. Here's a picture of a piece of art hanging on the office building where we worked today.

California Dreaming, Day 5

Today, worked at the Los Angeles Museum of Holocaust - but didn't have a chance to walk through its exhibits. It is a great big building with lots of cool concrete to feel under your fingers and some sharp angles in the main lobby.

It was a short recording day, although it began early. As soon as we were done, Alex and I headed to Canter's Deli, which is supposed to be an L.A. Institution. It looked like a NY Deli. I had regular meatloaf, but forgot to take a picture.

After, we began the trek to San Diego, stopping first very briefly (as in, as long as the stoplight took) outside of Paramount Pictures, just to say I saw something Hollywood'y.

We also got to enjoy the sight of some palm trees adorning the streets

The drive to San Diego wasn't too bad, considering that we left around quittin' time. It's nice to be able to use the carpool lane at such a times like this. The fun part was driving all the way down to the wrong hotel in San Diego - thankfully the right one wasn't too far away, but it wasn't as nice as the first one so that was a bit of a letdown.

California Dreaming, Days 3 and 4

What a long day. We had a full recording day, then made our way from Salinas to San Francisco. The way in took longer, since we hit rush hour BUT we had the fun part of enjoying the Carpool Lane, even making up a little ditty to the tune of "Carwash."

Once in San Fran, I crashed at my co-worker Natalia's place, which was much more comfortable than I expected if still a bit awkward. She hooked me up with dinner - I don't remember what it was.

Day 4 was a travel day - I got to see the San Francisco booth, then flew down to Los Angeles. It was my first time there, and the movies don't kid: traffic can be a killer. And all the driving you've got to do! It took a little over an hour from the airport to my hotel. Once there I gave a call to Mi Cariño's dear friend Kristie, and I met up with her and her girlfriend Emily - we had purchased tickets to go see "Bring it on: The Musical."

We almost didn't make it thanks to the traffic, but we got there just when we should've. Lin-Manuel Miranda of In The Heights fame is the lyricist for this musical, main reason why we were interested. At the theater we met up with Kristie and Emily's friend Miguel, who coincidentally also had tickets. The show was decent enough, even though the music was not extremely memorable. The actors were pretty impressive with their jumping and what not.

After, we drove around to a hip diner-like place... I just can't remember the name. I wasn't bowled over by it all. I had a turkey meatloaf sandwich. Pretty unimpressive.

I was nervous since I was essentially hanging out for the first time with Mi Cariño's friends without her, but they were so open and friendly and fun that time flew. All in all, I'm excited about Bring It On: The Musical eventually making it to Broadway, and getting to enjoy the changes it'll go through after the tour.

California Dreaming, Day 2

I made it through a day of facilitating with a wonky hand. To celebrate, we drove off to Big Sur, to enjoy the hella amazing view.

Later, we drove to Monterey, to get some Thai Food at Krua Thai. It was a great little place, although a bit cold and unprepared for that kind of weather. There were veggie rolls,

this evening I had spicy noodles with tofu.

California Dreaming, Day 1

Today starts a week long tour of California. Super excited about it - except that I hurt my hand while playing Volleyball yesterday. My hand felt like hell while flying and all I kept thinking was that my thumb was broken. But, I'm nothing if not a professional, and so I got on a plane, on my own with two bags of equipment and flew all the way to San Francisco Airport to meet up with Kevin.

From San Francisco he drove us to Salinas, California. It's not a small town at all, but it has that kind of feel. However, blocks away from our hotel we found an In-n-Out, and that just made my night. It's simple, delicious, and you've got those little bible verses pre-printed on the food wrappers to entertain you.

After, Kevin and I made our way to Salinas Valley Emergency Group Hospital. The place, was amazing. I was seen almost immediately, and I was incredibly impressed by the equipment and how organized it all was. Ah, to have health insurance and have a private hospital nearby! My thumb was only sprained, but it meant that I get to spend my week with my hand looking like this:

Oh yea. Really looking forward to setting up the equipment and writing my log sheets. /end sarcasm.

Life is Good

Work starts late in the afternoon so we began our day with a morning in Coronado, CA. First, there's this really long bridge. Then, I sight my very first TP'ed House.

We kept driving to Coronado, til we hit one of the beaches. The sand was very interesting looking, I can't recollect seeing anything like this before.

We walked down the beach, taking our time, enjoying the water. Unfortunately, no swimming was had.

The rest of the Island is beautiful, too... the houses are gorgeous! Everything was so well manicured and beautiful and what not. Carolina fell in love with the place and we had to stop every other step in a while for her to take a picture.

I took some pictures, too.

and

to share a few. To end this post, here's a picture of one of the many houses I really liked. There were many houses, most of them two floor type of things, with roof decks if they were close enough to the beach. But this one... this door just made me happy, and I could see myself walking through here and being comfortable.