California Part 2

I know this post (and the next) is a little late coming, but internet acess has been limited so they are all coming up now. After my crazy awesome first day on this trip, I headed into Venice Beach with Cheryl for the day. She went off to an interview and I roamed around Abbott Kinney. We met back up for coffee afterwards just in time to be brought into a crazy rumour about Lindsay Lohan hitting someone on a scooter with her Mercedes and then taking off. It turned out to be completely false, but it was amazing how fast the story spread through the area.
The next day I hopped on the train to San Bern and got picked up by Beth. It was so good to see her again! As we headed back to Redlands and while there, I was really surprised at how everything felt the same. It really seemed like I had never left. That night was the BBS (beer brewing society) tasting at Ralf’s place. It was so good to see those guys again, and the beer was fantastic! I am sure there is a good chance of being able to buy that beer in stores soon.
I spent the night at Tabitha and Ian’s place and wandered over to ESRI to revisit the old office. It was a great feeling to walk in there and not have to work! I got to distract all of my old coworkers and had a fanstatic lunch with Jenn, while trying to convince her to meet me in Poland. I think it looks like she might! Yaaa!
Friday night was off to the Hangar. Unfortunately, I had told everyone to meet me there and forgot to sort out how I was going to make my way out there. Oopps! Luckily, Karen and Colin came by the house and dropped me off. Phew. We had a great night at the brewery, getting into the typical shenanigans and ending up back at Joey’s for pizza. It was not an early night. 🙂
Up next was a trip to Cha Cha’s for burritos before heading back into LA. It was sooooooo good to have proper burritos again! Once back in LA, it was time for a swanky French dinner in Silverlake with Bruce and Paula. It was incredible food and put me right to sleep. The next day (my last in North America) was started with a trip to the Hollywood farmers market, then a lengthy hike up to the Observatory, over to Canyon and back down. On the way back down the hill, we managed to squeeze in one last celebrity sighting by passing Sandra Oh on the trail. I stared a little, but she just smiled and kept going. We got back to the house, had another amazing dinner and headed off to the airport.
Adios California, Hello Rarotonga!

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