California!!! (and we're caught up)

Friends! We're in Los Angeles. It is 73 degrees and sunny every day. Trigger is camped out working on applying to graduate schools and I have been struggling to tan evenly while napping and reading. We are staying with close friends of Matt's mom - they have a sweet unattached garage that they turned into a little "love nest" so w

e've unloaded almost all of our stuff and have set up camp. We're supposed to leave tomorrow. Not sure if it's going to happen. If you're with other people's parents it's not really like you've just moved back home, right? :) Really though it is so wonderful being in a place for more than one or two nights, especially somewhere warm, with home cooked meals and nice company. Highlights so far: fresh lemons and limes from trees in

the backyard, being painfully sandblasted at the beach in Santa Monica during a awfully windy day, finishing the first season of Mad Men, and the key lime pie! YUM! Also - trigger is making good progress on his personal statements/essays for the applications.

We got to LA on Tuesday after camping in Big Sur right on the coast. We stopped twice along the drive - once to see a haven for Elephant Seals which are wonderful creatures. The consist of mostly blubber and have incredibly expressive faces and human like hands. We spent almost an hour there, mostly in awe of 1) how they scratched themselves like we do and 2) how similar I am to elephant seals. If I had to be an animal right now, it would not be that hard of an adjustment to add some pounds, hop onto the beach and rest in the sun for months.

We also stopped in San Louis Obispo for lunch. All I have to say is that California does vegetarian california cuisine as if they invented it.

Camping at Big Sur was breathtaking. We decided to light a fire because while we made it through Wyoming and Montana, camping in California was too cold! Unfortunately Trigger decided to buy a lighter without fuel in it which sparks well and can light the propane stove but can't light paper. We were struck, while basking in the overwhelming odor of campfire smoke, by how loud it was at our campsite. And before either one of us said something out loud we were both slightly confused by how well we could hear what sounded like the interstate. Route 1 in the dark however had maybe 2 cars an hour on it and the continuous rushing sounds was the crashing of waves. It is much more beautiful when you know it's water and not cars.

Getting to Big Sur was wonderful, we dropped Wanda, trigger's mom, off at the airport put on some alternative music and our sunglasses, opened the windows and at some beach town on the coast bought a Jamba Juice. You can tell we are both uncomfortable with the CA lifestyle. (notreally).

San Francisco (before Big Sur) is a crazy city. We drove into the city over the Golden Gate Bridge which was pretty exciting as we were going to run there for the half marathon. We first stayed with one of my mom's friends in a beautiful apartment just south of Golden Gate Park. Spent the next day walking around Golden Gate Park, went to the Conservatory of Flowers where we learned that Vanilla is an orchid which is why Vanilla yogurt always has that orchid on the front. We also learned that it was brought to Madagascar from South America but without the bees that pollinate it and so now all Madagascar vanilla is pollinated by hand (in a 24 hour window) making it as expensive as it is! We also walked through Haight-Ashbury where "the 60's took place." The next day we headed to Berkeley to get some Pizza at the Cheese Board Collective (YUM!) and moved into a hotel - the official "Race Hotel" with Wanda.

The half marathon was awesome. Matt ran in 2:02 and I finished in 2:56. It was pouring rain, not too cold, but very foggy. Important note - the five days before the run and five days after the run we’re in the 70s and sunny in SF. We both felt really, really good! A combination of training well, training at high altitudes, and taking it slow and steady during the run.

After the run we met two more of my friends from Haverford at Greens Restaurant at Fort Mason where a third friend is a cook. It was all vegetarian, mostly local, a lot of veggies from the restaurants own farm, and overall incredibly delicious. Matt and I hung out with them after lunch for a while and then met Wanda back at the hotel where we ordered pizza and spaghetti into the room and fell asleep blissfully early.

We walked/hobbled around Fisherman’s Warf the next morning before heading south.