Alive in L.A.
Stephanie and I left Portland early Wednesday morning. My parents were there to see us off, and Natalie and Amanda, our two other roommates, cooked us a wonderful breakfast. Of course no trip to Mexico in a van is complete without it being stuffed to the brim with things, and so my dad coordinated us doing exactly that. I found myself saying (as we packed in our personal belongings) "I think I can fit one more thing in this spot" and then turning around to say to my mom "I have become my father".We took off about 7am and just drove. It's amazing how quickly you can get to places without the usual 30+ people and 5 or so vans. We stopped in Ashland for our last chance at full service gas until Mexico, and our last chance at no sales tax! We drove and drove and tried desperately to find the In-n-Out in Redding, but unfortunately we ended up eating Taco Bell in Anderson. It was in the mid-90s at lunchtime- ugh! We were definitely out of place in our jeans and t-shirts.
We took off for the bay area, and made it to Berkeley Wednesday evening. We stayed with a friend of mine, Rachel, who shares a house with roommates. Stephanie and I conked out on the couch, but were up the next morning to explore. Rachel had a class at her school, but pointed us in the direction UC Berkeley, and we walked around admiring the large architecture, the bell tower, and all of the people. I decided that if Warner wants to get really collegiate looking, it needs a bell tower. And add on gargoyles, please.
We went to Telegraph and shopped some, and then walked back home. According to Stephanie our plans were to "hang out in the morning and then do whatever in the afternoon". Sounds good to me! Went to the post office (the workers there are quite friendly), found a couple stores, and the largest Target I've ever seen. We noticed while walking around Berkeley that people are either
a)on cell phones
b)listening to an ipod
c)talking to themselves.
And I'm serious about that last one.
Our only venture into the city was for a concert Thursday night- two bands I've never listened to, Hem and Over the Rhine. Both great bands, I really enjoyed it, but for some reason Stephanie and I were both REALLY tired, and couldn't wait to get to sleep.
This morning we woke up and did a nice morning routine with Rachel- stopped at Peet's and then got great pastry at a co-op. It was a beautiful morning- perfect weather. The only downside to our stay there was that it was so cloudy that even though we had a view of the bay, we couldn't see anything.
We took off this morning and headed for Salinas, where we stopped at the John Steinbeck museum. I'm a little bit of a nerd in the fact that I love these types of museums about peoples' lives and events and those short documentary type films that show every 27 minutes. Getting to see all of this information about John Steinbeck was so cool, as I've just recently, in the past year or so, started reading and enjoying his books. Visiting the museum gave me the hint that I have a lot more ground to cover.
We finally found an In-n-Out and enjoyed it immensely. We stayed on 101 and took a route to L.A. that I've never taken before... a gorgeous green valley which is starkly different than the I-5 trip that I'm familiar with. It was such a nice change. We got stuck in some Santa Barbara and Thousand Oaks traffic, but we've arrive safely near Pasadena, where we're staying with our friend Graham's family who have generously let us stay with them. We don't have definite plans for tomorrow... it probably includes more hanging out and doing whatever. After student teaching and all of the hubbub of moving out of Tabor House, and cleaning out stuff, and running errands, it's nice to sit back and do nothing.
Maybe one or two of you care, but this has been a playlist for us, in no particular order:
Mates of State: Bring it Back
Sufjan Stevens: Michigan, Seven Swans
Damian Jurado: I Break Chairs
mewithoutYou: Catch for Us the Foxes
Sigur Ros: a mix Natalie made
Nichole Nordeman: Woven and Spun
Of Montreal: Sunlandic Twins (i think that's what it's called?)
My "hey, we're old!" mix of songs
Decemberists: Picaresque
Anathallo: Holiday at the Sea, Floating World
Headphones: Headphones
Sasparilla Jug Band
Walk the Line soundtrack
posted by Meghan @ 10:22 PM
2 Comments:
I enjoyed reading about my travels, you only left out one important detail, I won the alphabet game!
i care about the playlist! congratulations on putting together a good one. also, i'm glad you listened to the sigur ros mix.
...i miss rocking out in blue steel to "of montreal."
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