Jazz and Shala decided to come along to make it a nice weekend visiting the sites in the greater LA area. I mostly got to know E. Colorado Blvd. in Pasadena as that is where the hotel was and the city hall was four miles down the same road...actually I got to know a four mile stretch of the old mother road (E Colorado is part of Old Route 66). Shala got to know the really nice mall near the city hall well because she spent about three hours there while I took the test. Lets just say she knew it well enough to say all of the stores were way out of our price range except for Rubio's...which is where we had lunch.
It should be dully noted that we brought an unwelcomed visitor home with us from the camping trip to Lake Pillsbury on Memorial Day weekend. In fact this same unwelcomed visitor took a trip to Pasadena with us before Shala ended its life. Somehow I got a tick on my lower back and somehow it survived at least seven showers without the body getting knocked off, they're resilient little buggers. Shala noticed it on my back at the hotel as I was getting dressed to take the test. Lets just say the schedule we had thought out for the morning took a sharp turn at that point. After a talk with the advice nurse and a trip to Target to get tweezers Shala decided she would pull it out. You would think these things would just slide out without too much effort, but these ticks are resilient. Shala had to give the thing quite a few tugs, it was almost like she was just grabbing the skin and pulling, but she was only latching onto to the tick. It thoroughly grossed her out...she even threw the tweezers out afterward because she couldn't bear to touch them with tick guts on them. I tried to convince her a few times later that the tick was still alive in the little plastic bag she put it in, but she informed me she had checked on that a few times. I guess the hair spray she sprayed on it and water that accompanied it into the bag would have finished it off if the tweezers didn't already.
What is it with Southern California drivers. Are the drivers ed teachers down there drunk or do they take a different course than the rest of us. They either do not know how to drive or they are the most inconsiderate and self centered drivers in the country. There were several occasions that we were honked at because we were either turning left onto a street where there was no light or stop sign or we didn't turn left fast enough at the left turn yield on green intersections. Heaven forbid these people have to slow down a little bit for someone to turn...they might get to their destination 10 seconds later than they wanted. Right after one of the times we were honked at we were honked at again as we were stuck behind a driver trying to merge onto the freeway at 40 mph. Even though I was following pretty closely trying to speed up, one of the genius LA drivers decided they did not want to let me in and cut me off to go in between me and the slow driver as the car that was behind him almost rear ended us because apparently in Los Angeles drivers ed schools they do not teach people how to use their brakes or merge properly. The bad traffic in LA must not be due to a faulty freeway system (it's kind of nice having a freeway for wherever you plan to go), it's because the morons can't drive or merge. My hypothesis is that it either can be traced back to a renegade drunken drivers ed system, or the smog in the air morphing the brain cells that focus on smart driving.
As for the rest of the trip, the photos can tell the rest:
Jazz needed a break on the ride, and since she's the boss, we stopped in Rio Vista to change her diaper and let her play on the nice 3.5 foot wide lawn in between Taco Bell and Arco.
Hey look, it's a bird...They must like to run for the border as well.
After the test in LA we decided to head out to look for the HOLLYWOOD sign for a picture with Jazzlyn.
While we navigated the freeways without a map, this is what Jazz decided to do...Mommy and Daddy would not have minded being in her shoes as we pulled into town at 2 am the night before (we slept in and were it not for a tick would have been out of the hotel before 1 pm).
Well, we couldn't find a good view of the HOLLYWOOD sign so we settled for a view of Capitol Records and an hour long tour of narrow winding roads through the Hollywood hills. At one of the dead ends we made it to a nice rich lady with two dogs told us to go to Beachwood Canyon for the picture.
We didn't quite make it to the Hollywood sign that night, but after a wrong turn onto a street we found Universal City and decided to stop their instead. Jazzlyn should be the new poster girl for the Hardrock Cafe as she was going crazy in front of it. I would say just about everybody around was talking about how cute and excited she was.
TOUCHDOWN!
A big thanks to the rich lady with the dogs...we found a clear picture of the sign for Jazzlyn.
She got a little wet by the Kodak Theater.
But she's always happy after lunch.
Only fitting for our Super Girl to pose next to Superman.
"Little surfer, little one, makes my heart come all undone, do you love me, do you surfer...girl surfer girl surfer...." At the beach in Santa Monica.
Our last picture on the Santa Monica Pier before we drove all the way down Santa Monica Blvd. to get back to the only freeway I really knew to get back to the hotel. Next time I'm taking a map. The temple is on Santa Monica Blvd and is huge.
We regret we didn't get a picture next to the Beverly Hills sign, or Rodeo Drive, or in front of the Beverly Hills Police Department (I should have gone in and asked for Lt. Axel Foley). We also drove down the Sunset Strip as well as parts of Wilshire Blvd (I didn't see the Porsche dealer from Gone in 60 Seconds though).
2 comments:
You make me want to scope down the girls and myself for ticks, chiggers, whatever!
It seems like you had a lot of fun in Southern CA. I love it down there!
Looks like you guys had a fun vacation! Jazzlyn is so a doll, the picture od her by the Kodak theater is cute!
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