Day 3: Los Angeles

I am on day 3 of my journey, and one more night here in LA until I set off to New Zealand. Surprisingly it is 69 degrees here in LA, and I am outside in a sweatshirt enjoying the weather while updating the blog.

As you can see I posted a few pictures from yesterday. First of the garden and dinner table, and a few of the pasta making process. We made fresh summer pasta with cherry tomatoes, and enjoyed it w/ salad & some really good bread & cheese. For dessert we had vanilla ice cream w/ raspberries & blueberries. It was a very fresh & delicious meal.

Last night I got to enjoy the company of David, Sue Moore, Chip (Mr. Chip), Karen Anderson & her son Spencer, and Sal. All of these people are close friends of my aunt Sue who my family & I have known and heard stories about forever. They all came to enjoy the weather, dinner party, & to see & also say goodbye to me.

The only new face to me was Sal, short for Salvatore...he is Italian and his partner is in France at the moment. He is nice and funny. The big news of the night was that when Sal was driving home...the previous night (after we had hotdogs), he was on the 101 & literally saw a dead body in the middle lane on the highway. Apparently it was not a car accident. So, there was much discussion about how in the world it got there & what happened. He called 911 and they said they were already aware. Nonetheless, you could say we were all completely shocked, and curious to see if something would come up on the news. It was quite crazy.

Besides that disturbing news there was a lot of conversation. Everyone seems to think my trip is a fantastic idea, and will be a truly life changing event. I certainly hope this is true. At the moment I am excited, but still feel that it is really far away.

After a late night chatting outside with only candlelight and under an almost full moon, we all said goodbye & I headed to bed. I woke up fairly early again this morning, had breakfast w/ Sue, and soon we will be on the go once again. I believe we may go see the movie, Rebel Without a Cause, in the Hollywood Cemetery tonight...cool!

Tomorrow night's the big night. That's all for now...