Hola de la ciudad de Mexico

Our last few days in LA were packed full of "To-Do's" (which Kristina made sure to keep very organized in her Edelman notebook).  Somehow, against all odds, we managed to squeeze in a well-overdue hike up Runyon Canyon.  The entrance to the hike is on Vista Street above Franklin in West Hollywood.  It is a popular place, so parking is hard to come by.  After a quick walk up Vista, there are two trails to choose from.  The dirt trail on the left is much steeper and shorter and if it hasn't rained in a while, footing can be a little sketchy.  The other path is longer, partly paved, and seemed to be more traveled.  Being the fearless adventurers that we are, we chose the steeper dirt trail on the left:

We read many reviews of the hike on the internet where people complained about all of the dog traffic and dog owners who do not pick up after their pets.  We, however, hardly noticed any stink and were happy to have all of the dogs sharing the hike with us.  Once we reached the top of the mountain, we had an amazing panoramic view of the Hollywood sign, the Griffith Observatory, and the city of LA, Century City, Santa Monica, and the coast complete with the infamous LA smog:

For our final evening in LA, we booked tickets to Kevin Nealon's Tuesday night comedy show at the Laugh Factory.  Immediately upon our arrival, we knew that something was wrong.  The place was nearly empty, the stage was covered in toys, there were time tickers on the walls, we were escorted to front row seats and an unknown comedian was trying desperately to get a few laughs out of the despondent audience.  We discovered that the Laugh Factory was having a "Special Event" marathon comedy show where comedians were asked to come and fill a 30 minute timeslot against their will, and that Kevin Nealon would not be there.  Apparently, the website was never updated and we were not the only angry Kevin Nealon fans.

Now, here we sit in the Mexico City airport awaiting our 11:55pm flight to Lima.  It looks like our plane will be departing on time, and we will be arriving in Lima at 6:35am.  Our international adventure begins...

Gruneisendoff

December 1st marked six months of traveling and so far we have not even left the United States.  Upon booking our ticket to Lima, Peru, we realized how much there is to do before heading abroad for such an extended period: 
*Get all necessary vaccinations (yellowfever, typhoid, and hepetitis)
*Stock up on Benedryl, bug spray, Imodium, Pepto bismol, and other good drugs
*Send all jewelry and other valuables/shiny things back to Hawaii
*Change our phone plans to the cheapest available plan
*Buy outlet adaptors for our computers and camera
*Say goodbye to friends/family

Last night we said goodbye to the Gruneisens and are nominating them for family of the year!

Brookey serenaded us with a few of her favorite songs and showed her crafting skills to Kristina with jewelry that Tiffany's would be proud of, while Todd and the other MEN (Matty, Matt, and Brendan) compared biceps - Brendan may not have won this year but is the odds-on-favorite for the 2011 contest!  The rest of the evening was hilarious bantering between Milton, Gayle, and the rest of us.  Thanks Mom for the deviled eggs and Matt and Melisa for the taco salad and ginger cookies! 

Ho L.A. days

So, we've been in a unique position to have had opportunities to participate in the holiday spirit at skating rinks in San Francisco (Embarcadero) and New York City (Central Park)... sadly, we did not.  Last night Blossom granted us a reprieve with an invitation to Pershing Park skating rink.  We jumped on it.  Still, we did NOT participate.  The reunion/introduction to Blossom, Carl, Leslie and John lingered about five minutes too long so by the time we got in line, the evening had been sold out.  If you are keeping score, that's three times we did not participate.  We did, however, take a picture as if we did:

On the bright side, our LA friends took us to the Biltmore Christmas tree, and the Westin Bonaventure for cocktails and a 360 degree view of LA! 

Turkey Day

On Thanksgiving morning, we began driving up I-5 to Piedmont for the weekend. About an hour into our drive, our Alamo rental car dashboard lit up like a Christmas Tree! Following instructions from Alamo Roadside Assistance, we drove to the Bakersfield airport National rental car location to exchange the broken car. Upon our arrival, we were told that there were no cars available but that they could offer us the largest street legal Dodge Ram monster truck. That was the good news. The bad news was that those trucks get about 15 miles per gallon. So, we gritted our teeth and accepted the enormous truck in order to make it to Piedmont in time for Turkey dinner. Sixty dollars worth of gas later, we arrived at the Kirby's house where we enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving feast!

At the Piedmont Sells home, we kept warm with evening jacuzzis and and fireside chats (with a little Entourage and Weeds thrown in).  We also got plenty of exercise walking and playing ball with Cali and hitting the YMCA with Jim.

En route to LA, we happily exchanged our gas-guzzler for a more evironmentally friendly sedan and took the 101 instead of the 5 and were rewarded with a clear (and cold) day.

The heel did heal.

It has now been nine months since Todd's heel surgery and we think it is time for a heel update.  The heel is healed; no limp, no pain, working on strength and flexibility.  See pic:

This one's for you Doctor Burt!!

An Artist in the Making?

Thanks to a wonderful and very thoughtful birthday gift (the early celebration was necessitated because I will be on a plane to NYC on my b-day) from Todd and my mom, I enjoyed an Intro to Ceramics class at the Village Art Project in Studio City.  I was one of three people in the class that day which meant I happily received tons of one-on-one assistance and instruction.  To start off, we were each given two cubes of clay and shown how to soften it by throwing it onto the table a few times.  We then learned:  how to center the clay (which proved to be the hardest thing for me and was vitally important), how to keep the bottom from being too thin, how to pull up the walls, and how to push out the body to make a desired shape. 

After we finished shaping the clay, we picked out colors and painted our pieces.  Here are my masterpieces:

I had such a great time!!!  Thanks Mom and Todd!

We've got your gravity!

Currently, we are in the middle of a one-week trial gym membership at Crunch in West Hollywood.  With our trial pass comes a full list of group classes ranging from "Stiletto Strength" to "Super Sculpt".  One class that caught both of our eyes was "Antigravity Yoga Wings".  The class description says that it is a mixture of yoga, pilates, stretching and acrobatics.

We decided to participate in the class last night. One minute, they had us balancing in the hammocks with just our legs or necks and the next minute we were doing front flips.  If they didn't think you were being challenged enough, they would come over and spin your hammock... ugh.  Todd is still limping and his head has finally stopped throbbing.  Kristina liked it.

Is this why they call it the "City of Angels"?

The weather in LA is crisp and clear, which is great if you like to spend the morning catching some sun at the apartment pool and evening stargazing at the world famous Griffith Observatory.  We did both today and couldn't be happier about it.  Lucky for us, Jupiter is currently visible and at about 5:49 PM, the International Space Station  (ISS) made a pass over Los Angles which was so bright and fast moving that it was hard to miss even with the naked eye.  We took a photo of the incredible moment when the ISS, Jupiter, and the moon were all close together.  (For the uninitiated, we have labeled all three objects.)

While at the observatory, we also grasped (if only for a moment) the concept of the seasons based on the 23.5 degree tilt of the earth's axis in conjunction with the earth's rotation around the sun.  That alone is an indication at how good the exhibits were at the observatory and is only one of the reasons that we fully recommend a visit.  Griffith Park in LA, like the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, is an absolute must do.

We have seen some great views in our travels (Rockefeller, Hancock Building) and the one from observatory rooftop on this particular Sunday in November would rival any of them, anywhere.  So, we took our obligatory timer shot and here it is:

Before we left, we stopped to view Jupiter up close with one of the observatory's telescopes.  We learned that Jupiter is almost half a billion miles away (the moon is only two hundred thousand miles away) and can fit 1320 earths inside of it.  With the telescope, we could see four of Jupiter's moon surrounding it as well as the dark bands on it's surface.  It was quite amazing!

We finished off the night with some great Mexican food at Mexico City with our good friend, Jim Pate in Los Feliz and plan on revisiting the area soon for some hikes and/or stair walks.

We have updated the song on our blog, so enjoy because, "we love it".

"This life is more than just a read through."

Last night we overheard our neighbors fighting.  And then, we didn't hear anything for a while.  And then, we heard them fighting again... only it was the same fight - word for word.  We realized that we are in West Hollywood, and therefore, the fight wasn't a fight.  It was two guys rehearsing what sounded to us like a scene from The Birdcage.

We also saw a guy in our gym who looked like Fabio.  And then, we realized that we are in West Hollywood, and therefore, the guy who looked like Fabio was actually Fabio - long, lustrous, flowing hair and all.

LB at last

After a week of sequestering ourselves from Long Beach, we were finally able to head to Todd's hometown for Drew's surprise 40th birthday party.  We toured Todd's old stomping grounds (the lagoon, the house he grew up in, his schools, beaches, etc.) before driving to Joe Jost's where we met the crew for a schooner, pickled eggs, and a special.

Eventually we made it back to Drew's house where the rest of the surprise party was waiting with tons of great food and drinks.  Thanks to Alison and Gayle for the wonderful food and party!

P.S. Happy 24th birthday Kera!!

The Wigged Weho Cyclist

We finally got the photo of the "creature" downloaded off of my camera... yowza!

Only in LA...

As we sat at a little coffee shop on Santa Monica Blvd. in West Hollywood (Weho) trying to decide how to begin this blog, a "LARGE" "female" in a black dress coasts by on a bicycle with the wind billowing up an incredibly short skirt.  We couldn't help but behold the black floss separating her enormous, flabby cheeks.  We were very unprepared for the show, and were dismayed that we missed such a photo op.  Our fortune turned when the figure reappeared, coming back toward us!  We both grabbed our cameras and Todd chased the creature up the street (garnering applause from other passers-by) to capture this one with his phone:

Upon seeing the face, we realized that the creature was actually a wigged male, complete with a five-o-clock shadow.  All we have to show for it right now is the one photo above that Todd took with his camera phone, but we promise you won't be disappointed when you see what Kristina captured with an actual camera!

Tour De LA

Chicago's cold, windy weather has chased us out of Illinois and blown us to sunny Southern California!  When we arrived in Los Angeles, we were greeted with much needed 84 degree weather. However, our excitement was cut short once we realized that Southwest Airlines had lost one of Todd's bags.  While we waited for the next flight to arrive from Midway airport, er uh... the next three flights, we had In 'N Out double burgers and fries to ease the pain, checked into our hotel in downtown LA, went on a Southwest Airlines sponsored shopping spree ($50 worth), and finally drove back to LAX six hours later to pick up the recovered luggage.

Today we took advantage of unseasonably warm temperatures and took the scenic route to the beach.  We toured Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Bel Air, Brentwood, Santa Monica, and finally ended up going to the beach in Venice where we had some of the best Mexican food ever at El Tarasco.