Across the grapevine to LA

I've been on a whirlwind tour of California in the last week. Oakland, SF, Pacifica, LA! California is crazy. My friends and family have really gone above and beyond to be nice and show me all the things that make these areas awesome. I loved Oakland. Amy and I went to The Trappist and had delicious beers. Then we went to Jack London square, which was very strange. The highlight, however, well aside from visiting my good friend, was Burma Superstar. If you ever get the chance to have Burmese food do yourself a favor and eat a lot of it. I got to see Kelly and Jordan at a Karaoke bar in SF and watched Jordan blow everyone out of the water. Everyone wanted to ride the Pony!

My tour of Pacifica was really cool as we got to see dolphins swimming off the coast. Hiking was great and I got to see all my lovely family in one place.

Whoa, LA!

So I realized that in the last 2 weeks I've been to 7 different airports! But I've made it to sunny LA. I guess I had really low expectations about being here, but the last two days have been fun and interesting. I went to the Getty art museum and saw an amazing photography exhibit, swam on Venice Beach, drove past a thousand people in Hollywood, and have seen more people than I will see in an entire year. LA is huge and congested with traffic, and I don't know how anyone can drive here, but our good friend Zac did a great job of showing us some hot spots all over the city.

We will only be in the contiguous states for a few more hours really, and it feels a little alien. I've been trying to keep things in perspective, but it seems so strange to end my last few days in a place like this. I guess that's just how things are sometimes. I've had moments of freaking out, but I think I've been handling things pretty well. I'm definitely looking forward to having a a day in Honolulu to chill out. We'll be traveling from LA to Honolulu, and then we'll spend a day island hopping till we get to Pohnpei. I should say that we'll spend a day island hopping if everything goes according to plan, but there is no guarantee that it will be so painless. There have been people who have taken days to get where we're going. Once again, I guess that's just the way it is. Anyway, it'll all be different and crazy and weird, and I'm excited and nervous. That's all I can think of to say.