California - Leg 1

School started on Monday, and I'm already swamped with work. Actually, the whole time I was in California, it seemed like every day I checked my email, I had another pre-assignment. 

Therefore, the entries about my trip will be written in parts, because I'd feel really guilty if I took the time to write about the entire trip in one day. Plus, I wouldn't do it justice. 

Leg 1 - LA

I was in LA for three days to visit my Cousin Rob. He's the closest of my cousins to my age, so we've always been pretty good buds. We had a blast together.

Here we are bustin' a move. 

We went to Venice Beach to have brunch with an ex-coworker of mine. Cousin described Venice Beach as the "Times Square" of LA. When I asked why, he said, "There's a bunch of weirdos." Here's the open market, but I didn't get any pictures of the "weirdos." I did see them, though. 

I felt I had to do the touristy thing and go to Hollywood. We went to the Chinese Theater, saw the Walk of Fame, then Cousin said, "Well....that's Hollywood." Turns out Hollywood is kind of lame. 

But this was a cool picture to get. Gotta love that smog. 

 

And we got chicken & waffles. It doesn't make sense in theory, but it does make sense in your mouth. 

 

Another beach - Malibu

Cousins! 

I also visited the Unitarian Universalist church near my cousin's house, since I was there a week after the shooing at the Knoxville church. It meant a lot to be there to heal with that community, since I was unable to be at my home church. 

This concludes Leg 1. Stay tuned for Leg 2 - Route 1. (I have no idea when I'll get around to posting that. Millions of amazing pictures).  

Now to do the work I've been putting off doing all morning...