10 extra weeks

For those of you who do not know, two weeks ago we both accepted offers to extend our contracts at our respective facilities.  Both facilities were hoping that we would extend for another 13 weeks, but to make sure we can attend beach week in July we could only extend for an additional 10 weeks.  As it stands now we will be here until July 8th.  We both really enjoy where we work and more importantly love where we live.  There is so much to do and see here, we're not sure we can fit it all in even with the extra 10 weeks.  

Tim had to work yesterday so we had to cram in our weekend outing into 1 day.  We made our way into Hollywood on Oscar Sunday to attend Rock of Ages at the historic Pangtages Theater.  For those of you who watched The Academy Awards tonight, you may have seen that this theater hosted the awards from 1950 to 1960 which included the first televised Academy Awards.  We arrived in Hollywood several hours early to walk around the Hollywood Farmers Market and along Hollywood Boulevard towards the red carpet.  We made it close enough to see all of the barricades and the enormous oscar statues along the red carpet (sorry we didn't get any pictures, we only had our phones which couldn't zoom in well enough) before we turned around to make it to the show on time.  If anyone has a chance to go see Rock of Ages we highly recommend it, we both absolutely loved it.

It has been a cold weekend here in Southern California, all elevations above 2000 ft saw snow accumulation on Friday. The mountains around us and throughout L.A. County are beautifully snowcapped.  Believe it or not Tim had a snowy drive to and from work yesterday.  Our scenic commute along CA Freeway 14 ascends over 4000 ft before we make it into the high desert of The Antelope Valley.

Since our adventures were limited to just one day, all of the pictures of the weekend are within this posting.  See you next week!

San Diego

  We took advantage of a 3 day weekend by heading south to San Diego.  On our way down we made a quick stop at the San Juan Capistrano Mission (well, we took pictures from the outside).  Next we stopped at the La Jolla Cove to see the wild seals.  Not only did we time our La Jolla visit just before a storm came in (it actually does rain along the coast sometimes) but we were able to see a baby seal pup who was born 10 minutes prior to our arrival.  They are not as furry or cute as you would think. For those of you with a soft stomach skip over the next few sentences. The Seagull in the picture was anxiously awaiting to make a meal out of the afterbirth.  Within a matter of a minutes there were dozens of birds on the beach devouring the afterbirth (we will email you that photo if interested).  From La Jolla we made our way to our hotel in San Diego.  After checking in we spent our first evening dining and walking around the Gaslamp Quarter district.

Sunday morning we made our way straight to the world famous San Diego Zoo.  It was completely worth all 6+ hours it took to make our way through the zoo. We will let the pictures tell the story of our visit to the zoo.  From the zoo we took a walk along the Bay through Seaport Village to The World's Greatest Generation walking tour next to the USS Midway Aircraft Carrier.  We had a fantastic ending to our day by eating dinner with Kayla and Evan (Jodi's college friends) at their home on Coronado Island.  

On our way out of San Diego we made stops at Old Town San Diego and Torrey Pines State Reserve.  We were hoping to do some hiking along the Torrey Pines beach, but dogs are not allowed on the reserve (this is the first outdoor area we have been to in Southern California where was Bogey discriminated against).  Jodi and Bogey sat in the car while I (Tim) took some pictures and walked around the clubhouse of the famous Torrey Pines Golf Course. From Torrey Pines we headed north along to coast to Carlsbad where we grabbed lunch before making the rest of the journey back home.  

Visit our Picasa page to see the photo album of the weekend's adventures.  

Hollywood and Beyond

This past weekend, I (Tim) finally had a normal weekend (both Saturday and Sunday off) which allowed us to get back to our adventures. It was because of my work schedule that we did not blog last weekend, I guess one could say we didn't have anything to write home about.

We spent the day yesterday visiting various sights in and around L.A. We started the day with taking in the views along famous Mulholland Drive. From Mulholland drive we went straight to Hollywood Boulevard where we made the compulsory stops to The Grauman's Chinese Theater and The Hollywood Walk of Fame. We have heard these sights were not in a good part of town, but we were pleasantly surprised to see the riffraff have been replaced by the Hollywood and Highland Center (shopping mall) and The Kodak Theater. From what we saw, it has been transformed into a much nicer area with a lot of shopping, dining and nightlife establishments.

Next we went to the La Brea Tar Pits. For those of you who do not know about this gem in the middle of the city, click the embedded link for the FAQ's. From the Tar Pits we made our way around the corner to another L.A. landmark, The Original Farmers Market and the adjoining outdoor shopping mall, The Grove. Once we made our rounds at the Farmers Market and The Grove we got back in the car and headed for Beverly Hills.

No day would be complete without driving down Rodeo Drive, but don't worry our Prius blended in well among the Lamborghini's, Ferrari's, and Maserati's. We decided to wait another day until our nicest hammy-downs were donned before we walked these streets. From Rodeo Drive we made a quick drive through the campus of UCLA before we headed back home.

On Sunday Bogey joined us to hike and climb among the rock formations at The Vasquez Rocks Park. The greatest part about the park is that you're allowed to hike around as well as climb up and down all of the rock formations. No ropes, no nets, and apparently no rules. Once in the park it's easy to see why it has such an extensive filming history.

Please visit our Picasa site for the latest photos.

We both have a 3 day weekend next weekend. Stay tuned to see what kind of trouble we may stir up with 3 days of Southern California at our fingertips.