Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Vacation's Over, Freedom's Dwindling
We got back from California last night, and what a great vacation it was. Seeing as how this was the last chance we would have to take a week off of everything and head somewhere without any kids to worry about (at least until we're in our 60s), we felt we had to do SOMETHING. My brother urged us to just buy the cheapest ticket we could find to Europe, and get a EuroRail pass. But my passport has expired, so we opted for the more sensible choice of Southern California.
We went to Disneyland, Sea World, and Hurricane Harbor (the water park at Six Flags Magic Mountain) courtesy of my friend RGJ, who has unlimited access to free theme park passes. We went to the beach a couple of times, swam in a backyard pool, strolled down Hollywood Boulevard, checked out Beverly Hills mansions, visited the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, and even went to dinner in Pasadena just so as to make sure we didn't leave out any major neighborhood in the area. We saw three of Shelly's cousins (one by appointment, two by accident), stayed with friends from law school, friends from BYU, and friends from DC.
I spent a summer in L.A. five years ago, when I did an internship for a PR firm. I enjoyed it there--particularly the weather--but decided that I would never want to live there. Too much smog and way too much traffic (my personal rule about the L.A. freeways is that whenever you are going over 35mph you should be grateful--you should never expect more than that). But I was afraid that Shelly was falling a little too much in love with this particular corner of America, one that she hadn't explored too much before. In Santa Monica, literally a block away from the beach, we noticed the offices of a law firm I had interviewed with at Harvard. Shelly immediately (and repeatedly) told me I should get a job with them, so she can just rent some crazy Santa Monica beach condo (I can't imagine how much that would cost!) and live a beach bum life with the kid. Whenever she commented how nice the lack of humidity was, I would feel like I had to point out how brown it was. I think we're still going to live in Virginia for the next few years, but when we outgrow this house, I think I'll face some arguments in favor of SoCal.
We went to Disneyland, Sea World, and Hurricane Harbor (the water park at Six Flags Magic Mountain) courtesy of my friend RGJ, who has unlimited access to free theme park passes. We went to the beach a couple of times, swam in a backyard pool, strolled down Hollywood Boulevard, checked out Beverly Hills mansions, visited the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, and even went to dinner in Pasadena just so as to make sure we didn't leave out any major neighborhood in the area. We saw three of Shelly's cousins (one by appointment, two by accident), stayed with friends from law school, friends from BYU, and friends from DC.
I spent a summer in L.A. five years ago, when I did an internship for a PR firm. I enjoyed it there--particularly the weather--but decided that I would never want to live there. Too much smog and way too much traffic (my personal rule about the L.A. freeways is that whenever you are going over 35mph you should be grateful--you should never expect more than that). But I was afraid that Shelly was falling a little too much in love with this particular corner of America, one that she hadn't explored too much before. In Santa Monica, literally a block away from the beach, we noticed the offices of a law firm I had interviewed with at Harvard. Shelly immediately (and repeatedly) told me I should get a job with them, so she can just rent some crazy Santa Monica beach condo (I can't imagine how much that would cost!) and live a beach bum life with the kid. Whenever she commented how nice the lack of humidity was, I would feel like I had to point out how brown it was. I think we're still going to live in Virginia for the next few years, but when we outgrow this house, I think I'll face some arguments in favor of SoCal.
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