Saturday, October 13, 2007

California, USA

As always, visiting Liz and Toby in California has been relaxing and almost too much fun to handle. Everyone in the world is moving to California, if only to please Elizabeth. We spent a couple days in Oakland, and a couple days at her family's beach house on Stinson Beach. Here are pictures of both:





Liz and Laura reunited.













Camera flashes are bright in the movie theater. We were getting ready to watch "Into the Wild," which we have mixed feelings about. I liked it, overall though.









Toby with lime teeth (at a Mexican place)














Toby and me digging into Korean banchan.













Laura and Elizabeth love Korean BBQ.
*note: actually, Laura thinks Korean food is similar to the worst parts of Chinese food. What an Asian cuisine snob.









At the beach. LizBeth, Lyssa, and Beth (with Phoenix) trot along the shoreline.











Laura at the PACIFIC Ocean!













Beth (with Phoenix), Lyssa, and Laura on the beach.

The girls were bonding together.











BIRDS (California has wildlife to compete with South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana)














Sand Pipers












Lyssa in my Mandana.

Lyssa and I go way back and have been friends since before she was a mom!














Bill (Beth's Boyfriend), Beth (Bill's Girlfriend), and Shane (Carrie's Boyfriend).

Carrie is unpictured, yet smart, funny, and beautiful.







Toby, being phenomenally smart and handsome at the same time!














Toby needs human contact from time to time.














Phoenix is a really nice kid.
Phoenix is Lyssa's son. Very cute.












Something happened.
My hair got long and my beard was big. So I got tired of being itchy and Elizabeth is always bugging me to cut my hair, so I decided to let her do the honors:





I got a man-stache and a weird mohawk/mullet.
I've been rocking it all day.












Lady's Paint Brushes!













Laura at LizBeth's dream house!











Me at Liz's dream house!










A dead bat at Elizabeth's dream house!















LizBeth's dream house!












Me and Laura on a knocked-over tree at LIZBETH'S DREAM HOUSE!!!!








Our stopover in California has been a really great respite from the road. We've been eating good food and having some much-needed downtime with some great people. It's always nice to see Elizabeth and Toby, and it always makes a great vacation to come visit them. NOT TO MENTION ALL THE COOL PEOPLE WE ALWAYS MEET WHEN WE'RE HERE! Getting to meet Beth, Bill, Shane and Carrie was great--they're all cool people and it has been so easy to hang out with them even though we just met them! And seeing Lyssa always makes me happy--she might as well be my long-lost sister (no offense, Jenna).

Goodbye, Northern California, we're off to San Diego!

3 comments:

Fr0nt|er said...

Excellent Ben... good work on the funny captions!

And uh... good work... on the... yeah this comment is over!

Marty Cooperman said...

Laura and Ben,
A wise decision to skip Vancouver and Portland as you've probably realized that spending 30 minutes in each destination leaves you robbed of the essence of the experience, mainly sleep.

I read Into The Wild and it was an okay book, but the movie reviews were less kind. One reviewer in the New Yorker mentioned that renouncing the world is a noble ambition AFTER one has experienced it, but not before. Also, as you guys have discovered, it's not a bad idea to have a 4 season down bag when camping out in cold weather. Also a reliable source of food.

I like the beach photos. It reminds me of when I went there and had to duck down behind some driftwood in order to get out of the wind, and then had that same wind drive sand into my eyes which were too close to the ground. This is not a swimsuit beach.

Love,
Dad

Anonymous said...

You write very well.