Just another day in California

Isn't it great to have nice family?
In our great journey across the States we have set up camp in California. Sheri's cousin, Liz, has allowed us to make use of her house in Santa Monica, Los Angeles. At this moment Sheri has returned to the Netherlands to file for Dutch citizenship. Unfortunately, this could only be done after April 26, which is the date that we have been together for 3 years officially (in reality, we yesterday did a phone-celebration of our 4 year anniversary of knowing each other.) We felt it would be wise to apply as soon as possible as you never know what rules could change to foil any attempt at becming a Dutchie. The allowance of dual citizenship for instance; Sheri being an American married to a Dutch person will at this moment allow her to keep both passports. Handy for travels to places where Americans are not the flavor of the month and handy to be able to work throughout the European Union. The process will take about one year, resulting (hopefully) in a letter from the Queen in which she welcomes Sheri to the Netherlands. (earlier Sheri received a letter from the mayor of Amsterdam, congratulating her on her succesful completion of the integration classes).

So what does one do while waiting for the wife to return?

Internet, sweet internet.
At this very moment I am on the roof patio of Liz's building (see picture) enjoying the sun and working on this blog. The internet is unwittingly provided by some neighbor who has not secured his wireless signal. As a matter of fact there are 7 wireless signals within reach of which 1 (one!) is secured. I am very thankful and amazed. The bright sunlight makes it a bit of a challenge to see anything on the computer screen, but that is a luxury problem.


The beach,
The apartment is very close to a lovely strip of beach. I haven't done any swimming or lying on the beach yet, but I did go for a jog - all the way to Muscle Beach (the place where all day long people work out in the sun and work even harder at showing off their bodies). Running in the sand is exhausting.
I've discovered that in the video arcade on the pier there are pinball machines!! It has been ages since I played one so I will be sure shoot some balls later.

Reading,
I finally know who the father is.....
I've just finished; "I Know This Much Is True" by Wally Lamb. Great book, very "unputdownable". Now I have started "Shantaram" which already from page 1 is funny and gripping. Sheri loved it, but has already warned me that the end is not so funny.

Cooking,
Even though I will mostely be eating by myself this week, that doesn't mean that I don't cook. The leftover I freeze for our journey up north.

Tivo,
A great invention that I don't think exists in Holland. I don't need to describe what it is because others have done that enough: See Wikipedia description

San Diego

Yesterday and today we spent in San Diego. Sheri's uncle Harry and aunt Ellie (Liz's parents) live there and they invited us for Passover. Always nice to see them and also a chance to see some more family. I was very happy to finally meet grandpa Mike. Sheri always speaks very lovingly about her "adopted" grandpa and now I know why.

Coming from a Catholic family it was interesting to experience the Passover dinner and learn a little bit about the rituals.
If you want to learn also: www.holidays.net/passover

We also did a 3 mile hike up Pyle and Cowles Mountains, the highest peaks in San Diego. Good to get some excercise after all that lovely food.

Sedona to LA

The desert is in bloom! After a very wet spring, the desert areas of the Southwest are green and flowering, making what is otherwise a dull drive very interesting. We tried to keep track of all the diffent kind of cacti (saguaro, prickly pear, barrel)and flowering plants (ocotillo, rapeseed, century plants and many, many more!).

Tip to travellers: Go to the southwest and southern California in April. The variety, the colors and the beauty of the vegetation is unbelievable. That said...some of these areas had record-levels of rain this spring and I think that the incredible bounty was a bit unusual.

We were abruptly shaken from our wildflower glee by car-shaking winds. The area around Palm Springs, California is known as a wind tunnel (thus the impressive fields of wind mills (I guess "turbine" would be a more appropriate word for this modern equipment.) We stopped at a rest area and could barely stand up. The wind was whipping so ferociously and the dust was flying. They even had police officers on the highways motioning for people to slow down due to the near "white-out" (it was more beige, but that doesn't sound right...a beige-out) conditions due to blowing sand.

If you're keeping track, that's white-out number 2 for our trip. Whooopppeeee!

Soon we joined the insane traffic of LA...I am not referring to the amount, though it was more than we'd yet seen, but more to the number of trucks and the speed at which everyone was travelling (80 mph/120 kph bumper-to-bumper) and the crazy zig-zagging in and out of traffic that some drivers do. Nonetheless, we made it safely to our haven in Santa Monica.

Albuquerque to Sedona

On the way to Sedona, Arizona, we stopped in the Painted Desert/Petrified Forest National Park for a hike. Most people drive through the park and take short, marked trails through designated areas. The park ranger informed us that we were free to hike down into the "painted desert" area and simply wander. Since we had both seen the Desert from the strategically placed look-out points, this was a great way to experience the colors, textures and sounds of the desert and the petrified wood.

We drove south from Flagstaff, Arizona amongst the pine trees and cool air, through Oak Creek Canyon a bit before sunset. The quality of light reflecting off the red cliffs and the rock itself was amazing. Arriving in Sedona at sunset is something that everyone should experience.

We spent the next two days with friends who work for Pink Jeep Tours. They got us a tour to Native American cliff dwelling ruins and took us out in their own jeep for some awesome, near vertical 4-wheelin' on the red rock of the Broken Arrow trail. Very exciting!

We also did a couple of hikes in this gorgeous area to a natural rock bridge and through formations. We never did manage to feel the energy that the New Age (what do you call these people??? practitioners? believers? wackos?) folks talk about in relation to certain rock formations. They believe that at special "vortices", there is either an up- or a down-flow of energy, which they classify as male or female. The whole idea came about as the "brain-child" of a woman who visited the area about 30 years ago. Apparently, she is now finding vortices all over the US. New Age centers are everywhere and there is no shortage of companies making a buck on the spiritual experience in Sedona. Here's just one example: Sedona New Age Center

Painted desert at the start of the trail.