Amtrak for the Holidays, Part 1

As Christmas approached, I was faced with the question of whether I could/should go home for the holidays.  Having recently moved from Ohio to LA, this was substantially more troublesome all the sudden.  “Going home” used to entail a short hop down 75 followed by some state routes, etc.  About 180 miles in total.  I was now looking at over 2,200.  I took a lot of math classes in high school, all of which told me that 2,200 is more that 180.

I weighed the costs and benefits of making the trip (i.e. dithered), looking at expense, timetables, etc.  Eventually, I decided that I had time and money enough to make the trip.  Now that the if was answered, it was time to answer the how.  By this point, it was already early December, and plane tickets would have run over $1400.  Out of the question.  A cross country Greyhound trip on a tight schedule, while something everyone should do once, wasn’t something I was looking forward too after the last time (subject of another post perhaps).  I thought about driving, but I’ve kind of been there and done that.  It finally occurred to me that we have this thing in America called Amtrak.

Weekend in Limbo

So I was homeless last weekend.  I couldn’t move in to my apartment until Sunday afternoon and the hostel I was at had no vacancy for the weekend.  So I had nowhere to stay from 10:30 Saturday morning to Sunday afternoon.  I suppose I could have stayed at a hotel or something, but that’s decidedly blasé.  Instead, I sort of wandered for about 26 hours.

I spent most of the afternoon perambulating around Runyon Canyon Park, a few blocks off of Hollywood Boulevard.  It’s basically Griffith Park’s much smaller sibling.

Change in Residence: Part 4 – Arrival

I’ve been in LA for a day and a half now.  I’m set up at a hostel for the week, and I’m now in the business of getting things situated out here;  Finding an apartment, finding work, etc.  So this post concludes things for now.  Posts like “Looked at an apartment today.  Bathroom smelled funny.” aren’t really what this blog is about.  I’ll be finding plenty to point my camera at in the future, and I’ve still got a lot of older material that I want to post, so stay tuned, if desired.

Yep. Definitely not in Ohio anymore.

Day 37: From Mono Lake to Death Valley

I was going to hit up the East side of Yosemite today, but I decided to see what this Mono Lake was about. As soon as a I saw a picture, I decided heading down there was mandatory.

The South Tufa area of Mono Lake

Tufa is apparently an underwater calcium deposit phenomenon. The water level of Mono lake was lowed significantly when much of it’s depository streams were diverted for use by the city of Los Angeles, exposing several tufa patches. The tree hugger in me cringes, but the shutter bug heartens.

Day 32: From Los Angeles to Sequioua National Park

Today, I left LA and started on what is at least nominally the return leg of my trip.

First though, I was more than happy to fulfill a maternal request:

The Pier at Huntington Beach

Huntington Beach is a municipality (and beach, obviously) about three quarters of the way down the coast on the “Los Angeles & Vicinity” map in my road atlas. It also has the privilege of having been a part of my Mom’s formative years.

My Time in LA, or Parts of it Anyway

My time in LA is drawing to a close. I should be heading out some time tomorrow, possibly in the afternoon, but no later than end of business. My stay in Los Angeles has been rather different than my stays in Vancouver and SanFran, mostly because I’ve been much busier here.

I had decided to spend a full work week in each of the three cities, and in the first two, spent most of that time getting a feel for the place and trying to figure out what work opportunities there might be. Both times, it took a while before I actually found anywhere to drop a resume off at. Even then, there were only a few places that seemed applicable. Either I’m finally getting the hang of this, or the disparity between the job market outside of LA and inside of it is truly enormous, even more so than I would have thought. Just researching companies, talking to people, and dropping of resumes has taken the great bulk of my time. This last week has been the most business-like of the entire trip, which is no bad thing. I’m not burning all this money just to sight see. Still it has been different. For instance, I find it a bit odd that I’ve been in LA for the better part of a week, and will most likely leave it without ever actually going to Los Angeles proper. I’ve been around Hollywood, all over and back and forth in North Hollywood (There’s a high concentration of FX studios and Scene Shops up there), as far North as Santa Clarita, and as far South as Santa Monica, but never made it into downtown.

Meh. I’d rather be busy than not.

I did find some downtime this afternoon, so I took the chance to get closer to the Hollywood sign:

Day 28 – From Ventura, CA to Los Angeles

I got into LA pretty early, and found myself a hostel on Hollywood Blvd, the Banana Bungalow. It seems pretty cool, the rooms are huge by hostel standards, with private bathrooms and kitchens, and there’s free on site parking, so I’m feeling pretty good about my housing status for the next few days. After getting settled, I didn’t have much time or energy for wandering, but I can say one thing with assuredness: LA is hot.

I’ve never cursed myself for forgetting to crack a car window open in late October before. I can only imagine July around here. I was stupidly wearing long jeans, and not even a drafty pair, so biking around was sad for me today. I did manage to snap The Obligatory Hollywood Letters Photo:

I'm hoping to get a much closer view later in the week.

Day 27 – From San Francisco to Ventura, CA

After a bit of self inflicted hullabaloo (at one point, I mistook the fistful of change in my pocket for my keys and thus left said keys in Ryan’s apartment), I made it out of San Francisco much more easily than Vancouver. Once again, I made for the coast and followed Route 1, locally christened “The Cabrillo Highway.”

The fog rolled in pretty hardcore not long into the drive, once more limiting my photographic hijinks, which is probably a good thing so far as making good time goes. Despite the weather’s best efforts to keep my pace up, I did find a few excuses the get the camera out: