013,014 (April 14&15, 2009)

I'm not sure why I decided to merge these two days. Maybe because it was meant to be the climax of the trip; me finally making it to California and realizing the meaning of life or something.

I woke up pretty early the next morning considering how later I had arrived the night before. Basically did the most boring of things while one of my best friends from college, Rachel, went out for a run. I met her boyfriend at some point that day (now her husband). She was pretty busy with grad school stuff but still was able to spend most of the day with me showing me around Santa Barbara. Apparently we saw some movie stars when at a farmer's market.

That night I think she worked on school stuff while I went to see Bill Bryson speak. It was sold out but I hung around the door until someone happened to be giving away some tickets (which the door guy said beforehand would never happen). I watched from a balcony seat right above the stage in an old theater with a lot of character. At the end of his talk I got him to sign my friend Emily's copy of A Walk in the Woods that I happened to have brought with me on the trip. I apologized to her when I was giving it back saying, "sorry, but some asshole wrote on the inside cover" which I thought was really funny at the time.

Seems I stayed up late drinking beer and watching Robot Chicken that first night so my first day in my destination apparently didn't help me grow up at all.

The next day I puttered down the California coast into L.A. where I met up with a highschool friend Travis for lunch. I'm guessing we talked about complete randomness and nothing of real significance which is always nice.

I took a detour on my way out of the city and went up to the Getty museum. It is a pretty nice museum, a great building, and has spectacular views over Los Angeles. Highly recommend it. Dress nicer than I did; while looking in a mirror I realized towards the end of my visit that I looked ridiculous (selfie below as evidence).

I then met up with another highschool friend, Joie, who happened to be in San Diego visiting one of her college friends (Jenn). We hit up a small amusement park area and then a bar named after the coaster that we went on. Had too many drinks and ended up snoring away to Top Gun when we got back to Jenn's place.

At the end of note #14 it was actually April 16th-ish which was the start of me checking out San Diego before I started my trip back east.

I think that is when I tried and failed to buy a used windshield for my bike because the wind gets really tiring without one. Oh well.