Couple Blog Tips

Sometimes the small images are difficult to see, so just click on the particular picture for a higher resolution enlarged view. The blog (short for weblog) is broken up into a page for each week I believe, and you can access these on the lower right hand side of this page under the archive section. Just click on the oldest one and start reading from the bottom of the page to the top.

Stef and our friend that we met in the airport from Christ Church, NZ

Cow's End for lunch (life size cow in the window above the door)

Scott on the Venice pier

one of Scott's bird friends on the pier

Stef and a roller skating friend at Venice Beach

Venice Beach homes

20+ ft high hedges surrounding Hugh's Mansion

Day 3 Recap (Thurs Feb 10)

[Stef] Well this is my first entry so I hope I can live up to the high standards Scott has set. We got up early and got ready for the day. By noon we were ready to go. I am going to miss the smell of fried food and cigarettes that the hotel provided us as we walked to the elevator. I guess you can't live a charmed life all the time, right?
We decided to go cruise around some of the rich and famous neighborhoods before heading out to the beach. We went to see my Uncle Hugh at the Playboy Mansion. Unfortunately, our good looks made everyone else uncomfortable and so we were asked to leave. Just as well, as we needed to get to Venice Beach.
We drove along Ocean road towards Santa Monica and saw the carnaval area on the pier there. We didn't have time to stop, just a drive by glance. We made our way to Venice Beach. We ate at the Cow's End. I know, sounds gross. But it was a great wrap - spicy chicken and pesto. Of course it had a spanish name - so I am loosely translating that. We got a bag of chips and a Dr. Pepper to split and sat right under the sign of the cow's butt. Again, I know you find it bizarre, but if you are ever interested in getting a sandwich under a cow's butt, check this place out. We then made our way to the walkway. As couples romantically strolled down the pier, I watched Scott take pictures of the birds. It was just like I imagined it to be. After the birds gave us their best face, we headed down the 26 mile path. We made it about a 1/4 of a mile since we were limited in time. We went to Muscle Beach, where the movie "White Men Can't Jump" was filmed. Scott considered a pickup game, but luckily time didn't allow for him to show the world how true that movie is. The little shops and condos lining the walk are really unique and artsy. I enjoyed it and we hope to get back there someday. It was lively on a overcast February day, so I am sure the summer months are really exciting.
We headed back to the car and made our way to the airport. Security and checkin was really fast and we were able to get to out gate with almost 3 hours to spare. Nothing like planning ahead. (You must be so proud, mom!) Anyway, we sat in a bar and met a nice girl from Christchurch, NZ. She offered to meet us when we were there to show us around. We hope that can happen. She also offered to let us borrow a tent in case we wanted to camp outside instead of in our RV when we got to Abel Tasman National Park. She gave us some good pointers and even gave us a lesson in the money. It really brought a tear to Scott's eye - he was hoping I wouldn't figure out how to spend the money. Too bad for him, his plan is foiled!
Anyway, we got on the plane and settled in. I am squished between a very...well...healthy eater and Scott. I am dreaming of a nice, rockhard bed in the Holiday Inn. It's okay, only 9 more hours to go. They served us a hot meal. Scott had the chicken, I had the mushroom ravioli. It wasn't gourmet, but it was better than the bag of chips I had in the airport. They were nice enough to give us a metal fork, a metal spoon and a plastic knife. I guess it's for safety issues, but I think getting forked to death is a more painful way to go than getting cut by a knife. Maybe that's just me and how my mind works as I get smashed again by my too-large-for-coach neighbor. The knife reminded me of the knives that come with the playdough sets. For a second I thought we were going to have inflight craft hour. Unfortunately we only have inseat yoga. I am looking forward to that at 2 AM.
Oh, and the current excitement on the plane is to our left. I wouldn't have noticed, even though there are a lot of flight attendants lurking... Luckily, Scott pointed her out. That's right folks, we have a puker. So as I dream of our bedrock palace and drift off to sleep to the sound of a weak stomach upchucking, I wish you all pleasant dreams too!

Stef with a view of the Hollywood sign behind her

The Governor's star print at Hollywood's Chinese Theater

Scott auditioning for Teminator 4

Stef and her friend Elmo on the Walk of Fame

Scott playing with a new friend in Hollywood

Day 2 Recap (Wed Feb 9)

[Scott] The sleep was about as good as could be expected on bedrock. We spent Wednesday exploring the Hollywood and Beverly Hills areas. We drove down Rodeo Drive, at which time I locked the doors to prevent my wife from jumping out and spending our budgeted money for Down Under. Beverly Hills is a truly amazing area. Neither of us have ever been in a place where the mansions are one after another for miles upon miles. It's sort of like a civilized safari to see how these celebrity "animals" live. We then went on a search for "the sign" in Hollywood. Took a nice drive over the hills on Mulholland Drive and saw the sign as well as a nice view of LA...as nice as it could be through the smog. After we got back to the hotel, we walked around downtown Hollywood and saw all the stars on the sidewalk on the walk of fame. I still can't believe Terry Bradshaw has a star. Are they referring to the same Terry Bradshaw I'm thinking of? Back to Hollywood. Both the people and the architecture of the area have alot of character, however they don't seem to put alot of emphasis on keeping the area cleaned up and sharp... I guess they put all that budget toward beautifying Beverly Hills. Not surprisingly, we saw the most and largest movie advertisement billboards we've ever seen. This is the most NY Pizza joints I've seen outside of NYC, and it's not bad for the opposite coast. You've heard all about the bad traffic in LA...it's much worse than you could imagine....and all day long. It requires very aggressive driving to keep up. I was screamed at and honked while driving a few times today. I think I figured out that apparently you're not allowed to make any left turns on the major streets here. We're both glad we got to see this area, but we're looking forward to getting out of the city. We have one more night at our hotel with the comfortable bed, and tomorrow we hope to see a few of the star's mansions and go to Venice Beach before heading to the airport.

View from Pepperdine

Pacific Coast Highway

Point Dume at sunset

sunset picture

Stef at sunset

Day 1 Recap (Tues Feb 8)

[Scott] We had a good trip to LA (which is a relief after some of the troubles we had last year). We got up at 5am and Melinda's airport shuttle provided us great service. We picked up our little Chevy Aveo rental (TINY but brand new with 6 miles on it) and headed for the coast. We drove north on the Pacific Coast Highway all the way to Ventura. The views on this ocean drive are really nice. We walked out on some rocks and saw an abundance of star fish, sponge, and anemones (we think that's what they were). We took a quick drive through the Pepperdine Univ. campus -- beautiful campus ideally situated on the hillside overlooking the ocean. We had a nice pizza lunch at a small Italian cafe. The highlight of the day was the sunset we saw at Point Dume in Malibu. The colors of the sunset were spectacular. We met a local there who is a professional journalist for the USA Today and NY Times, and she pointed out the dolphins playing a short distance out in the water. There must have been at least ten of them. One of them jumped completely out of the water, which was pretty cool. She said sometimes she sees whales from this point. There were also pelican-like birds that were exciting to watch as they vertically dive-bombed into the water at high speed to catch fish. The local said there must have been an unusually large school of fish circling in the cove to attract all of these dolphins and birds of prey. We just sort of stumbled upon this spot and felt really lucky that we did. There was also a Native American Indian Chief there performing a sunset ritual (don't worry Dad, he had nothing on you!). They were filming a documentary that this journalist was working on with him. This chief was a really spiritual and friendly person and gave us both a big hug, which certainly caught me off guard! After all this we headed for our hotel in Hollywood. The traffic on Sunset Blvd. was ridiculous and it took forever. Stef was in awe of the homes (more like compounds) in Beverly Hills. We had dinner at my old favorite In-N-Out Burger. We checked into the Holiday Inn. My experience has beent that this hotel chain is usually decent to nice for the money. This place is definitely not! The decor is circa 1973, and while it's nice to see how people lived back when I was born, it could use a serious upgrade! Stef cut her foot on the chair when she sat down on it Indian Style. Turns out there was a nail sticking up through the chair.... She has had her tetanus shot, and it wasn't very deep, but we'll keep a close eye on it. I ran about three miles on the outdated treadmill in the fitness room. The bed is maybe the least comfortable bed I've ever been on and Stef says so too, reminded us of the concrete floor in our basement. We're taking it all in stride and having a good time making fun of this place, and singing Sugarhill Gang's song "Rapper's Delight"..."Hotel, motel, Holiday Inn...i said a hip hop the hippie the hippie to the hip hip hop, a you dont stop the rock it to the bang bang boogie say up jumped the boogie to the rhythm of the boogie, the beat...."

Departure Eve

[Scott] It's Tuesday night and we are all packed and ready for the big journey. These last few days have been helter skelter with all of the final preparations. We will be getting up tomorrow at 5 am and heading to DIA to catch our flight to LA. We will be staying in Hollywood for the next two nights, before we catch our flight out of LAX for New Zealand Thursday night at 8pm. I feel like a load is off my back now that the suitcases are packed, and I'm excited and anxious for the journey to begin. We will be spending two weeks in New Zealand and two weeks in Australia. We have all our flights booked, and about half of the nights we know where we'll be sleeping which will leave us plenty of time for some spontaneous adventuring.

Our rough schedule:
Feb 8-10 Los Angeles exploring the coast and seeing Hollywood
Feb 10 Catch 8pm flight from LAX to Auckland, New Zealand
Feb 12 Arrive in Auckland at 6am - loooong flight plus lose a day across the intl dateline
Feb 12-13 Staying in the heart of the city of Auckland (New Zealand's largest city)
Feb 14-16 Exploring more of New Zealand's North Island
Feb16 Fly from Rotorua (North Island) to Christ Church (South Island)
Feb17-25 Renting an RV to explore the scenic South Island for a whole week
Feb 25 Fly back to Auckland
Feb 26 Fly to Sydney, Australia (southeast coast)
Feb 26-28 Take in as much of Sydney as we can in three nights
Mar 1 Fly to Melbourne (southern coast)
Mar 1-4 Explore Melbourne and surroundings, including the Great Ocean Drive
Mar 5 Fly to Brisbane (middle of the east coast)
Mar 5-6 Working our way up the coast to Gladstone, hopefully visiting a rainforest area
Mar 7 Take a catamaran from Gladstone to Heron Island (www.heronisland.com)
Mar 7-11 Crown jewel of our trip: 4 nights on Heron Island right on the Great Barrier Reef
Mar 11 Drive from Gladstone to Brisbane
Mar 12 Fly from Brisbane to Sydney to LA to Denver
(Don't even want to know how long that journey back will take!)