california
I ended up having a wonderful week off in California to just hang around and turn off my brain for a bit. It was quite a good time. The ability to clear my thoughts and just stare out into the vast tract of city below was amazing, I need more of that in my life.
Driving to Los Angeles last weekend there was a lot of "think time" built in as I tore down I-5 in a frantic attempt to escape the cold of Seattle for the warmth of Southern California in my road ready and battle tested Saturn Vue. A mighty fine and capable automobile I might add; model year 2008, less than 50K miles and a fresh set of Goodyears', the ol girl sure is humming along great! Back to the topic at hand...thinking and vacation time.
This is the first instance I've had with uninterupted time off in which to do nothing and turn my brain off in several years and let me tell you, having days off with absolutely noting to do has been pretty fantastic. I can see why people do this type of thing and do it frequetly based on all the folks I see milling around these parts during the mid afternoon. All in all, I've spent the early part of the week lounging around Marc's Southern California Bro Compound with little complaint.
I have done some of my favorite things so far.
When I will come back, who knows. I will probably begin that trek Saturday or Sunday depnding on state of mind (Sunday if i am Crazy). Until then there will be much in the way of turkey deep frying and fun having. Pictures of which I am sure you will see. For now, enjoy this...
Los Angeles from Griffith Observatory
Sure taking pictures while driving is dangerous but... When you're the only person on the Highway it doesn't really matter now does it. Plus who could not take a picture of Mt Shasta?
The decision to move away from views like this was not an easy thing to do given my enjoyment of the sun, warm weather and everything that follows through with the two. I find myself thinking about it a a lot. Will I ever get back to this place? Was I ever meant to be there in the first place? Hard to say given that I enjoyed my time and the people I met and befriended along the way there immensely.. in the end...I just don't know.
Nice Photosynth embed of our drive down the Pacific Coast Highway in California. Certainly a niece piece of technology from Microsoft.