So-Cal, Desiree style

Southern California, while beautiful, is not my kind of place. I came, definitely, for the people here--namely Lauren Hartley and Aaron Morgan and Jess Mosher, three good friends from Thailand. Our train was delayed again, unsurprisingly, by three hours. But Lauren, the gem that she is, came and retrieved us from the station and we had the perfect Saturday together -- slow morning, delicious brunch, walk in the park with dog Chloe. She taught me how to make paper flowers, we baked pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, and eventually made pizza for dinner before meeting up with her friend for drinking chocolate. The next morning, a baptism service on a beautiful beach in Malibu, a picnic and walk, and then a drive to Newport where Lauren had a birthday party for a friend turning 102. That evening, I slept at Aaron's house (Jess was not there, sadly!) and Aaron and Graham and Doug talked movies and music for hours. We stopped at Amoeba Records before catching our next train to Flagstaff the next morning, and here we are for the next few days with our wonderful host, Brent! Crazy to think that this trip is ending soon...