the hi-Desert

One of the greatest things about Los Angeles is how easy it is to leave Los Angeles. I know that sounds funny coming from me, a person who has been writing about her love affair of this city for over 5 years now. (6 years in January) The thing I love about this city is how easy it is to be somewhere completely different in a blink of an eye. I think I have been able to show you some of these places via this here blog and I hope you have had fun traveling along with me.

This October I had my heart set on going to the desert to catch the annual High Desert Test Sites event. Which basically uses the desert as a gallery space from Pioneertown to outside of 29 Palms, which is approximately 30 miles. Interspersed in this area are places with sculpture installations, performance art (or charades for adults, as my dad calls it) and whole lot of sand.

My friend and I hit town just in time to grab a map at the HDTS headquarters. They also had gluten free fudge cookies waiting for me, they must have known I was coming. Actually they did know, the event planner was more recently an intern in my department at work. Nice to see all of the amazing things my co-workers do in their free time.

Our first stop was the World Famous Crochet Museum Gospel Revival, and they sang and they wore crocheted garments and they revived and made me feel the lord and made me, like a good catholic, feel guilty about not crocheting more. And with that guilt and the increasing degrees we left after 20 minutes or so to grab margaritas with another co-worker of mine in Pioneertown.

I had never been to the Joshua Tree area before, I had heard that it was beautiful, but I guess I wasn't prepared for how amazing it was. Rocks precariously perched on other rocks, abandoned houses, Joshua trees of course, cloudless periwinkle skies, I think we got out twice for photo shoots in the 4 miles it took us to get to Pioneertown.

So after our brief time of being artsy ourselves we found ourselves at a biker bar, Pappy and Harriet's Pioneertown Palace, in the middle of the desert. And lucky for us, there was a biker rally in Palm Springs, only 20 minutes away. We pulled in and it was a vast sea of Harley's, leather and bandanas. There were biker babes in bikinis and they had definitely seen better days.

Here is a photo of our waitress, Flo, no seriously her name is Flo. When my friend had some questions on the menu and then settled on the burger and a side salad, Flo in her most surly annoyed voice said "Let me guess Bal-Sam-ick" and she was like that the rest of our stay and it was pretty fantastic.

The drinks were stiff and I was half hoping to see a bar fight, but no suck luck.

We ended our day in Desert Hot Springs in the hotel's mineral pools. Not too shabby for a night in the desert.

stars-vertically challenged

I figured over the past few weeks that my problem breaking into Hollywood is that I am just too tall.

I was having lunch w/ my friend who I worked with at the after-school program at this adorable place that opened in my old neighborhood. My how Larchmont has changed. I was ordering my food, when who should come up to the counter but Jeremy Piven.

I also stepped off the bus yesterday and almost ran into Amy Poehler and wee Poehler-Arnett.

After yoga, and I am sure you are not supposed to do this after an exhilarating yoga session, the girls and I headed to Tinga, my favorite taco joint of the moment. Their tinga is the most tasty I have had. We saw Andy Richter and his kids.

Andy being the exception, everyone else here is a lot tinier than I had thought. So, my deduction is that I am just too tall to make it in Hollywood.

Santa Catalina here dreams come true

One place that I have wanted to visit since moving here is Catalina. Which is an island off the coast that I can sometimes see on a clear day from my office window. I think seeing it from a far 17 days out of the year inspired me to purchase the half off Groupon for a roundtrip fare, normally $90.

My very good, and newly fianced, friend t and her beau also a t and I set off early on a Sunday. We quickly learned that the latter t is not a sea person. Which is rather unfortunate because the trip to Avalon from Marina Del Rey is approximately an hour and 45 minutes. Which I am sure that if you are seasick can be a rather long trip. It was too bad because as we were leaving the port we were greeted by flotillas of birds, dolphins and this guy... (totally missed by t)


Which is a Blue Whale, the largest mammal on the planet. Of course it fluked and I missed it. Oh well. (if you look closely it is spouting, you may need to click on the photo to get a better look)

Avalon reminds me of an East Coast seaside tourist town. Compact, main street, sand dollar key chains, very palatable food. I wouldn't go to Avalon for the best Mexican food. Our first stop was a diner for breakfast, call Joe's. All the servers had Eat at Joe's t-shirts.

After a hearty breakfast we headed to the Conservancy to see what kind of nature stuff was available in Avalon for us to explore. With limited time, we decided the best option was the trek up to Wrigley Memorial garden, yes the chewing gum guy and former owner of the Chicago Cubs, hence the name Wrigley Field. It was an hour and 15 minute hike, we passed deer in the golf course and many golf carts passed us, I guess the preferred method of travel on the island. Golf carts are loud and many of them smell of gasoline, which was not the nature we were hoping for.

The garden was well worth the journey:















It was a very overcast day, I think the first photo with the memorial in the distance is very tim burtonesque. A lot of the plants in the garden are not native to Catalina, the ones that are are called endemics, which is just a fancy way of saying native. For more garden photos and additional other, please go to my flickr album:

click here


And coincidentally, or most likely not, the memorial ended up reminding me of The Trophy of the Alps in France.















The view from the top is pretty fantastic as well as the tile work.

We walked back to town and had an hour or so at the beach. The tide pools in Avalon are pretty non-existent, so maybe next time we will take the boat to Two Harbors, which is much more natur-y and I hear has some excellent places for diving. (Now if only I can find a Groupon for that)

We got to the boat in the nick of time, just about to depart we got a passive aggressive warning from the crew "cutting it close, guys" when we looked around for seats we couldn't all sit together, I sat up top, the two lovebirds on the lower deck. And I am glad because the way back is much choppier, and down below a baby started a vomiting chain reaction that is likened to the pie eating contest in "Stand By Me"

But on another note, I got some amazing pictures on the way back. (see flickr, day is in reverse)

I break for stars

I was talking to my friend Alanna at a stop light and pulled up next to us was Carson Kressley in his blue convertible. After he passed we both commented how Queer Eye really changed television. It also helped me to spot heterosexual men-they don't wear clothes that fit and really need to shave their necks.

I was leaving the Getty Bookstore, when the guy I am seeing pulled me closer and said, "do you know who that was?" I said no because I wasn't paying attention. "it was Hilary Duff and her hockey player boyfriend. I thought girls were supposed to be good at spotting these things."

I didn't even know she was dating a hockey player. Something tells me that he might fit in with the family.

recap-celebrity house hunt

One thing I have never done in all of my time here is go on a tour of celebrity homes. And since I am too cool for school to do one on my own, I decided to drag a tourist with me. Who better than my mom who reads more tabloids than anyone I know.

We started the tour on the Santa Monica Pier. Us, a family from Wales and three older ladies from Texas all in matching cheetah print. (Rahr!) We jumped into the topless 10 passenger van and instantly queue up was The Beach Boys, and their signature surf guitar. We put on our headphones and the driver warned us that only one side of the ear piece would be working that day.

We learned about all of the real estate that the former governator owns in Santa Monica, and usually Arnold is out and about, but of course not that day. When we passed by Hotel California, queued up was of course Hotel California by the Eagles. Anyone who knows me well, knows of course that I hate both the Beach Boys and the Eagles, so I was very happy that only one side of the headphones would be working that day.

And we saw where Robert Downey jr, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Ron Howard lives and the place that Elton John is moving into, with of course modest improvements before he moves in.

We headed up the 1 with the wind in our hair. Saw Bob Hope's house, Leo's house, Jeremy Piven's, Demi and Ashton's house and Charlize Theron's house-who is usually very friendly and will come out, but of course not that day.

We stalked someone who might have been Jeff Bridge's son. Imagine if you will, you are Jeff Bridges son and you are trying to cross back over the 1 and there is a car load of ladies in Rahr! print matching outfits and you can hear a man whispering, in a loudspeaker mind you...

"that looks like a bridges, maybe his son, or grandson, I haven't seen him before, but it does look like a bridges brow line, hmmm.. I am not sure."

It was at that point, that I really realized that I was on a Safari.

And we headed up toward's Malibu Surf Beach and saw where Matthew (I don't like shirts) McConaughey, Pamela Anderson, Kid Rock and Sting lives and Adam Sandler, who is very nice and will come out to sign autographs, but of course not on that day.

We had a brief 5 minutes on the beach to dip our feet in the freezing Pacific Ocean , which felt so nice, The Texans stayed in the van.

We headed back up the 1 and I saw who owns that crazy looking neo-Japanese house and of course it is owned by Oliver Stone.

Two hours later we were dropped off where we began and headed to the new Mall-opolis for lunch and as we were enjoying guacamole. (fresh avacados are god aren't they?) we saw Giuliana Rancic come up the escalator. Which made mom very excited, because she likes all those shows. She is a lot taller in person and very pretty.

I think it made mom's day and later we saw her doing a little "on the promenade" piece and mom snapped pictures.

This day marked the last day of mom's visit and I asked her what she wanted to do on her last night and of course we ended up here: