Needless to say, I'm a bit behind on my updates.
In May, Matt and I took a road trip to see Ben and Stepph in Los Angeles. It was a great trip.
In Western Colorado somewhere...
Palisades, CO
...And we did when we took a quick wine tasting pit stop
Desert flower in Utah
King of the mountain!
More desert flowers in Utah
Took many photos from the car.
Matt got pretty tired of having his perfect hair blown around by the wind
Us
Wowwy!
Matt was concerned we were never going to get to Vegas because I kept insisting we stop at every scenic overlook. He would slow down, I would jump out, run and take a couple photos then run back and jump into the car. Got some good ones on the fly.
Our friends Craig and Alice have a time share in St. George, Utah where they were very generous to let us stay for the night. We got there pretty late and left early so there are no photos but the place was really great. I think the time share was bigger than our apartment. Thanks, Craig and Alice!
After a yummy breakfast at The Cracker Barrel-yes, I said The Cracker Barrel-we were on the road again to the City of Sin. Yeeeeeehaaaawww!!!!
Vegas Baby!
We stopped for lunch and some light exploration
My friend Shannon used to live in Vegas and she suggested we give Julian Serrano's Tapas restaurant in the Aria hotel a go. It was fabulous! I enjoyed a nice glass of bubbly and we had yummy tapas then went looking for trouble....
....It was not at the Bellagio. Unfortunately, the fountains were not scheduled to go off for another several hours when we were back on the road.
This photo would have been much cooler with the fountains
Not quite the Bellagio fountains but I think these jumpy fountains are so cool! I could watch them forever!
I didn't get very good photos from the car when we entered California but the mountains were spectacular
This was my bracing posture in LA traffic
We sat on the 405 for what seemed like 4 'o' 5 hours in rush hour traffic but then headed straight to meet Ben at the UCLA campus.
Hi Ben!
Ben took us to a very interesting vegetarian restaurant that night. This restaurant is known for its soul food, including fried chicken. It was not for me, but Matt liked it.
When we got back to Ben and Stepph's great apartment in West Hollywood, we spent a lot of time chilling and catching up with Ben. Stepph was working and got home late then we visited with her, too.
I took MANY photos of Naima the cat....
....and random objects in Ben and Stepph's apartment
The next day, while Stepph was working, we headed to the MOCA in LA for a street art exhibit that was really unique, with lots of famous street artists. I'm pretty sure it was one of the first major exhibitions of street art at a gallery of this size. The exhibit was getting a ton of press because the police reported a significant increase in graffiti since the art exhibit opened. Oops...
If waking like a thunderstorm means cranky then this fits me perfectly
Brothers!
Pimpin' candy car
Ben making sweet music
Pondering art
They had a film editing section that was pretty cool
After the museum we went for a stroll in search of some 'za. Ben led us to Purgatory Pizza, which was a pretty cool place. When I say cool, I mean the essence, not the temperature because this place had no AC and one million ovens simultaneously baking pizza and us. But yummy none the less!
I wonder if she is missing that shoe....
So hot...want to touch the hiney!
One of my favorite photos of the whole trip
The next day we went to a Dodger game! Matt had never been to Dodger Stadium so it was pretty great to see him so excited. We got there early and waited at the gate.
My beautiful future sister-in-law :-)
Think Blue!
We explored the stadium and came across Vin Scully's press box. The guard said Vin had JUST stopped meeting fans but after we told him we came all the way from Colorado, he made sure we didn't walk away empty handed.
Rick Monday! He's so tall and has such a great voice!
Charley Steiner, what a ham!
Kemp, you're the man. #BEASTMODE
That girl is HOUSING her Dodger Dog
Veggie Dodger Dog!
So around the 3rd inning or so, we started to notice some smoke coming from the right field upper deck
Then more smoke and the stands evacuated. Um, should we be worried?
Apparently not, there was a "small" fire in a store room but the LAFD had it under control
Programs!
That night we went to a great vegetarian restaurant. Real Food Daily is the restaurant owned by the editor of Vegetarian Times magazine, and it was delicious!
Our last day in LA we went to Venice Beach. Always interesting.
My favorite photo of Naima
We left in the evening to head back to CO with a stop in St. George.
It was a great trip to LA. Thanks Ben and Stepph for having us! Next time we visit, we fly!
