I'm Baaack!

I've successfully completed my whirlwind tour of southern California with my grandfather which, all in all, was a pretty good time.

Perhaps the most interesting, or at least exciting, part of the trip actually occurred on the way back, so I'll start at the end. Perhaps by now you've heard of the minor earthquake that happened yesterday in the L.A. area? Well, Gramps and I was sitting in the airport not too far from the epicenter when it all went down. This being my first real earthquake (besides several small tremors I experienced in South America) I was a bit confused as to what was happening. Much to my chagrin, I quickly snapped into right-wing fear tactic mode and was certain that a plane had careened into the side of the airport, no doubt at the hands of terrorists. However my response was quickly assuaged when the rumbling continued, and when I saw the hanging lights and signs swaying like streamers from the ceiling, I realized that we were in fact not under attack by those pesky terrorists, but rather by Mother Nature.
Being the good Samaritan that I am, after the quake I walked over to an elderly woman in the terminal sitting in a wheelchair by herself, and asked if she was O.K. She quickly explained that she was from Texas, absolutely terrified and "Ohh Sug-ah, I need ohn that Gohd Damned plane raaht NOW!". So I wheeled her over next to Gramps and I, and she just chatted up a Southern Belle storm with my grandpa, usually accentuating whatever she was talking about with how horribly scary the earthquake was. (For reference it wasn't that bad).
I sat and listened to their conversation for a while, until it turned to politics, and she proclaimed the glory and righteousness that is George Bush and his maniacal political party, which pissed both me and Gramps off, but I was the only one who took
the bait and started making digs. I quickly caught myself using words like "embarrassment" and "racist" and decided that I had no business arguing politics with a 75 year old Texan who just suffered through her first earthquake. So I went to The Coffee Bean.

I will not bore you with all the minute details of the trip, however I did get to see a bit of San Francisco, got to swim in the Pacific, took a tram to one of highest points in California, and did a little hiking* on some amazing trails in the desert where I saw a herd of big-horned sheep and caves with Native American hieroglyphs.

I also learned some incredible and incredibly humorous things from and about my grandfather and had many interesting experiences with him and his two brothers.

In the original version of this post, I listed several quotes and stories that were told by my grandfather and his brothers about growing up and past experiences that stood out in my memory. However, after re-reading the post several times, I realized only the dodgey and morally questionable bits were listed, which in turn made my experience and family sound a bit trashy. So, I have modified the post with a few pictures from my trip. I will be posting random things from my trip in the future (somehow spread out, the trashiness will be lessened). But until then, I leave you with this quote:

"I'm Little Willy from Southern Philly, he's Long Dong from Hong Kong, and he's Big Dork from New York".


*I use the term "hiking" VERY loosely.


Photos:
1: View on tram new Palm Springs, CA
2: Pacific Ocean, Carlsbad, CA
3: Herd of sheep
4: Trail in Joshua Tree National Park
5: Small portion of San Diego skyline
6: Cave with Native American hieroglyphs