Minutes to Memories

Okay, it's catch-up time on my blog: This one is for this past TUESDAY.

So I fly from New Orleans to Los Angeles on Tuesday, which is an awfully long flight from my perspective. Especially since they no longer serve you meals on flights of nearly FOUR hours. But they let me buy a box full of crappy food for five bucks, so I wasn't hungry when we landed.

I became a big fan of Dollar Rent-a-Car that day. I was in and out with my cool mini-van in less than five minutes, which was downright amazing.

And then I was introduced to driving in Los Angeles, but since it was my first time, L.A. was gentle. It may have been because it was around lunch time on a Tuesday, but the traffic wasn't as horrible as I expected.

I existed 405 on Mulholland Drive, and I nearly lost my breath at the amazing views that opened up on that windy road. Simply breathtaking. I stopped at a few scenic overlooks to try to take some pictures, but the pictures in no way do it justice.

I made it to my first stop, Franklin Canyon Lake, without any problems. This particular lake has been used by Hollywood many times over the years. It was used a lot for Bonanza, it was the "pond" in On Golden Pond, and I even read that it was used in Star Trek, but since I'm not a trekkie, I'm not sure how that happened. But none of these were the reason I traveled there intentionally. No, as a huge fan of The Andy Griffith Show, I went there because this was the "fishin' hole" from the opening whistlin' song when Andy & Opie are walking along with their fishin' poles (as well as Myers Lake from a variety of episodes). That was really cool.

From there, I made my way up to 101 to look for an out-of-the-way park I had read about on the internet where I could get a good view (and picture) of the Hollywood sign. I had a couple of traffic snafu's, but I made it there without much problem. And it WAS most definitely a breathtaking view. The only problem was that there were policemen all over the park with their training dogs and a camera crew for a commercial about the LAPD. I parked anyway, and walked around to take some picture. As I sauntered by, I noticed that Jim Belushi was the spokesman for the commercial! I had been in L.A. for less than three hours, and I already had my first star sighting! This was just too cool... If you need some proof, look at the picture above...

From there, I drove up the 101, exited toward Malibu Canyon Road, and I began losing my breath again. I came to understand why California has mudslides, wildfires, earthquakes, et al - God has to keep Californians humble somehow. The combination of the mountains and the Pacific Ocean is stunning.

Pepperdine's campus is simply unbelievable. You'd just have to see it to understand.

As I walked around campus, my friend, Michael Lasley (Mikey from the Houseflies blog), found me. It was so good to see him! He's an English professor here at Pepperdine, and also the envy of "ME!" I cannot imagine working in this gorgeous setting.

After seeing Mikey for a bit, I enjoyed a men's dinner where Buddy Bell spoke. Afterwards, I went to the Fieldhouse for the opening night keynote from Glen Pemberton.

And then I was exhausted. Partly because I've never seen (or climbed) so many stairs in my life. This campus is on an oceanside mountain, and they have the steps to prove it. But I was mostly exhausted because, given the time change, I had been up since 1:45am California time.

So I climbed the mountain to my dorm and crashed.