Matching luggage

Oh yay, we got married and now have matching luggage... The North Face Bace Camp Duffel. Well, Megan has a red one and I have my trusty old yellow one from 2003. I traveld with it to China and Japan, then Megan used it to travel to Ecuador, then I lent it out to a fried to travel to Greece, and I lived out of it in NY. Recently it had been serving the lowly life as a gym bag, but now it is back to the traveling life again! Since it has held up so well since then (it is in perfect shape still) we decided to buy a 2nd one for our trip to europe.

So matching luggage yes, but this is our kind of bag! That also means we are going to be traveling very light, which is good because we will be moving often.

Since I love google maps, I have been using it to draw out routes, and this map below is what we have settled on for now. London for a few days, then take the train to Oxford and rent a car to drive around the pastoral Cotswolds region (and perhaps ride some horses), see some castles like this one, and then end up in Bristol. From Bristol we will take a cheap flight over to Paris where we will probably stay for a few days, and then take the train on to the old town Bruges Belgium, and then on to Amsterdam to catch our flight home. Hopefully we have left enough wiggle room to take us as the wind blows too.

We are still fishing for advice/tips. So if you have been any of these places, let us know!


View Megan and Chris 2010 Euro Bash in a larger map

Winter Adventure!

I have not had much to post about but here is something, Megan and I are going up north! Just a few miles past the cabin even. We made reservations for three nights, the first in a B&B on the 31st and then in a Yurt (pictured right) for the 1st and 2nd. So, a REALLY quiet new years for us but thats what was available!

It should be an adventure. We hope to get back to the cabin for a winter visit and check out some trails around the area. It should be cold and snowy, but they have a sauna next to the Yurt and we wont have to worry about wolves eating us like winter camping...

Back in Northfield

la

Pictures! I found my camera cable here so I just uploaded all the good ones to a Picasa (google) album on the left. I am back in Northfield after coming full circle from LA. Its quite a change! The weather is quite chilly, but I don't mind that as much as I thought I would. It just surprises me a bit when I go outside with my new LA jacket! (see the last photo) I enjoy not knowing what the weather will be like though, I guess thats why I live in Minnesota.

The biggest change is going from a quick pace and a very social environment to here where things are very much about me, about here, and things kind of remain the same. Lucky for me that I get to take the great energy I got from Cletus and from LA and apply it to my life here. It was a memorable and wonderful trip that I hope to be able to do again soon. Enjoy the photos and I will write more later!

LA cont.

I guess I have some down time to write a little bit! Thats different. I wish I could find my photo cable! I hope I didn't loose it. I will have to rely on google images for now I guess.

First off, on Thursday we went to the Museum of Jurassic Technology. My topics in art class senior year was loosely based on this crazy place (or the book on it at least) and so seeing everything in person was a real trip. It takes a kind of 18th century natural history curiosity and applies it to our world now. So everything in it is true but not necessarily true. It's a contradiction with what it is supposed to be - a museum. So in the end it self is one massively ambitious art project.

We also hit up a place for dinner that had some fantastic beers on tap. LA is a wine town from what I can see, and that makes sense since CA is wine country. There are some big players around here, Stone Brewing is on tap everywhere, but you don't just stumble upon exotic Belgian imports as in NY. It was a good place though, and we sat out side of course. Why doesn't every one? I had the "Old Rasputen" Imperial Russian Stout by North Cost Brewing. It was on tap and nitro'd so it was a real treat.

That was Thursday. Then yesterday was a star LA treatment. Cletus has been going to this spa place and he booked me for a thing that was a mix of electroshock therapy and heat massage. I was a little skeptical at first when the lady brought our her electro-gun but it really felt good. At the end I was energized and relaxed.

...In time go to the Getty and meet Megan's Cousin Sarah for lunch. It was so much fun! Sarah is the Sr. project coordinator of performing arts and so organizes all their performances on the Getty campus and off. She was great and treated me to lunch in their hune marble cafeteria. We were able to chat for a while. Now Megan has to get out here, the last time they met was 12 years ago! There might be an opportunity in July but more on that later.

The Getty it self is an amazing place that frankly overshadows much of the art that it contains. It is an epic monument. I was delighted to find Tim Hawkinson's work there, and it worked very well with in the space. On the right here is a photo of "Überorgan" as installed in a warehouse I will post video of it later, but it runs for 5 min every hour and is quite a great piece. He also had some new commissioned work that was fun to see.

Ok, done right? Not at all. Because then Cletus had made some dinner reservations at Sona Restaurant about 10 blocks from his house. I find it difficult to describe quite what the place is. It is the kind of place where you are completely mystified as to how they made that. Its not just good food, its food taken to a different level. There was a time when I was in Japan about 2 days before I left that I had a Sushi dinner that all others can rate to but not beat. I knew it at the time too, it was the new standard. Same thing here. If anything I will let anyone who is out here experience it for them selves. Just be open and trust the chef.

The one point that I did appreciate was one of our courses was venison, and although very good, it was also very familiar. I have been having that for years! David calls it "Minnesota Gourmet" and its worth noting! Now if I can just figure out how they made that egg do that, I'll be set.

Ok I am all caught up!

One more thing, there are some better Subaru pics up that make it about 30% less bad looking. It still looks bland as heck but at least the grill is a mat black vs. chrome freak out. We'll see how the sedan looks...

Weather

It was strange weather on Tuesday here, quite windy with some clouds. I did not think much of it but apparently when that happens here, its national news! I saw this on my Yahoo front page this morning. I think some one moving to Minneapolis from LA would be more struck by the inconsistency and variety of the weather there rather than the cold. Or at least thats how I feel coming the otherway. Its not the warm weather, its the consistency!

There was a pool behind me...

Well I wanted to post a photo of my self on top of a hip LA rooftop bar we were at tonight but I can't find the stupid USB cable so you will just have to trust me! Cool place that was almost completely outside. But not in a MN way where everything is plastic and tied down. More like carpet and couches, just outside. We were able to start up a conversation with a random LA architect and his designer friend from the Netherlands and then some random dude and his lady friend. They sat down next to us and chatted us up about LA food for 1/2 hr or more in a kind of odd ball way that left us laughing for a while after. Kind of, what just happened?Cletus put it this way, "In LA, every one is working to get heard." After that we went to China town to a Bar/Art School (yes that is what it is) where I ran into some people I had met earlier in the week.

We also did some serious business work today, lunch with a developer that Cletus is interested in working with. Cool guy and possible deals down the road with. I mostly just observed, its not a lunch conversation I normally have!

The Getty trip got put off until tomorrow or Friday, but that is OK because Megan's Cousin is the Sr. Project Coordinator of Performing Arts there, a fact that I did not know until this evening! (Hello if you are reading this Sarah!). Hopefully we will be able to connect before I jet back on Monday.

Thats all for now, LA is a city for the morning even though I stay up late! Bed time for me.

Because you have all been asking....

How is LA? What have I been doing? Well so much that it has been impossible to get some time to write. I won't write an over long anything but here is a short bit of it. We just got back from (more!) sushi with Amy and Cletus after a walk down the street in LA. My car craziness is getting more under control already, and things are more normal than I first saw, sort of. Everything just depends on where you are in LA. But then again, that seems to be true for everything. People, houses, trees, you name it. LA is like many small cities collected around each other. So you kind of just make your own.

I have been very happy to get some serious artistic stimulation so far. So far we have attended a panel about artists and money where a strange group of an artist, a financial planer/art hedge fund lady, a dealer, and a lawyer all said their piece. Very interesting. And today I sat in on Cletus's grad class and realized how much I missed that kind of discussion and debate about art and ideas.

The rest of the day Cletus and I went on a driving tour of LA. Yes I did see the Hollywood sign and yes I have a photo.

Thats all I got in me today. Tomorrow is the Getty, that should be great!

LA here I am!

Well here I am, over 24 hours in Los Angeles. So far it has been how do you say, ridiculous? Day one was was drinks and then sushi and then bed. I landed here at 9:10 PM right on time after a great flight from MPLS. Today started out by going to brunch with Cletus's friends by the beach, exploring the beach a bit, and then going off to visit a house Cletus is working on in the hills here. Quite a spectacular project I think, a house that is worthy of the views its windows take in. Then off to another party overlooking the beach, and so on. Ridiculous? certainly. Fun? Absolutely.

Also, my initial and overwhelming first impression of LA is what I call car porn. I'm going to get linky because to post pictures would be too much. For example, what I consider to be a fantastic car, the BMW 335i is an entry level car here. Consider it an Honda Accord in Minneapolis terms. Then when you start getting good you get a Mercades R230 that I rode in today, then thats ok because when you start turning heads you want a Lamborghini, and in my personal opinion, the only thing that makes my jaw really drop is seeing a Farrari drive by. Oh an some Porsche 911's drove by too. It has been one day, and about the only car that I have not seen is an Enzo. Yes, this all = car. porn. Apparently, my STI (EDIT:better photo) and Evo are not real popular here. I just saw a few today. But thats ok, they are meant for tougher stuff. Snow, gravel and mud are not in high demand here.

Ok, enough gushing about cars. I have been having a great time here. I have been thinking a lot about my future and business and what I need to know to move forward. It is all thought provoking. Tomorrow its off to college where Cletus will be teaching and I will try and unpack some of what I learned today. Its an adventure thats for sure!