NOVEMBER 18, 2008
I've been a Wisconsin resident all my life, and so the weather during the holidays has always been cold and snowy..well, at least cold. So it's hard to imagine Christmas in a warm environment. Well, when I was in California last week with my honey Kristin to attend her brothers wedding, the people of Santa Monica were getting ready for the holidays with a Christmas tree in the Third Street Prominade, a two block section of the street that is for pedestrians only.
Doesn't that look festive? Note the 'snow' surrounding the tree that is fenced off so the 'snow' doesn't blow around. The photo below was also part of the holiday display...
I'm not really sure what a topiary dinosaur has to do with the holidays, but they were part of the display too. Like I said earlier, California is a nice place to visit, but....
NOVEMBER 17, 2008
Hope you're staying warm and getting ready for winter! The gun deer hunting season is coming soon and it looks like you hunters will have some tracking snow.
In case you're not quite ready for the cold and snow, I've got a couple of nice photos of sunny Southern California for you below.
I just got back from a four day vacation in the Santa Monica area with my girl K. Her brother got married this past Saturday in a beautiful ceremony in the Malibu area. The weather was fantastic, with highs in the eighties and plenty of sunshine! All in all it was a great time. But by Sunday, we were both pretty much ready to get back home to good ol' Wisconsin.
The weather is wonderful in CoCal with the sunshine and nice temps all year long. But on the other hand, the lack of rain and those darned Santa Ana winds were wreaking havoc on the area last week. I'm sure you saw the national news coverage of the many fires that ravaged the LA area. The local TV and radio stations had non-stop coverage of the terrible destruction. What's even more hard to understand is that many of these fires were started by arsonists. Pretty crazy stuff.
We rented a car, and I was the designated driver, so I got the 'thrill' of driving in LA traffic. If you've ever had to travel the 405 freeway you know what I mean. During the work week traffic was nutty, and if you wanted to survive you had to drive with reckless abandon. Watching out for pedestrians and bicycle riders was an extra element that most Wisconsin drivers don't have to worry about. Actually, once I got used to the area, driving in the Santa Monica area was pretty easy. I could find the 7-11 and the CVS Pharmacy from the hotel without problem.
As far as the people, all the workers at the hotel and other places were very cool. There is a very diverse population of folks, both locals and tourists. Sharing an elevator with folks who were'nt speaking English was pretty much the norm. And if you're a 'people watcher', hanging around Cali is a real treat. On the down side, some of the people you bump into are homeless or just plain panhandlers. Such is the case in a largely populated area. I'm sure there are homeless here in our piece of America, but thanks to the climate, the homeless in California hang out in more visable areas.
So, it was a fun place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there... But then again, it was fun to be walking down the Third Street Prominade in shorts and a T-Shirt.
PS - NFL games start at 10am in California, and I was surprised see they had the Packers-Bears game on FOX.
