The Chronicles of Willapa...: California

Well, I'm back. Had a nice trip overall. Some things I did...

- The mission of San Juan Capistrano: Down south a ways. A pretty old Spanish Mission that is famous for the swallows that return there every year. Also the prettiest of the missions according to Anna.
- Joshua Tree National Monument: Out east in the desert. Got there mid afternoon, did a nice short hike to the top of Warren Peak. Nice view from up there. Camped out under the stars. Actually got to see some stars. Anna spotted lots of satellites too, and several shooting stars. What they say about it getting cold in the desert at night is true! I was quite chilly in my worn out 40-degree bag. Some neat and unique geology in the park too. This was the only place I took pictures the whole trip too.
- Club Echo: Some club in Silverlake. Anna's friend had a friend in one of the bands that was playing, so we went. 6 bands each played a few songs... the last one (that Anna's friend's friend was in) was really quite good. They were called "The Airborne Toxic Event" or something like that.
- Griffith Observatory: Up in the San Gabriel mountains overlooking the LA area. Probably once had an awesome view, but now all you can see is smog and city. It's not an active observatory anymore in terms of research, but it's quite a tourist stop. Really neat stuff too. Awesome planetarium show too. You can also see the Hollywood sign from up there, but I didn't bother taking a picture.
- FOOD! There sure are some awesome places to eat there! First night we had some delicious Indian food. The next day we had Chipotle. That place definitely lives up the hype Anna had built up. It's sort of like a Subway for Mexican food, and it's delicious. Had some awesome chocolate from some place Anna knew of. Had an amazing strawberry donut (with actual fresh strawberries) somewhere (Glendora?). Anna is also a great cook and made chicken parmesan one night. Not to mention the best chocolate cookies I think I've ever had, and she said the previous batch was even better! A place called California Pizza Kitchen was really good too. Jamba Juice is also really good. Some decent Italian food the last night too. I'm sure I'm leaving something out. There's lots of good stuff though.
- Caltech: For some reason, I expected the campus to be rather drab and boring, since it's such a smart person tech school. But it was one of the prettiest campuses I've ever seen. As pretty as Scripps (where Eliza went) or Vassar, but not as big. I also felt about as stupid as I've ever felt. The place just oozes smartness. I hung out in Anna's office a bit, and she had a few text books around (ok lots of them). I don't think I understood any of them. And some of it I should have (Calculus). Really makes me realize that there's a lot of really really smart people out there, and I don't know anything. Makes me feel sort of worthless in a way, but it's also sort of inspired me to learn my science better.
- Anna's friends: I got to meet a couple Anna's friends, including her best friend Julie. She's also a Caltech Ph.D. person, and also really smart. She was lots of fun to hang out with. Her and her husband are race car enthusiasts, and have two tricked out Toyota MR2's. In fact, her and Anna are going to Vegas this weekend to drive on a track there (Anna will be doing work poolside). Also met her friend Jenny, who had the friend in the band. She was fun too, but I didn't get to know her very well because we were in a loud club... And finally her and Julie's friend Patrick. He's quite a weird one in my opinion... But he's got a nice car...
- "Breach": Saw this movie on night at the theatre. It's about CIA espionage and stuff. I thought it was quite good, and so did Anna and Julie. I recommend it.
- Badly Drawn Boy: Anna's favorite band (well, it's mostly one guy). Listened to him a lot, and I quite like it. Nice and mellow, and pretty. The album "Born in the UK" was my favorite of the three I listened to. Worth a listen for sure...
- Driving: Even though there's stuff everywhere, it seems like you have to be in a car for half an hour at least to get anywhere. Lots and lots of driving. I was also amazed that you can drive for hours in one direction and still never really leave the city. They all have different names (Pasadena, Claremont, San Dimas, etc...), but it's all run together.

I got home around midnight on Wednesday. Good to be home and see Zephyr again. She was quite excited. Athena had been taking care of her while I was gone. So I had a nice trip and I learned a lot of things. I think I've come to the realization that I could never live in that part of California. I hope norther Cali is different. Anna assures me it is.
I'll be defending my thesis on Friday, the 30th of March. After that I'll have to submit it and edit it according the library's stupid formatting rules. Once that's done, I'll probably be writing an article or two for submission to a real journal of some sort. So it's getting there. I'm more scared than ever about what comes next though. This thesis stuff seems sort of trivial compared to that. I just don't know what I'm going to do, or even what I want to do. I guess I still haven't got things sorted out in my head since the major changes that have occurred the past months...

Well, here's a couple pictures from Joshua Tree... and no, there aren't any pictures of her or I.

Sorta hard to see, but the light colored rock is granite. The darker stuff that is above it is gneiss, a metamorphic rock that got "baked" by the granitic intrusion. This is all part of the same event that formed the Sierra Nevada...