Los Angeles

So here we are in Redondo Beach for Keith's mother's funeral. This is the first time I've left Oregon in more than a year - which is amazing, given my notorious roaming urges and my roadtrip history. I have a complicated relationship with Los Angeles that is mostly based on mutual dislike, but it'll be good to see friends after the funeral.

The roadtrip down was a hell of a drive. We left Portland and stopped in Ashland, which is a breathtakingly beautiful town near the state line. On the way we sampled fine cheeses at the Rogue River Creamery, tasted Oregon wines at a tasting room next door, then stopped at Lillie Belle Farms for creative, mind-blowing truffles. In Ashland we went to a lovely dinner at Larks, then retired to our B&B room to soak with bubbles in the jacuzzi while sipping wine and nibbling truffles. We fell asleep by a flickering fire. We had sorely needed a recharge like that and I'm very glad we got it.

The next day we drove through heavy snow, gusty winds, and white-outs in the mountain passes on the Oregon-California border. It rained most of the way through California, but of course southern California has been nothing but sunny. It's quite odd, now that I've gotten accustomed to seasons, to be sitting here in short sleeves on a sunny day in November. There's a certain lethargic disconnect that comes with the weather around here; I wonder if that's why southern Californians exist in that little bubble that they do, blissfully unaware that there is a world outside L.A.

We'll be here through Thanksgiving and then we'll truck on home to Portland. And when we get there, after eating the grocery-store eggs we had for breakfast yesterday, I'm going to give my hens a big treat. You really can taste the difference! It's part of the general pattern I've noticed since we got here Friday night, how different my life now is from the life I had down here. It feels like visiting another planet.