California Dreamin'

Writing to you from our comfy hotel room in Pasadena, California...

We finished out our winter in Seward, Alaska, on April 30th. The Mayor's Cup Dog Sled Race went well, and Erin came in 9th out of 21 racers - not bad for her first shot! More importantly, we had a lot of fun, cooked some hot dogs, and bonded with Seward's finest. We also got published again in the local newspaper, The Seward Phoenix Log, several times - including a picture coming out tomorrow of Begee eating a Hungry Bear (that is, a 4-patty 2 1/2 pound bacon cheeseburger with a pound of fries at Terry's Fish 'n Chips, the first person to ever complete the task, thereby winning him a free t-shirt and his picture on the wall.)

After sending out a ton of applications all winter, we decided to go to Southern California for the summer. It should be quite different from our winter in Alaska! When we left Seward, it was 50 degrees, and when we arrived in LA, it was 70. Today, we walked around in flip flops and shorts, and boy, did it feel good!

We have a couple of days to explore before arriving at our jobs, and we are taking full advantage of them. When we got to the hotel last night at about 9 o'clock, we dropped our bags in the room and went running for the pool! Swimming outside under the full moon and watching the palm trees sway in the wind made us giddy. Excitement is definitely coursing through our veins.

Today, we slept in until noonish - and we needed it! We then got some lunch at KFC, where we watched a woman with a diaper on her head come in, steal some soda, and walk out again. LA definitely has some interesting characters... We were here on vacation last year in January, and we had a great time. After being in Alaska for a year, though, we definitely are feeling a little bit of culture shock - traffic, people, and the huge Port of Los Angeles; Toto, we're not in Seward anymore!

This afternoon, we went to Long Beach and toured the Queen Mary, including a really cool and worthwhile ghost tour to add to our list (our recommendation: always do ghost tours whenever available - they're so fun and interesting!). After the Queen Mary, we drove to Redondo Beach (just like in "Little Miss Sunshine!"). We went to the pier, watched the men fishing and children chasing pigeons, and then we walked along the beach, wiggling our toes in the sand. Oh, how different the water is here compared to the beaches in Alaska! Watching the sunset on the beach, with the waves crashing over our feet made us remember why we chose to come here for the summer. We felt such joy and complete happiness in that moment. Life really is good.

Tomorrow, we're planning a trip to Universal Studios, and then on Friday, we're going to try to walk around in Old Pasadena before getting on the ferry to our summer home. We're happy and excited, nervous and a little sad to have said goodbye to Alaska (at least for the time being), but, in the end, as long as we've got each other, we have all we need. Of course, seeing Cal Worthington commercials here in California gives us a chuckle and reminds us Alaska is always in our hearts.