The U.S: Los Angeles, Colorado Springs
It's been 30 years since I graduated high school and I thought it would be nice to head back to L.A. and catch up with old friends and see what has happened to the old neighbourhood. I arrived in L.A. in the evening and as I reached passport control I heard the loud thumping of an angry person and hoped I would not have to meet this person as it usually means problems, just my luck, I put on my best smile and walked to the counter and hoped for the best. The lady behind the counter barks out the standard question "what is the purpose of your visit to the U.S. of A". Still smiling and thinking this is going to be a long night, I look at the tired and angry woman and answer "I am going to my class reunion as it has been 30 year since I graduated high school". At that moment she stops what she's doing and looks at me, but then her face melts into a smile and she starts laughing and say thank you have just made my night I was really getting into a bitchy mood. As we talked she told me that she had just been to her class reunion and every time she thought about it it made her laugh, so with a stamp I was on way and as I looked she was still smiling and I was wondering how my class reunion would be.
I stayed in a hotel very close to airport as I was flying out the next day to visit my brother and his wife Theresa in Colorado Springs for a few days. I took a shuttle to the hotel that night but soon found out that it was faster to walk so the next day I walked over and then asked were my airline was located and was told it was on the other side and that I should take a shuttle as it was some distance away and too far to walk. I knew the airport was U shaped from living so many years in L.A, so I walked four minutes before I arrived at the airline desk. I was met by a long line of people and after I got to the front of that line I was told to go stand in another line as my passport was not excepted by the check-in machine, when I had checked in I join another line of 50 people to check my boarding card and then joined the next line where I had to empty my hand luggage, take off my shoes and have a body search, oh joy how much fun can you have, in all it took one hour and fifty minutes so I was lucky I was very early.
I arrived in Denver after a pleasant flight and walked out into the passenger greeting area expecting to see my brother and Theresa and found no one that I new knew waiting for me, so I looked around a bit and still no one, then I thought they are probably just a little late and will be there soon. I waited and waited, which to me seemed to be a long time but really was not that long, then to my relief I saw my bother who then explained that they had been sitting up there waiting but had not seen me (faster than a speeding bullet) and there were lots of other people waiting also. After our happy meeting we started our drive back to Colorado Springs but first we made a short stop at one of Theresa's sons where I met his wife and their pretty little daughter before heading off again. When we arrived at the house it was time for a rest as I was a bit tired due to an illness I got last year (lot's of dizzy spells, queasiness, vomiting, extreme tiredness, tinnitus and partial loss of hearing on the left side), so I was trying to rest as much as possible.
Now on with the adventure, after a good night's sleep I was ready to look around, I had been to visit a few years back and it is always great to spend some time with my brother and Theresa and see the beauty of the high planes (over 1800 meter above sea level). My brother had taken some time off so we spent most of the day touring the area, the weather was a bit rainy but survivable, our first stop was the Garden of the Gods, a magical place made up of red rock that reach out from the ground so that they seem almost out of place, towering pinnacles, large walls and large boulder that look like they could roll away at any time. Because of the rain there were less people so it was very quiet and we could hear the wild animals going about every day business of survival. After a nice long peaceful walk we drove around the park for a while also visiting the visitor centre to find out more of the history of the area and the wildlife.
Our next stop is at the very nice town of Manitou Springs at the base of Pikes Peak, the mountain is 4032 meter high I was at the top last time I was here and it is very impressive with mountain goats running around, to get the top you have to take the cog train up the very step sloops (There is an annual run up and down the mountain, my brother likes to run this race but only the up part so far). The town of Manitou is a pretty place with buildings in a western style from the days gone by with lot's of hand craft stores, bars, cafes and restaurants, and after a walk around and some lunch we headed home.
My brother really is a tourist guide so that I make the most out of my stay, next stop is Breckenridge, a ski resort in the Colorado mountains, to get there you have to drive through high plains that are surrounded by snowy mountain tops with grassy plains in all direction where buffalo still roam but not in the same numbers as in the past. The town of Breckenridge is at the bottom of a very popular place for skiing and hiking, it's a pretty town with lots of shops, restaurants, friendly people and even a Scandinavian store with some rare goodies for those that have not been home for a while. We walked around town enjoying the warm sunny day, did some shopping before we drove to see a bit of the area and some of the enormous houses they have there before we head back to Colorado Springs (I really like Breckenridge, it's so peaceful there).
One evening I was taken to a real working ranch for a western BBQ, the area had been made to look like a small western town with horse shoeing, examples of how people lived in the old days and some small shops, as we walked along the path we climbed up the lookout to get a view of the whole area before heading back for some food. We found our seats at the picnic, waiting for our turn to go to the food lines where we found corn bread, BBQ beef or chicken, potatoes and dessert. After dinner it was time for the show, we had a real country western band that played and joked for an hour or so, in all it was a really good night with good food, good company and good entertainment and a nice way to spend the evening.
All to soon it was time to leave after having such a great time with my brother and Theresa, I flew back to L.A. over the Grand Canyon, which is a fantastic site from the air.
After landing I headed to Marina Del Rey where I would be staying for the rest of my stay. I chose Marina Del Rey as I liked the area and it was very central to all the things I wanted to do and see while I was here. As my illness played a big part in my plans I had decided that I would rent a bicycle and bicycle along the coast north and south and to the house and the restaurant that we once owned, driving was out of the question. For those that do not know I lived in L.A. for 20 years so there is not a lot I have not seen here and the bicycle path along the coast is really a great way to get around and you do not have to fight the traffic and parking spaces.
I rented a bicycle by Venice pier and headed north for my first stop, Venice Beach , most people have heard of Venice Beach where lots of crazy things happen. In the old day Venice was the home of those that had nowhere else to go and Vietnam veterans that were a bit spaced out after the war, so anything could happen, along with street artists, a skate park, basket ball court, bargain shopping and muscle beach. Things had changed a bit over the years, the street sellers have mostly moved into shops with four walls, there were more drugs and alcohol, more people, lot's of tattoo shops and you should be careful of what you take pictures of, a lot of the unusual people there want money if you take a picture of then, or else they will start shouting at you in many colourful ways.
After my stop on Venice Beach I pedaled on to Santa Monica , my first stop was at Santa Monica pier where there is a amusement park, lot's of games and restaurants, so I took a quick look around and headed inland. Leaving the fresh salt air behind and soon to find out that things had changed a little, first was that they were tearing down the shopping mall and the second was a nice surprise, the old walk streets had been rejuvenated and where now full of life again with lots of new shops, restaurants and entertainment, the trip back to the hotel was great and I would do this trip again before I left.
I was a bit nervous about the class reunion as I had not seen these people for many years and had not lived in the U.S. in a long time. My friend Jeff, who I have known for many years and was part of the gang, met me at my hotel where we caught up on old times and got ready to go to the party. As soon as we got out of the car we started meeting people, Lisa was the first person we met when we parked next to each other and then came one after another of semi familiar faces, we got name tags with our old pictures on them and our names from high school and then we entered the area were pictures were being taken and then to meet more people. Some people had changed a lot and some not at all, but I know why the lady at the airport had laughed, skinny people had gotten fat, men who once had long hair were now going bald, some married with lots of kids, some looked very old and some had passed away and there was even a hip surfer dude that owned several beauty saloons.
All in all it was lot's of fun and very interesting, there was a bar and dance (not much of that as everybody was busy catching up). They also gathered up all the people who had gone to school together the most amount of years, and there were a few. In a way I felt a little bit of an outsider as I have lived outside the country so long, the party must go on, at one time they stopped the music to find out who had traveled the furthest to get to L.A, I thought for sure I would win this, so when they announced the name of the winner it was not me it was a girl living in London!!! With the help of Jeff we got the attention of the speaker and told him that I came from Norway which caused a bit of a chaos so we both got a prize (still wondering if they knew who came furthest). It was hard to keep track of all the people I talked to and time went very quickly, some decided we would carry on so we all met at a large hotel down the road that was open late and stayed to early hours.
I felt sorry for Jeff when he left in morning as he was off home to get ready for a party for his daughter who graduated and would soon be off to university. I was not doing very well in the morning, dizzy and queasy and not only from the alcohol, but after a long night's rest things got much better. After my recovery I continued my bicycling, this time heading south to El Segundo, Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach, and Hermosa Beach, these places hold lots of memories so I spent the whole day on this trip. I stopped at a couple of piers to get out over the water to smell the sea air and where I could hear seals barking in the distances. I really enjoyed the bicycling so close to the water it was very relaxing and I wish there were more places like this.
I have two really good friends living in San Fransisco so Jeff and I took the morning flight there so we could spend some time with them and hear how life was going. First I have to tell you about the flight, John Wayne airport was built in Orange County but you have to take off over Newport Beach which is where a lot of people with money and influence live, so what does that mean to us you may ask, well let me tell you, this means that the plane has to take off under full power as fast as possible (sometimes the rear end of the plane scrapes the ground), climb up as high as possible as fast as possible and then cut the engines to the lowest possible setting until we are out over the ocean and then fly like normal again. When the engines cut to low one of the cabin crew got on the intercom and whispers "would everyone please be quiet we are flying over the rich people" after that whole plane was laughing and people seemed more relaxed.
We were met by our friend Alan, who I had met now and then in different places in the world, for a happy reunion and we soon drove off to meet Doug who had a surprise for us and was waiting there. Doug looked the same except he was a bit older but in excellent shape, we entered a large building we soon found out that it was a Saki distillery, we first walked around and learned a bit about the history and then how they made sake in the old days. After the history lessen we had a tasting of about ten different types of sake and what type of food we would eat with what, all the food talk made us hungry so we ate at a restaurant by the sea and got caught up on what we have been doing over the years. It was almost time to head back to L.A. so we stopped off at a coffee shop to talk a bit more before we headed to the airport and sadly left my friends behind.
I stayed overnight with Jeff and his family in Orange county and the next day he dropped me off at the hotel, I spent the rest of the day doing some shopping (really hard to get around without a car, it's hard to find taxis and it was hard to figure out were the buses go) and later walking on the beach. My last day would be a trip down memory lane, I once again rented a bicycle and set off to the area I once called home. The first thing I noticed was how much had been built in the area, gone were all the open fields where we walked our dogs and played, now there were houses everywhere and more traffic than ever. As I journeyed on I found another area where they had built a large shopping mall where there had been bean fields before. The closer I got to my old home I saw the changes but as I started down our old street things started things looked a lot like they used to (except for one of the areas that had been vacant fields), even the house looked the same. Then I headed to the Little Inn (the restaurant that we own for many years) which had not changed much at all so I went in and had a quick look around before having lunch at the local pub (Tower pizza).
On the road back to the hotel I had time to think while I looked at all things that have change it hit me that this was not my home any more and I do not really belong here like I used to, now I was just another tourist like so many others, yes it was time to go home where I belong. It will be sad to leave my friends but home is where my heart is, I will continue to travel and find new adventures.
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