The sun also sets

First off, sorry about the extended absence. I fully intended to write this post 3 days ago but I became consumed with The Hunger Games trilogy. Quick aside: The Hunger Games books are pretty good.
So, the west coast. Jed has provided a glimpse into our adventures in L.A. and San Diego so I will do my best to elaborate and fill in any blanks. I'd like to begin by thanking Chri's frat brother Brent for allowing the three of us to crash at his place for our stay in Los Angeles. I knew it was going o be an entertaining stay when the first words out of his mouth were, "Where'd you get that hat?" As Jed said, our first stop in Cali was Venice Beach. Within seconds, literally, of leaving our cars, we were approached by a traveling salesman. His pitch? "Weed? Weed? Who wants some weed..." A very honed pitch, to be sure. We walked the beach for a good minute, me in my boots, all three of us in jeans, taking a second to let it sink in. We had, after all, just completed a coast to coast journey. It was very...cool. After that we took in the sights, sounds, and smells of Venice Beach. It is a very colorful place with numerous vendors peddling all sorts of colorful wares. Hippies here are a dime-bag a dozen and it smelled like a combination of patchouli, weed, and BO, with some ocean tossed in. After tooling around the beach for a little over an hour, we knew we had to stay for the sunset. Stunning is the word that comes to mind. I enjoy myself a good sunset but watching the sun set on the Pacific Ocean was just amazing. I can now say I have seen the sunrise on the Atlantic and set on the Pacific. Truly spectacular. Day 2 of L.A. was spent taking in some of the sights of Hollywood blvd, which, as Jed mentioned, was a combination of disappointment amd hilarity as we were absolutely abused by "tour guides." That night we went to a sweet bar with Brent and some of his friends. We piled 8 deep into a cab meant for 7 which meant Jed's narrow self was sitting in my lap. After we arrived at the bar we all grabbed drinks and regrouped to discuss a gameplan. I decided to share the story of my divorce along with a few of the jokes I crafted in it's gruesome aftermath. As Jed said, we decided tonight was as good a night as any to reintroduce me into the wild. Long story short, nothing happened. Jed compared me to Stephen Hawking though, which is flattering. Let me just say this: I am not, nor will I ever be, a club/bar guy. It's not my style. Back to our tale. We took a cab home but before retiring for the evening, we located a food truck. Great idea, the food truck. It's a mobile food vendor that sells slightly overpriced greasy food to drunk people late at night. Pretty solid business model. The next morning I wake up mildly hungover, eat a delicious breakfast burrito, say our goodbyes to Brent and the crew, and head to San Diego.
 On the way to San Diego, two noteworthy things happen. The first is that somehow we ended up in little Asia. We took an exit to get drinks and wound up in place where everyone was Asian, all the stores had smiling suns with thumbs up plastered on them (or other equally ridiculous scenes) with names written in what I think was Korean. It was a bit surreal. The second event was when we stoped at a scenic exit to catch a glimpse of the ocean. This is where we noticed the squirrels. Jed absolutely lost it (went nuts, if you will) and if the squirrels we were feeding hadn't become too engorged on saltine crackers to move it's likely we would have spent the rest of the day there. We arrived with some intel from Chris's friend and tracked down the best sandwich shop ever, Board and Brew. We ate sushi for dinner and hit up a cool bar afterwards. The one prevalent theme during all this is the absolute beauty of San Diego. Del Mar was absolutely breathtaking and La Jolla was stellar as well. Day 2 was less fun for me as Chris and Jed explored Mexico and I stayed in the states, sans passport. We ate dinner and then hunted down Mt. Soledad for an amazing view of the urban sprawl that is San Diego. Day 3 was zoo day! I have an unnatural love of the natural world and ever since I was a child I have wanted to visit this zoo. It did not dissappoint. The first exhibit we hit was the reptile house, always one of my favorite zones in any zoo. The San Diego zoo has Komodo Dragons though...so that was awesome. After circling the reptile house and sharing numerous facts about the different snakes and lizards and even properties of venom, Jed asked me why I knew such things. My childhood dream job was to be a herpetologist and as I shared that I realized how part of me still wants that. How cool would it be to work at a zoo with snakes and lizards all day? Doing tests, maybe a few educational shows...awesome. The rest of the zoo was excellent as well, with Jed sharing his full proof "in case of animal attack" plan. You see, nothing likes to be struck in the genitals, so just hit whatever is attacking you there. Shark, polar bear, king cobra...doesn't matter. Jed admitted that his plan would likely fail if ever confronted with a full grown polar bear, a behemoth of an animal that stands ten feet tall on its hind legs. We saw elephants, giraffes, pandas, snakes, big cats, and apes. It was a great end to a great trip. Allow me to correct myself...the encore presentation of Boat and Brew on our way out was the perfect end to our trip. The chocolate on the dick if you will. I'd say this post is lengthy enough so I'll wrap it up here. Thanks for reading guys!