will visits los angeles 22:39

William Tidwell facebooked me two weeks ago to tell me that he would come for a visit. The following week he drove ten hours from Utah and safely arrived in Los Angeles. I hadn't seen Will since May of 2007 when we had parted ways in Daejeon, Korea. His contract was up as an English teacher and he subsequently went to the University of Hawaii for his Bachelors. I still had six months or so left on mine. 

Will is pretty spontaneous and I like that about him. Willing to go anywhere and experience strange things. I think it's a trait that very few people have. He doesn't seem to worry too much and it definitely relaxes those of us who tend carry around the burdens of the world. 

I drove him around to many parts of LA and it might perhaps be true that I had more fun than he had going through our neighborhoods. I hadn't yet been to Los Feliz and so I took him there and went through all the hipster cafes, vintage shops, and a bookstore. We quickly went to the observatory, drove from Silver Lake to Beverly Hills on Sunset, and ate lots of Korean food. We spent an entire day in downtown admiring all the old and new buildings. We had novelty ice cream, rode the subway and trams, and people-watched. We also hit up a jjimjilbang, one of those Korean bathhouse, and it was remarkable indeed.

On the left, the wonderful Eastern Columbia Building. One of my favorites in the historic core. On the right, Will admiring his Walt Disney Concert Hall pictures.

desert weekend 10:27

Stephen's co-worker had told him about the wild flowers blooming in Anza Borrego and described it to him as though it was Alice's wonderland. I personally wouldn't call it a wonderland, but it is indeed pleasant. I have been there twice during the spring and all the flowers are a nice change to the otherwise barren desert it is most of the year. So, during Stephen's Friday afternoon lunch break, we decided that we would go to Anza for the weekend. We also brought up the great idea of visiting Salvation Mountain. A man by the name of Leonard Knight had been building an artificial mountain out of adobe and clay and sharing what he believes to be the most important things in life.

To shorten our trip a bit, I called my friend David to see if we could stay with him for the night. He lives in Menifee which is about an hour away from Anza Borrego. We could at least drive half of it Friday night so as to avoid those dreaded early morning. With our other roommate John and his friend Mitchell, we were off.

Randomly bumped into Erick and his family at Anza. I was delighted to see them.

Leonard Knight has been building this for over twenty years now! Some people say that he is crazy but I was more appreciative. He was a man who wasn't constrained by what society thought he should do. Perhaps some people might see this as irresponsible but others might see it as freeing. I guess it's just how you look at it. But I do know that he's brought a lot of happiness and hope to people through this massive project.

Salvation mountain was one of the places that was featured in the film "Into the Wild." I really enjoyed it but it's one of those movies that gets a lot of mixed reviews. Many people tell me that the book is even better. Nonetheless, I would still recommend it because for some reason the story really resonated with me.