Happy New Year, Everybody

I know I'm way behind on content rich blog posts, but that's just the way it is right now. So these bare bones posts and pictures will just have to do. These are from Kelsey's visit over New Year's. Unfortunately neither of us felt up to doing anything extraordinary, so we just went ordinary, staying in and watching movies. But that was good enough for me. Did we even make it to midnight?

More pics.

Just Kickin' It

Usually when Kelsey and I get together - whether it be out here in LA or back home again in Indiana (go ahead sing along) or some other place in these here United States - we tend to pack in the fun. Which leaves us both completely wiped out afterward. But this visit by Kelsey was supposed to be all about a relaxing time, just hanging out, being normal and not running around constantly.

I think we tried that for a while, but then Kelsey realized this meant sitting through my movie recommendations (and Shaun Of the Dead is a great movie, by the way) and so we ended up doing a bunch of stuff anyway. Actually the first few nights were pretty relaxed (actually really relaxed for Kelsey but I had to work during the day like a sucker), we just had dinner around town (Kelsey's first trip to Richmond St. for the peanut butter bacon burger - I had a salad) or fixed it ourselves (Kelsey's self).

soooo good

Then at midweek things started to get a little busier. Wednesday night we met up with Kelsey's friend Justin (okay, my friend too) at one of my favorite joints, Father's Office, for beers and the famous Office Burger and fries (the regular non-sweet potato variety for me). I don't know about everyone else (okay maybe I do), but I had a really great time. And Kelsey and I got to try out the LA Metro a little more taking the Big Blue Bus up to Santa Monica.

The next night (Thursday if you're following along) we met up with my friend Justin (okay Kelsey's friend too) and his girlfriend Jillian (okay she's my/our friend as well) for dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. It was, um, interesting hanging out with them as always. Just kidding, I had a lot of fun, it's just the conversation seems to go some awfully odd places when we get together. We tried to make it to a movie at the "sexy theater" but we all were kinda beat and had to be up early the next morning, so that didn't happen. Another time perhaps.

see? doesn't this conversation look interesting?

The reason Kelsey and I had to get up early the next morning was for our camping trip which will be in the next post.

And I do believe I set a personal best for parenthetical insertions in this post. I hope you enjoyed it.

(A few) more pics.

Tuttle Invasion - The Road Map

Kelsey's comment after my last post got me to thinking that I should probably put up some reference so the rest of you can figure out where all we were going. Since I've been carrying around my GPS lately so I can geotag my photos, I happen to have a log of everywhere we went. This first set of maps is our road trip tracks through Yosemite and Sequoia. The first one shows the whole trip and the following three are the rectangles on the large one zoomed in.

full trip track

day 1 camp and surroundings

day 2 driving

night 2 camp and sequoia

The second set is for all of our adventures around LA and with Dave and Jenny.

around LA

UCLA and Hollywood

Hope this helps!

Tuttle Invasion - Around LA And Another Tuttle!

We made it safely back to LA late Tuesday night. The rest of the week Woody and Dad spent hanging round town while I worked during the day (though mostly they walked on the beach or napped at my place) then we'd do something in the evening. They'd come and meet me for lunch but wouldn't really eat anything since they'd usually slept in and had a late breakfast (I think Woody cleaned the Blue Butterfly out of Cap'N Crunch). Basically what I'm saying is they were really lazy. But I guess that's what vacation is for and I think LA seemed a little anticlimactic after our road trip. Besides who am I to talk since all I do is sleep when I go back to Walton to visit (as Woody reminded me repeatedly).

Wednesday we had lunch at Rinaldi's (natch), then that night we drove up to Santa Monica and walked around the Promenade and Pier. After we had dinner at El Tarasco (salsa!). Thursday was burgers at Richmond St. for lunch and a drive around the Palos Verdes Peninsula. At one of the vistas, we thought we saw a shark but it turned out to be just the tide covering and uncovering a rock. When we got all the way around the peninsula, we stopped to look down at the Port of Los Angeles, which is immense. Since we were so close to Long Beach, we popped right on down to Roscoe's for a chicken and waffle dinner (except Woody got the chicken and cheese omelette).

boys

Dave had been at UCLA for a conference the latter half of the week, and Jenny was flying in to meet up with him so we picked her up Friday evening from LAX, then jumped on the freeway to grab Dave on the way to a Dodger game. Unfortunately there was no good way to get across town since the 405 had been a complete bumper-to-bumper mess on our way there. I tried the best I could, but we didn't get there until the top of the third or so. The game was fun as usual with just enough of the usual Dodger rowdiness.

it's time for Dodger baseball!

Late the next morning Dad, Woody, and I had some quick coffee then drove back up to Westwood to grab Dave and Jenny for a day of sightseeing. We hit Pink's for an early lunch on our way to Miracle Mile. We stopped at the La Brea Tar Pits then split up for museum-going. Dave and Jenny to LACMA, and we Tuttle men to the Peterson Auto Museum.

decisions, decisions

Dave enjoying his pile of meats

A couple hours there, then I drove us up to Griffith Park and we stopped at the observatory to look out over LA (and get a picture by the Hollywood sign). I took the scenic way home, through Hollywood, and on Sunset to the ocean. I can't remember where or even if we ate dinner (but I'm pretty sure we did). Shortly thereafter, we dropped Dave and Jenny's stuff at their hotel, and took Woody and Dad to catch their return flight at LAX. The McIntoshs had a midday flight Sunday so we hit up The Kettle in Manhattan Beach for a filling brunch before they left.

the gang

I can honestly say I was pretty beat by the time it was all done, but I'd do it over again in a heartbeat. Thanks so much to all of you for visiting. And come again any time. Miss you all as always.

Last of the pics!

School's Out

OK, I'm going to pull a cop out on this one. Here's the thing... I'm way behind on posting, and the subject of this post is the least proximate, chronologically speaking. Can you even mix proximity with chronology? Well, I just did. Unfortunately, it is likely also the most unforgivable for not giving its proper due. But I'm behind on posts and there does not appear to be any let up in activity now that the summer has started (I just made three more tees and there are more after that). And with a camping trip this weekend and heading home for the Fourth after that, yeah, you get my point.

Anyway... Kelsey got to come out here again in May after her semester was over and before the summer session started. As always, we had a great time - got to see a Dodger game, plus Naja's and the beach. No plans too grandiose, just a nice relaxing time together.

yup, read it

Sorry this post is so short, but I needed to post these pics.

Rollin'

Jeff and I have been talking for some time about riding the Strand in its entirety. The Strand is the bike / ped path along the beach in the South Bay. It winds it's way from Rat Beach in Torrance up through the beach cities, through Venice and Santa Monica, and just into Malibu. Sure, it sounds scenic and leisurely, but all that beauty comes at a price. The path is more than twenty miles long. One way. And while it's not much in the way of up and down, peddling my 30 pound American steel single-speed cruiser is akin to riding uphill constantly. But I admit, the pain was part of the attraction for me. It might not be EPIC like traversing the Grand Canyon, it still made for a pretty great and joint-inflaming June morning.

the route

Matt swung by my apartment and I drove us down to Torrance to meet up with Jeff. We started peddling around 7 or so and rode for the better part of the next 5 hours. I was feeling pretty good at the halfway point, but sore butt, thighs, and knees increased exponentially after the turn.

the takeoff

halfway there

not quite as energetic after the second half

We all made it back with varying degrees of discomfort, but no major issues. Jeff finished it pretty easy what with all his "gears" and all, but he did ride the hills up to his house after so that upped his degree of difficulty.

finished

sweet relief

Easily my favorite part was that the cafe at the end was serving root beer floats that day. All in all it wasn't too awful. I'll probably do it again sometime this summer. But I'll have to figure out a better video setup than what I had this time. Maybe work on that DIY isolation system.

Strand Bike Ride from Ryan Tuttle on Vimeo.

A few more pics.

The Real L.A.

Coming back to LA after Christmas this year, I had a lot more than I left with, good and bad. Bad being that my bag was ten pounds over weight which meant a $90 fee (on top of the normal checking fee), and good being Kelsey came along with me for a visit. Ma and Pa Brown were generous enough to include airfare as part of Kelsey's Christmas gift. So she got to spend a week or so of her winter break out here with me.

Kelsey had been here before, and was less than impressed. Actually, other than a few insulting monikers, the only thing she seemed to remember about L. A. was the awful traffic. Clearly it was up to me to defend the honor of Southern California. In short introduce her to "Ryan's L. A."

An integral part of "Ryan's L. A." is, of course, Ryan's peeps. Justin and Jill met us for dinner one night (though I can't remember where), and then we came back to my place and all played on our iPhones. Come to find out the three of them also do the YMCA while I'm in the bathroom.

i don't know; it's what they do i guess

For New Year's Eve, we met Matt and Beth up in Santa Barbara. I drove us up through Malibu and along the coast, arriving in town a little early to walk around State St. and enjoy the afternoon. We met Matt and Beth at our hotel, just across the street from the beach. We all chatted for a while (I seem to recall everyone was picking on me) then retired the rooms to change in preparation for the evening festivities. The plan was to have dinner at the steakhouse in the resort, then head downtown to ring in the new year. Dinner was an excellent 4-course prix fixe (steak was fantastic, though I won't order the meringue again). The four of us hopped a cab, and the cabbie dropped us at his recommended watering hole, Joe's Cafe. We sidled up to the bar to grab a round. It was there we met the coaches for New Zealand's Under-20 rugby team who proceeded to bug us the rest of the night. Still we had a ball and with much effort found a cab to take us back after midnight.

revelers at joe's cafe, santa barbara

...Which is right when things took a turn for the worse. The stomach flu had raged through my family and Kelsey the week before. I had been lucky enough to avoid during my visit home. Apparently, only just that long as I began vomiting immediately upon arriving back at the hotel. As this thing goes, I continued to vomit for the next 24 hours, including the 2-hour drive back to LA (Kelsey drove admirably if a little nervous). She also sat patiently with me that day as we loafed around my apartment, me just moaning on the couch or dry heaving in the bathroom (sorry, no pics from that day). Some vacation, eh, Kels? And sorry I had to cancel the camping, I'll make it up to you.

But the next morning I was fine again, so we went out for a BIG breakfast at The Ketle (I think I still managed to eat less than Kelsey, evn though I was starving from not eating the previous day) and took a walk around Manhattan Beach. Then I took us for a drive around the becahes and cliffs of Palos Verdes and down to San Pedro to kick around the parks (Pt. Fermin and Korean Bell). Then stopped home to grab some sodas and root beers and up north to one of my favorite spots, Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Park. It's a pretty, green park in the middle of an oil and industrial area, an oasis of sorts, and has a spectacular view of downtown L.A. and the Hollywood Hills. The view that day was spectacularly clear as recent rains had washed away the particulate layer that hovers over the city. We just layed around for a couple hours, talking and goofing off with the cameras. All that goofing off really worked up our appetites, fortunately it was just a short drive to Father's Office 2 from there for the world's best burger (seriously).

manhattan beach pier (and kelsey)

picnicking at hahn srp (downtown in background)

again (hollywood in back)

life-altering burger

From there the days all run together for me, but I do remember seeing Avatar in IMAX 3D (Kelsey's a huge nerd), meeting the work group for lunch at Rinaldi's, dinner at El Tarasco with Gwen, and spending an afternoon walking around Laguna Beach. So, yeah, pretty great visit. Can't wait to do it again in about two weeks.

laguna beach

playing in the sand

As always, more pics.