A little over a week ago, my friends Misti and Melissa came to Los Angeles to visit me! I loved having them here, truly, more than I can say.

Before they arrived, I got more and more excited. I kept thinking of all the fun touristy things there are to do in L.A., and wondered which ones they might like. I also wondered how many things we could cram into their two day visit. I desperately wanted to show them everything, all the interesting aspects to this crazy city, but once they arrived, I just felt happy to see them and knew it didn't matter if we saw everything in this one visit. It was just great to be together again.

Still, we wanted to pin down a couple of things to do while they were here, so we made a list. Visiting the beach was number one. Melissa has a total affinity for the ocean, as do I, and Misti had never seen a Southern California beach before. It was definitely a must. Also, a while ago, some of Misti's friends had recommended that she visit Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles, a diner in Hollywood. I'd never been, and it was described as having been in the movie Pulp Fiction, so we decided to check that out. Misti also wanted to see the Viper Room, at least from the outside. And that pretty much wrapped up the list!

I was going to say we spent some time talking in my home before heading out, but we pretty much spent the entire two days talking! It was pretty awesome, actually. We did just sit around and talk for a while, though. We even spent some time watching Sifl and Olly! Then we had Joe take a picture of us, which turned into a bunch of pictures, and we laughed a lot during the whole process.

For dinner, we headed out to Islands. It's one of my favorite restuarants here, so I was glad I could share that with them. Then we went out driving and headed to the state beach. I was originally trying to find a really cute beach drive so that I could show them the cool houses and piers, but it was dark and I was confused, so we just went straight to the beach instead. We went down the ramp to the parking lot and Misti looked for a space. All of a sudden, though, we were stuck in the sand! There were a few tense moments as the car made lots of noises but no movement. Luckily the car dislodged itself from the sand and we all laughed with relief. "I don't know why I thought that was a place to park!" Misti said through her laughter. She drove a bit more, and we asked her where she was going. She pointed to the asphalt ahead of the sand and said, "I'm trying to go there!"

In unison, Melissa and I said, "You CAN'T!"

"Misti," I said. "That's the bike path!"

"OH!"

We had a good laugh over that one!!

Misti parked the car and we got out and walked across the sand, freezing our asses off. Ocean breezes are always cool but when the desert temperatures drop at night, the air coming off the water feels downright freezing. We watched the waves, shivering a little, arms folded tightly over our bodies, and swapped stories of previous times we'd been to the beach at night. Then we walked back to the car to warm up!

We spent some more time at my place, before finally calling it a night.

The next morning we met up and pondered whether or not to go to Roscoe's. None of else felt like eating heavy food, so we put it off until later. We went to a local pasta/sandwich place instead and ate lunch on the patio outside. The weather was warm, with cool breezes blowing by, and the church across the street played beautiful bell tones. Everything was just so nice.

Afterwards, we headed to the beach! I took them to the local one, thinking we might go to another one later, if time allowed. As it turned out, we just really enjoyed ourselves and stayed put for quite a while. First, we played in the waves, letting them splash up our legs as we took lots of pictures... of the water, of each other, of each other taking pictures of each other. It was so funny! I always laugh every time I feel the foamy waves splashing over me. It reminds me of being a kid.

I had fun seeing Misti and Melissa enjoying themselves, too. They told me several times how nice it was, and I was glad they liked it so much. We sat down in the sand and dried off while playing with seashells and watching the sandpipers hunt for crabs. Time seemed to slow down just for us as we enjoyed our sunshiney afternoon at the beach.

Misti had commented that she loved churches during lunch, which gave me the idea to show them the Wayfarer's Chapel. When Joe took me there years ago, I just loved it. The grounds seem to inspire an aura of peacefulness that seeps into you while you're there. We got there just in time to go inside the chapel and take some pictures before they closed the doors for the night. We took some pictures as we walked around the grounds, too, while realizing we were taking Meg's Super Peaceful Tour of L.A. Every place we'd been so far had been so relaxing! But that's exactly the reason I like L.A. -- there's something for everyone, and the three of us are all about relaxation and rejuvenation!

We went back to my place, and after sitting and chilling out and nearly falling asleep on my couch, we felt revived enough to head back out into the city. A brief stop at Starbucks, then we were on the road again. (singing: On the road again...) When we got to Hollywood, Melissa was in need of a restroom break, so I stopped at McDonald's. She went inside and returned with quite the story! Apparently a very drunk but friendly man named Fonzelle hustled her for some money. "I only have a DOLLAR!" he'd told her, as he held up a five. He also gave her some story about only having a one-way train ticket to see his family but he couldn't find them anywhere. Imagine that, they're not in the bars OR McDonald's! Melissa got out of there okay, didn't end up parting with any of her money, AND she had a classic Hollywood experience - drunken dude begging her for money. Good times!

Hollywood made me nervous, because of the traffic, the hurried pace, and the pedestrians wearing dark clothes running across the intersection as I turned left. Still, fewer people honked at me in Hollywood than they did in Palos Verdes and Redondo Beach, so for that, I'm grateful. There was a road detour blocking me from going all the way down Hollywood Boulevard as I'd originally planned, but I figured out where I was soon enough, and eventually we travelled down the Sunset Strip.

Misti got to see the Viper Room! She saw it twice, actually, because after we headed into Beverly Hills a bit, we swung around and came back the opposite direction. She snapped a pic, but I'm not sure how it turned out. Then this blond girl walked right in front of my car, and I braked so as not to hit her. She waved an apathetic "thank you" at me, and I got all annoyed at her. We joked about almost killing Paris Hilton for a few more mintes, since she looked a lot like her. Crazy pedestrians!

On the way back down the strip, we found Roscoe's! It was a very dark building on the outside, and small, with a neon red sign that said "Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles." There were burglar bars and no open parking spaces and we were like, "I thought it was the diner from Pulp Fiction!" It was actually from a different scene in the movie, we think, and we decided not to stop, after all. Instead, we headed back towards home and stopped at Norm's, a 24 hour diner, where we ate and talked and laughed for hours.

Finally, we called it a night and headed back to Misti and Melissa's hotel room, where we laughed and joked some more in the wee hours of the morning. They also gave me a poster they'd bought for me. On it, there's a cute young girl playing flute and all kinds of beautiful images surrounding her, created by her music. I totally loved it!

I knew I'd be going to Little Zoo for the first time the next morning, about the same time they'd be heading back up north, so we said our goodbyes that night. I hugged them both tightly and exchanged lots of loving words of well-wishes and hopes to see each other again soon.

I missed them the minute I left, and I still miss them now. I'm so excited they came down to see me and that we really were able to do and see so much in the time they were here. We squeezed every last drop out of those two days and really had a blast! The longer I'm here in this new city, the more used to it I feel. And now, it's even easier to feel at home, because Melissa, Misti, and I left happy memories all over Los Angeles, for me to pick up and smile at every time I drive around.

I love my friends, and I really look forward to seeing them again soon!

click the pic for a larger view; click here to see the photo album of our visit together