I am home for the holidays and my trip seems to be heavily impacted by the weather and yet not at all influenced by it (at least in terms of mood).
As I was walking to the bus station Saturday night I had to go through a massive rainstorm. Yuck! But I was too excited about going home to be as wet and miserable as I would normally be. It was sunny and dry in Tokyo on Sunday (yeah!) and I even saw the emperor's morotcade! Terribly exciting. It rained Sunday night in LA, but I was at a bar drinking with friends and who really can be bothered by rain when you have a beer in hand and good company? Certainly not me. Monday I went to lunch with friends and went shopping with my sister so once again not at all bothered by a little rain (up to that point LA certainly couldn't compete with Fukui in the rain category). So here is the semi-exciting part:
Tuesday. 5pm. Chelsea and I are nearing the end of our shopping extravaganza. We decide we are going to stop in one more outlet store before heading home. We have trouble finding the address because of all the rain (and being on the wrong side of the street) we finally see it and dive into the parking lot. We sit in the car for a few minutes waiting for the torrential rains to stop. They don't. We decide to make a run for it and dash into the store. We very quickly realize that it is the wrong store- an Army Surplus Store! (I got my new shoes wet dashing into the wrong store! grrrr). We felt a little out of place, but walked around quickly hoping to dry off before another mad dash in the rain. As I walked past the side doors I pointed out to Chelsea that the water level on the side-walk had risen very quickly. As I said that, a car went past on the street and the wave pushed water against the door and it started leaking in. The whole front street and sidewalk looked like a lake and the water kept coming in the store. Chelsea and I were a little concerned, but we didn't think her little car could swim home so we stayed. The waterlevel came 10 feet into the store (not up, just in) and finally Chelsea and I decided that we were going to try to find a back entrance (or maybe we couldn't handle being in a place that offered no shopping and had to escape). So we made our escape after 30 minutes of panicing over the impeding flood only to find that we had been in the middle of perhaps the only flooded block in all of LA! The rest of the streets had no problems at all. It did seem like quite an adventure though (at the time) and I am always up for an adventure. So here is the next adventure:
We got home from our flood adventure only to find out that lots and lots of snow was predicted over the Donner Summit on Wed and Thurs (we had all been planning on going home on Thurs). Chelsea has her tiny non-aquatic non-snowmobile car and thought she should go at whatever time had the least amount of snow, which we decided would be today (Wed) around 3pm. We decided that last night at maybe 11, so there was some mad car packing. We left LA at 7am and figured we would hit the Pass at 2ish (although snow was predicted over the Grape Vine too). The Grape Vine snow was a joke (far more rain than snow and nothing more dangerous than your typically bad LA drivers). We made it to Auburn in good time only to get stuck in hours and hours of traffic (people were walking past us on the side at various points we were so slow). Then we were sold the wrong size chains for Chelsea's car. Then we had to pay an arm and a leg (Chelsea may have also promised Luna's first born) to get new chains and have them put on in front of the chain control. So we got in and although there was some snow and it was probably good to have chains on, it wasn't nearly bad enough for all the fuss that had been thrown all day (on the radio, in traffic, by parents). I kept waiting for the really bad part and it never came. Not to say it was a cake-walk, but I had a good time with Chelsea going over the pass. We even managed to get the chains off by ourselves! I am hoping for some weather free adventures for the rest of my trip, but I am sure it will be fun no matter what the weather gods decide to throw at me!
As I was walking to the bus station Saturday night I had to go through a massive rainstorm. Yuck! But I was too excited about going home to be as wet and miserable as I would normally be. It was sunny and dry in Tokyo on Sunday (yeah!) and I even saw the emperor's morotcade! Terribly exciting. It rained Sunday night in LA, but I was at a bar drinking with friends and who really can be bothered by rain when you have a beer in hand and good company? Certainly not me. Monday I went to lunch with friends and went shopping with my sister so once again not at all bothered by a little rain (up to that point LA certainly couldn't compete with Fukui in the rain category). So here is the semi-exciting part:
Tuesday. 5pm. Chelsea and I are nearing the end of our shopping extravaganza. We decide we are going to stop in one more outlet store before heading home. We have trouble finding the address because of all the rain (and being on the wrong side of the street) we finally see it and dive into the parking lot. We sit in the car for a few minutes waiting for the torrential rains to stop. They don't. We decide to make a run for it and dash into the store. We very quickly realize that it is the wrong store- an Army Surplus Store! (I got my new shoes wet dashing into the wrong store! grrrr). We felt a little out of place, but walked around quickly hoping to dry off before another mad dash in the rain. As I walked past the side doors I pointed out to Chelsea that the water level on the side-walk had risen very quickly. As I said that, a car went past on the street and the wave pushed water against the door and it started leaking in. The whole front street and sidewalk looked like a lake and the water kept coming in the store. Chelsea and I were a little concerned, but we didn't think her little car could swim home so we stayed. The waterlevel came 10 feet into the store (not up, just in) and finally Chelsea and I decided that we were going to try to find a back entrance (or maybe we couldn't handle being in a place that offered no shopping and had to escape). So we made our escape after 30 minutes of panicing over the impeding flood only to find that we had been in the middle of perhaps the only flooded block in all of LA! The rest of the streets had no problems at all. It did seem like quite an adventure though (at the time) and I am always up for an adventure. So here is the next adventure:
We got home from our flood adventure only to find out that lots and lots of snow was predicted over the Donner Summit on Wed and Thurs (we had all been planning on going home on Thurs). Chelsea has her tiny non-aquatic non-snowmobile car and thought she should go at whatever time had the least amount of snow, which we decided would be today (Wed) around 3pm. We decided that last night at maybe 11, so there was some mad car packing. We left LA at 7am and figured we would hit the Pass at 2ish (although snow was predicted over the Grape Vine too). The Grape Vine snow was a joke (far more rain than snow and nothing more dangerous than your typically bad LA drivers). We made it to Auburn in good time only to get stuck in hours and hours of traffic (people were walking past us on the side at various points we were so slow). Then we were sold the wrong size chains for Chelsea's car. Then we had to pay an arm and a leg (Chelsea may have also promised Luna's first born) to get new chains and have them put on in front of the chain control. So we got in and although there was some snow and it was probably good to have chains on, it wasn't nearly bad enough for all the fuss that had been thrown all day (on the radio, in traffic, by parents). I kept waiting for the really bad part and it never came. Not to say it was a cake-walk, but I had a good time with Chelsea going over the pass. We even managed to get the chains off by ourselves! I am hoping for some weather free adventures for the rest of my trip, but I am sure it will be fun no matter what the weather gods decide to throw at me!
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