Well, it has been a month since I have left Ohio and started work. Since then I have been to Houston, Tulsa, Phoenix, Beverly Hills, Hollywood, Venice, Sequoia National Park, and my new resident city, Bakersfield.

It has been quite the month, a lot of traveling and sight seeing so where to start? The beginning I suppose, Well in Houston and Tulsa I did some training for work, which included accident avoidance where I had the oppurtunity to drive like a mad man in Ford F-150s, it was a blast. I got to perform controlled spin outs, drift and learn other life saving maneuvers.

L.A.

Once I arrived in Bakersfield the first weekend me and a friend from training decided to spontaneously go to LA on a Saturday afternoon, we made it into Hollywood and saw the walk of fame and went to the Ripley’s and Guinness world records museums on  Hollywood Blvd. Overall it was kind of dissappointing, I guess I had Hollywood really built up in my mind and it was actually quite  run down. After that we drove through Beverly Hills and hit up Rodeo Dr. which also was a let down, there were far more camrys and accords than Ferraris or Lambos… which you would expect to find in such a wealthy neighborhood. Perhaps we were looking in the wrong area, but o well.

Venice Beach and Boardwalk

The following weekend we headed to Venice Beach where we walked the board walk, this turned out to be alot of fun. It was my first time seeing the Pacific ocean, which was very cold, too cold to swim in at least. Speaking of temperatures… that day when we left Bakersfield it was 97 degrees F, when we arrived in Venice 2 hrs later it was 72 degrees F, which I find to be crazy… Anyhow we walked the entire boardwalk and did a little bit of shopping, and saw all of the entertainers and what not. While walking the board walk we happen to come across the taping of NINJA WARRIOR!!! If you have never seen this television show, it consist of competitors going through crazy obstacle courses and it’s pretty sweet.

Sequoia National Park

So, whats next? Ah yes! Sequoia National Park, definitly the coolest trip I have taken so far, it took about 2 hours to get to the base of the mountain, and then almost another hour to drive to the appropriately named Giant Tree Forest, which is at an elevation of ~6,000 ft! The two lane roads ascending the mountain were insane! They were so twisty and fun, but also quite dangerous considering that at times there was nothing in between you and the edge of the cliff.

Once you get to the top and start driving through the Giant Tree Forest, you can begin to see some sequoias, which true to their reputation, are huge. We stopped at the Giant Tree museum and took a shuttle over to see the biggest tree in the world ( by volume) , General Sherman. It was truly magnificent, in addition the park has all sorts of cool trails to hike on, and different ”fun facts” on the trees. I highly recommend that you go there.