LA

     Sooooo much has happened since the last time I wrote, but I am going to attempt to catch up.  My interview season was pretty densely packed: 11 interviews in 5 cities (one of which I traveled to twice) in 8 weeks with Thanksgiving somewhere in between made for a very busy 2 months.  I had some great experiences but by the end, I was so happy to not have to get on a plane for a while and to be home for good.
     I had 2 interviews in LA: UCLA and Children's Hospital of Los Angeles.  They were both great programs with lots of wonderful residents and I really enjoyed the opportunity to visit them.  My interviews were Wednesday and Thursday, and Mark arrived Friday so we could get to know the city a bit for the weekend.  Neither of us had ever spent time in LA, so we wanted to see if it was a place we could call home.  Turns out, it wasn't, but it was nice to see the city!  One of the main reasons LA was not for me was the tremendous amount of traffic without a great public transportation system.  I just couldn't see getting off of a long day at work and sitting in traffic for an hour.
     Our first stop for the weekend was Santa Monica.  We parked right next to a doggie daycare center and it was so funny to watch them.  Kind of strange that people send their dogs to daycare though, and it got packed.

     Santa Monica had kind of a neat character.  Sort of beachy/trendy/hipster, and we enjoyed walking around doing some window shopping.  We had breakfast at an awesome place called Huckleberry.

     Overlooking the water in Santa Monica.  I can't imagine how expensive those houses are.

     We made our way to Rodeo Drive, the fancy shopping area in Beverly Hills.  Very fancy.

  
     I sort of hated it.

  
     When I was looking at the pictures Mark took of cars, I asked which one was the most expensive.  Neither of us had any clue, but this one looked like it must have ranked up there.

     My favorite part of the LA trip was this area, called The Grove.  It was an outdoor shopping center that was all lit up for Christmas.  Pretty.

     We turned down a corner in The Grove and there was this whole underground eating area with restaurant stands.  It is called the Farmer's Market, but it was different than we would have expected by the name.  This was just one little corner, there were tons of places.  I got Greek food and Mark ate Mexican food.  Doughnuts for dessert!

     The next day, we looked around Hollywood.  Actually, it is pretty un-glamorous.  Kind of a dirtier part of town, which you would not guess when you see all the celebrities going into the Kodak Theater for the Oscars or making handprints at Grauman's Chinese Theatre.

     Hayyy-reee Pottahhhhh!  Love it.

  
     Jackie Chan's star was pretty popular.  As was Michael Jackson's.

     That afternoon, we went to see Frank Gehry's Walt Disney Concert Hall.  If you remember, we saw a Gehry building in every city we visited.  I'm continuing to learn about architecture from Mark :)
     We saw that the box office was open, and ended up getting tickets to hear the LA Philharmonic play Handel's "Water Music."  It was beautiful and kind of nice to escape the city for a bit.

     Another of Mark's architectural favorites is Ricardo Legoretta, and we have seen some of his structures in Dallas.  He uses vibrant colors- these are bright purple and red, and there was an orange building behind us.

     This was almost silly.  An ice rink when it was about 75 degrees outside.  Holidays are different there when it doesn't get remotely cold!

     Overall, I wasn't super impressed with LA, but I'm glad we had the opportunity to visit!