TICKET to ALASKA

While I still have in the my eyes and in my heart the India pictures that Carine sent me yesterday, I have made a major step for an other dream trip. Alaska. I bought the flight ticket! Los Angeles - Anchorage round trip at the end of August! This is the itinerary of one of my dreams, that is becoming reality ...... soooooooooooo excited. And now we need to get all our hiking and camping gears ready for the trip to the last frontier ... :)

CARINE in INDIA

Carine is still around the World. Actually she is a kind of "stationary" in India, but I guess India is where the entire World is. If you have missed the previous episodes, Carine is a friend of mine, who ha decided to take a sabbatical. Since January she is around. And today and I open my Gmail, I found a bunch of wonderful pictures. I think I looked at them for half hour. I couldn't stop watching them. I was so submerged by the colors. And, of course, I start dreaming about a trip to India. Here are some of them ...Simply amazing! My backpack is ready to go. But I think I will hold my horses. There is a special person that I want to be my travel buddy in India, so I just need to wait the right moment. That will be the perfect trip. Anyways, going back to Carine, if you are interested, Carine has finally decided to make also a blog. She is copying and posting the email she was used to send to her friends. The link to it is on the right bar of this page.

LATE to the WEDDING

Even if I love the movie "four weddings and a funeral" ... I don't particularly like weddings, and of course, funerals neither. I think I managed to avoid almost all the weddings I was invited so far. But Saturday I couldn't really say no. And of course Tina and I, like Hugh Grant and his roommate, got to the church way too late ... and when we got there ... the few empty parking spots were already reserved, believe it or not ...... so we stepped into the church and groom and bride were already in. Of course in these cases you don't really want to make everybody aware that you got late to the wedding. So we seat in the bottom seats. But of course at this point "the show" was too far away ...So we decided to take pictures of ourselves ... definitely a closer shot ... :O ...... we definitely had a lot of fun, laughing there at the bottom while those two guys up there were so serious repeating things that the priest was suggesting them ... :D

I DON'T WATCH TV

Sorry, I don't watch TV. This is the typical answer that before anyone will start asking me if I lived in a cave for the last 20 years.Yes, probably I shouldn't be that proud. But the reality is that I don't know a single TV show. I mean I know that there are The Simpson's. There is American Idol. there is Football. But a part of this I don't know much. Or at least I should say I didn't. Last week I found an interesting TV channel. It is a commercial free channel, all about travelling. And I can tell you ... I just love it. Still I don't really switch on the TV to look at it everyday. But it is really amazing. So far I visited Peru, Philippines, Venice, Cinque Terre, Baja California ... :)

MORNING SURF

So, I wake up at 6.30AM. I brew a coffee. It is warm. I seat in front of my laptop. It is kind of cold outside. I browse Internet. I open a newspaper and I see this picture ...... surf contest in Tahiti. It is Teahupoo, probably the most powerful wave around. Amazing to see. I guess almost impossible to surf. I look outside and the sun is rising. You know what? What the hell. I have only this life. And I think I need to enjoy. I get my wetsuit. I wax the board. I walk down to the beach and I surf for 1 hour. Amazing. Simply amazing. Just the fact to be so lucky to have the chance to go surfing before going to work is simply amazing to me. Everybody should be able to do it. I don't know for how long I will be able to do it. But for sure when I will look back and I will think to a morning like today, I will smile.I will smile big time. And I will know that I have been lucky. BTW ... I caught only 1 decent wave in 1 hour. But who cares. That is not important ... :D

A TENT BLOW UP

At the end it blew up. It was something that I feared, but I didn't expect. I feared because the wind was really strong. So this is the tent in the morning, still in one piece, in the Ricardo campground at the Red Rock Canyon State Park ...... wonderful location very close to the rocks. The night has been really crazy. We woke up more than once because of the wind that was moving the tent. In the morning the ranger told us that it is normal to have such a strong wind in the desert and a storm was coming as well. We laughed about the fact that sometimes they find tents flying in the park and they bring them to the visitor center till someone is going to claim them. And I was all proud on the way I nailed down ours. I was sure it was never ever going to fly away. And in fact it didn't fly away. It simply blew up ... the fiber glass sticks didn't like the wind ... they broke, and breaking, they broke also the external cover ... here is what we found at the end of the Sunday morning hike ...
... definitely disappointing ... but even if it is really a major blow up ... I can't understand why people need this stuff to go camping in the weekend ...... anyways not for me. Not my style. But now the tent is just good for the trash, and we will have to use an other tent for the next camping missions ... and for Alaska ... :D

RED ROCK CANYON

Red Rock Canyon is a California State Park. It is in the desert and it is really pretty and it is only 80 miles north of LA, but honestly I didn't even know it was existing until two weeks ago. I found out about it, reading by mistake the travel section of the LA TIMES. the pictures were definitely nice sowe decided to go camping and hiking this weekend. The park is really wonderful. Here some pictures ...And also the hike is a lot of fun, especially because there are not many people around, so you can really enjoy the beauty of the desert ...... really a nice day. A pity the wind was blowing like crazy.

GRIND HOUSE

I love Quentin Tarantino's work. So probably my review is a little biased. But to me Grind house is really a great movie. And of course the Quentin Tarantino part is by far the best. I am not sure why I love so much his work. I guess it is probably because it is able to deliver these incredible characters. They look as perfect as a cartoon. And I learn also some new words ... rain check and boat mask. I started to study English when I was 11 and I guess I will never stop to learn English. Although I have to say in this movie he copied himself. Too many dialogues are coming straight by Pulp Fiction. Anyways, great movie. Go to watch it if you can.

THE SPIDER TV

The other day, while I was in the kitchen, Jason was watching "Apocalypse Now" in TV. He was a kind of excited because of the movie and the movie soundtrack, and I guess the beer. He was laughing and commenting and calling me to watch some scenes. We watched together the surfing dude in Vietnam scene. Business as usual, I would say. But at a certain point he starts shouting something like "What is that spider? I saw a spider. There is a spider. I am sure. Where the hell did it go? It was huge. Where the hell is it now?". Basically he saw a spider going down in front of the movie, but he couldn't find it in the living room. We looked for it together. The same result. No spider whatsoever. Jason concluded that probably it was in the movie. I concluded that Jason was definitely more than dizzy. I guess we kind of forgot about it, until today. Jason was watching again the TV when the spider reappeared. This time it wasn't on Apocalypse Now. It was on CNN. And I saw it as well. Basically we really have a spider. And it is inside the TV. And it is also pretty big. Lucky us that we have a 55 inches screen, so at least it doesn't cover all the image. Ehehehe. It is pretty funny. We don't really know how it got there. And we don't really know if we have only one inside. I proposed to open the TV and get rid of it, but Jason and Leif didn't agree. They are afraid we won't be covered anymore by the TV warranty. If it will reappear I will definitely take a picture. Hopefully in the meantime because of the TV radiation it won't get transformed in a monster or in a superhero ... :D ...

CURIOSITY for the WORLD

Become a photojournalist. This is one of the many dreams that I have for my life. And tonite I found the perfect explanation for my dream. After Jason finish to watch TV, he left but of course he didn't switch if off. I stopped in front of it. I just wanted to switch it off. I hate TV. I probably watch it once every 6 months. But I change my mind. The images of exotic places were broadcasted. The images were from Vietnam and the comment was from a photojournalist. And my brain has been kidnapped by a sentence that the photojournalist said ... I am a photojournalist because since I was a kid I had this incredible curiosity for the world ... that is exactly what I feel myself. Not sure if I will never ever become a photojournalist. For the time being, I really enjoy filling my blog with pictures and stories of the places that I visit ... :D

BACK to SURFING

It has been almost three months now without surfing. Last week I really wanted to go out, but the wind was really annoying. And the waves were really big. I didn't want to break an other boar. So I waited. But this evening, I didn't have any more excuse. It was just perfect. So I took my wetsuit and I went out. Of course I am completely out of shape. I can't rally paddle for long. But it was really nice. I even caught a couple of good waves. And it is also nice to have, at the end of the day, the wetsuit hanging out of your place ... even if after the dark it may scary the people who don't know about it ... from far away it really looks a person hanging ... and it did happen tonite ... when our guest, a German friend of Leif, stepped out of the side door and saw it ... she almost had a heart attack ... :O

WINDY DAYS

I personally love wind. But lately it has really been a little bit too much here in LA. And this is pretty much what everybody complain about in these days. It makes pretty much impossible to surf, play beach volley, run and go by bicycle ... and if you live by the beach these are the things that keep you busy during the weekend ... :D ... and of course it is cold as well. I like this picture ... ... where Tina looks really funny, while she is trying to keep warm ...

LOOKING BACK 20 YEARS

I am not sure why, but yesterday, out of the blue, while I was using my laptop, a name popped on my mind. Of course it wasn't a random name. It was the name of a high school friend. A very smart and hard working guy. He is an electrical engineer like me. Much smarter than me. Which is not very difficult, though ... :O So I googled his name. And I found him! And of course he has done really good in his working career so far. He patented some of his ideas. But that is not important to me. The great thing is that is living in US. According to the latest Google data he was living in Dallas, TX. But after I emailed him I found out he lives even closer to me. He lives in Colorado. When I spoke with him on the phone, I felt like I was speaking to a lost friend. I am really happy. I really felt happy. He reminded me so many stories, so many friends, our teachers, our school. We were so naive at that time. Suddenly, I had the chance to look back to 20 years ago, when I was a high school student. At that time I didn't even dream to have such a nice life. And thinking to myself then and now, I realized how lucky I have been so far in my life. And I realized that anything could be achieved if you believe in it. And only thinking about it gave me a lot of energy to continue to pursue my dreams. I am really happy!

AN ELEGANT SUNSET

An other windy day and an other wonderful sunset today here in Hermosa ... very elegant ... and just perfect ...One thing is for sure ... whenever I will leave LA, I will definitely miss the sunsets over the Ocean ...

CRAZY SUNSET

After a windy day we had a crazy sunset today. Really crazy. It look more like a painting ...... I thought these sunsets were fake creations of the Hollywood film industry. But I guess I have to change my mind. The sunsets here are really something amazing, especially the winter ones.

BYE BYE PARENTS

LAX, Bradley Terminal. I use to call it Bye Bye Terminal. There is where I see the people that I care the most disappear thru a gate. The same happen today when my parents left. Riccardo and I drove them there. And we stay with them till I saw them disappear thru the gate. They check-in all the luggage, and definitely my dad new bicycle was the biggest piece around ...Because we got there really early we had also time to get some coffee and chit chat. Everything was just perfect, a part of the fact that they left. But they will be back soon, I am sure. And I need to get ready ... I am sure, they will ask me to see new places next time they will visit me. But, honestly, they have already seen everything in California ... :o

BUSINESS LUNCH

Last days for my parents in LA. They are leaving tomorrow evening from the LAX. I have really enjoyed having them here. This is the lunch we had today. Riccardo and I were working from my place in these days, so my mom and dad prepared for us this lunch ...... a kind of business lunch. In a sunny California day. In my porch. With my parents cooking for me. And with Ricc joining us. Isn't this heaven!?

PARTYING with the PARENTS

When you were kids, did you ever had the nightmare of your parents showing up at a friend's party? I did. And last Sunday that nightmare became reality. But the funny thing is that it wasn't a nightmare at all. It was just fun, a lot of fun. Basically my roommate, I and my parents had been invited by Mary, a neighbour, to her party. And we went there ... here some pictures from the party ...... it was fun to go there with my mom and dad. Ehehehe. I know it sound scary. But it wasn't at all. I just loved it! With their broken English they wwhere the main attraction of the party. And I was very proud of being their kid. Not anymore that little, but still their kid ... :)

THE END of the ROAD TRIP

Everything that has a begin will also have an end. The same here for the road trip with my parents. More Big Sur for us in the last day. I really wanted to show to my parents the Elephant Seal colony in Piedras Blancas, where, lucky us, we found still a lot of animals ... here is my dad enjoying these wild animals ...And this is really the last picture of the road trip ...... I found it in my camera, I guess my dad took it while i was driving. He loves this model of aluminium caravan. For him, it is the symbol of freedom, and American road trips. And I am glad he took it ... that's a way for me to remember this trip through his eyes.

BIG SUR with the PARENTS

After one month I am back to the Big Sur. Strange for me. I try to avoid to the same places, but I guess I had to make an exception for my parents. So here it is again, the explosive beauty of the Big Sur ...... I think any word is completely useless. I am just happy that I managed to show it to my parents ... :D

BACK TO THE COAST

Left the Kings Canyon NP we went West. Towards the Pacific Ocean. Because we already visited San Francisco two years ago with my parents, I decided to skip it during this trip and to go directly to the Big Sur, the last piece of our trip. Two days in the Big Sur beauties are the right way to close this road trip in the California wilderness ...We went to visit also Monterey and Carmel by the Sea, my dad really wanted to visit Carmel because he was impressed by what he did read about it. Basically in the town there are no traffic lights, private mail boxes, neon signs ... because they are considered to ruin the city beauty. At a certain point it was even forbidden to eat ice cream in public, but the mayor (Clint Eastwood) changed it. Definitely that was way too weird. We didn't get any ice creams, but we went to see the beautiful hilly white sandy beach ...And we found a campground in a the California Sunset State Beach ... pretty nice ... but not as warm as forecasted by me ... so we needed a new bonfire ... an other one ... before going to sleep in the tent ...... my parents expected some warm weather, but unfortunately it wasn't the case ... but it was so great to see my parent, who are 62 and 60 act like they were 18 ... set up the tent, set up the fire and enjoy the moments ... really inspiring ... really inspiring.