Jenn’s Birthday is March 30 but her birthday season is all year. Anyway – it’s always special so this year she wanted to go to Los Angeles in a rental car. The VW is functional but a rental car is now very luxurious for us. Jenn also loves the Los Angeles area. Perhaps this wasn’t stated with the appropriate emphasis – Jenn LOVES the Los Angeles area!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The doggies at home in the back of the brand new Ford Escape. Apparently nobody wants the ‘red’ one except us?!? Ed Nodland says its a personality trait that fits us perfectly….

Nuclear plant off I5. There was a couple of Navy warships off the shore.

We have arrived – yeah baby! Yeah!

(melrose place was one of our favorite shows)

Our friend Rebecca invited us to stay in her apt – we felt soooo Melrose Place (without the single swinging part).

Cool view down Sepulveda from the apartment.

Rebecca is not only a great friend, really cool, a rising singer/songwriter -but she lives alone in a one bedroom apt and made five of us with two dogs feel right at home for what we expected was two or three nights but turned into an entire week (we even had to do laundry while there!).

Benny also made us feel right at home by the seventh day we were there. NOT easy to suck up to a Bison Fraise!

A shot for Kerrie! We love and miss you.

This is a common view in LA that we love.

Don’t think there’s a Nick on Sunset on Main St. in Smithville, TX now is there?

Or a Viper room where River Phoenix OD’d at the front door.

Le Petit Four (pronounced with a hoity-toity fake French accent <or ‘freedom accent’ these days>).

Is that Susan Sarandon? Why would Austin care with a good Game Boy session…

Austin was so impressed with the bathroom at this restaurant he had to borrow the camera and take pics of the fixtures.

Preparing for our Rock N Roll night out to the Rainbow Room on Sunset.

Jenn inside the Rainbow Room. Don’t think these guys would sing Happy Birthday and bring her cake. She didn’t want it anyway – gotta act like somebody here.

This is a signed Van Halen guitar on the wall.

That Kesley’s so HOT right now!

We were invited to Malibu RV park for Andrew’s birthday party (Andrew in the foreground).

Malibu Tom with the girls.

Sunny Bush. We’re telling you – those Bush girls got a real challenge coming to them.

La Brea Tar Pits. Not quite what you’d expect. The primary view and walk simply looks like a pond. Just below the surface is the tar. The ancient animals would walk in to get a drink and never come out. Just on the other side of this Mammoth statue is a statue of her mate and child. It’s a gut wrenching scene. The animals trapped would slowly starve to death with plenty of water to drink. Another story goes that a Saber Tooth Cat may go after one of the Mammoths and get itself stuck. Then while stuck it would have an entire Mammoth to itself with plenty of water – very slow death. We asked about people and the pits and were told only one set of human bones has been found so far – they expect that the human was already dead and simply buried here. They expect that stuck humans would simply holler for help and get pulled out (opposable thumbs, tool use thing). Then they would warn others to stay away. Check out the surface of the water – constantly bubbling in different locations from the tar below.

There are many places along the sidewalk that sprout bubbly tar.

This is the excavation pit where we got tons of info on what’s going on here. They only excavate six inches per year and retrieve well preserved bones up to some tiny measurement. Left side middle of the picture you can see a white spot next to the board in the tar – we were told this is a thigh bone of an ancient Saber Tooth Cat. The pit itself is probably 30 square feet. There is currently Christian Science research going on at the location working on the theory of the great flood. The Evolutionists have long dominated the area with their theory. Our theory is that they’re both theories.

Mulholland drive runs along a north/south ridge of large hills – the west side of the ridge includes Beverly Hills and Hollywood. Mega stars live off of Mulholland. The view is breathtaking and the homes are spectacular.

Here’s the biggest star of all on a pullout looking out towards the East Valley.

Star power increases if you color your hair so Rebecca gave Jenn a three day hair makeover that starts blond.

Did we mention three days?

Blond, Red (day two), still had purple to go.

March 30 comes and Jenn wants to go to the Hollywood sign – so we go to the Hollywood sign. Not easy to find. We start at the beginning of Hollywood Land which is the original development that evolved into Hollywood as we know it today.

We also learned that you can’t get anywhere near the sign. This is about the closest you are legally allowed. There are many indications that getting closer will get you arrested. Apparently there is some serious high tech surveillance going on to protect this national treasure.

Right across the street from where Jenn is in the picture above is this home that used to Be Madonna’s. Before Madonna owned it Bugsy Siegel did. We were told that Madonna had the wall painted with the stripes and it really ticked off the Hollywood community because it was too loud – puhlease!

Spinning around from the same spot is the view of the Hollywood reservoir and off in the distance is the Pacific Ocean beyond Santa Monica.

After our Hollywood sign experience we were directed by the master of March 30 to go to Venice where our great friend and mentor Malibu Tom plays in a drum circle on the beach.

These drum hippies weren’t drumming but burning incense…

These guys didn’t think it was necessary to burn the incense and were very happy and pleasant to be around.

This is what happens – several people bring their various types of drums and start beating them together on the beach just off Venice’s main walkway.

And the people show up by the hundreds to dance and enjoy the rhythm.

And the BareNakedFamily girls get into it. Hey – get away from our girls you freak!

As the sun drops over the horizon the drumming gets way intense until it is gone for the day when everyone starts screaming! This is a very spiritual and exciting experience!

And Jenn has the best birthday ever (well, for 2003 at least).

Our drive home sidetracked us to Balboa which is more of a peninsula than a way back to San Diego. We had to take this ferry back to the PCH.

And it was freaky cheap but effective.

Jenn had a great birthday and we are forever grateful to Rebecca for providing us a place to stay. After being in an RV for a couple of years a one bedroom apartment sure feels like a palace (and we got to watch like a 28″ TV!). We love you Rebecca, thanks for a great time and some real west coast hospitality!