los angeles times is fun times

dearest internet, it has been an unusually large number of miles since we talked.

look! it's the coast! abbie took this near big sur. doesn't it look like a place you'd live if you were famous?


of course, one drawback would be that nerds would take pictures of themselves on or near your front lawn:


after we drove some more, we got to los angeles. we were in a bit of a hurry to get to the big football game, where abbie's talented brother max was demonstrating his mad drum skillz amongst the USC band.

but! there was a problem. max had left us some tickets, but we had trouble getting in touch with the nice people who were holding them. so we entertained ourselves by wandering USC's mostly empty campus. observe:

(us waving sadly at a mirror)


(blending in)


(contemplating the wreckage)


(being sad that we didn't get to see max)


but, towards the end of the first half (and just as USC started to really put the hurt on ohio state), the nice people got through to us, and suddenly, we were in!


(fight on)


(click on this for a better look at max's mug)


(plumage!)


if possible, living with max and his roommates was yet funner than the game. they let us relive the college experience that we never actually had in the first place. and they have a cool apartment. note that tanks are not allowed.


here's max with blake and nick. they're both drummers in the band too, in addition to being both fine and upstanding. (not pictured: jared, who is often not pictured.)


one day, we went shopping to get abbie some dress clothes. you can imagine how that went. but the boys bought some art! so that was exciting. bonus points if you can name the work/artist.


and we even got jared in this one!


we were truly sad to leave those boys. but they needed to get back to leading their rockstar lives (slash studying), so we went to joshua tree national park. it's in the desert, and it rules. blah blah blah, again, pictures don't do it justice. here's a sunrise drive we took.


and here's a video from the resurrected flip!



and here's our campsite. notice several rocks.


and finally, a shot that includes the actual joshua trees.


thanks to all who made our LA times so fantastic, and to the many folks we weren't able to see. we look forward to a return visit soon.

we love you, internet! sorry for being out of touch. we will write again soon.