Steak and Berries all of the meat. none of the fat.

*photo by my (very talented) friend, James De Leon

alright, i’m officially back. Not just back in the United States but back to more regular blogging habits. Now that I don’t have to find an internet cafe and pay for the use of a computer every time I want to get online. Which, I have to admit, is pretty great. Because I’m a little nerdy and I love the internet. But that should be obvious since I just mentioned my ‘blogging habits.’

We returned from SE Asia safe and sound about 3 weeks ago. To put it simply, the trip was fantastic. It was interesting, weird and fun. It was definitely a world apart from what I am used to, which is always good. It was also just where I needed and wanted to be for those four months. But now I am happy to say that I am happy to be back. Because a new adventure has begun. And it’s all happening in Portland, OR… (Still thinking of writing a few post-Asia posts about Asia in the near future. fyi.)

But before we made it here, we stopped in Los Angeles and San Francisco to visit people that we love. It took a few days to readjust to English, concrete, a cell phone and the lack of good street food but, eventually, we did it. That adjustment was made a lot easier by the presence of friends and family that we had missed a lot. Luckily, all of those things are continuing as we are with family and friends here in Oregon too. There have been meals, chats, walks, drives and hugs. The last thing being the best part, of course. But all of those things have been executed with lots of love, making my heart feel as though it is a red, heart-shaped balloon.

So now I’m going to share a recipe with you that I used for a particularly lovely meal with lots of dear, dear friends. It was Valentine’s Day. One very spectacular friend had decided to cook for all of us (and there were many) to celebrate the day. To note, the meal was almost as spectacular as she is… which means it was very, very good. I had volunteered to make the dessert because it had been over 4 months since I’d made a dessert, I love making dessert and my desserts are generally well-received among my circle of friends in San Francisco. I wanted it to be relatively easy because it wasn’t my kitchen and I wanted to watch Olympic Figure Skating too. So I found a cream puff recipe and made Lemon-WhiteChocolate-CreamPuffs… And they were delicious!

Here is the Cream Puff Recipe I used and here are the amendments I made to it:

• Instead of 2 packages of vanilla pudding mix, use 1 package of French Vanilla and 1 package of Lemon. Or just make your own lemon custard from scratch!

• Toss some white chocolate chips into your custard.

• Add a bit of sugar to the dough mix. A tablespoon or so.

• When the puffs are puffed and filled, sift some powdered sugar right over the top of ‘em.

These cream puffs are soft, sweet and unique. Kinda like friends. Thanks to all our cream puffs who treated us so well during our visits. Your sweetness will not be forgotten.

[If you click on those photos above, they'll get nice and big for you... You're gonna want to do that for the full effect.]

Just want to send some love out there and say Merry Christmas to all you lovely folks. I hope your Christmases were as jolly as it gets and that you are all spending this day after Christmas napping and digesting that garagantuan meal everyone knows you ate… I was not so pleased to miss out on that meal… But we did have ourselves a great Cambodian Christmas – with a riverboat ride and circus show on Christmas Eve followed by poolside gin&tonics and a lovely, fancy dinner on Christmas day. And so you all know we have been thinking of you and missing you lots, we also had ourselves a little holiday photo shoot while we were visiting the temples at Angkor a few days ago. (They may be the most amazing manifestation of human ingenuity and strength I have ever seen but there’ll be much more on that later. I really just want to focus on Jesus’ birthday now.) And there’s not too much more to say except that we love you. We had a chance to speak to (and see) our families during their Christmas celebrations on Skype today and that was really nice. Other than being stunned yet again that modern technology affords us that opportunity, I have also been thinking about the opportunity presented to a person when they are far from those they love; The opportunity to know that we are lucky enough to have all these beautiful people that miss us on Christmas day, people that miss our presence on that day as much as we miss theirs. And that’s something I have thought about a lot on this trip. How it has made me realize that I am loved and missed so much by so many people that I love and miss right back. That people think of me when I am gone and thinking of them. And that is a really fabulous feeling. Especially at Christmastime.

So thanks for all that love, peeps. And if you’re feeling a little bit unloved, maybe it’s time for a vacation?!?!

Merry Christmas everyone…

Let’s see… where did I leave you? In Thailand I believe. So now I want to give you the low-down on Malaysia since that is where we’ve been for the last month. And here’s how I plan to do it: food. Bet you didn’t see that coming…

After a month and a half in Thailand, the tastes of Malaysia were exciting and satisfying. The excitement of Malaysian cuisine comes from it being a mix of the distinct cuisines of the three most prominent ethnicities that are present in the country today. Let me explain…

#1 Our first stop in Malaysia was Pulau Penang, an island off the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia (the rest of Malaysia occupies a different piece of land and is where you find the spectacular home of so much of what you’ve seen on Planet Earth: Malaysian Borneo).  When we arrived there (after most business hours), we headed to Teluk Bahang, the beach where we decided to stay, by bus. When we got off the bus, the only sign of life was an extremely well-lit, 24-hour cafeteria looking place. We later learned that this was a Muslim, Indian food restaurant. Which means they did not sell beer but they did sell roti – the food we ate everyday on Teluk Bahang and nearly everyday after that while we were still in Malaysia. We tried and enjoyed a whole lot of Indian treats but roti holds a special place in our hearts. It was cheap, filling, and, most importantly, ridiculously delicious. It’s simple really – it’s just a type of bread. But it’s a buttery, flaky, warm type of bread and it usually comes with a small portion of curry to dip it in. And it always leaves a person smiling… Indian.

#2 Our next destination was the Cameron Highlands – a chilly, hilly and green landscape that hosts a couple of small towns that look stunningly similar to the old country of some European countries and is surrounded by lush jungle, which also happens to be one home of the world’s largest flower (It’s called Rafflesia, we saw it, it was amazing). While we were enjoying the cool weather here, we also enjoyed the cluster of food stalls just outside our guest house. We went there for just about every meal (the only exceptions being the obligatory roti now and then) and sorta became regulars at one stall in particular. It was run by a very cute Malaysian couple that wore matching bandanas which proudly donned the ultra-symbolic Canadian maple leaf. We just called them the Canadians. They were also both deaf so we exchanged a huge amount of smiles, which was really nice. A bi-product of this circumstance was that we got to just pointing at what we wanted and she got to just pointing at what we ought to have. Naturally, we always went with her suggestion. And this is where we had nasi lemak for the first time – an omni-present Malaysian dish that might actually be synonymous with breakfast. It was like their version of eggs & toast, only much more interesting. So let me explain this one. Or try anyway. I believe the words nasi lemak literally refers to the rice part of the dish, which is what I am going to encourage you to try to make, but is used to identify the whole dish. Which is this: delicious coconut-milk-soaked rice, a fried egg, little fried fish, peanuts, and, if you’re lucky, some lovely Malay-spiced chicken. I came to love this dish, all except the little fried fish, I have to admit I loathed their presence in any dish of mine but they were often present so I just had to deal with it. And I think you’d be surprised how a  little soaking in coconut milk takes rice to a whole new level… Malay.

#3 Next we headed to Melaka, an old port city with museums in ships, Portuguese forts and a glittering Chinatown. When we weren’t shopping for Christmas presents here, we were eating. For one of these eating breaks, we were drawn to an ornate storefront with an open-air dining space inside and a lot of people eating there. We got in line to be seated but when we got to the front of the line, he just asked us what we wanted to eat. We obviously didn’t know so he sort of just decided for us and shuffled us into the restaurant. What we got was chicken and rice balls in a real-real Chinese restaurant. These rice balls were wildly popular here, we saw them everywhere, and that’s probably because they’re awesome. It’s just rice formed into a perfect little ping-pong-ball-sized ball and served with some simple yummy chicken and sauce. Chinese food in Chinatown – charming… Chinese.

#4 I know I said three and that’s because this one doesn’t really count but I must share it with you. You see, after Melaka we headed to WWOOF farm #2; Kahang Organic Rice EcoFarm, to do some rice farming. We did said rice farming for about a week until the newly hired Thai rice farmers showed up on the scene and we were no longer an efficient way to get that rice farmed. So we were moved to the kitchen to cook for ourselves, about five other volunteers, about 7 permanent staff members and a variable number of guests visiting the farm. It was fun and exciting at first but began to get a bit tiring after, oh, the third or fourth meal cooked with the same exact ingredients. I eventually headed back outside for rice farming side jobs but Gavin stayed in the kitchen because, well, he’s a pretty nice guy and they needed the help in there. But that’s besides the point. The point is that with our limited ingredients and unfamiliar spice selection, we came up with a few. new Malaysia-inspired recipes to bring home. I won’t go into detail but I will describe the most important one. If you are like us and are in the habit of making breakfast potatoes nearly every weekend, then you may like this one: add some curry to your potatoes. Not a new idea, I know. Not genius either. But tasty. And we’d done it before, at home, but after about four rounds of potatoes and three different curries, we got it just right. So maybe that’s it – add the right curry and the right amount of it and keep trying until you get it just right. Then eat it with some scrambled egss maybe. Or maybe you want to just throw the eggs right in there with the taters, you know, when they’re good and crispy and properly curried. And maybe serve them with some nasi lemak on the side… sounds good, right?.. Us.

I suppose that’s it for now, I’ll let you get right to trying all these new treats out in your own kitchen… As for us, for now, we’re in Cambodia and loving it. More on that soon.

Happy cooking and happy eating!

As of this moment, we are in the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia. We have been in Malaysia for a few days now but I cannot move on to tales of Malaysia until I have made some very important points about Southern Thailand (we plan to visit Northern Thailand at the end of this trip). I thought it might be fun to give you day-to-day Thailand in a nutshell. Maybe larger than a nutshell… Maybe a mangosteen shell… Have you ever had one of those? They’re delicious. So…

We journeyed around Thailand by means of bus, plane, train, taxi, ferry, motorbike, minivan and tuk-tuk (a sort of open-air mini-taxi with a passenger bench somehow hooked on to a three-wheel motorbike operated by a very bold Thai man; I never saw a woman driving one). All of these transportion methods work although the prices and efficiency of each vary depending on where you are and where you are going. Usually you have to use a clever combination of two or three. We paid for each of these small journeys with Baht, the currency used in Thailand. Of course, these bills are worlds prettier than our monochrome American bills but sometimes I wonder if that doesn’t make them seem a little less real… We escaped that notion upon realizing things in Thailand, Southern Thailand at least, cost a bit more than we had anticipated. We get about 33 Baht to the dollar. And we had to watch our Bahts.  Once we got to wherever we were headed, we’d settle into the cheapest room we could find, often (and always ideally), a raised bungalow made of wood, straw and/or bamboo. The accomodations tend to be minimal (aside from the giant beds) and fit with a humbling bathroom setup – a small room with a sink on one wall aside a toilet beneath a showerhead that dispenses very cold water (no big deal in this weather). One flushes the aforementioned toilet by pouring a bowl (or a few, depending) full of water into it which was acquired from the bucket/bowl/faucet setup that always accompanies one of these toilets. You get used to this process… If we got really lucky, these bungalows would have a lovely little front deck upon which we could rest our travelers’ bums in the evening and listen to the fascinating sounds of Thailand at night. These sounds include, but are quite certainly not limited to, the melodies from an exciting and vast array of bugs, birds, reptiles, small mammals, big mammals (people) and weather. The weather generally kept us good and sweaty throughout the better portion of the day but often broke into short, but very serious, bouts of rain in the evening, sometimes in the daytime, as we were visiting at the end of the rainy season. Sometimes a nice breeze or short-lived cloud cover gave us some relief from the blazing sun when the rain was not there but usually we just had to embrace the hot, tropical weather and our resulting sweaty, stinky bodies. Which was fine, we’ve got some nice tans going… Now and then we’d be startled by some of the more intimadating thunder and lightning I’ve heard in my life, which is both exciting and slightly frightening. While Mother Nature Thailand was communicating in this way, we were attempting to communicate in the most limited Thai and a strange but effective sign language we developed. Thai is a very interesting language. I can’t say too much about it as it is written in beautiful characters that I cannot read and spoken in high-pitched sounds that I cannot understand but I can say that we were able to communicate with relative ease because so many people knew enough English to help us or were able to decipher our signs right away. It is a unique experience, though, to be in that situation. But we learned hello and thank you and used those two phrases as much as possible and they were always well-received. We also learned to greet people the Thai way, which is not achieved with a wave but a subtle head bow and a smile. If you really want to go for it, you can wai to someone by folding your hands somewhere between your forehead and your heart, depending on who it is, and giving that same little bow. There’s rather particular social rules attached to that though so I usually just stuck to the bow-smile method. But Gavin was pretty into the wai. Ask him to show you sometime if you get the opportunity. When we weren’t attempting (struggling) to communicate, we passed our time doing all kinds of good stuff – exploring, hiking, reading, swimming, and, most notably, eating. The food in Thailand was all kinds of exciting. We’ve eaten and enjoyed a fair amount of Thai food at home so we were delighted when every meal was the as-good-as-it-gets version of the Thai food we already knew. And a whole bunch of new stuff we loved. But in my opinion, the best Thai food in Thailand comes from a cart with sweet chili sauce on the side. Which is everything from Pad Thai to spring rolls to pork on a stick. It’s also the cheapest so that worked out well. I couldn’t help but measure how much I liked a town by the availability of delicious ’street food.’ It was just that good.

Since I last wrote, we made a visa-run across and back across the Malaysian border, spent some time in Krabi province, enjoyed the festival of Loy Krathong in a spectacular place called Hat Ton Sai and did some good, hearty lounging on the island of Koh Lanta. And then, like I mentioned, we made the journey to Malaysia. Southern Thailand was great and although I’I loved those beautiful beaches and that sweet chili sauce, I must say the green, rolling hills and the fantastic cuisine of Malaysia (a dreamy mixture of Malay, Indian and Chinese) is a welcome change. I enjoyed the white sand and noodles as much as you’d imagine, but I’m also enjoying wearing my sweater and every meal here leaves me satisfied and with a smile on my face. Speaking of Malaysian food, I think I’ll go get some masala roti now. Or maybe some capati with curry. And maybe another cup of tea…

Much more on Malaysia soon. My afternoon snack is calling me now.

Hello friends, I promise I’ve been thinking about you but it’s hard to be a good blogger without my trusty mac on hand all the time. But I’ve finally found a comfortable internet setup that is costing me very little so here goes with a little update…

We left the farm after being there for about a week. Ultimately, it was a good experience but mostly because we met some really great people and had a few unusual experiences – like making coconut oil from scratch and harvesting lemongrass, for example. The farm was not well established though and the organization/direction of the whole project left something to be desired. But we are looking forward to farming in Malaysia towards the end of November at what looks like a very well-established rice farm.

After Bang Phra (where the farm was), we headed to a place called Kanchanaburi. After being in Thailand for more than two weeks, the nature we found in and around Kanchanaburi town was just what we needed. We stayed there a few days, in a little bungalow on stilts above the water at a corner of the River Kwai that goes through the town. Kanchanaburi town and it’s railroad are a pretty important piece of Thailand’s history during World War II. But, neither of us really in the mood for museums, we opted for the nearby Erawan National Park instead where we visited the Erawan Waterfall, a 7-tiered waterfall that is surely something to be reckoned with. We kept our pace consistent but not rushed for the two-hour hike to the 7th tier, coming across each equally impressive waterfall ’step’ along the way. The equally impressive part only concerns tier 1-6 because the 7th tier was in a class all its own: extraordinary. And huge. We got right in the water at that 7th tier because by then we had earned it, being 120% sweaty. We had another lovely swim on our way down at the 2nd tier, sweaty once again. It was a fantastic day.

We also indulged ourselves in an absolutley delicious Indian meal while we were there, not because we don’t love Thai food, which we do, but because Ali Bongo’s Indian Restaurant was just impossible to resist.  Totally worth it. And that meal came just the night before our first Thai motorbike adventure (costing about six dollars for 24hours), which was truly an adventure as they drive on the left side and have a pretty unique style of driving. But Kanchanaburi town is very low on traffic, we promise we both wore helmets and I just rode on the back and let Gavin figure out the left side thing, so it worked out well. We rode our motorbike into the hills on the other side of the river to visit a Buddhist temple that had been established some time ago in the nine rooms of a limestone cave, now complete with a Buddha in each room (sometimes more than one) and bats. It was wicked awesome, as some would say. So I’d give 5 stars to Kanchanaburi town. There’s even more you can do there, like visit the Tiger Temple and go elephant trekking, but that was a bit out of our budget.

After that, we made the journey back to Bangkok to meet our two friends who flew in from Portland. We weren’t there long till we all agreed to head for the beach. We finally made it to Ko Samui after a long taxi-plane-bus-ferry-trucktaxi journey and it’s dreamy. We hadn’t really planned on coming here since it’s pretty touristy but decided we didn’t care that much and just needed to get to the beach as quickly as possible so here we are. We’ve been doing a lot of lounging, swimming and eating although Gavin and I have also been doing our fair share of trying to work out how to extend our Thai Visa, which expires on the 31st of this month. Turns out the hardest, most expensive place to attempt a Thai visa extension is Thailand. So tomorrow we’ll be embarking on a quick little journey into Malaysia; if you cross the border and come back in, you get a new, free 30-day Thai visa. Then we’re headed back up into Thailand, to Krabi, to take in the west coast for just a little while before we go to Malaysia for real-real.

But for today, in preparation for our ‘Visa Run,’ we’ll just be chilling on the beach and in our cute, rustic little beach bungalow.

Thinking of all of you, of course.

***

I wasn’t really able to upload new photos to Flickr this time round but I’ll do that as soon as I can. Cuz’ I’ve got some real good ones;)

This is crazy. And I mean that in the way someone does when she can’t walk straight down a sidewalk because there’s too much to look at and when she finally reaches the intersection, she looks up and says, “This is crazy.” Also in the way that a lo-budget youngster means when she is rooted to a beach chair eating crab and glass noodles from a mini-wok over coals and for that brief pause in her spirited consumption, she looks up to see the ocean and says, “This is crazy.” And not excluding the way an aspiring gardener sifts through compost and, upon finding a grub the size of one of her kidneys, looks closer and says, “This is crazy.”

You pickin’ up what I’m puttin’ down here?

We landed in Bangkok almost two weeks ago, on October 2nd. After much time spent unsuccessfully trying to figure out how we would leave LA on September 30 at 3:15 in the afternoon and arrive in Bangkok at 1:15 in the morning on October 1st (we are 14 hours ahead of California here), we were a bit confused when we finally got to our hotel at 4something am on October 2nd. But, alas, we made it. And it’s fascinating. We explored Bangkok for a few days – eating delicious street food (not always knowing what it was… this requires a lot of pointing), visiting a couple of glittering Buddhas and even falling for the famous 10Baht tuktuk tour that we were warned about time and time again (bery bery sneaky). Everyone told us to skip out of Bangkok as quickly as possible but, honestly, I’m glad we didn’t because it’s one of the more interesting cities I’ve been in. We stayed in a quiet guest house near the Chao Phraya river and spent much of our time eating – the food is cheap and delicious which is (as my dear, future sister-in-law, Andrea, would say) an ‘insta-win.’ But I do understand the advice because after a few days, we were a bit overwhelmed and ready to leave.

After a couple of days waking up to exhilarating rainstorms, lounging on the small, warm beach and indulging in a delicious mini-wok crab with glass noodle dinner (probably my favorite meal so far) on an island called Koh Sichang, we made our way to Bang Phra to do some farming. This is our first WWOOF experience in SE Asia and, well, it’s been quite interesting. Not exactly what we expected but I will say this – I can feel our character building, if you know what I mean. It is exciting to see bananas growing around you and a greenhouse that’s not a house at all, just a roof to protect the little seedlings from the extreme rain here. Some of you might also like to know that the chickens here look and act exactly like the chickens at home. Just a small, seemingly insignificant reminder that the world may not be so big after all. Oh, except they have banana trees in their coop.

We love Thailand, we’re excited for what’s next. We’ve got a couple other farming opportunities in the works and upcoming plans that involve us finding people we love on this side of the world. Which is exciting. It’s all pretty exciting. But the thing I find funny is how very regular it seems at times. People are people and before you know it, you’ll fall into the flow of those around you. The flow of passing vendor frying quail eggs in what looks like a giant escargot dish, taking my shoes off to step inside a very small, liquor-store-type place or finding myself eye level with Standing Buddha’s enormous toes. If I stop to think about it, I realize that this isn’t quite regular for me but it is for a lot of people and I’m glad I get to be a part of this flow. Even when I’m dripping sweat and using strange hand motions to ask for water. It’s all part of the adventure.

***

“Look at Giselle, she’s droppin’ a huge blog.” -Gavin

Well, it’s been a whirlwind of a fantastic summer and now I am getting ready for one more good night’s sleep before I make my way to the other side of Earth. In about 14 hours I’ll be taking off to Bangkok with Gavin, my sweetheart and trusted travel companion. And we couldn’t be more excited – we’ve been waiting for this day, well, all summer. But at the same time, it’s a very strange feeling. You see, I’ve traveled a good bit in my few years but this is different, this will be an entirely new experience. And this may just be the grandest adventure I have set off on to date… and with adventure comes extreme joy, great challenges and unforeseen growth. All of which I welcome but also all of which can inspire a certain amount of anxiousness. But the single thing that makes me comfortable and confident about this grand adventure I am about to embark on is the feeling that there is nothing else I’d rather be doing tomorrow than making the journey to Bangkok with Gavin and that I am seizing my opportunity to see the world.

And now, after a full summer of small, incredible adventures – farming, party planning, Summer Drama Camp, Des Moines, Oregon, time with my dearest in Torrance and a grand medieval finale, I’m so ready for it. But first, I want to send out a huge thank you and lots of love to all those fine folks who gave me a place to rest my head, a meal (or several) and your company this summer. You know who you are and you have certainly helped a great deal in making this possible for me. So thank you..

Who knows how long we’ll stay, who knows what we’ll find and who knows how it will effect us… But we’re going and to be blunt – bring it Asia. And we want to share it all with you, here, as often as possible. Because that’s the point, right? See the world & share what you’ve learned with as many people as you can. And I’ve got a lot to learn, so get ready… I’m ready, I’m packed, so I’m off. But before I go, here’s a thought for you, my friends – a favorite passage of Gavin’s written by the great and indescribably adventurous Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton…

“Of the gladdest moments in human life is the departure upon distant journey int unknown lands. Shaking off with one mighty effort the fetters of habit, the leaden weight of routine, the cloak of many cares and the slavery of home, one feels more happy. The blood flows with the fast circulation of childhood. A journey, in fact, appeals to imagination, to memory, to hope, the three sister graces of moral being”

A lot has happened since I last posted because, well, I haven’t posted in quite a while. I promise I was thinking of you folks the whole time though… So I’ll start where I left off and try to only include the really good stuff.

After summer camp ended, which was amazing yet again, I headed back to San Francisco where I met up with Gavin and a couple of friends before we made the journey to Mendocino to join our dear friends, Eve & Jesse, at their wedding. It was beautiful. Lots of love, beautiful views of the luscious California North Coast, and plenty of good dance moves. Eve & Jesse are clearly very happy and we are so happy for them because they’re pretty much the raddest. Congratulations again to Evie Waffles & Jesse Blue Eyes!

Here’s a quick craft project for you that I came up with in putting together their wedding gift… To go along with the funky-delicious cookbook we gave them, I picked up a couple of sweet oven mitts and decided to personalize them. To do that, I stitched an ‘E’ into one and a ‘J’ into the other (for the first letters of their first names, in case you didn’t catch that) with colored embroidery floss and a good stitching needle, all of which you can find at any basic craft store. Upon witnessing the oven mit high five that took place after they opened their gift, I decided it was a good one. But it’s also a great, simple way to personalize pretty much anything made out of fabric.

I left San Francisco and drove back down to LA for an extremely short but very sweet visit with my loved ones before embarking on a journey to the Midwest that I had been anticipating for quite some time. I went to visit one of my best girlfriends from college, who is living in Des Moines, Iowa. It was my first trip to the Midwest and, consequently, would be my first State Fair… I just happened to be there while the ten-day Iowa State Fair was in full effect. And I loved it. It was a gigantic whirlwind of fascinating Midwesterners, a variety of artery-clogging food on a stick, and stunning contest displays (think quilts, lots of cows, dollhouses, butter sculptures, very fat pigs, and so on). Instead of trying to describe it further, I will simply say that if you have not yet attended a state fair, you must. And if you have, well, you know just what I’m thinking.

The State Fair was not the only thing I enjoyed during my trip to Iowa. At the top of the list is the time spent with Stephany at her beautiful Des Moines apartment, particularly the chatting on the balcony overlooking the tree-lined street that hosted a handful of beautiful, old, colonial-looking, brick houses while listening to the symphony of cicadas that characterizes an Iowan summer. And then there was the Des Moines Art Center, which houses a small but impressive collection of amazing prints by Japanese printmakers, a unique Lichtenstein piece called Three Pyramids, and much more.  Joined on this list by a picnic, swimming in the very hot&humid weather, a visit to the farmer’s market, dinners with family, a bladder bust at an awesome dive bar, and a stroll in downtown Des Moines (Highlight: East Village and it’s many, very cool boutique stores. Favorite Store: Smash, a t-shirt store with an attitude, check out their website.)

So to wrap this all up, my visit to Iowa was everything I’d hoped it would be and I feel better about myself now after having had a proper Midwest experience. I left Des Moines a couple of days ago and am now back in Oregon with Gavin and his family. We’ve got several fun things on our agenda for the coming days that I won’t reveal just yet but I’ll give you one: the Oregon State Fair. And with that, I’ll leave you with one of my favorite photos from the Iowa State Fair…

So, as it turns out, I totally lied in my last post. I do have internet. Though i’m still hoping that my guest writer will have something for you soon but in the meantime, here’s where I’m at…

I arrived in Santa Cruz two weeks ago to start the three weeks of Summer Drama Camp that I am in the midst of right now. My official job here is to teach a film-making workshop, alongside two other lovely and talented staff members, ‘Iceman’ and ‘Zula, and to capture documentary footage of the goings-on around camp. Note: we all have camp names… I am ‘Guatemala.’ But the overall experience of this camp goes far beyond that job description… I am, after all, living here for three weeks. And even though it can be pretty exhausting, it’s something I look forward to all year long and an experience for which I am incredibly grateful. Here’s why: The campers are creative, enthusiastic and highly talented. The staff here is made up of a group of people I admire, respect and love – many of which have become dear friends of mine over the last few years. Sometimes I look at the things going on around me and think, how did I get here? (The answer: Craigslist & a good interview). Basically, at the end of the day, even if i’m totally overwhelmed, I know that I am lucky to be here and am mostly just having a lot of fun!

That said, I am ultimately still here to make movies with my campers. So I thought I’d share with you what we’ve done so far… Last week I worked with seven campers to make a Western (inspired by the genre game we play on day one of the week) titled ‘The Return of Wild Willy.’ We had a lot of fun making it and I hope you agree it ended up being a pretty sweet film…

Bearing in mind that I did not live in the heart of the illustrious City of Angels (I instead lived in a suburb near the coast) I am constantly stunned by the discoveries I have made and continue to make each time I visit this place. This is no dull place; there’s always something to be seen even if you insist you’ve seen it all.

Last Monday I headed to Topanga Canyon, where two of my very best friends from San Francisco, Chelsea and Kerry, have been living for the last year. There is something so great about friends from other places moving to your old stomping grounds – they explore and are open to this place you “know” in a totally different way. I also spent an evening with my dear friend Jessie from high school who lives in an amazing spot on the coast in the Pacific Palisades. And thanks to the adventurous spirits of these very cool friends of mine, the discoveries continued…

Chelsea and Kerry took me to the Will Rogers State Park, the former vacation cottage turned ranch residence of the 1930’s actor. It is now a lovely, green state park that hosts the only polo field in Los Angeles county as well as a 31-room ranch house, a stable, corrals, a riding ring, a roping arena and a two-hole golf course. Not to mention the handful of trailheads that will lead you to beautiful vistas of the area, the city and the coast. We spent a lovely afternoon there, basking in the sunshine in the stunningly quiet, nearly empty park, thinking about Mr. Will Rogers. We used a few of his many philosophies included in the park’s literature to inspire us that day. I’ll indulge you with our favorite, “Every man has wanted to be a cowboy. Why play Wall Street and die young when you play cowboy and never die?…”  The next day I headed to Jessie’s to join her and some of her lovely lady friends for a trip to Hollywood Bowl to celebrate her birthday. Equipped with wine, salads, baguettes and smiles, we boarded a bus in Westwood that carried us to the very large venue (boasting a capacity of 18,000). It was my first time there. I was astonished. I loved it. We enjoyed the Latin sounds of Eddie Palmieri, Poncho Sanchez and Sergio Mendes along with our little picnic in the warm Southern Caifornia climate… Wouldn’t you love that too? To wrap it all up, I found Chelsea and Kerry again in the morning and they took me to The Self-Realization Fellowship, one of their favorite places in the neighborhood. It is a peaceful site for meditiation and the home of Mahatma Gandhi’s World Peace Memorial, among many other things. Another lovely afternoon. And just to tie a bow on it all, we ended the afternoon at the beach and I took a refreshing dip – something I can never resist these days after realizing what a luxury it is to have warm water and sunshine so close to home (one comes to this realization after moving from the ideal Southern California coast to the much colder, unswimmable Northern California coast…).

So next time you are in this area, I would highly recommend any and all of these little adventures and be sure to always take advantage of kind friends who are willing to be your tour guides, whether they grew up there or just arrived. Just don’t forget to say thank you… so here’s a very huge thank you to chelsea, kerry and jessie. I just love you hooligans.

As for the next adventure, I am embarking on a coastal journey to the Santa Cruz mountains tomorrow morning to spend three weeks teaching film and shooting documentary footage at Summer Drama Camp. And I just can’t wait. Unfortunately, I will not have internet access during that time but do not fret! I have invited everyone’s favorite guest writer of this blog to indulge you in his Oregonian adventures for the next few weeks while I am away. I trust he will keep you interested and intrigued stunned but I will look forward to more adventure writing when I return!

Be well my lovely readers. Enjoy this month of July.