LAST POST

We're down to the last month, so here's our last installment.

Celebrity Sightings to Date
If your over 40 or under 25, who you recognize on this list differs a lot)
Jessica Alba, Dustin Hoffman, Steven Spielberg, Halle Berry, Ted Danson, Randy Travis, Randy Quaid, Sam Elliott, "Slash", Kristin Chinnoweth, Willem Dafoe, Ali Larter, Luke Wilson, Pamela Anderson, Ellen Pompeo

Yosemite National Park
Top Left: view of Yosemite valley and El Capitan
Top Right: view of Half-Dome from Glacier Point
Bottom Right: Dana on peak of trail near Glacier Point



































Channel Islands National Park (11 miles off coast)
Top Left -- "Dock" if you can call it that; boats can't tie off; swell comes in and out, so you exit and enter boat as it lifts and drops with the swell; needless to say, Julia loved it!
Bottom left and right: view around and on island
(we went to the smallest island -- Anacapa; great views at sea level; sea lions ... but not much on island; we did see a blue whale "spew" on the way to the island)

GETTY MUSEUM (on mountainside up above West LA; great views, building, grounds; very impressive exhibits of European paintings and a special visiting exhibit on Bernini -- one of the greatest sculptors of all time)


























MERRITT'S SWEET SIXTEEN (Olivia & Emma Visit)
Top Left: Disney Tower of Terro
Next Left: The Crew at Leo Carillo State Beach (Near Point Mugu west of Malibu)
Next Left: Dana and Emma at Leo Carillo
Next Left: Crew at Universal Studios Entrance
Top Right: Mer and Olivia at Zuma Beach body boarding on Oct 25th!
Next Right: More Leo Carillo
Next Right: Ditto
Bottom Right: All the girls faces in a Scoobie Doo special effect

DREAMIN' MEETS REALITY (SORT OF)

After honeymoon of first week wore off, we realized that life in Malibu (work, school, ...) a lot like life in BG except without our friends. Settled in by the third week to routine. Continue to see/do many things ... Reagan Presidential Library/Museum, USC-Ohio State (pre) game, Disneyland, San Diego Zoo Wild Animal Park, body boarding at beach, Warner Brothers studio, celebrity sightings at grocery and other places (Dustin Hoffman, Willem Dafoe, , Sam Elliott, Randy Quaid, LaFonda (from Napoleon Dynamite), Ali Larter, Kristen Chenoweth (if you don't know some of these, you're either too old, like me, or too young) ... Missing friends in BG but looking forward to Yosemite trip in October, Getty Museum, and other stuff down the road.


ROOM WITH A VIEW -- well, there may be drawbacks to Malibu, but the view isn't one of them. The photos below look out from the graduate school campus about 800 ft. above sea level and just about 200 yards from our townhouse. Without a wide-angle lens, the it's hard to do justice to the view. These photos are side-by-side.




















ZUMA BEACH (west Malibu)
Here we are posing in our new (half) wetsuits.
The water is 64 degrees!











In the half dozen trips to the beach for body boarding, these were the biggest waves so far. Regular "overhead" size -- this one was a "medium" for the day.













WHAT'S UP DOC?
"VIP Tour" of Warner Brothers Studio.
(Below) Merritt and Dana in
"Central Perk" set from Friends.


















USC v. OHIO STATE
Our pregame "tailgating party" on USC campus.
We didn't "score" any tickets, so we settled
for the USC band's warm-up/rally. Great stuff!
I would show you Julia getting her groove
on to the band's version of "Tusk", but the girls won't let me!



















MISCELLANEOUS STUFF
Running with a View
Running is still running, but the
view from the track after we're
finished isn't too shabby.














"Heroes" Memorial to 9/11 victims on the graduate campus.














Mer & Dana with Scoobie at
Warner Brothers.













Mer in a Hollywood frame of mind.














Universal Studios Citywalk
Saw Dark Knight on the IMAX screen.

MALIBU OR BUST!

Day 1 -- BG to St. Louis

Day 2 -- STL to Lincoln, NE
(Cornfields, lots of cornfields but no "Shoeless" Joe Jackson or Kevin Costner; New states for all of us -- IA, NE; for girls -- KS)

Day 3 -- Lincoln to Rushmore
(New state -- SD;
Huge supercell
thunderstorm in Black Hills;
later found out it contained 2 tornadoes;
Great views of Rushmore
emerging
from storm mist)














"Liv & Stacey,
dad thinks I'm tkg pic;
opp to txt u
lol, mer"

Day 4 -- Mount Rushmore to Cody, WY
(Big Horn Mountains
in WY quite a sight with
snow capped peaks )

Day 5 -- Cody to Ketchum, ID (Sun Valley area) via Yellowstone National Park (Yellowstone great,
especially east side;
saw Old Faithful
but only 2 buffalo and no
bears; Liked Yellowstone
but probably
like Grand Teton better;
added MT to states)



















Day 6, 7 -- Ketchum, ID
(Rafting on Salmon River [pretty tame]; biking;
chairlift to top of ski mountain;
beautiful place with lots of outdoor stuff)








Is that lady in the back Julia in
30 years + 50 pounds
or is it just me?







Day 8 -- Ketchum to Sacramento, CA
(New state for girls -- NV;
8 hours of evidence that 6 billion
people on the planet have
not nearly filled it up)










Day 9 -- Sacramento to San Francisco area (via Napa)
(Julia awoke with food poisoning; wonderful cousin (Nola Mulligan) in Napa took us in and
gave the girls and me a great tour of Napa valley while Julia recovered)



















Day 10 == SF to Ventura, CA
(Crossed fog-shrouded Golden Gate;
drove down fog=laden
Pacific Coast Hwy;
Fantastic views but very, very ,very long;
only downer was that
17-mile drive along Monterey penisula
was closed to tourists,
so no Pebble Beach)

Day 11 -- Arrive in Malibu!
(Any concerns about the
condo put to rest immediately;
here is the view
from our patio!)