CALIFORNIA DREAMIN' — sisters tyne

los angeles

The country was undergoing a full blown heat wave by the time we got to Los Angeles. We fled Vegas like two vagabonds who had robbed MGM Grand before hitting up the drive-through chapel. Needless to say, it was hot. Too hot for us, at 113 degrees and climbing. Hot, desert wind berating us from the moment we stepped out of the car, hot like opening up the oven with your face near the door. Hot.

Unfortunately, LA wasn’t much better. It was in the three digits the entire time we were there, and we scrambled around West Hollywood trying to check items off of our bucket list without getting heat stroke. We did the Walk of Fame, where I finally got to pay tribute to the queen herself.

I’ve waited my whole life for that moment, and anyone who has been in the car with me when To Love You More came on (or That’s The Way It Is, or The Power of Love, or It's All Coming Back To Me Now, you get it) understands completely.

We also made the hike up to the Hollywood Sign, which was worth it only for the pictures since we were heaving and gasping by the time we got all 2.5 miles up there, and still had to go back. The debilitating heat was a definite downfall while we were there, and I would love to go back and experience more of the film world in LA. My dream aesthetic of director's chairs and sunny sets with cardboard backdrops is yet to be fulfilled, HOWEVER, walking through Hollywood was like being in almost every Disney Channel Original Movie, so that was pretty cool. It was fun to hit the top of a hill before Shelbie and throw out an iconic, “waiting for you is like waiting for rain in this drought!” although a lot sweatier and less graceful than Hillary Duff.

My absolute favorite part of LA was the people we got to spend time with (will it ever NOT be?). We got to stay with family friends who I’ve known my whole life, but haven’t known me as an adult, mature enough to travel across the country and stay with them and have coherent conversations about who I am and what I’d like to do with my life. Leesa and Heather were our LA foodies, and with them we got to experience some amazing hole-in-the-wall places that we would have never found on our own. Apparently LA has some of the best Korean food in the U.S.?? I had NO idea, but we found out in our first night there, hitting up this INCREDIBLE Korean BBQ joint that had an entire wall dedicated to the famous people who had eaten there (that’s LA for ya). We got to experience Korean milk ice cream, gelato 😍, classic American, Italian, British pub, cupcakes diSPENSED OUT OF AN A T M I mean COME ON. It was wonderful. Plus the sass and quick wit and playful energy that came from hanging out with those two was a needed refresher. I can’t wait until I’m back in their company, whether it’s in LA, Colorado, Florida, or Botswana. My ticket is booked.

Our last night in LA was spent with Malaya, a childhood friend that moved out here after high school, and who I haven’t seen since. It was like picking up right where we left off, thirteen years old, tying Pre-wrap around our heads, pretending we were ninjas, racing motorized carts around Publix, the same wild and youthful glee was ignited in all of us the minute we wrapped our arms around each other. Laya took us to Manhattan Beach, where we were choking down our pasta at Mama Dee’s, uproarious and unashamed as we caught up on the last couple years.

We hadn’t been to a beach since we left for the trip, and it was my very first West Coast sunset. And let me tell you, my God, it did not disappoint. You’d think after living in Florida for two decades sunsets would cease to amaze me, but still, I could be driving home from work, on a train to London, on a boat in Vancouver, or sitting on the couch in my apartment. I. Love. Sunsets. (And sunrises, for the record) I have a mental cache of the most incredible, awe-inspiring, tear-jerking sunsets I’ve ever experienced in my life. Manhattan Beach is top three. Good views. Good times. Good peoples. I’d say the pictures don’t do it justice, but they really do.

Lauren x

los angeles, continued

And one of my favorite stops, right outside the City of Stars, was meeting up with Virginia and her husband Rito. Virginia was one of my Granny's (my beautiful mother's beautiful mother) closest and dearest of friends. I wanted so badly to be able to stop by and see the two of them, only having met them once before but hearing about them all the time back at home. I am so grateful we were able to make it happen and spend as much time with them as we could. It was an emotional visit full of stories, and a memory I will cherish forever.

♡ Shelbie

sequoia & yosemite

No one is here. It’s 6:00 in the morning. I can hear my every breath and every footstep as the chilly California air grasps at my sweater (the first time we’ve had to wear one of those on this trip!) And they’re everywhere, the Sequoia trees. Big and bold and ancient and altogether welcoming as Lauren and I make our way down the winding paths. The forest is loud in the gentlest of ways as it yawns in the early hours; leaves rustling, birds whistling, branches creaking in the wind… and not a single human voice. We’re alone, and we have the forest all to ourselves, if just for a little while.

We spent an hour with General Sherman, the largest tree by volume in the world, admiring his overwhelming presence. All I could think about was my dad’s ecstatic face when my family and I ventured out west four years ago to witness these giants for the first time. And it was nice to be back again, to think about previous adventures and feeling the sense of change that’s occurred since I last stood in that very same place. Yet the forest stays the same. It is still just as beautiful, still just as breath-taking, and nature always seems to hold the power of waking you up and reminding you how short your life is, and how absolutely beautiful it is when you make the most of what you’re given, give back what you can, and to live brightly, unabashedly, and unafraid.

We stayed there until other early risers began hiking our way, acknowledging the fact that our little moment was over, and left with the thought of coming back and seeing everything still standing exactly how it was when we were 20 and tired from the short night’s rest we had sleeping in the truck the night before. Oh, the life of adventure.

Yosemite was next on our list before we hit San Fransisco. We hiked to the highest lookout area in the park, Glacier Point. It was just as outstanding as one could imagine it being. A panoramic view of the mountains and their snowcapped tips, granite cliffs, and two majestic waterfalls with a spattering of Sequoia trees all around. We could have spent so long there, hiking and venturing down to Mirror Lake and other misty trails. We considered camping, but the desperate desire for a shower outweighed that option, and onto San Fransisco it was. It just gives us another excuse to come back, doesn’t it?

♡ Shelbie

san francisco

San Francisco was a whirlwind, to say the least. We got in late, scrambling for a place to stay after finding that the entire Silicon Valley was booked up with no vacancies. A friend of mine graciously let us stay with her (a godsend) and provided us with more than we could have asked for after a couple of days in the mountains. Majo Majors and I were best of buds, back when I was sixteen and she was still Majo Gularte. She stayed at my family’s park, where we both worked for the entire summer. She learned how to fly, and I secretly played matchmaker with her and— her now-husband— Zac Majors (¡de nada!) We had the best summer together, and from the moment she left I promised that I would visit her, wherever she was. Four years later, we’re both leading very different lives, but it was just like back then, laughing and joking and reminiscing about crazy adventures out at the park. Seeing her was one of my most anticipated visits, because I knew that even after all this time, all the memories would come back to us.

Then along came the Mini Coop.

All was going great, to say the least. We’d spent a great night with Majo, and decided to head into the city the next day. The highlights of my day were the 150 year old Ghirardhelli Square, where of course I splurged on a hot fudge sundae because I’m an ice cream connoisseur (and why the heck not??). My favorite was the Golden Gate Bridge. For some people it’s the Statue of Liberty, or the Eiffel Tower, or even the Hollywood Sign. For me it was the Golden Gate. I was mesmerized. I fell in love. I could lay out in Aquatic Park under the shade of a tree, overlooking Hyde Street Pier and Golden Gate, book in hand, listening to the seagulls rioting over the bay, and be content.

We were wrapping up our day. I had done all of this research on the district of Castro, and the great food places they had there, and we were on our way to El Castillito, stomach’s grumbling in anticipation of cheese melted inside the burrito. I know right? But alas.

We were minding our own business, looking both ways before we crossed the street, when a woman turning onto the street accelerated quicker than we could react, and she clipped me with the left side of her car, sending me into the air and down on my knee.

Not gonna lie people, it hurt. It wasn’t like the movies where Gerard Butler rushes out of his Mini Cooper, scoops you up, and pays for all your medical bills before falling madly in love with you. It’s a lot more like Grand Theft Auto where you bounce off the hood with a less-than-pleasant thud, and the perp tries to drive away before being stopped by onlookers.

There was a silver lining, though! The first response firefighters breathed life into me with their dashingly good looks (and their oxygen tank but still, SO CUTE.) By the time I got to the hospital my mind was clear and I had broken free from my shock-induced nausea and delirium. Shelbie was like a guardian angel, the whole time. Protecting me from the crazy mini-coop lady, talking to the police, giving everyone all of my information and making sure everything got sorted out while I was trying to stay with it. She knows I don’t handle pain very well, even the smallest, so she took control of the situation and let me focus on that, which was so amazing and I’m so aware of how lucky I am to have a cool-headed and assertive partner-in-crime (not our crime, obviously, we aren’t mowing down pedestrians in the crosswalk.) It was a crazy couple of hours, ambulance ride, x-rays, telling my immediate family what was going on, it was an adrenaline rush, no doubt. Majo and some wonderful friends of hers took really great care of us that night, and we decided it would be best to hit the road in the morning, get the hell out of San Francisco and onto the Pacific Coast Highway.

Lau x