After a bit of downtime, we're back on the up-and-up.

9:36 am
Orange, CA

Sunday proved to be a much needed day of rest for these weary travellers. We (most of us) slept in until past noon, then spent some time planning what to do. We said fond farewells to my cousin Philip, then were on the road, but this time, without any particular destination in mind. We ended up at Costco through a huge coincidence, and I enjoyed one of their trademark delicious polish sausages, while Jon and I attempted to come up with a slogan for the food court. A couple of them follow:

Costco food court, where the...
stingy meet the pudgy,
thrifty meet the delicious,
fat meet the frugal, and my personal favorite,
cheap meet the chubby

After picking up swimsuits, and enjoying the myriad samples Costco had to offer, we cruised around downtown LA a bit, looking for things that caught our eye. We stumbled upon a gallery displaying some of Mark Ryden's art, which excited Forest quite a bit. After looking at the works in the window, I have to admit that I was excited too. Unfortunately, it was Sunday and the gallery was closed.

After that, we rolled into the Beverly Center, a gargantuan mammoth of a mall. Our goal: H&M, the mecca of cheap and well cut clothing, which for some reason we don't have in Seattle yet. I can only pray. I spent a hundred bucks or so that I don't have and came out with way more clothes than one should for that much.

By a stroke of fortune, our timing of leaving the mall was perfect for catching a movie at Grumman's Chinese Theater. In a stroke of fortune, they were playing 300, a movie which none of us had seen, and all of us wanted to see. I'll spare you a full review, but it was delightfully ridiculous. I wondered why Xerxes was a robot, and wanted to see more of his executioner, Fatty McSwordsforarms. If you can get past the silliness, though, it was a good two hours of nerd porn.

After the cinema experience, we made the drive down to Orange. We met up with our gracious host-to-be, Katy, and after meeting the other half of our hosting duo, we trooped out to one of the local mexican food joints to enjoy burritos and horchata. I was intimidated due to my lack of knowledge of the Spanish language, but I ended up getting the food and enjoying it quite a bit.

Then, for the first time during the trip, ECAT split up: Forest and Alexandra stayed with Todd, and Jon and I remained with Katy. We settled in for a night of restful sleep, and woke up fresh and ready for the new day: today!