If I were you, I'd keep things running as normally as you can.

After crashing early post-zoo adventure, we awoke the next morning with plans for a fun-filled Easter. We were all definitely missing our families a little, so we decided to combat the homesickness with an Easter tradition: egg dyeing! First we made a stop at CVS for the required supplies, as well as some very necessary Easter candy. The day got off to a rocky start when a Sweet Tart jelly bean explosion resulted in this disaster all over our living room.

Between that and a few cracked eggs the activity was not going great, but we persevered, streaming Sojo and enjoying our Easter spread.

Luckily the rest of the process went much more smoothly. We got creative: some eggs were multicolored, some were decorated with stickers, some were supposed to look patriotic but ended up looking more like a Pepsi logo. All in all, a lot of fun was had, and we were pleased that we had stayed true to a traditional Easter activity.




As we were cleaning up, we received quite a surprise in the form of our first significant California earthquake. That was the day a 7.2 magnitude quake struck Baja, California, and we definitely felt it even up here in LA. We all stood in the doorways of our apartment, unsure what to do, as we watched the blinds and hanging lamps in the apartment sway. It felt different than I'd expected- more like a boat swaying than anything else, and the effects were definitely magnified by being on the fourth floor. As soon as we were sure it was over, we turned on the television for updates and checked in with our families so they wouldn't worry. I was later scolded for not Flipcamming the earthquake, but since I was too busy standing firmly in the doorway I don't have any photographic or video evidence to show you...you'll just have to take my word for it that it was a bizarre experience.

The previous night we'd seen a surprise carnival on Venice Boulevard as we drove home from the zoo. We all love carnivals, but we were far too exhausted to stop, so we decided that if it was still open the next day we would definitely add it to the agenda. Turns out the free-admission Wilshire Spring Carnival was in full swing on Easter. Refusing to let the lingering fears of potential earthquake aftershocks scare us off (but unanimously agreeing to steer clear of the Ferris Wheel), the three of us and Nick set out for some good old-fashioned fun.

The Ferris Wheel did not seem too popular only a few hours post-earthquake...

After scoping out the rides, we all made our picks and chipped in for a book of tickets. First, we all rode the Swings.

If our life was a sitcom, this photo would be in the opening credits.

I'm still not sure quite how it happened, but then Jenn somehow convinced me to go on one of the most terrifying looking rides at the carnival, the Orbiter. Lauren wouldn't even consider it and Nick ultimately decided against it, but the two of us soldiered on.

All smiles, until...
Despite needing a few minutes to stop feeling dizzy, I didn't regret going on the ride, although I did declare it would be my last thrill ride of the day. Nothing sounded like a more perfect follow-up than bumper cars, which Nick, Lauren and I rode as Jenn took photos.


She was able to document many of our head-on collisions and targeted attacks against one another. Great way to take out the pent-up frustration from months of LA driving!


Then Lauren and Jenn went on the Pirate Ship. Despite what these photos will lead you to believe, they were not the only people on the ride, just the only ones on their side of the ship after purposely waiting for a new round so they could snag a coveted end spot for maximum thrills.



We attempted one game in hopes of winning a prize, but sadly all four of us lost. Nick was repeatedly chastised by the people working the games for not having won any of the three girls he was with a prize, but we forgave him...eventually.

So basically our Easter that started off conventional just got weirder and weirder, with the earthquake and a trip to the carnival. Not exactly your stereotypical holiday, but for us it worked just fine. If it were up to me, there would be a carnival in our neighborhood every day.

We wound down the day with an Easter egg and pilot-viewing party at Mapgar's. It may not have been your typical Easter, but even with the earthquake (hey, we've had the full California treatment now) it was a pretty great day.

Photo credit for this post to Lauren!

-Erin

What, I can't even kiss you now?

Welcome to the San Diego Zoo! After our chill evening of card games, we headed out bright and early down the 5 to see hundreds of the coolest and most exotic animals around in one of the world's largest wildlife sanctuaries. It took us seven hours to see the whole zoo--but we did it!

One of the first animals we saw was the big-eyed Fishing Cat. I may be biased, because I'm partial to cats, but I thought it was a very sleek and cunning-looking fellow. It posed for us after leaping from a rocky cave onto a fallen tree branch, then played in the shallow water with its webbed paws.

As we continued on our journey, we began to realize how hungry we were, and headed toward the panda exhibit's restaurant for a quick bite before we jumped in the long line to see the pandas. There are only four zoos in the United States that house Giant Pandas, or so I have been told. Erin was wicked excited to see them.

However, there is a lesser-known species of panda called the Red Lesser Panda that is oft-overshadowed by the Giant Panda. In fact, it hid its adorable little face from us as we waited in line to see the Giant Pandas, so I had to use this picture of myself and a painting of a panda to demonstrate how sad this little guy is.

I think people should get just as excited to see Lesser Pandas as Giant Pandas, especially since the Giant Panda has never won any awards for being the cutest animal around. The Red Lesser Panda has.

You know what else is better than a Giant Panda? A gift shop full of Giant Panda merchandise! Erin could not resist the wall of pandas. Highlights? Cling-to-Things Panda! Surprised Panda! Party Panda! And, of course, Loves-To-Be-With-You Panda.





But, I suppose it's time to come clean...I may be hatin' on pandas to try and convince myself they aren't the coolest exotic beasts around, and totally worth the wait. Check out the adorable baby panda cuddling with its mom! Look at its little foot! Tiny little claws! These animals just want to sleep and eat bamboo. What a life...and you can watch it all on the live PandaCam!

After panda-times, we wandered through other parts of the zoo, like the Raptor exhibit! An exhibit that is, without fail, disappointing to even the most rational people. It's not the zoo's fault. The exhibit has really cool giant predator birds, like the Harpy Eagle.

This bird sat right at the edge of the cage and watched us, flexing its giant talons. It's got claws the size of a grizzly bear's, and it uses them to grab monkeys and sloths...in the wild.

Another notable animal at the SDZ is the adorable dik-dik. It's my favorite. What is a dik-dik, you ask? It's a dwarf antelope that likes to live in pairs and sprint around on spindly legs.

Now, I know what you're thinking: animals are awesome, but where are the silly pictures I've come to know and love in this LA State Blog? Well, it turns out, there are a lot of kids at the SDZ, and for whatever reason, Lauren thinks that they should get preferential treatment when it comes to posing with animal statues. Pshh.

Nick and I snuck this one in when Lauren was distracted by the lions. Did someone say lions?!

Bam! I wasn't lyin'. Now who's distracted? I've got to admit, these beasts are majestic. Did you know that the "King of the Jungle" doesn't actually live in the jungle at all?

And then, we have another member of the big cat family: the jaguar. This guy has a whole outside play area to hang out in, but instead stalks the human viewers looking into his/her small, dark cave. Pacing back and forth, this determined beast seemed to be plotting exactly how to maim each and every one of the zoo-goers on the off-chance that the glass suddenly disappeared.

Recently, the SDZ added a new exhibit: the Elephant Odyssey. It takes you back to the time of the woolly mammoths, and samples the research being done at the La Brea Tar Pits (home!). Lauren was as excited for elephants as Erin was for pandas!

The best part of the elephant exhibit was at the end: the camels. This pair of camels was making out for about an hour straight, much to our amusement. It was a pretty amorous day in the park: it seemed like every pair of animals we found was kissing.


Next, we crossed over to the "Urban Jungle" exhibit, and watched the giraffes eat and silly-sit. Did you know that the giraffe is the tallest animal in the world? And now, thanks to the internet, we can answer one of the world's oldest questions: Is a Giraffe Taller than a House?

Sadly, the rhinos were being put away right when we got the Urban Jungle, so we had to move on...

...to Koalas! They're marsupials, not bears. Are you guys aware of Koala Day? What's up with that, Dr. Koalavorkian?

Next, we ventured over to the Skyfari, proving once again that the most seemingly-innocuous rides can be terrifying from time to time (i.e. the Disneyland Ferris Wheel). Not that the Skyfari is scary....but it's very high, and when you imagine falling off the gondola into one of the cages, well...that's a little scary. A good tip for those wanting to ride the Skyfari: if it's later in the day, jump on at the bottom, not the top. There was no line going up, but an hour wait going down.

After we jumped off the Skyfari, we took a trek down the Big Cat Trail, and saw another jaguar--this time spotted. The jaws on this bad boy combined with the ferocity of the black jaguar from earlier in the day have me convinced that this cat is the most fearsome feline in the zoo.

And then...good news! The Big Cat trail brought us back to the Urban Jungle, and the rhinos had returned.
Turns out that if you pay the zoo a small fee, you can get a giant mop and clean the rhinos! This sounds a bit like interning to me--paying to work, instead of working for pay? But still! You can get up close to a rhino, so that's something special.

Now we come to my favorite portion of the day: the Bears!

These two three-year-old brown bear brothers decided, as we looked on, that now was the time for some rough-and-tumble play-fighting! They danced, they bit, they growled with claws in the air (claws, you may remember, as big as the talons of a harpy eagle!). It was awesome. I think Erin took video.

Right next door lives the smaller black bear, who spent most of the time we watched it swinging it's head back and forth in front of a wall, dancing to inaudible music. Every once in a while, it would suddenly feel paranoid, and look around to see who was watching, leading it to come over and check us out, ears flopping. Of all the bears, the black bear seems the sweetest (other than perhaps the panda--no, no, even including the panda, whose legacy was made slightly more terrifying by the movie Tropic Thunder), so you can imagine our surprise when a nearby sign showed a different portrait of the black bear:

The Nosferatu of bears, it seems.

Whew, it's been a long day. Only one exhibit left to see: the Gorillas. And other apes and monkeys. Some people say that the gorilla shows more human emotion than any other animal. Some people have seen this statue:

Maybe if 1000 monkeys sat in front of 1000 typewriters, eventually they would write the complete works of Shakespeare, and then maybe we could cast 1000 monkeys to perform the plays, as well? The above statue would make a great Hamlet, don't you agree? ...I've been writing this blog post for so long, I've begun to unravel.

Anyway: back to gorillas! This guy looked directly at us, then flexed. He knows what's up.
Last but not least, we saw orangutans. Even late in the day, they were super playful and swinging about. Ah, the joys of opposable thumbs! All the better to hug you with, am I right?


Aww. And on that note, have a good night, everyone--stay tuned for more of our blog catch-up game! Lots of fun things happened last week!
-Jenn

This game is rigged. I'm callin' the cops.

We frequently document are goings-out and fantastic travels, but sometimes, we do just...stay in. This blog doesn't always make that clear, but sometimes the most exciting part of the night occurs around our kitchen table (but if you know us, you probably know we don't mean "our cooking").

On this particular Friday, when everyone but me had the day off, there were two low-key events that really enhanced the day. The first was when Erin and Jenn visited me for lunch at General Hospital, so that Jenn and I had the chance to show Erin around the lot and the set. She could compare it to The Young and the Restless, and we were all able to enjoy our standard mocking of One Life to Live together. On the whole, it definitely brightened my day, considering I was working during everyone else's long weekend. And nothing makes me feel cooler in Hollywood than getting a friend a guest pass onto the lot.

That night, we decided to spend the evening in--no fancy restaurants, no crazy screenings, just our friends and a deck of cards. We played some card games that brought me back to my summer camp days: Spoons and Asshole (which at my summer camp we called "Idiot"...imagine my surprise when my college-age sister explained the real version to me!). And, it enhanced our feelings of youth when we decided to play with Jenn's 3D Cat Cards--which are exactly what they sound like.

I'd show you pictures, but they're all horrifically unattractive due to the intense competitive spirits that arose in all of us. Apparently our "game faces" aren't so pretty.

I promise, though, it was a good time.

--Lauren

It's not going to be perfect at first.

After our fun Friday night at Pinz, we had to take a brief hiatus from adventure as our Saturday afternoon was consumed by a make-up class (remember, despite all the fun documented in this blog, we're still students). At least we got to enjoy the sunshine because class was held outside on the grass in Park La Brea. As soon as that wrapped, we wasted no time in taking advantage of the latest 50%-off-everything offer at our favorite bar/restaurant, Henry's Hat. This time, our game of choice was Candyland.

Despite the valiant efforts of Chris, Nick, Lauren and I, Jenn was victorious once again.

After dinner, we headed to the Regal Cinemas downtown for a late showing of the movie Hot Tub Time Machine. I went in with an open mind, especially since I was using a free ticket voucher left over from Christmas, but we all ended up thoroughly enjoying the movie. It was not my usual kind of film or humor, but I cannot deny that I laughed hysterically throughout.

There was only one proper way to wrap up a gorgeous, sunny weekend: Sunday beach day! We initially set out for a return trip to Hermosa Beach, but we were once again foiled by LA traffic and parking. After a 30 minute parking failure, we realized we had driven so far looking for an empty space that we had hit Redondo Beach. We decided to just go with it, and found a cheap parking lot suspiciously easily. Confident this had to be too good to be true, we were proven right when we quickly found the ocean...but no beach.

Turns out we had parked much closer to the marina and pier than the actual beach. We wandered along for a ways, figuring we couldn't be too far off...

This sign pointed toward every possible destination...except the one we were looking for.

Finally, after cutting across the pier, we were greeted by the very welcome sight of a well-populated, sun-soaked beach!

The morning's failures aside, it turned out to be a perfect beach day. It was 85 and sunny, there wasn't a cloud in the sky, and we enjoyed a lazy day of sunbathing and reading, with a brief beach volleyball interlude. Chris, Jenn, Lauren and I met up with Nick, his brother, and their friends, making it our biggest beach group yet.

Around 3:30 we reluctantly left the sand in search of food. First, we stumbled upon this gem in a store window on the pier and couldn't resist stopping for a picture

We made a quick stop at "Old Tony's," a bar overlooking the beach that featured a very long, very steep staircase to reach it, which seemed like a remarkably bad idea considering the type of establishment it was.

After parting ways with Nick and his friends, the rest of us stumbled upon an Irish pub that was handing out tokens for $5 off your food. Seemed like a great deal, and turned out to be the perfect choice. Not only did we get a total of $25 off our total bill thanks to the tokens, but we got to enjoy our nachos and sandwiches while listening to an eclectic cover band complete with a saxophone. We headed back to LA with full stomachs and fresh tans, relaxed and ready for another week of internships and classes.

Stay tuned for our adventures at the San Diego Zoo, our unconventional-yet-great Easter, and more!

-Erin