Completed circle

Landed at Los Angeles Monday, May 13, 2013, and officially completed circling the globe as I was in California last August. The trip was just just six days short of seven months. Of course I'm still traveling, we'll see how long before I settle. It was easy to move, but difficult to leave paradise. I felt at home there and had settled in effortlessly making some really nice connections. I expect I will return. Santa Monica was a good stopping point. There I am at the Santa Monica Pier end of Route 66, a nostalgic spot not only because of the many cross country trips my family made driving Rt66, but because of the carousel on the pier. There were apartments (now only offices) around the second level of the building housing the carousel, and I had put my name on the list for living there. At that time I was told it could be a ten-year wait. Of couse I left for New York City - experience has always trumped home. I forgot that carousel dream until getting to Rhode Island and finding five wonderful carousels in that tiny state - you can visit all of them in one afternoon, which I did and made an artist book to reflect on my connection to that whole experience. Continuing my tourist ways I visited The Getty Museum, well worth a trip. Wandered the old Hancock Park with the LaBrea Tar Pits still bubbling away. Also walked around the UCLA campus curious about all the changes of the last 50 years. And past my old rooming house where I met my good friend Judy whose home I am enjoying right now while she and her husband are out of town for the weekend attending a wedding. This is the start of my house-sitting phase. I have two more "sits" lined up. Does anyone else need a house/pet sitter? Let  me know before I settle down again. This lovely home is in the desert near Indio and Route 66. It's about 80 degrees this morning as I sit out on the terrace watching the golfers go by in their carts. I thought the idea was to walk the links for exercise. Guess not, and it seems they all have their own carts too. Judy and I did some fun tourist attractions here in her neighborhood. First we saw the Sunnylands Center and Gardens. Sunnylands was the home of the Annenbergs and known as the Camp David of the West. It can be viewed on certain days and only with advanced tickets. But the center and gardens are fabulous, laid out like an impressionist painting with wonderful strokes of green and touches of bright color using all native plants, or plants compatible with this hot, dry climate. There are lots of palms here in the desert, this is the heart of the date industry, but I just might have to start drawing cacti. Again the surreal shapes and outragous textures are wonderful. There is a huge saguaro cactus down the street I plan to start with. Anyway, our second stop was the Desert Pueblo Museum. We got  there just in time for the last tour and it was such a delight. This place is the Watts Towers of the desert built of salvaged materials over a twenty year period by Cabot Yerxas whose family emigrated from Denmark in late 1800's. He was born on a Sioux reservation, a start of what was a fantastic life - he traveled everywhere.