Mariah and I spent the last few days of our summer adventure enjoying day trips while using Sarah’s apartment as our home base. It was hot in California. Remarkably hot. 109 degrees in the shade hot. And yet, everyone seemed to be going about their business as if the heat was merely a minor inconvenience. We spent the better part of Wednesday at Universal Studios. They don’t take themselves too seriously at Universal. It was relaxed, not too terribly crowded, and they strategically positioned huge misting fans throughout the park which effectively cooled their visitors down. We had a great time.

In the evening we attended a sold out performance of the LA based Groundlings sketch comedy troupe. This storied improv theater is known for training and launching the careers of dozens of nationally recognized comedians including: Laraine Newman, Phil Hartman, Melissa McCarthy, Jack Black, Will Ferrell, Ana Gasteyer, Lisa Kudrow, Kristen Wiig and many more recognizable talents. By the time we saw the performance, we were exhausted, but it was an awful lot of fun nonetheless.

During our final full day in California, we packed our bags, shipped some stuff home and then Sarah showed Mariah and me around CalArts. Most of the the other graduate students and undergraduates had not yet returned to campus, but we were able to see a good amount of her campus and facilities anyway. The most interesting thing we saw was their sublevel. They have a policy whereby they permit students to write and paint on the walls of the ground floor of the campus without censorship. The result is very unusual. Sarah is midway through her Masters Degree in Composition and Performance, so it was particularly interesting for us to see where she attends her classes, practices, and performs. It is an impressive campus offering superb and varied resources to its music, dance, visual arts, animation and drama students. By the time we left CalArts to enjoy our last dinner together before returning home, the temperature was a chilly 100 degrees. Perhaps, as the photograph taken at the Mexican restaurant during our last evening in Los Angeles together evidences, the heat finally impacted Mariah and Sarah.  

(Mariah and I are each planning to write one final post. Please give us a few days – we both want to conclude on just the right note.)