California, the land of the American dream...

We did it; we made it to the Pacific Ocean. Now some people have told us, that if we get tired of driving, we can always book a flight home once we get here…I think we’ll keep driving.

Driving from the city of human desires and imagination in the middle of the desert, we have now made it to Hollywood! Hollywood an American creation entirely different, a place where we create dreams, stars and stories.

We started our time in Los Angeles in Santa Monica, with a run along the beach and stroll down the 3^rd street promenade. We noticed something truly interesting on the promenade, people like to stand out, here in LA they want to be individuals and be seen, become a star. In New York everyone wants to be an individual but you want to blend in. We walked down the promenade with our tea latte, which my sister told me I had to try, and listened to the musicians, watched the dancing trefoils (girl scouts dressed up as cookies trying to sell cookies, they were successful I should mention since my husband is truly a cookie monster at heart), and enjoyed the flavor of the evening. We made our way back to dinner to share in some good old family reunion time with all the cousins.

We continued our Hollywood experience by getting the specialized tour with a studio tour, and private viewing of a new film from my cousin Greg. He then showed us the walk of fame and the Chinese theatre, and we saw the red carpet being prepped for the Oscars the following evening. It was a true taste of Hollywood, and it was a great flavor of the excitement that is found in this industry of creating the uncreated and limitless possibilities that the human mind can come up with.

We met up with another cousin, the rocket scientist and enjoyed another side of LA seeing the rose bowl and having some fantastic Chinese American food at a dumpling house. Here we heard about the latest in the scientific, space and robotic community in LA. It is the side of the human mind that strives to achieve the unachievable, discover the unknown and each question is taming the impossible. Her latest project is creating a robot to carry an astronauts' living facility, enabling scientists to explore and understand the moon--this is a challenging task! It is so precise and yet it is so creative in an entirely different way than the Hollywood films and New York Fashion.

LA reminded me of the unique privilege we have as Americans to dream, to build and create intellectual capital.