26 June 2025

And just like that, this will be my last post from across the pond! I’ll probably do one more short post next week, but as I fly out on Sunday, I’ll write that from English soil.

I knew when I arrived nearly 5 months ago that the time would fly by. I’ve heard friends with small children say ‘the days are long but the years are short’ and it’s a sentiment that I feel applies to here as well. Each day and week has passed slowly and I feel like I’ve made the most of my time here; we’ve visited so many places and done so much – but now as I pack up my suitcase it feels like I only arrived yesterday, and I know that no amount of time would have felt long enough. I am looking forward to getting back to the UK and ‘normal life’. I’m looking forward to having a pub on every street corner, rather than a handful of Irish and German pubs scattered across the whole city. I’m looking forward to seeing all my family and friends. I’m even looking forward to getting back to work and having some more structure to my days. This has been the trip of a lifetime and I’m so grateful that I’ve been able to do this. I think it’s safe to say that this won’t be my last trip to the US though. I’m already thinking about a return visit later in the year – after all, I’ll have the visa on my passport for 10 years and Chris will be here for several more months!

On Ralph’s last full day, we went to Griffith Observatory and went to a planetarium show called ‘Centred in the Universe’. The show was narrated live and gave a history of models of the universe – from Ptolemy to Copernicus and Galileo, to current understanding, and it posed questions about how our knowledge may continue to change and grow in the decades and centuries to come. After, we picked up Chris and went down to Santa Monica Pier for sunset, followed by dinner at a taco truck. Al Pastor is still my favourite – spit roasted pork with grilled pineapple. Then on Wednesday we bid Ralph farewell and wished him a safe journey home.

Just after Ralph set off for the airport, I attended a final planning meeting for my Girlguiding trip to Switzerland – getting excited for it now! The menu is (largely) finalised, the travel is (mostly) booked and the activities have been scheduled. I just have to do a final run through of the shopping list against a list of dietary requirements, then place an order with the Swiss supermarket. I’m looking forward to catching up with my Guides in London over the next couple of weeks before the trip, and picking up my trip uniform! The last time I took the Eurostar was in 2017 for an exchange trip with a university based in Paris – it will be quite a different experience with a group of Guides I’m sure!

Thursday was a federal holiday – Juneteenth. This commemorates the end of slavery in the US, which happened on 19th June 1865 but has only been a federal holiday since 2021. This meant that Chris wasn’t working so we had an extra day together. We went out for lunch, sat in a park to read and in the evening went to see the new How to Train Your Dragon film (live action remake of the animated version from 2010) which a friend of ours worked on. We went to see it at the Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard – beautiful theatre! Then on Friday morning I went back to Hollywood Boulevard to see the new Disney Pixar movie ‘Elio’ at El Capitan. This was the first screening Elio (except for the premiere a couple of days earlier) and there were a couple of school groups and a Girl Scout troop in attendance. Before the screening we were treated to classic Disney tunes played on the Wurlitzer organ, the El Capitan curtain show and a light show featuring constellations of Disney characters. I’m not sure whether all of these happen at every screening or if they were put on especially for the groups. It’s a great film! It’s all about space travel and alien life, and even features the Voyager Spacecraft and the Golden Record which were launched in 1977!

We took an easy weekend, having had several busy weekends over the last few weeks. It was gloriously sunny again on Saturday, so after breakfast at a nearby pancake place, we spent some time at the rooftop pool. We also picked out some photos to print out for the apartment here and for the flat in London, then in the evening went to our favourite schnitzel place before wine tasting at an independent wine merchant. We opted for the premium tasting, which came with a sharing board of cheese, crackers, blackberries, salted almonds and dark chocolate, and we requested a selection of Californian wines. The sommelier was slightly taken aback as usually people want to drink European wines, and its unusual for them to put together a purely Californian lineup – but we were treated to a sparkling wine that’s similar to Champagne, a white, and rose and a red, all from ‘The Golden State’, and we even bought a bottle of the sparkling wine to enjoy later in the week. We didn’t manage to fit in a visit to one of the wine regions during this trip, so going for this wine tasting was a great alternative, and the sommelier was so helpful and friendly, it felt like the perfect option.

On Sunday, we started the day with a quick visit to the cat cafe (Chris’s first visit) where there were lots of new faces again. We made friends with Mia – a young grey tabby – and Eros (an older long haired ginger and white. Then we went back to Silverlake for the afternoon. We sat in a park, visited The Red Lion German pub and then went to Bacari for dinner – which was amazing! It’s a tapas style restaurant with a menu full of small plates, so you order 2 or 3 plates per person then share them. We had mac and cheese, Brussels sprouts, scallop medallions, a miniature filet mignon and crispy pork belly, and it was a perfect way to round off my last full weekend here!

So far this week, I’ve been packing up my suitcases (and making a pile of things to collect later in the year as it won’t all fit!), going for nice walks around the area, including a final hike at Runyon Canyon with some friends from Book Club, and a walk up to Sunset Boulevard to revisit Book Soup (book shop). We squeezed in another nice breakfast and walk along Santa Monica Pier this morning as well as Chris has a meeting down there. We’ve got a few more nice dinners planned, catching up with my friends Adam and Juliet who have been travelling in California hiking in some of the national parks, then on Sunday I head to the airport!