Aug 2 - Wierd Things Happen in California

Marco's cousin has come to visit us again!

His name is Pierre-Emile and he's a young dude, twenty and in college. He spent the past year studying in Finland, where he met a charming Polish girl and now he's brought her to Paris. Marco, being the cool cousin that he is, is letting them stay in our apartment.

Last time Pierre-Emile stayed with us was three years ago, with his sister Bertille. We were living in California at the time. Marco and I wondered what on earth we would do with a 17-year-old guy and a 20-year-old girl for three weeks, seeing as how they could neither drive nor drink, which ruled out a lot of entertainment options. But it turned out to be a riot. They were so funny. They kept us laughing continually. Ah California, good times.

During their visit Marco and I tried to show them the best of the US, but the wily world of America had other things in mind. We ended up with a continual chain of oddball sights.

Including....

• While driving to Sequoia National Park we passed a huge semi truck on the shoulder that was wrapped in blazing flames at least 30-feet high. The temperature was so hot that the metal exterior, the hood and doors, was transparent red and you could see straight through into the engine. It was wierd.
• We stopped for the night at Motel Six (thereafter aptly dubbed Motel Sex) and were awoken by the noisiest wall-pounding, picture-frames-jumping-off-the-walls couple I've ever heard. Marco's cousins were cracking up. In the car the next morning they came up with the Motel Sex nickname. They'll leave the light on for you....and light the fire too.
• In San Francisco a guy was arrested, cuffed, spread-eagled and searched by the cops right in front of our hotel window (Marco's cousins were fascinated - it was just like tv!), the next night, out the same hotel window, a man was running around after pedestrians with a live boa constrictor. Finally, in front of the same hotel the next morning, a guy cruised on a bicycle down the sidewalk, nearly hit us, then dashed into the oncoming traffic where he was hit by a car.
• Also in San Francisco a woman dashed by us then slapped the asses of two female tourists in front of us, who didn't know the woman at all and were extremely surprised.
• In Tijuana, while eating at a taco joint, the cook came out and unabashedly offered the "services" (wink wink) of his sister in the kitchen to Marco and Pierre-Emile.
• In the desert, on a long, straight and vastly empty road, a police helicopter descended from the sky and pulled over the car in front of us for what was presumably a speeding violation.

At each of these moments Marco's cousins would ask "is it always like this in the US?" with big, wide eyes. And each time I'd say "Uh no.......I've never seen anything like it in my life.". We did lots of other amusing stuff too, but three years later it's often these moments that they tend to reminisce about. The bizarre always remains entertaining and memorable.

Here's a picture of Marco teaching the fundamentals of surfing to Pierre-Emile. They're at Pacific Beach, right by our old place.