Ham-Daddy

On the way back from San Diego, I made arrangements with Mike Hamler to hang out for a little while. Apparently he's busy working on a new movie, and we still had lots of miles to travel after a disappointing first leg of our trip... so the visit was short and sweet. We headed up to his apartment to check out the pad. Andrea was 'ooo'ing at all his Dreamworks memorabilia.

We had lunch at a 'fancy' Americana joint called the Granville Cafe downtown Glendale. Mike specifically recommended the Mac'n'cheese and Andrea ordered it. I was impressed that I could stomach it when I tried a taste (not a fan of the mac).

After lunch, Mike asked if we'd like a tour of the Dreamworks studio. It was a tough sell, let me tell you. The grounds were impressive. They had pictures of all the voice actors from the various Dreamworks films as well as several cases with awards (including 2 Oscars... but Mike said those were probably replicas). The halls were lined with artwork of various forms, all focused around Dreamworks films. In the middle of the campus, there was a large outdoor eating area with a large Koi pond & fountain at the center of everything. There was a fancy outdoor grill, which apparently gets use daily for all the employees free food (*jealous*). It was all very cool to see, and it really didn't feel like a place one comes to 'work'.

Mike's work-space was a pretty normal cubical except for 1 thing. He works on lighting, which means everyone around him is concentrating on subtle variations in light on a computer screen. Everything they do is very sensitive to ambient light, so they do pretty much everything in the dark. Mike said the only time the overhead lights get turned on is when someone needs to install a new computer or something of that nature.

While we were at Mike's cube, he showed us a fair amount of footage from the movie he's currently working on: How to Train Your Dragon. It looks like another great movie, hopefully on the same scale of success as Kung Fu Panda.

Thanks so much to Mike for the awesome tour. I enjoyed it, and I know Andrea appreciated it immensely.

Tijuana

Andrea's current visa expires on the 27th of August, so the plan was to drive down to Tijuana over a weekend to cross the border and come back with a new visa. Andrea's sister called the American Embassy to make sure this was possible, and everything seemed to check out.

So last week, we made arrangements for Moose to stay in a kennel, reserved a room in San Diego and headed off on a grueling 2 days of nearly non-stop driving. We left around 8am on Saturday after dropping off Moose. The drive seemed to be going well. We were covering good ground, and everything suggested we'd arrive at our motel in San Diego around 4pm... and then we hit LA. The traffic on highway 5 was unbelievable starting on the north end of the city, and it just never let up. I basically cruised the entire length of Los Angeles in 1st and 2nd gears. My feet started getting blisters from all the shifting and clutching.

There were some cool things to play around with in traffic, like the carpool lane. They have limited access in LA and always active (unlike here where you can drive in them on non-peak hours). Although it didn't help much... especially for a particularly memorable segment where the carpool lane was backed up more than the normal lanes due to an accident.

After we passed South of Orange County, there was a little relief. But it was short-lived. As highway 5 made its way to the coast, the traffic picked up again. After another hour in stop & go conditions, we finally drove out of it, and I was shocked to see the cause. There was some sort of marine training exercise taking place on the beach, and people were simply slowing down to see it. I literally screamed!

We finally arrived in San Diego around 7pm, checked into the motel room and then headed out to walk across the border. Of course I was too tired to even think to bring the camera... and that was probably for the best because there were several people who had theirs confiscated.

We strolled over to Mexico, and then looped back to pass through the American customs check. When we showed our passports, the customs agent sort of raised an eyebrow at Andrea. He wanted to know how long she intended to stay, because clearly her current visa wasn't sufficient. We were separated temporarily, and then sent back to an office to wait in line for a chance to apply for a new permit to enter the US. After an hour and a half waiting in line, we finally got to the front. The agent was, again, apprehensive in dealing with Andrea. In the end, he denied her a new visa. He allowed her to enter the US again on her current visa, but said she would be in big trouble if she didn't get her butt back to Mexico before August 27th.

So Andrea is on her way back to her mom's in Mexico City next Wednesday (August 26th). She's already said her goodbyes at the zoo since we're not really sure when she'll be able to return to California. It's definitely a sad time. She's requested an early birthday celebration, so I'm going to put something together this Sunday and make another banana nut cake.