Orange County!

Jill's Journal: Orange County, CA. Home of Disneyland. This is a long-awaited stop for the girls. In fact, this has probably been the #1 place they’ve been looking forward to visiting. It may have been second on Erika’s list (the wild ponies on Assateague Island in Maryland and the Chincoteague pony swim in Chincoteague, Virginia, remain first for her), but this was a close second. And for Madelyn and Victoria, this is the golden ticket.

As for me and Rob, arriving in Orange County was like a breath of fresh air after our time in Van Nuys. We were dreading the drive through L.A. with the fifth wheel, but we were able to skirt the busiest part of the city and arrived in Yorba Linda on the edge of Orange County after as smooth a journey can be with a huge rig on the L.A. freeways. We had originally planned to stay in Anaheim, where Disneyland is, but RV parks are nearly twice as expensive there and Yorba Linda will do just fine.

Yorba Linda is a lovely, new-ish town in comparison to the congested, dreary Van Nuys and within moments of our arrival, the girls were playing happily in a park. A clean park. With wide open spaces. With no apparent felons lurking about the playground. With much less smog. With fewer police helicopters. The girls had huge smiles on their faces and so did we. After six weeks in L.A., we hadn’t even realized how taxing it is to be in a concrete jungle with children. Kudos to the parents who live that way all the time. Rob and I looked at each other with a smile and said, “Ah, Orange County. This is the good life after L.A.” And I know this is merely an extension of L.A., but it’s still a welcome change with a little more space to breathe. There’s actually grass here. Such an improvement.

And seriously, was there a lady walking her minis through our campsite in Van Nuys? I think not! The girls think Orange County is pretty great already.

The Roar of Choppers

Jill's Journal: The craziest thing happened today. I was in the middle of making lunch when it sounded like a helicopter was about to land right on top of us. It was so loud the girls ran to the windows to see what all the noise was about. They quickly informed me it wasn’t a police helicopter (something we see many times daily here) because “they” weren’t black and white. They? Sure enough, there was more than one. The noise got louder. Rob stepped outside to see what was going on. There were six – SIX! – helicopters hovering all around us.

For about 2 1/2 hours, those six helicopters continued to hover. It was so loud it felt like our walls were shaking. We had to shout over them (and that was with our windows closed). I’m sure the girls got a lot out of school this afternoon. :)

What was going on? Was the world about to end? Was the president about to land? Was there some kind of standoff? After two hours, we finally turned on the news to see if we could figure it out. Every local L.A. station was live (complete with “SkyCam” coverage!) at the Van Nuys airport, which is almost literally around the corner from us. They were tracking the private plane that was preparing to take Whitney Houston’s body to New Jersey.

Celebrities are clearly taken very seriously around here.

Welcome to Los Angeles

Jill's Journal: Unless you count Portland and Sacramento, it’s been a while since we’ve been in a truly big city. Most of these last months have been in smaller towns, many downright rural and so peaceful…the absolute antithesis of Los Angeles, the biggest and most populous city in the United States.

I imagine L.A. would be quite a culture shock to someone used to a quieter way of life. To our surprise, we acclimated almost immediately. Maybe it’s because Rob and I both used to live here and knew what to expect, but the crazy traffic, the two centimeters of space between neighbors, and the police helicopters flying overheard haven’t even phased us.

We’re starting our time in the Greater L.A. area on the northern edge of the massive, sprawling city in a suburb of sorts called Van Nuys. (Van Nuys is located in “the valley” -- officially the San Fernando Valley -- famous for those “valley girls” back in the ‘80s). Why Van Nuys? Simply because we found an RV spot here and it’s a good base for the things on this side of the great city. Most of the people in our new park are full-time residents, which makes sense because living in an RV has got to be the cheapest way to have your own four walls in L.A.

Funny story: the park owner told us there are seven actors and 61 studio people living in the park. We had no illusions that any of them were George Clooney, but soon after, we learned they may not be the sort of actors who work with their clothes on. Van Nuys and the surrounding area in the valley is the adult film capital of the country! Oh my.