Tuesday, January 24, 2012
I EXIST
I know I have failed to write anything in literally 6 months. Not a lot of traveling has occurred and I've slacked on even thinking about it. I just decided to go to Hawaii in March though and as I'm spending some serious time thinking about my new adventures, I had to start writing it all down again! Also, I realized that I never typed up my journal about my trip to Portland. How could I forget such an amazing trip? Anyways, get excited because I'm going to let you in on my Hawaii research as well as start typing up the Portland notes. Stay tuned!
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Friday, July 15, 2011
The City of Angels: The Last Day
It's Malibu day!
By 11:30am we're on the road. The drive is surprisingly quick and easy, especially since we have to drive through most of LA.
View Larger Map
Our first stop is Pepperdine.
You can't drive on campus though so we're forced past campus to what turns out to be a really cool drive through the mountains.
Our next stop is the beach. After a couple attempts to park ($25 for parking? Oh, hell, no) we find a FREE spot right at the top of a path to a cute, quiet little patch of beach.
The weather is perfect and the first hour we don't seem to feel the cold at all. The beach is almost entirely empty except for another family and this scuba diver who literally crawled out of the ocean.
By 3pm we're getting hungry though so we hop back into the car and head towards D'Amore's Pizza which we had passed earlier. For a tiny pizza place on the beach, it's quite good. I get the meatlovers (see obligatory food photo below)
We do take a quick stop off to see an old friend who also lives in LA now, but the rest of the day involved us packing up and getting ready for our early flight out the next day. We did take time out to drink some of our delicious 2-buck-Chuck though!
Overall the trip was a good one. It was a lot more relaxing that I had imagined, but it was just what the doctor ordered, so no complaints here! Now, on to Portland.
By 11:30am we're on the road. The drive is surprisingly quick and easy, especially since we have to drive through most of LA.
View Larger Map
Our first stop is Pepperdine.
You can't drive on campus though so we're forced past campus to what turns out to be a really cool drive through the mountains.
Our next stop is the beach. After a couple attempts to park ($25 for parking? Oh, hell, no) we find a FREE spot right at the top of a path to a cute, quiet little patch of beach.
The weather is perfect and the first hour we don't seem to feel the cold at all. The beach is almost entirely empty except for another family and this scuba diver who literally crawled out of the ocean.
By 3pm we're getting hungry though so we hop back into the car and head towards D'Amore's Pizza which we had passed earlier. For a tiny pizza place on the beach, it's quite good. I get the meatlovers (see obligatory food photo below)
We do take a quick stop off to see an old friend who also lives in LA now, but the rest of the day involved us packing up and getting ready for our early flight out the next day. We did take time out to drink some of our delicious 2-buck-Chuck though!
Overall the trip was a good one. It was a lot more relaxing that I had imagined, but it was just what the doctor ordered, so no complaints here! Now, on to Portland.
Friday, July 8, 2011
The City of Angels: Day 4
Once again we skip the free breakfast for some extra sleep. When we finally get out of bed we decide to suck it up and go to the beach, since that was supposed to be our plan for the entire trip. We stop for a delicious breakfast of corn beef hash and eggs at a place called Uncle Bill's in Manhattan Beach proper.
The food is absolutely delicious, and heart-attack worthy. But the place itself is cute and comfortable. It appears the locals love it too.
After breakfast (aka lunch to some) we take a short walk around town while we decide our next move. The entire town is full of adorable houses. It's the ultimate beach town, it seems.
I also find my future home (in my dreams)
The town is also incredibly hilly, so we move the car closer to the beach and settle in for a very brief beach experience.
But it's about 57F on the beach, so we only survive about an hour before having to run back to the car. Manhattan Beach is one of many famous beach towns all lined up on the coast so we head down to check out Hermosa & Redondo Beaches, which are just down the road.
In an effort to save some money and to avoid the chilly weather, we decide to skip walking around the well known towns and head back to the room to prepare for the evening.
Once again we get on the road towards the city. Our first destination is Beauty Bar. Because I've now been to this chain of crappy hipster bars in San Francisco, Austin & NYC I had to make an appearance at the one in LA. The traffic is awful. Awful. Luckily, we find our exit without losing our minds and we find Beauty Bar fairly easily. Sadly, finding Beauty Bar is the easy part. The search for parking in not. After 20 minutes of circling through the area, I have to take a break before I lose my mind, so we find a gas station and fill up. With a more clear head, we pick a random parking garage just a couple blocks from our destination.
This Beauty Bar is definitely...interesting. There's a strange mixture of people; my description was that of a place filled with people who didn't know where else to go. It's not really doing it for us though, so we decide we've got to find something better. The only redeeming moment in Beauty Bar is when Wayne Brady walks by the window. Although, I didn't see him, Nyla did, so it wasn't even that exciting for me. Whatevs.
Where do we go though? We're somewhere in Hollywood without a tour guide. On our walk to Beauty Bar a man gave us wrist bands for some place called Ecco. We figure we'll check it out. It's only a few doors down from Beauty Bar, and maybe it will be cool. Wrong. It turns out to be pretty much the worst club ever. We last for about 5 minutes before we have to escape. Everyone in the place looks like a spoiled-rich-kid-turned-coke-head and that is the opposite of our kind of people.
We emerge from the club in less than stellar spirits. Down the street a little ways though is a place called The Velvet Margarita. Greg had told us about this place and mentioned that it was pretty cool. We wander in to find out that it's just a restaurant with a bar. There's a bit of a line for the bar, so in a moment of exasperation I decide to just go to the bathroom first and then see how to line is. What luck! As we approach the bathrooms we hear some Michael Jackson coming from a nearby hallway. We bypass the bathroom and follow the music down the hall into a back patio full of dancing people and a DJ. This is where we were meant to be all along! Our entire night is turned around as it turns out to be hilarious and a blast. Thank God for The Velvet Margarita!
The food is absolutely delicious, and heart-attack worthy. But the place itself is cute and comfortable. It appears the locals love it too.
After breakfast (aka lunch to some) we take a short walk around town while we decide our next move. The entire town is full of adorable houses. It's the ultimate beach town, it seems.
I also find my future home (in my dreams)
The town is also incredibly hilly, so we move the car closer to the beach and settle in for a very brief beach experience.
But it's about 57F on the beach, so we only survive about an hour before having to run back to the car. Manhattan Beach is one of many famous beach towns all lined up on the coast so we head down to check out Hermosa & Redondo Beaches, which are just down the road.
In an effort to save some money and to avoid the chilly weather, we decide to skip walking around the well known towns and head back to the room to prepare for the evening.
Once again we get on the road towards the city. Our first destination is Beauty Bar. Because I've now been to this chain of crappy hipster bars in San Francisco, Austin & NYC I had to make an appearance at the one in LA. The traffic is awful. Awful. Luckily, we find our exit without losing our minds and we find Beauty Bar fairly easily. Sadly, finding Beauty Bar is the easy part. The search for parking in not. After 20 minutes of circling through the area, I have to take a break before I lose my mind, so we find a gas station and fill up. With a more clear head, we pick a random parking garage just a couple blocks from our destination.
This Beauty Bar is definitely...interesting. There's a strange mixture of people; my description was that of a place filled with people who didn't know where else to go. It's not really doing it for us though, so we decide we've got to find something better. The only redeeming moment in Beauty Bar is when Wayne Brady walks by the window. Although, I didn't see him, Nyla did, so it wasn't even that exciting for me. Whatevs.
Where do we go though? We're somewhere in Hollywood without a tour guide. On our walk to Beauty Bar a man gave us wrist bands for some place called Ecco. We figure we'll check it out. It's only a few doors down from Beauty Bar, and maybe it will be cool. Wrong. It turns out to be pretty much the worst club ever. We last for about 5 minutes before we have to escape. Everyone in the place looks like a spoiled-rich-kid-turned-coke-head and that is the opposite of our kind of people.
We emerge from the club in less than stellar spirits. Down the street a little ways though is a place called The Velvet Margarita. Greg had told us about this place and mentioned that it was pretty cool. We wander in to find out that it's just a restaurant with a bar. There's a bit of a line for the bar, so in a moment of exasperation I decide to just go to the bathroom first and then see how to line is. What luck! As we approach the bathrooms we hear some Michael Jackson coming from a nearby hallway. We bypass the bathroom and follow the music down the hall into a back patio full of dancing people and a DJ. This is where we were meant to be all along! Our entire night is turned around as it turns out to be hilarious and a blast. Thank God for The Velvet Margarita!
Monday, June 20, 2011
The City of Angels: Day 3
My alarm goes off at 8:30, but now that we're adjusting to West Coast time we decide to trade the Continental breakfast for a couple more hours of sleep. At 10:30 we wake up and prepare for the day before heading to 'downtown' Manhattan Beach for lunch. We park and head towards a place called Sharkeez where we grab a couple sandwiches. The food is good, but the whole restaurant is open to the outside air so it's a bit cold. After lunch we hop back into the car and head up to Sherman Oaks to meet up with our buddy, Greg. Sherman Oaks is in The Valley so it's a bit of a drive (ie it's on the opposite side of LA). Luckily, we switch into Greg's car so he can give us a driving tour of all of LA. First stop is a really nice view of the Hollywood sign where we take obligatory photos.
Greg takes us on a winding drive through the hills to show off some very impressive houses and we end up at the Griffith Observatory.
It's packed, so we have to park way down a hill and then hike to the top. Luckily the views are astoundingly beautiful as we walk, so it's bearable.
The view from the top is also amazing. The entire city is strewn out below the observatory; it was a great vantage point to see everything.
The observatory is fascinating inside as well. It's full of exhibits on space, weather, moon phases etc. All of their findings from the observatory are also on display and there are plenty of cool interactives.
Here is Greg under a heat sensor.
There's also a hilarious video in the Leonard Nimoy Event Horizon Theater narrated by Leonard Nimoy himself. The video discusses the history of the observatory. Mr Nimoy is hilarious in the video as well and completely adorable.
After the movie we head to the cafe for snacks before heading out for more driving tours of the city. We head through Hollywood and pass by the Kodak Theatre, Grauman's Chinese Theater, and the Walk of Fame.
Onward we go to Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive.
Rodeo Drive is beautiful and the amount of over-the-top cars is amazing. Rolls Royces, Bentleys, Lambos, Maseratis. It's almost out of this world.
Beverly Hills is just as crazy. The houses are impressive, as are the giant walls that cover obviously more impressive houses. But eventually we must go back to the real world and Greg's modest apartment to get our car. He has a birthday party to go to so Nyla and I head to In-N-Out Burger for dinner.
Afterwards we head to Trader Joe's in search of some legendary 'Two Buck Chuck.' This wine is an amazing $2 a bottle (actually called Charles Shaw), thus making it a favorite of all those broke young people living in LA. Our plan for the evening (or so we thought) involves this magical beverage. We head back to our hotel to change for the evening. While we're changing we find that our new plans involve meeting up with Greg at a bar in Los Feliz called Harvard & Stone. Traffic on the way is awful, as is the line outside the door and the fact that it's cold. Plus, the doorguy is mildly rude & full of hipster pretentiousness. AND once we get to the front of the line he lets a small gaggle of girls in before us. We finally get in and head immediately to the bar. The place is actually quite cool and huge but it seems that the entire population of LA assholes has gathered here.
Greg manages to find us and we take our beverages to a nice little corner near a fireplace. At one point I get us another round of drinks and come back to find a couple guys standing directly in my way. I politely ask them to move. Their response is to completely disregard me. After requesting that they move a couple more times, I am forced to literally climb over the couch that Nyla and Greg are sitting on. When I finally reach my friends Nyla points out that one of the guys happens to be Chris Masterson. Interesting. That brings an end to our evening and back we go to our little spot on the beach.
Greg takes us on a winding drive through the hills to show off some very impressive houses and we end up at the Griffith Observatory.
It's packed, so we have to park way down a hill and then hike to the top. Luckily the views are astoundingly beautiful as we walk, so it's bearable.
The view from the top is also amazing. The entire city is strewn out below the observatory; it was a great vantage point to see everything.
The observatory is fascinating inside as well. It's full of exhibits on space, weather, moon phases etc. All of their findings from the observatory are also on display and there are plenty of cool interactives.
Here is Greg under a heat sensor.
There's also a hilarious video in the Leonard Nimoy Event Horizon Theater narrated by Leonard Nimoy himself. The video discusses the history of the observatory. Mr Nimoy is hilarious in the video as well and completely adorable.
After the movie we head to the cafe for snacks before heading out for more driving tours of the city. We head through Hollywood and pass by the Kodak Theatre, Grauman's Chinese Theater, and the Walk of Fame.
Onward we go to Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive.
Rodeo Drive is beautiful and the amount of over-the-top cars is amazing. Rolls Royces, Bentleys, Lambos, Maseratis. It's almost out of this world.
Beverly Hills is just as crazy. The houses are impressive, as are the giant walls that cover obviously more impressive houses. But eventually we must go back to the real world and Greg's modest apartment to get our car. He has a birthday party to go to so Nyla and I head to In-N-Out Burger for dinner.
Afterwards we head to Trader Joe's in search of some legendary 'Two Buck Chuck.' This wine is an amazing $2 a bottle (actually called Charles Shaw), thus making it a favorite of all those broke young people living in LA. Our plan for the evening (or so we thought) involves this magical beverage. We head back to our hotel to change for the evening. While we're changing we find that our new plans involve meeting up with Greg at a bar in Los Feliz called Harvard & Stone. Traffic on the way is awful, as is the line outside the door and the fact that it's cold. Plus, the doorguy is mildly rude & full of hipster pretentiousness. AND once we get to the front of the line he lets a small gaggle of girls in before us. We finally get in and head immediately to the bar. The place is actually quite cool and huge but it seems that the entire population of LA assholes has gathered here.
Greg manages to find us and we take our beverages to a nice little corner near a fireplace. At one point I get us another round of drinks and come back to find a couple guys standing directly in my way. I politely ask them to move. Their response is to completely disregard me. After requesting that they move a couple more times, I am forced to literally climb over the couch that Nyla and Greg are sitting on. When I finally reach my friends Nyla points out that one of the guys happens to be Chris Masterson. Interesting. That brings an end to our evening and back we go to our little spot on the beach.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
The City of Angels: Day 2, Part 2
After some much needed rest, we prepare ourselves for a night out. We head back up north to meet up with our old friend Greg at a place called Mother Dough in an area called Los Feliz
We arrive and are surprised by a table full of 10 people, half of which we know (all ex-Austinites). Dinner was fabulous. The pizza was all natural, all the ingredients were imported from Italy, the place itself was eclectic and well designed and the conversation was excellent as well.
We also had excellent wine with out dinner. At one point though, Nyla gave me her glass and asked what was going on with her wine. It looked mildly strange, so I assured her it was probably just a bit of floating sediment. When I took a whiff of the glass I realized what had actually happened...a piece of sausage from her pizza must have fallen into her glass. Instead of the usual fruity smell...it smelled straight up like sausage. She fished it out and continued drinking, like a champ, but it definitely added a bit of mirth to the already pleasant evening.
After dinner, half of the dinner party parts ways with us and Nyla and I and the guys we know head around the corner to a bar called Public Work. Oddly enough, Public Work doesn't exist on the internet, or I am not remembering correctly. It was a very cool place though. We had a very chill time, had a couple drinks, chatted, and then were all headed home by 1am. I was definitely ok with that, considering we had a 30 minute drive back to the hotel! Back to bed we go, in preparation for the next days adventures.
We arrive and are surprised by a table full of 10 people, half of which we know (all ex-Austinites). Dinner was fabulous. The pizza was all natural, all the ingredients were imported from Italy, the place itself was eclectic and well designed and the conversation was excellent as well.
We also had excellent wine with out dinner. At one point though, Nyla gave me her glass and asked what was going on with her wine. It looked mildly strange, so I assured her it was probably just a bit of floating sediment. When I took a whiff of the glass I realized what had actually happened...a piece of sausage from her pizza must have fallen into her glass. Instead of the usual fruity smell...it smelled straight up like sausage. She fished it out and continued drinking, like a champ, but it definitely added a bit of mirth to the already pleasant evening.
After dinner, half of the dinner party parts ways with us and Nyla and I and the guys we know head around the corner to a bar called Public Work. Oddly enough, Public Work doesn't exist on the internet, or I am not remembering correctly. It was a very cool place though. We had a very chill time, had a couple drinks, chatted, and then were all headed home by 1am. I was definitely ok with that, considering we had a 30 minute drive back to the hotel! Back to bed we go, in preparation for the next days adventures.
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