Tuesday was my last full day in Los Angeles. I was ready to leave the minute I woke up. LA is okay, and actually pretty awesome when you’re with the right people, but definitely not a place I want to spend too many days without a car. I left Ty’s by foot in order to meet up with Chris in Hollywood. It took me 45 minutes to walk to the bus, then another 25 waiting for the bus, and an hour and a half on the bus. When I finally got off, I met with Chris and we waited an hour for yet another bus. Forty minutes later we were starving as we got off the bus at the Cheese Store in Silverlake in search of some supposedly incredible panini. Of course, just as you’d expect to see after any four hour commute, they were sold out. At least we got a few free samples of cheese and crackers out of it.
I could’ve eaten everything in the entire Cheese Store, but instead I ended up eating Mexican food for the 80th time this trip. I ordered cheese enchiladas, chips, guacamole and orange Fanta, randomly. Chris had the fajitas, and we ate in this little canopied jungle in back of the place, where I’m pretty sure Chris spotted a Mexican lemur or something.
After stopping for some coffee and tea, we walked faster than any form of LA transportation could take us, over to Chris’s friend’s house in some random neighborhood. Rumor has it that the housing complex has been some sort of musician’s haven for years. Bands practice, hang out and record there to this day, all around a center courtyard that looked like it could be used for a tropical swimsuit shoot. Cue Chris’s fierce swimsuit pose:
We made it over to Second City on Hollywood Boulevard to see a hilarious improv comedy show for $5, then on to Dillion’s for my last night in LA. I got a nice little glimpse of Capitol Records on the way.
Monday was a bit overcast in LA, and definitely much cooler than I’d expected. I went down to Santa Monica for the first time, and enjoyed the sites of vomiting dinosaurs in front of all of the shops.
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After a brief reminder of how much I hate shopping, we walked down to the Santa Monica Pier. To me, a pier is a pier. Once you’ve seen one, you’ve kind of seen them all. If you’re not fishing, they’re like a cheesy date idea, or a place you wander when you’ve got absolutely nothing else to do. But to me, the Santa Monica Pier felt more like a much cleaner Coney Island.
It was a little chilly on the beach that day, so we got back into the car and headed over to Beverly Hills for some Sprinkles Cupcakes. As you can tell by my body type, I’m no stranger to cupcakes. In New York, most everyone is obsessed with Magnolia. I think they’re the most overrated cupcake I’ve ever had. I think Crumbs beats Magnolia hands down, not only because the cupcakes are gigantic and they offer more varieties, but because they’re moist and fresh. Every time I’ve gotten a cupcake at Magnolia it’s been small, and extremely dry. Their icing is good, but not worth a special trip. But Sprinkles. Oh my. I ordered the Black and White cupcake- a dark chocolate cupcake with vanilla buttercream frosting. It was such an amazing combination, and such a moist, delicious, flavorful cupcake! I wanted to order another, but at $3.56 a piece, I held back. But definitely, Sprinkles trumps Magnolia any day. Crumbs is a completely different class of cupcakes (and oddly enough, there is a crumbs just down the road from Sprinkles) so I can’t really compare the two.
While digesting the deliciousness we just ate, we went for a drive through the hills, over to the valley. It was an entirely new part of LA that I never knew existed, geographically speaking. If I’ve learned one thing about LA this trip, it’s that it’s enormous. That and public transportation sucks. But we’ll get to that later.
After cruising past the million dollar houses up there, we came back into Hollywood so I could remember what a dump I thought it was the last time I was here. Luckily it was a pretty clear day, so I was able to see out to the Hollywood sign from the Kodak Theatre.
Then I got in touch with an old friend from Toledo that I haven’t seen since or spoken a word to since I moved to New York. I had no idea he was living in LA, but of course, the power of Facebook clued us both in. Turns out, he’s living just a couple of streets over from where I was on Hollywood Boulevard. We met up at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, and since Chris used to work there, we got to take a quick (free) sneak peak inside. Honestly I’m not really into all the Hollywood/celebrity stuff, but apparently it’s a pretty hot tourist destination since it’s the site of movie premieres and award ceremonies.
Then we went on to a place called Big Wang’s to watch some Monday night football and eat some tots and wings.
I needed the total combined score for the game to be 41 or over to win the $130 weekly pool that I participate in. After a strong island iced tea and a beer, the combined score was only 16 at half time so we left the bar. By the time we got back to Ty’s each team had scored and the combined scored was somewhere around 30. We watched the rest of the game, play by play via an iPhone app. It looked like the guy I was tied with (who chose 40 as his tie-breaker number) was going to win as the score neared 40 right on the nose. But then, as if they knew I needed the money, some major scoring started happening and I won the pool with a combined score of 47. I may or may not have screamed and jumped around a bit, followed by a celebratory shot and a few bragging phonecalls. That $130 definitely helped me out on this trip!
Saturday was my first time ever at a Southern California beach. I was easily engulfed into the SoCal beach culture— except for the fact that I still reek of the East coast. I was rocking the Sublime, RHCP and Deftones playlist, wandering along the shore checking out all the surfers for a few hours.
I took a bus from North Park to Ocean Beach. It took a little over an hour, and an uncomfortable conversation or two with some seedy individuals. After living in New York for four years, you learn to deal with strange people. We definitely have our share of crazies in the city. But the difference between New York’s nut jobs and San Diego’s: New York’s nut jobs tend to keep to themselves- for the most part. Sure, they’ll shout weird obscenities at you, or maybe even spit on you, but they don’t open up and tell you their life stories to try and become friends. This guy on the bus yesterday pulled out a knife and started waving it around to the guy next to me. After showing off a plethora of weapons, he saw that I had my headphones on and proceeded to wave at me until I took them off. Then he said “that’s a great shirt. My girl would love it, where’d you get it?” Apparently my poser SoCal-style tank top was fitting right in. But when I told him I got it in New York, he asked me if he could buy it from me. Then he continued to tell me about how he was in jail in New Orleans, how he’d been shot twice (and showed me the scars to prove it), and then showed me a few more weapons. At this point a fellow Southerner had joined in the conversation as I kept trying to ignore him. Apparently these two had been in the same jail at the same time. Then he tried to offer me some socks with peace signs on them, and some “welcome to San Diego” weed. After I refused about 15 times, I finally had to tell him that I don’t wear socks ever, I only wear flip flops. For a second I thought he’d realized I was lying as he questioned me, “even in the winter? That’s awesome dude, I wish I could do that but my feet are too soft.” Thankfully, on that note, it was my stop. I wanted to snap a picture of him but I was a little scared of what sort of suggestive pose he might try out, so I just got this shot of his socks.
As soon as I saw the jaw-dropping sight of those humungous Pacific Ocean waves, it literally took my breath away. I caught myself talking out loud a few times, saying “wow, now that’s a beach!” I think I’ve become pretty spoiled when it comes to beaches. After seeing the crystal-clear water and pure white sands of the Caribbean, and the enormous waves of the Pacific, east coast beaches just don’t do it for me anymore. Any time I visit an east coast beach I can’t help but think, “that’s it?” But Ocean Beach was definitely a real beach in my book. This was my first time ever seeing surfers too. As I sat on the pier listening to 40 oz to Freedom, I was so tempted to walk over and buy a surfboard and a wetsuit and give it a shot. I probably would have if I had health insurance.
I took a walk out on the pier where a ton of people were fishing, but not catching much.
I think the Pelicans had better luck fishing. Or should I say kamikaze dive-bombing for fish.
I started to get a little chilly, so I enjoyed a late lunch at a place called Shades, where I ordered an orange spice tea, grilled cheese and french fries. Grilled cheese is always my go-to meal when I’m on a budget, because it’s usually no more than $2 or $3, as opposed to a $9 burger or sandwich. And that usually includes fries. Tea is almost always a cheaper option than any other drink also. I was a little confused as to why they served me with 5 tea bags of different flavors when I specifically ordered the orange, but I threw them in my purse and was on my way. Probably shouldn’t have done that. But, not bad for a $6 meal.
I climbed up on some rocks and sat and watched the waves splashing around me.
Finally when the marine clouds started rolling in around 6 I decided to head over to a friend of a friend’s house who lives on the beach and wait for JJ to pick me up. I sat there for a bit while their band practiced, and eventually made my way back to JJ’s. By the time people showed up at his house to pregame before heading out on the town, I was exhausted. I laid down for “only an hour,” which turned into me staying in all night while they went out partying. I spent some time updating the blog while watching Wedding Crashers. What a way to spend my last night in San Diego, eh?
As if that weren’t awesome enough, I received a text message at 130a. It was JJ. It said “call Mike for a ride to the Greyhound station tomorrow. I’m in jail for trying to break up a fight.” And that was it. Apparently both of the guys I was staying with, JJ and Sam, got in some trouble for being drunk and disorderly. Maybe it was for the best that I didn’t go out with them last night. They didn’t get released until I was already in LA.
You can check out all of my pictures and videos from San Diego on Flickr.
Friday was my first day in San Diego. I spent the morning browsing thrift stores on University Avenue in the North Park area, which I noticed has a ton of thrift stores and psychics.
This is the hood that I got my delicious grilled cheese, at Marie’s Cafe, 3016 University Ave. The cheese fries were pretty delicious too- perfectly crunchy and cheesy.
When I was bored with walking around North Park, I jumped on the first bus I saw that was heading downtown, and got off at the first sign of tall buildings. I’m usually the type of person who plans every last detail of everything, but lately I’ve been trying to just go with it and see where that takes me. Turns out, you can have just as much fun when you wing it, rather than stress out and spend so much time planning everything.
I ended up down near Petco Park where the Padres play, which was a pleasant surprise since I like checking out new stadiums whenever possible. The tourist area of the park was pretty awesome. I was able to walk down and look into the park at field level. They even had this sand sculpture that I feel like I should’ve seen outside of an NFL stadium in Cleveland or Detroit.
I took a walk down Fifth Avenue near the Gaslamp District…
…before meeting up at Ra Sushi for my first ever sake bomb. One bad thing about having a D-SLR camera, not everyone knows how to use it, so the pictures always come out a bit blurry in someone else’s hands.
I checked in on Foursquare and took advantage of the free edamame dish offer, and snacked on some of these fried rice balls.
Then we went on to Altitude Sky Lounge at the Marriott hotel, which was a great place for seeing parts of San Diego from the air. Especially Petco Park.
I ran into this couple, who were enjoying a rare evening out without their kids. They asked me to take a photo with their iPhone, but in my drunken state I also offered to take a “professional” picture with my camera and post it on my blog. Problem is, I was a bit intoxicated, so I didn’t get the best photo, but here it is! I gave them my business card and told them to check out the blog in the next few days and grab the photo. I hope you two like it!
We went on to a couple of bars downtown, and passed Tommy Lee on the street. Unfortunately, after chasing him for two blocks he wouldn’t let me take a picture with him. Actually, it was more his girlfriend who literally couldn’t be detached from his side that said no at first. His whole crew was a little rude, but I’m sure it gets annoying having drunk people asking to take pictures with you all the time.
Since it was only like 830pm, we went back to JJ’s and the guys jammed out for a little bit. I started singing a song about Tommy Lee that went something like “Tommy Lee… has HIV…”
I probably should’ve stopped drinking after all of the spiteful songs started flowing, but instead I went on to Bluefoot with some people and proceeded to have a few too many drinks. At one point I remember seeing a helicopter overhead, and since I was still angry, I started yelling, “It’s the cops! I wonder if they’re looking for Tommy Lee too!” And then I knew it was time to go home. I went and had some subpar Mexican food, at some no-name place (or a place not worthy of remembering) before heading back in for the evening. Thus concludes my first, busy day in San Diego!
Sorry New York, but I think I found a better diner. One of my favorite, fatty things to order at any diner is a grilled cheese sandwich, cheese fries, and a chocolate malt or shake. Most diners in New York don’t even have malts, and the grilled cheese is on two, tiny pieces of thin bread, and the cheese fries are made with a slice of Singles American cheese. Not at Marie’s Cafe in the North Park area of San Diego! I got a deliciously thick, crunchy, cheesy sandwich, along with shredded cheese melted on my fries. And of course, a real diner staple, the malt came with the authentic refill-tumbler which I’m always glad to see although I can never finish it.
Yet another eventful day of 15 hours in transit. I jumped on the LIRR in Montauk around 11a today, and made it to JFK by 230p. By the time I got to the airport, dark grey clouds were moving in rather quickly, as I waited for my 6p flight. I got on the plane at 530 and started watching the news on the back of the headrest in front of me. Sure enough, with my bad luck, there was a tornado warning in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Staten Island, heading right into Queens. I was hoping we’d take off just before the weather reached us. No such luck. Ten minutes before takeoff, the winds picked up and it was raining horizontal. The plane started rocking from the wind, and I may have even heard some hail. I seriously thought the plane was going to blow over and right into the airport. The footage I was seeing on the news was actually pretty scary for Manhattan. It looked like a tornado was seriously going to drop down at any minute and wipe out the city. I snapped this picture of the clouds over midtown on the news after the rain let up.
Long story short, we sat on the runway for 2 hours before taking off for our 6 hour flight. Let’s just say I’m glad I had a window seat with no one next to me again. Thankfully it was a fast moving storm though, and we were able to get out of JFK to make it to San Diego by 11. The guy sitting next to me told me that since the San Diego airport is so close to the city, there is an 11p curfew for planes.
It was a bit hazy landing in San Diego, but I was able to see the city out of the airplane window, and it was definitely a lot closer to the city than most airports I’ve seen. Not the best picture, but you get the drift.
But I’m here, safe and sound, and I’m digging the comfy leather couch at JJ & Sam’s that I’ll be crashing on until I leave for LA Sunday afternoon. Since I’ve been flying coast to coast so much and sleeping whenever I get a chance, my body has absolutely no concept of time or what day it is. Time to watch Zack and Miri and get some sleep before exploring San Diego tomorrow!
Tuesday I woke up ready to hit the beach with Mike’s family. Too bad the weather was just a tad bit chilly. It wasn’t too bad on the beach, but the ocean was ice cold. It was a nice, lazy day of taking pictures for me. And even better to sleep in a real bed at night, without having to pay for a hotel.
As always, you can check out more pictures on my Flickr.
Another day full of traveling. I was up by 530a, and heading to the airport by 6. Landed at JFK around 5p, and caught the LIRR out to Montauk at 617p, arriving at 907p. Nothing too exciting really. All I had during the entire day was an orange Tazo tea, a blueberry cranberry muffin, and a bag of Dorito’s mix, so I was pretty wiped out when I got to Montauk.
Since I stayed at the hostel, I was able to take the $2.50 Light Rail out to the SEA-TAC instead of a cab. I’m glad I did though because the traffic out there was almost as bad as the ridiculously long security line. I really got lucky on the flight though. Not only did I have a window seat with “even more legroom” in the emergency exit row, but no one was in the seat next to me either. I slept almost the entire 4.5hrs.
This was my first experience at a hostel. Ever. I didn’t really know what to expect, but since I only needed a place for about 11 hours, I figured it would be fine. The people working at the hostel were great. Very friendly, and helpful. The place was constantly busy, something I wasn’t really expecting on a Sunday night, especially considering how dead the city seemed to be. Since living in New York, every smaller city I visit just seems like a ghost town when I don’t see people out and about at all hours.
The hostel had a lot of art on the walls that looked like it was for sale. There was a kitchen, library, computer room, and even a hot tub. Instead of paying the regular $35 fee, I went for the $38 all female suite which included a private bathroom. The room wasn’t for everybody, but it certainly provided exactly what I needed for the evening. There were four of us sharing the room on two bunk beds. The bathroom had a shower and a toilet, and the sink was in the main area. Nothing special, but there was hot water so I was happy. Two different times that I tried to enter my room with the electronic card, it wouldn’t work. I had to run downstairs each time and have them reprogram it.
Overall it was a good location as far as I could tell. It was downtown, within walking distance to the Space Needle. They serve a free breakfast around 8a, but since I had to check out at 530a I didn’t get a chance to grab some. The Light Rail was only a few blocks away, so taking public transportation out to the airport was extremely convenient and cheap. Only $2.50. They had free wifi, and if you’re interested in staying there, you can view all of their rooms on their website.
After about 3 hours of sleep, I woke up excited and energized to head to Seattle. Too bad I was the only one who wasn’t hungover. We didn’t leave Portland until around 1130, and while Jessie manned up and made the 3hr drive to Seattle, the guys & Maya passed out in the back seat. We got to Seattle around 230 and spent the majority of the day down near the Pike Street Market and the waterfront.
We were going to try some seafood, but ended up giving in to the sight of Mexican food at El Puerco Llorõn. Everything was handmade right in front of us, including the fresh corn tortillas. I ended up ordering two entrees because I couldn’t decide on just one.
Then they wanted to head back to Portland around 5 so they drove me out to a friend of a friend’s house, Shawna, that I was planning on staying with. I wanted to hang out in the city all evening, then walk back to her place later at night when I knew she’d be home around 10. But after realizing how far of a walk it would be from downtown to her place, the only option was to sit at a local bar near her place for 5.5 hours. Ruben told me about the City Hostel downtown that was only $35 a night, so I decided since it was still light out and I had a lot of exploring to do, I’d go check in there. I knew the cab fare from Shawna’s would cost me at least $35, so I figured why not spend that money to hang out downtown all night? I’m so glad that I did. I dropped my stuff off at the hostel and made my way over to the Space Tower before sunset. The view from there was gorgeous. I stayed up there for about an hour, snapping picture after picture until I got some really great ones. It cost $18.50 to go up the 520 feet to the top of the tower, which definitely wasn’t in my budget, but I knew I’d never forgive myself if I didn’t.
After that I walked back towards the hostel and stopped for some tea at Bedlam Coffee on 2nd ave and Bell Street. Cozy little spot with delicious blood orange tea.
And before I left for good, I managed to snap one more picture of Mount Rainier from above the clouds in the airplane.
