Hi all,
Now that we have more reliable internet I've managed to upload a few more photos to the Dinah album and there are a number in the San Fran post as well, and I've even a couple videos. Here's one:
Scenes from the White Party:
Cuteness at the Vancouver Aquarium:
Monday, April 21, 2008
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
I left my heart in San Francisco...
Well not really, but I needed a title.
Next stop on our whirlwind tour of North America's west coast was good old San Fran. We flew from San Diego on one of the few domestic carrier's that hasn't gone out of business recently, Southwest Airlines (as an aside we were both really impressed with Southwest. They had a seamless check in process, a great boarding process and were generally very slick) and landed in Oakland.
After a slightly long winded, but ultimately painless, trip in from the airport we found ourselves in our poky little room at the Dakota Hotel. It was a great location and pretty cheap so we couldn't really complain. My first impressions the city were that it is actually a lot like New York, just on a smaller scale. Especially the part of the city we were staying in. Lots of sky scrapers, yellow cabs and a large number of homeless.
Day 1:
The next day we got up and made our way down to REI to get Amanda a warm jacket. While the trip didn't end in a warm puffy jacket, it did lead us to a great little cafe attached to a motor bike shop called Moto Java. It was without a doubt the best cup of coffee on the trip so far.
Next on the list was the Asian Art Museum, which was unfortunately closed. Kind of disappointing but no doubt I should have checked out their opening hours before we went. However all was not lost and we jumped on one of the old school street cars and headed for the Castro for lunch.
With rainbow flags everywhere and gay men obviously ruling the roost it isn't that surprising that this part of the city is considered a gay mecca. After a nice lunch and browsing the shops we headed off to find the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMoMA).
The Museum was quite small and has a really good photography collection as well as a nice collection with a number of big names. Well worth a look if you're in the area.
Next it was back on the trail of the puffy jacket for Amanda. We jumped on one of San Francisco's famous cable cars and headed off to parts unknown, armed as always with our trusty map. The cable car was noisy, cold and crowded but worth getting on to, not to mention a living piece of San Francisco's history.
We walked for awhile through a really nice residential area of the city before finding the store that had "The Jacket". It was purchased and we headed back out to the streets to continue our wandering through the very lovely Pacific Height's district of the city. After dinner and finding out that the Ani DiFranco concert we wanted to go to was sold out it was time to head back to the hotel and crash. We'd had a very busy day and felt like we'd walked over most of the central city.
Day 2:
Our second day in San Fran wasn't as sunny as the first. I decided that it would get warmer through out the day so didn't wear my big jacket. Big mistake.
We had a late start and after breakfast we decided to head over to Fisher Man's Wharf to have a look around. It was as touristy as I'd heard and really windy. The cable car ride up there was once again cold and busy but we jumped off at Lombard Street to have a look at what is apparently San Francisco's windiest street. It has about six rather sharp turns which were apparently put in because at the time the cars couldn't cope with the steepness. At the bottom a number of crazy tourists risked life and limb to get a shot of those turns.
We then wandered over to the Wharf and after much humming and haaing over where to have lunch I gave in to Amanda and we went to Hooters. All I have to say about that is that people really don't go there for the food. That being said it wasn't quite as sleazy as I had feared.
Next it was time to go have a look at some of San Francisco's bohemian past so we jumped on a street car and headed up to Broadway to have a look at A Different Light bookshop and next door Vesuvius which is a very seedy bar/cafe where Dylan and Kerouac used to hang out. Unfortunately we didn't stay long as they didn't serve hot chocolate and as I was starting to feel blue by this stage we decided to head back to the hotel.
After a bus ride from hell through the utterly overcrowded China town (it was like Hong Kong on a bad day!) we made it back to the relative sanctuary of the hotel. We spent the rest of the afternoon close to home and mostly inside thankfully.
San Francisco was a nice place to visit and I'd like to go back when the weather isn't so dominating so I can see a few more parts. But to be honest all in all I wasn't as wowed as I thought I'd be. Strangely it's a city which has taken on almost mythic proportions in my mind and not surprisingly hasn't lived up to them. I think t might be a place best seen with a local, someone who knows all the byways. I'll be back though, after all I never did see the Golden Gate bridge and Amanda never got to see those Bison!
Next stop on our whirlwind tour of North America's west coast was good old San Fran. We flew from San Diego on one of the few domestic carrier's that hasn't gone out of business recently, Southwest Airlines (as an aside we were both really impressed with Southwest. They had a seamless check in process, a great boarding process and were generally very slick) and landed in Oakland.
After a slightly long winded, but ultimately painless, trip in from the airport we found ourselves in our poky little room at the Dakota Hotel. It was a great location and pretty cheap so we couldn't really complain. My first impressions the city were that it is actually a lot like New York, just on a smaller scale. Especially the part of the city we were staying in. Lots of sky scrapers, yellow cabs and a large number of homeless.
 |
| '08 Trip - San Francisco |
Day 1:
The next day we got up and made our way down to REI to get Amanda a warm jacket. While the trip didn't end in a warm puffy jacket, it did lead us to a great little cafe attached to a motor bike shop called Moto Java. It was without a doubt the best cup of coffee on the trip so far.
Next on the list was the Asian Art Museum, which was unfortunately closed. Kind of disappointing but no doubt I should have checked out their opening hours before we went. However all was not lost and we jumped on one of the old school street cars and headed for the Castro for lunch.
With rainbow flags everywhere and gay men obviously ruling the roost it isn't that surprising that this part of the city is considered a gay mecca. After a nice lunch and browsing the shops we headed off to find the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMoMA).
The Museum was quite small and has a really good photography collection as well as a nice collection with a number of big names. Well worth a look if you're in the area.
Next it was back on the trail of the puffy jacket for Amanda. We jumped on one of San Francisco's famous cable cars and headed off to parts unknown, armed as always with our trusty map. The cable car was noisy, cold and crowded but worth getting on to, not to mention a living piece of San Francisco's history.
We walked for awhile through a really nice residential area of the city before finding the store that had "The Jacket". It was purchased and we headed back out to the streets to continue our wandering through the very lovely Pacific Height's district of the city. After dinner and finding out that the Ani DiFranco concert we wanted to go to was sold out it was time to head back to the hotel and crash. We'd had a very busy day and felt like we'd walked over most of the central city.
Day 2:
Our second day in San Fran wasn't as sunny as the first. I decided that it would get warmer through out the day so didn't wear my big jacket. Big mistake.
We had a late start and after breakfast we decided to head over to Fisher Man's Wharf to have a look around. It was as touristy as I'd heard and really windy. The cable car ride up there was once again cold and busy but we jumped off at Lombard Street to have a look at what is apparently San Francisco's windiest street. It has about six rather sharp turns which were apparently put in because at the time the cars couldn't cope with the steepness. At the bottom a number of crazy tourists risked life and limb to get a shot of those turns.
We then wandered over to the Wharf and after much humming and haaing over where to have lunch I gave in to Amanda and we went to Hooters. All I have to say about that is that people really don't go there for the food. That being said it wasn't quite as sleazy as I had feared.
Next it was time to go have a look at some of San Francisco's bohemian past so we jumped on a street car and headed up to Broadway to have a look at A Different Light bookshop and next door Vesuvius which is a very seedy bar/cafe where Dylan and Kerouac used to hang out. Unfortunately we didn't stay long as they didn't serve hot chocolate and as I was starting to feel blue by this stage we decided to head back to the hotel.
After a bus ride from hell through the utterly overcrowded China town (it was like Hong Kong on a bad day!) we made it back to the relative sanctuary of the hotel. We spent the rest of the afternoon close to home and mostly inside thankfully.
San Francisco was a nice place to visit and I'd like to go back when the weather isn't so dominating so I can see a few more parts. But to be honest all in all I wasn't as wowed as I thought I'd be. Strangely it's a city which has taken on almost mythic proportions in my mind and not surprisingly hasn't lived up to them. I think t might be a place best seen with a local, someone who knows all the byways. I'll be back though, after all I never did see the Golden Gate bridge and Amanda never got to see those Bison!
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Days at the Dinah
We had 4 days of Dinah Shore madness and it went really fast. After our mildly stressful, but ultimately uneventful, drive we headed up to our room to dump our bags and then hit The street (Palm Springs is really small) to get some more "by the pool" appropriate clothes. Amanda was also on the hunt for Burkenstocks which we'd been unable to find by this point. However after a few hours pounding the pavement we managed to find most of what we were looking for and so headed back to our room to get ready for the mixer party at one of the other hotels.
On our way there we met two really nice Canadian ladies who kindly showed us the way to the party, and being Dinah old hands gave us a run down of what to expect.
It was a rather pleasant low key affair with a stand up comic doing the rounds breaking the ice, and a DJ playing loungy house music as the back drop. The breaking the ice seemed to go well as it didn't take long for people to start giving random strangers lap dances to the admiring cheers of the onlookers.
We hung out there people watching for a little while and then went back to our over sized king bed (with 9... yes 9 pillows) for a lovely night's sleep.
The next day was one of pure bliss. We hung out by the pool read our books and generally chilled out in glorious style. I had found a really good swimsuit the day before (amusingly enough I went all the way to Palm Springs to buy a New Zealand made bikini!) so felt that apart from my whiteness I at least had appropriate attire!
There was a hugely funny stand up comic show on that night which we got the best seats in the house at, due to being VIPs of course, and that would have started off a great night if the sun and drinking hadn't caught up with me and I had to go to bed with a headache! Amanda, being the sweetheart that she is, stayed in with me and it turned out to be an earlier night than expected.
Friday arrived and with it the need to finalise our White Party outfits. Amanda had noticed an outlet mall on our way into town (her mind is often on shopping) so we jumped into the car a headed up there. This place was HUGE and packed with all sorts of shops and it was cheap. We spent a lot of time and not to much money there, leaving with many outfits including the all important White Party one.
The White Party seems to be a bit of a tradition at the Dinah and as it was at our hotel we certainly got to see it in all of it's glory. After dinner and a wee rest we put on our glad rags and headed down to our pool side cocktail party. The pool had a rather large fire pit that was roaring when we got there, so we grabbed a couple of seats near by, picked up the first of our complementary cocktails and settled in for some serious people watching.
We spent a few very pleasant hours sipping drinks and chatting to a woman from Philly about gender politics, queer culture in the US and all sorts of other things besides. Eventually it got a little bit chilly so we decided to head inside to the dancing. At this stage we realised just how strong those free drinks were and should have started on the water. However we decided to have just one more... this was not the best of ideas. The go-go dancers started to perform and we watched in admiration but it soon became apparent that the best course of action would be to head back upstairs and call it a night. Which is just what we did.
Saturday dawned bright, hot and sunny. Just the type of weather you don't want when you have a hangover. Saturday was a very low key day spent mostly in bed and by the pool. We managed to rouse ourselves as the sun set and had a very lovely and romantic dip in the spa and a swim. This seemed to refresh us enough to head over to the Palm springs convention centre for the Mardi Gras party. After following a few other women, only to find they didn't really know where they were going either, we eventually made it to the party. The venue was huge and decked out to accommodate 4000 odd parting women. There was a karaoke room, a salsa room, a chill out area, a mini casino (with texas hold'em being played... I was to much of a wimp to sit down though) and of course the main room with a stage for the Go-Gos to play, (a band I didn't know much about other than that Belinda Carlise was in it) as well as mini stages for yet more talented go-go girl dancers. We were still feeling pretty mellow so spent a lot of time up in the VIP section (are you noticing a theme?) watching the gyrating dancing below.
It was with sadness in our hearts that we went do to the Gospel Brunch on Sunday morning, our last morning in Palm Springs. Gospel isn't really the thing that jumps to mind when I think about a hotel full of lesbians but the singers were great, as was the food. It was also a fantastic end to our first visit to Dinah Shore and Palm Springs.
There were a few things we didn't make it to this time, but even if we had made it to every party and seen all the golf we wanted I know that we would still be just as keen to come back. Not next year, but hopefully the year after.
Next stop San Francisco, but I'll save that for another post.
On our way there we met two really nice Canadian ladies who kindly showed us the way to the party, and being Dinah old hands gave us a run down of what to expect.
It was a rather pleasant low key affair with a stand up comic doing the rounds breaking the ice, and a DJ playing loungy house music as the back drop. The breaking the ice seemed to go well as it didn't take long for people to start giving random strangers lap dances to the admiring cheers of the onlookers.
We hung out there people watching for a little while and then went back to our over sized king bed (with 9... yes 9 pillows) for a lovely night's sleep.
The next day was one of pure bliss. We hung out by the pool read our books and generally chilled out in glorious style. I had found a really good swimsuit the day before (amusingly enough I went all the way to Palm Springs to buy a New Zealand made bikini!) so felt that apart from my whiteness I at least had appropriate attire!
There was a hugely funny stand up comic show on that night which we got the best seats in the house at, due to being VIPs of course, and that would have started off a great night if the sun and drinking hadn't caught up with me and I had to go to bed with a headache! Amanda, being the sweetheart that she is, stayed in with me and it turned out to be an earlier night than expected.
Friday arrived and with it the need to finalise our White Party outfits. Amanda had noticed an outlet mall on our way into town (her mind is often on shopping) so we jumped into the car a headed up there. This place was HUGE and packed with all sorts of shops and it was cheap. We spent a lot of time and not to much money there, leaving with many outfits including the all important White Party one.
The White Party seems to be a bit of a tradition at the Dinah and as it was at our hotel we certainly got to see it in all of it's glory. After dinner and a wee rest we put on our glad rags and headed down to our pool side cocktail party. The pool had a rather large fire pit that was roaring when we got there, so we grabbed a couple of seats near by, picked up the first of our complementary cocktails and settled in for some serious people watching.
We spent a few very pleasant hours sipping drinks and chatting to a woman from Philly about gender politics, queer culture in the US and all sorts of other things besides. Eventually it got a little bit chilly so we decided to head inside to the dancing. At this stage we realised just how strong those free drinks were and should have started on the water. However we decided to have just one more... this was not the best of ideas. The go-go dancers started to perform and we watched in admiration but it soon became apparent that the best course of action would be to head back upstairs and call it a night. Which is just what we did.
Saturday dawned bright, hot and sunny. Just the type of weather you don't want when you have a hangover. Saturday was a very low key day spent mostly in bed and by the pool. We managed to rouse ourselves as the sun set and had a very lovely and romantic dip in the spa and a swim. This seemed to refresh us enough to head over to the Palm springs convention centre for the Mardi Gras party. After following a few other women, only to find they didn't really know where they were going either, we eventually made it to the party. The venue was huge and decked out to accommodate 4000 odd parting women. There was a karaoke room, a salsa room, a chill out area, a mini casino (with texas hold'em being played... I was to much of a wimp to sit down though) and of course the main room with a stage for the Go-Gos to play, (a band I didn't know much about other than that Belinda Carlise was in it) as well as mini stages for yet more talented go-go girl dancers. We were still feeling pretty mellow so spent a lot of time up in the VIP section (are you noticing a theme?) watching the gyrating dancing below.
It was with sadness in our hearts that we went do to the Gospel Brunch on Sunday morning, our last morning in Palm Springs. Gospel isn't really the thing that jumps to mind when I think about a hotel full of lesbians but the singers were great, as was the food. It was also a fantastic end to our first visit to Dinah Shore and Palm Springs.
There were a few things we didn't make it to this time, but even if we had made it to every party and seen all the golf we wanted I know that we would still be just as keen to come back. Not next year, but hopefully the year after.
Next stop San Francisco, but I'll save that for another post.
 |
| '08 Trip - Dinah Shore and Palm Springs |
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
We're off to the "Golf"!
The morning of our departure to Palm Springs dawned sunny and bright. We jumped in a cab and headed to the Hertz rental lounge out at the airport. We had everything pre booked and even pre paid so it wasn't long till we were sitting in our little Nissan with a tank full of petrol and detailed instructions on how to get where we wanted to go, courtesy of Google.
The drive was a pretty one. A few hills, some desert, lots of windmills. It took us just under 3 hours and while my experience of driving on the left hand side of the car is pretty limited, I was pretty happy with how it went. We arrived safe and sound at our very swanky hotel, Hotel Zoso (dumb name, nice place).
Palm Springs is a nice town. Full of a fascinating mixture of older retired couples, gay men, and families. The Dinah Shore week sees a huge influx of gay woman as well for all the same reasons that we were there.
We had four days in Palm Springs. Full of shopping, lounging by the pool, people watching, chatting to people from around the States, Canada and Australia and amazingly no golf. In fact the one time we mentioned golf to someone they gave us a very blank look!
I guess the main reason people come here is for the atmosphere. To be in a place where for a few days you are no longer the minority, but instead the majority, was a really great feeling. Palm Springs was a fantastic host and the area is very open in its desire to keep the thousands of woman who spend millions of dollars coming back. I know I will, though the trip from NZ is a rather expensive one.
Interestingly enough, and this might only make sense to people who watch the L Word, the woman were not what I expected. Some were what I'd consider regular types, but a lot of them looked like the models and want to be actresses that they no doubt are. A lot of woman from LA come to this weekend and it was fascinating to see that the type of people portrayed on the show actually exist.
I'll do a separate post for the party blow by blows, but I just wanted to get some thoughts down about the event and place before they faded like a dream.
The drive was a pretty one. A few hills, some desert, lots of windmills. It took us just under 3 hours and while my experience of driving on the left hand side of the car is pretty limited, I was pretty happy with how it went. We arrived safe and sound at our very swanky hotel, Hotel Zoso (dumb name, nice place).
Palm Springs is a nice town. Full of a fascinating mixture of older retired couples, gay men, and families. The Dinah Shore week sees a huge influx of gay woman as well for all the same reasons that we were there.
We had four days in Palm Springs. Full of shopping, lounging by the pool, people watching, chatting to people from around the States, Canada and Australia and amazingly no golf. In fact the one time we mentioned golf to someone they gave us a very blank look!
I guess the main reason people come here is for the atmosphere. To be in a place where for a few days you are no longer the minority, but instead the majority, was a really great feeling. Palm Springs was a fantastic host and the area is very open in its desire to keep the thousands of woman who spend millions of dollars coming back. I know I will, though the trip from NZ is a rather expensive one.
Interestingly enough, and this might only make sense to people who watch the L Word, the woman were not what I expected. Some were what I'd consider regular types, but a lot of them looked like the models and want to be actresses that they no doubt are. A lot of woman from LA come to this weekend and it was fascinating to see that the type of people portrayed on the show actually exist.
I'll do a separate post for the party blow by blows, but I just wanted to get some thoughts down about the event and place before they faded like a dream.
Sunday, April 06, 2008
The sound of silence...
Hi all!
Sorry for the lack of updates this week. We've been pretty busy but I'll get right on to it now!
We left LA via Union Station and caught the train to San Diego. For the most part the 2 1/2 hour train journey was pretty uninteresting. However once we got back to the coast it was very pretty and easy to see why southern California is so well known for it's beaches.
We pulled into San Diego's Santa Fa train station on a beautiful spring day, though it was still a lot cooler than either of us expected. We made our way to our (thankfully) central hostel in San Diego's Gaslamp district. This is a really pretty part of a pretty city and if any one is wanting a cheap place to stay the HI Downtown hostel is worth looking up (though our mattress was pretty awful!)
After dumping our bags we started wandering around the shopping areas looking for good deals and clothes suitable for our time in the desert. That ate up our afternoon rather well so we headed back to the hostel for a little rest before heading up to Hillcrest for dinner. This well planned little bus ride turned into an hour long mission when we jumped on the wrong bus first, then another wrong bus which took us onto the freeway and to a rather dark transit center. Luckily it was still quite busy and another bus took us back to where we wanted to be, but it was a little more pre-dinner stress than I was after. (I will always pay more attention to buses that say they will make "limited stops" from now on!)
We finally made it to Baja Betty's where Amanda and I partook in two very large margaritas (we needed them by this point!). I decided to take some advice I'd been given and tried a fish taco, and by the end of the evening was glad that I had. (We didn't risk the bus back you'll be glad to hear.) We were also gifted a rather cute cartoon portrait of the two of us.
The next day we headed of to do a little more shopping, (anyone noticing a theme?) before heading out to Old Town. I had been expecting an older part of San Diego, but just another part of the city. However what we found was an almost theme park styled village harking back to the days when San Diego was a mission and the birth place of California as we now know it. We wandered around here for a few hours looking at the old streets and soaking in some much needed warmth before heading out to SeaWorld.
Unfortunately we got out there an hour before it closed, but after a helpful tip from a security guard found out that if we went to the customer service desk and asked for a "shopper's pass" we could look around the park for an hour and then get a full refund. So we grabbed a map and had a whirl wind trip around the park. We managed to catch the last half of the dolphin show and also got to see the largest otter ever! See the photos for more highlights.
We returned to the Gaslamp and had a leisurely evening, having a not overly good Japanese meal and a really nice chill out at a Boarders book store.
The next morning it was up, packing and then heading off to get our car for our drive into the desert!!
EDIT: Thanks to those who pointed out my misuse of the possessive apostrophe!! Sophie
Sorry for the lack of updates this week. We've been pretty busy but I'll get right on to it now!
We left LA via Union Station and caught the train to San Diego. For the most part the 2 1/2 hour train journey was pretty uninteresting. However once we got back to the coast it was very pretty and easy to see why southern California is so well known for it's beaches.
We pulled into San Diego's Santa Fa train station on a beautiful spring day, though it was still a lot cooler than either of us expected. We made our way to our (thankfully) central hostel in San Diego's Gaslamp district. This is a really pretty part of a pretty city and if any one is wanting a cheap place to stay the HI Downtown hostel is worth looking up (though our mattress was pretty awful!)
After dumping our bags we started wandering around the shopping areas looking for good deals and clothes suitable for our time in the desert. That ate up our afternoon rather well so we headed back to the hostel for a little rest before heading up to Hillcrest for dinner. This well planned little bus ride turned into an hour long mission when we jumped on the wrong bus first, then another wrong bus which took us onto the freeway and to a rather dark transit center. Luckily it was still quite busy and another bus took us back to where we wanted to be, but it was a little more pre-dinner stress than I was after. (I will always pay more attention to buses that say they will make "limited stops" from now on!)
We finally made it to Baja Betty's where Amanda and I partook in two very large margaritas (we needed them by this point!). I decided to take some advice I'd been given and tried a fish taco, and by the end of the evening was glad that I had. (We didn't risk the bus back you'll be glad to hear.) We were also gifted a rather cute cartoon portrait of the two of us.
The next day we headed of to do a little more shopping, (anyone noticing a theme?) before heading out to Old Town. I had been expecting an older part of San Diego, but just another part of the city. However what we found was an almost theme park styled village harking back to the days when San Diego was a mission and the birth place of California as we now know it. We wandered around here for a few hours looking at the old streets and soaking in some much needed warmth before heading out to SeaWorld.
Unfortunately we got out there an hour before it closed, but after a helpful tip from a security guard found out that if we went to the customer service desk and asked for a "shopper's pass" we could look around the park for an hour and then get a full refund. So we grabbed a map and had a whirl wind trip around the park. We managed to catch the last half of the dolphin show and also got to see the largest otter ever! See the photos for more highlights.
We returned to the Gaslamp and had a leisurely evening, having a not overly good Japanese meal and a really nice chill out at a Boarders book store.
The next morning it was up, packing and then heading off to get our car for our drive into the desert!!
EDIT: Thanks to those who pointed out my misuse of the possessive apostrophe!! Sophie
Monday, March 31, 2008
In LA!
Hi all,
Just a quick post before bed on our second day in the US. So far things have gone pretty well. We didn't miss any flights or get lost. Though getting from LAX to our hostel was a two hour shuttle trip from hell and an experience we could have done with out.
However our hostel room is pretty big and private and while it may not be the world's most central place, where in LA is?
Thoughts on LA... well it's massive. You can't really comprehend it till you've been here and tried to get around. It is easy to see why everyone is always driving here. It's also got a real rough around the edges feel. The few places that are clean and tidy (Bel Air, parts of Hollywood) are a real stark contrast to the rest of the city.
However neither of us have felt at all nervous using public transport or walking around a little so I'm guessing that the crack downs on crime are making things safer in this rather infamous city.
I don't think I'll rush back here (Amanda isn't too sure at this stage, she wants a better look at the Playboy Mansion), but it was worth a look and is certainly a diverse city. If I ever meet someone who lives here I might come back to get a more personal show around.
Here are a few photos from today (click on the photo to see more):
Tomorrow it's off to San Diego by train.
This post was brought to you by my brand new MacBook!
Location: Banana Bungalow, LA
Just a quick post before bed on our second day in the US. So far things have gone pretty well. We didn't miss any flights or get lost. Though getting from LAX to our hostel was a two hour shuttle trip from hell and an experience we could have done with out.
However our hostel room is pretty big and private and while it may not be the world's most central place, where in LA is?
Thoughts on LA... well it's massive. You can't really comprehend it till you've been here and tried to get around. It is easy to see why everyone is always driving here. It's also got a real rough around the edges feel. The few places that are clean and tidy (Bel Air, parts of Hollywood) are a real stark contrast to the rest of the city.
However neither of us have felt at all nervous using public transport or walking around a little so I'm guessing that the crack downs on crime are making things safer in this rather infamous city.
I don't think I'll rush back here (Amanda isn't too sure at this stage, she wants a better look at the Playboy Mansion), but it was worth a look and is certainly a diverse city. If I ever meet someone who lives here I might come back to get a more personal show around.
Here are a few photos from today (click on the photo to see more):
 |
| '08 Trip - LA |
Tomorrow it's off to San Diego by train.
This post was brought to you by my brand new MacBook!
Location: Banana Bungalow, LA
Friday, March 28, 2008
Tomorrow is the day
We fly out to LA tomorrow. So feel free to give any handy hints about what to do there!
I'm hoping that the next time I update will be from my new MacBook :)
I'm hoping that the next time I update will be from my new MacBook :)
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