West Coast update!
Now that everything is starting to fade into memory, it may be time for a synopsis of our west coast adventure. Will and I finally hopped in the car (red Ford Focus, tiny) around 8:00 pm on august 4th and proceeded to drive for about 27 straight hours. We filled up every half-tank or so for better gas efficiency and eventually stopped in Flagstaff for dinner. I drank a massive mai tai and was a bit tipsy, so will drove from there for a few hours and then I took over and got us the rest of the way into Los Angeles for an overall 34 hour trip. I AM IRON MAN! Well okay, Will actually drove a little more than half, but you know.
We get into LA around 3:30 pacific time and find JR's place all right...it just so happens that he lives right off of Hollywood Boulevard. Get in and CRASH. The next morning *cough*afternoon*cough* JR still has to work, so Will and I wander the streets of Hollywood. We decide that it would be most excellent to get our pictures taken with the tackiest stars available. Will decides on Robert Urich, captain in The Ice Pirates (<3) whereas I opt for my hero...William Shatner. Mann's Chinese Theater was very cool, as were all the hand prints in the concrete. Especially awesome was the stone engraved with Roy Rogers and his horse, Trigger, complete with hoof-prints. Especially eerie were the three L. Ron Hubbard museums we passed offering free tours of the amazing life of Mr Hubbard. Or the free stress tests being offered by Scientologists outside. Walk swiftly past and avoid eye contact would be my advice to you. Once we're done wandering the strip, we drive to JR's Best Buy (on La Brea) and check in on him, then hit the La Brea Tar Pits (which ironically were not on La Brea street). The museums there are all closed, which is sad, because the natural history museum has King Tut right now and the Page Museum has lots of friggin' dinosaurs. JR later informs us that tickets to the NHM have been hard to come buy because of Tut so we probably couldn't have gotten in any way. After we take some pictures of the tar pits, we head onward in my trusty automobile.
We head over to Melrose Avenue next and park to walk about. If you are interested in purchasing clothing, apparently Melrose is the place to do it. There were bazillions of various clothing shops...I could see myself being very poor if I lived near there. I did end up buying a pair of pants from a vintage store *cough*$30*cough* and an awesome t-shirt at a different shirts-only vintage shop. It may have been $38, but hey that's my LA souvenir shirt. I may try to get a picture up at some point of it, but I do not wish to ruin the surprise for those that I see. Whilst we finish up shopping and wishing that we were richer, JR calls and lets us know that he is off work. We go and pick him up and proceed to The Grove, a really cool mall-esque city block enclosing tons of stores. We hit pac-sun and he buys himself some board shorts (will and I have been walking around the swankier parts of town in our swim trunks) and I get some aviator glasses. We then head out to the beach! Granted it's nearing sunset and the wind has picked up, but dammit we wanted the pacific! We opt for Venice Beach as it is very near to LAX and Melissa is due to be arriving in from Chicago at around 8:00. The beach itself is kind of cool but a little dirty, but the strip along it seemed majorly rad. Most of the shops were closed or closing, but it looked to be a very interesting place...and we did get to see one huge muscle-bound guy in a speedo performing feats of dexterity. It is an image which may haunt me for many moons.
LAX is a little confusing, but we manage to get melissa loaded into the car okay and then head out for an adventure known as dinner in LA. We're all starving so we end up driving by a mall and just deciding to park and eat there at a Houston's. Or so we think. We walk in the back way from the stairs and get our names on the list, wait around about five minutes, then step outside for some air. To see that we were in fact in a different restaraunt entirely known as Gulf Stream. Houston's was actually across the way. We go in, but the wait there is longer there so we decline to be put on the list. Will then decides that any food will do because he is getting a headache, so we hit the food court. Nothing seems satisfactory there though, so we go back to Gulf Stream...which apparently never put us on their list. So we leave there and head back over to Houston's to see if the wait there is shorter and the lady at the desk remembers us and tells us she'll sneak us in ahead of what we would be waiting. It ends up taking a while, but she brings us free fries which is cool. Dinner is then very tasty (California Burger, which contains the first of many avocados to be consumed on the trip). After a lengthy dinner, we went to pick up JR's car and then headed back to his place for some much needed sleep. In the morning, will decides he must dye his hair fishbowl-blue, so while this is going on I once again walk the hollywood strip from Vine to LaBrea...only this time showing stuff off to Melissa. Most of the shops were closed because it was so early, but that also meant the streets were fairly clear and we got to see everything a lot faster. Once Will's head is good and blue, he and JR pick us up and we head out to San Fransicso and Yosemite. I will comment now that LA is a very easy town to navigate...on the surface streets. The highways though are friggin' scary!
more later when I can stand to sit and type more, that's enough to stomach as it is :P