Well, I've been in LA for a few days now, and it's been interesting. This is my third time visiting LA, the first time while in university my friends and I came here on a road trip, the second time was the tail end of the Cho brothers golf trip. A lot had changed in between the two trips and now, I don't remember the amount of traffic that exists today, and the city seems even larger and more sprawled out, consequently I'm spending more time driving than I anticipated.
I drove up Hwy 101 from north of San Diego to LA, visiting the small towns on the coast as I drove by. The fabled Orange County, or the OC as fans of the TV show know it by, is a huge suburban area with low density housing that is so common to many US communities. Without the sea coast and the beaches, you could be anywhere in the US with its small strip malls and larger shopping plazas with the customary Target, Best Buy, and Denny's dotting the landscape.
I did stop in a couple of places to go for walks, there was a nice little park overlooking the beach at Dana Point, about mid-way between San Diego and LA. I've attached a photo of the cliff side view of the surf and beach. The other stop I made was in Long Beach, which is the southern part of the LA metro area. There was a nice section of houses near the beach, and walking along the beach I discovered how it got its name. There were probably a couple of white explorers, they saw a very long, wide stretch of sandy beach, and thus named it Long Beach.
Photo 1 – Cliff side view of the surf and beach at Dana Point, CA
Last night I visited a couple of areas in Santa Monica, the Santa Monica Pier and the Third Street Promenade. The Santa Monica Pier juts out into the Pacific a few hundred feet, and most of it is covered by wooden planking giving it a boardwalk atmosphere. The pier area is akin to what Coney Island in New York might look like, carnival games, amusement rides, and the ubiquitous fast food joints selling hot dogs, hamburgers, fries, and ice cream. The only difference here is that many of the eateries were large chains like Taco Bell and Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. instead of Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs. There were families strolling with small children, and the older kids took turns on the roller coaster, ferris wheel, and bumper cars. There was also a section of the pier where anglers dropped their lines over the railing while others admired the orange full moon just above the LA horizon.
Photo 2 – The Santa Monica Pier at dusk from the bridge walkway
Photo 3 – Ferris wheel all lit up
The second area I visited was the Third Street Promenade, a pedestrian only outdoor mall that had been converted from a dodgy area of town to a bustling, very chic shopping district with nice shops and eateries. It reminded me of some of the pedestrian malls that my wife and I visited on our trips to Europe, especially in France and Italy. The only differences being the presence of lots of very large, overweight Americans compared to the thin Europeans, and instead of nice bistros and cafes there are Johnny Rockets and Yankee Doodles. Despite the proliferation of chain stores and restaurants, I wish that more cities would devote areas for these types of pedestrian malls in North America. I think it gets people out of cars and more into walking and enjoying the outdoors.
The Promenade was also friendly for street performers, some of whom were quite good. I spent about 30 minutes listening to a classical guitarist performing on the sidewalk. Although I'm not an expert on classical music, I thought he was excellent and could probably charge a lot of money for a concert. I wasn't the only one enjoying his music, there were a number of people standing around enjoying the impromptu concert. This reminded me very much of the cellist that we heard playing by the fountain in the town square of the medieval Tuscan town of San Gimignano.
Today I got in a round of golf at a club called Aliso Viejo in Orange County. I had no real expectations for this round since I have not played a lot of golf in the last 5 months or so. Between the India trip, skiing in the Rockies, and Toronto, I think I've played 2 rounds since February. Anyways, just my luck that this course didn't have a driving range, and I get paired up with some guy who ends up shooting about par. Great. Anyways, I played okay and ended up with an 86 despite a quadruple bogey on one hole (can you say Phil Mickelson?). I guess that's the golf gods' way of punishing me for ripping on Phil a couple of posts ago, talk about irony...
Anyways, it was freakin' hot today, it reached over 100° F on the golf course. It was so hot that I got a bunch of heat blisters on my arm, they didn't hurt, but it's strange to see blisters filled with liquid in an area of your body where there isn't any rubbing or chafing. Oh well. The temperatures do moderate significantly as you get closer to the coast, it's in the low 80°'s and very comfortable with the ocean breezes.
I think tomorrow I will forego the hot round of golf and check out Venice Beach, I've heard that it's got a very eclectic beach scene. I will also try to visit another Korean restaurant that I've been meaning to try, it's called Buk Chang Dong and is supposedly ground zero for the Soon Dubu stew phenomenon in North America's Koreatowns (see previous post). Well, at least it's a phenomenon for us Koreans and a few whiteys that are in the know. I will also post some more reviews of the restaurants that I've visited over the last few days.
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