Venice Beach

Venice Beach is but one of the many beaches lining the LA coastline. We could’ve gone to Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach, Santa Monica Beach, but we only could choose one due to limited time.

It was cold, so we got less than expected. But I would come back again in the warmer months if chance permits. There are all sorts of the people on the beach, including musclemen (who would pose with you), men on sticks (who would pose with you), skateboarder (who probably have better things to do), and an eclectic variety of other people. The waves that pounded the coast were beautiful to watch. Surprisingly comparable to the beaches we saw further north.

Someone we met in Esalen (Big Sur) told us to check out the Venice Canals, which we did. Interesting take on canal-lined housing. Plus the beautiful homes facing the coast.

Touristy shops filled up the rest of the beach stretch.

Pretty much all we saw. Any other things to add?

Hollywood Area

We drove around. I now know this:

__________________ hollywood blvd

__________________ sunset blvd

__________________ santa monica

__________________ melrose

These are the four most important parallel streets in the coolest area in LA.

Around hollywood blvd was the Chinese Theatre, Virgin Records and Kodak Theater. Outside on the streets were people in costume you can take photos with. Also random buskers, e.g. a japanese lady cooing aloud in japanese.

We actually found parking on hollywood blvd close by these places. and did the tourist thing. and ate california pizza kitchen, which was surprisingly good and not your typical pizza franchise.

We adjourned to Genghis Cohen Restaurant and Music Place. Which I think is an awesome place to experience music that hasn’t gone commercialized. It’s on Fairfax Ave, which is perpendicular to the above-mentioned streets. They had four bands one after another on a Saturday nite. And not the usually kind of music we get back in Singapore too… My highlight of the nite.

On the way home (Pasadena), we went to explore what exactly Mulholland Drive was. The conclusion:

There are two. West-end Mulholland Drive is nearer to Ventura. Also affording a view of the city, it’s often mixed up with the Hollywood Mulholland Drive aka East-end Mulholland Drive. You drive up a little knoll and get a view of the city of LA. I would say it’s not exactly that great, but worth a visit if you have free time and a penchant for an eagle-eyed view of city lights.

We arrived in Pasadena close to 2am. Pretty early for a Saturday nite.

Outlet Malls

There are two Premium (read: branded) Outlet Malls that were recommended by friends in Singapore and SF. They are Cabazon Outlet Malls and Desert Hills Outlet Malls. One’s bigger in scale then the other, and I don’t remember, but it doesn’t matter because they are just next by each other.

How to get to the Premium Outlets? Aside from the link we just provided, a search will give you not just info on the outlets, but also a map there. It’s Seminole Drive, off Highway 10.

We took 1.5 hours to get there from Pasadena, and used the GPS system. While I recovered from the tiredness of driving by sleeping in the car, she happily started shopping. I think Asians would like shopping here, especially for premium American brands like Coach and Burberry’s and CK. Are they American?? In any case, they close at 8pm, and by 6pm we were already tired. Discounts were aplenty, especially due to the crisis, and we could get discounts even after the 50% off, especially for lesser known brands.

Then we drove back. Another 1.5 hours.

To Pasadena

Nearby Ventura is this artist town called Ojai (pronounced Oh-Hai). It’s inland in the Northeast direction and was recommended to me during a passing conversation. We went off the highway track, and started to quarrel because she wanted to stay the beaten path. And so we did. But visit Ojai for us if you like. All I know is that Artists live there.

Then we continued east-ward, still hugging the coastline. The highway would become more clogged up with cars, and the surrounding slowly became less beautiful. At some point, Highway 101 (or Highway 1, depending) is a straight and narrow course, and doesn’t line the coast any longer. No longer do we pass cities/towns and so Thousand Oaks, Malibu and Santa Monica are just bypassed as we keep the straight and narrow.

We follow the signs toward Freeway 134 toward Pasadena as dusk settles into the dark of night, and finally arrive in Pasadena, checking into the hotel booked by our contact there.

Pasadena is a rich place. A nice new old town, with all the conveniences offered by modern civilization. We walked the entire town and ate at Mi Piace restaurant, an expensive and Italian place with good food, but I’d stay off the seafood if I were to go again.

Then, ice cream at this great place called 21 Choices. Can’t remember the name, but you have to try their original style of ice there!

San Luis Obispo – Solvang

San Luis Obispo (SLO) is this small little town sitting between the two beach areas – Morro Bay in the north and Pismo beach further south. Pismo beach is touristy yet deservedly so. Exiting Highway 1 South at the Pismo Beach exit, we meandered for half an hour by the coastline, soaking in the sun and the salty breeze.

Then south to Solvang. Solvang is this Danish-looking town that you won’t find immediately upon exiting Highway 1. Just head eastward for a bit and soon you’ll arrive at the ‘Village.’  Windmills line the townscape that is distinctively Danish and you see even Best Western being called Kronsborg Inn.

Parking is free – surprisingly. We parked the car near the end of the tourist street, and then walked its length. Several eating places had already closed down – sadly – but I believe that Paula’s Pancakes will still be there when you’re reading this. Try the Pancakes there, you won’t be disappointed.

Solvang was the late brunch for us, and lasted between 1230pm to 2pm. We then headed south and would have easily arrived in LA at 5pm, but as we zipped by Ventura, we decided otherwise…

Getting a phone

It’s CDMA over here, so going around asking about where to get a SIM card was a futile chase.

In the end, I walked into the network provider Verizon’s shop in Circuit City and got a phone for $25 and paid $30 for prepaid minutes – $2 for each day you use the phone at 5 cents/minute. Useful all over the city.  $12 in taxes.

By the way, Circuit City’s closing down, so down go around looking for it when you do read this articles a couple of weeks later.

Hotel Carlton

It’s cold here. I didn’t sleep well.

But then again, I don’t know how the other hotels/hostels here are like.

There was no electric blanket, and the heating system isn’t really that great.

For 13 degree celcius in the day and 9 degrees celcius at night, either i’m afraid of the cold, or really we do need more heating here…

First nite out in SF

Instead of having to take a shuttle from SFO to San Francisco city itself, we were picked up by our friend Kenan in his black volvo!

It was a smooth drive there to our hotel in the city – 1 hour. We had pre-booked a winter discount that will cost about $62/nite.  Which is rather cheap.

We then set off on a car tour of the city and ate at Nopa Cafe. Wonderful atmosphere, great food, great service. See Nopa on Yelp or Nopa on Samepoint. The bill came up to 100 for four people. And the recommended grass-fed burgers was nothing short of delicious. And the pork chop… Amazingly juicey!. We were stuffed!

Transit at LAX

If you’re flying in from overseas to LAX, and want to change immediately to a local flight, I’d say give yourself 2.5 hours of transit time.

We flew in from Singapore, and arrived at 1pm. Getting past immigration and getting baggage took us one hour. So it was 2pm by then.

Then we pushed the luggage to the Southwest check-in point. That took just 15 minutes. We even had time to get a coffe before boarding for a 3:25pm Southwest flight from LAX to SFO.

Buying Car Rental Insurance

With regard to insurance, for an economy, compact and midsized car, you must consider the following:

1. Vehicle licensing cost recovery (VLCR): this is a mandatory surcharge that the government imposes on car rental. you may or may not get the surcharge passed on to you as an additional cost. We are covered when we pay using the HSBC card.

2. Loss Damage Waiver (LDW): This is insurance for the car you rent. We get free LDW using HSBC card, which means, the rental company (Hertz here…) takes from us the responsiblity of any damage to the car we rent. In other countries, like Australia, it’s called Collision Damage Waiver (CDW), which mean you’re not fully covered e.g. in Australia, if anything happens to car, you pay a maximum of A$3300, the rest is covered by company. So we’re covered more in the States than California. For our economy, compact or mid-sized car, it will cost USD9/day. But we got it free.

3. Liability Insurance Supplement (LIS): This covers not the car we rent but any other damage we might create – to public property, another car, another persons property. This is what protects you from being sued your socks off by others in America. It is not covered and is a hidden charge with Hertz. We pay an extra of USD12.95 a day. In the state of California, we are covered up to 30k/accident. By paying supplement called LIS, any liability is covered up to 1Million.

In the end, when we went online to rent the car through Hertz, VLCR and LDW came free. We were advised to opt to spend more on LIS, just in case we get sued, so that’s what we’ll do.