~ LA - day 1 ~
Before i go on about the first day on LA, i gotta tell you about Jet Blue. and i think they rock for reinventing the way people fly. first of all the price is quite affordable (around 300 bucks from NY to LA is CHEAP!). but then… check this out…. ari, cia and i were sitting on leather seat, where each seat has their own little TV where you can watch channels from DirectTV. how cool is that? if you’re wondering why they could be so cheap, well, they don’t serve meal. 6 hours flight with no meal is kinda painful. so each passanger are allowed to bring their own meal. (ari bought 6 bulgogi wrap from Kelley & Ping for us). yay! no more bad airplane food! isn’t that something?
we arrived around 10pm at the Long Beach Airport, one of the smallest airport i’ve ever been, where ari and i met Dave (Stan’s friend).
it turned out that our hotel (which we reserve without knowing the stan’s address) was kinda far; Stan’s home is in Santa Monica, while our hotel was in Koreatown LA.
the next day, since we’re so far away, Stan had to pick us up at 8 in the morning. i found him sleeping in his car in front of the hotel, when the parking ticket lady trying to give him a ticket. then he drove us back to Santa Monica. so, we were already on the beach by 9am — which was quiet, breezy and beautiful.
then, we went hiking at Temescal Canyon Hike. three out of 4 of us are smokers, so, knowning that, we took the shortest destination: 1.5 miles hike to see a waterfall should be good. i have to admit that i started to huff when we got to the so-called waterfall (it was more like a trickle than a fall… blame it to dry season).
while looking for a place to eat, we stopped by Frank Gehry house (too bad that my digital camera has ran out of battery while we’re hiking), drove over Nicole Simpson house since we’re being tourists, and passed by Sunset Boulevard where they’re getting ready for somekind of parade.
after we picked up Dave, we ended up eating at In-n-Out burgers — the famous healthy-ish fast food that only available in CA. oh i trully wish they are here in NY too. it was so damn good.
Venice was interesting. we passed the Muscle Beach when they were having body-building contest. so there were many bulgy men and women in their itty bitty bathing suit walking around nervously in a cage, waiting for their turn to show of their shiny body. again, i wish my camera didn’t die so that i can capture that fascinating scene… it reminded me to that anti-perspirant ad on TV with Tom Green on it.
while dave played his paddle tennis, cia and i plunged into the water. i borrowed cia’s bathing suit, while she’s wearing her new american flag bikini. cute!
it was a bit late by the time we got to Stan’s house for the bbq and beer. another highschool friend of Stan, Jennifer, joined us. Stan is an amazing cook. i couldn’t get enough of his bbq chicken… and cia is just a damn lucky woman ;)
the combination between no shower after beach and lotsa chicken and beer made me sleepy. so when the fireworks started, i was more interested in sleeping than watching.
after showered at Stan’s house, we all went to Root Down at Gabah, where Cut Chemist from Jurassic 5 was spinning. i haven’t been clubbing for years, and now i realize why. i felt old and lame for not able to keep up with those young people jumping around. but that’s ok, Elijah Wood was hanging out there as well, right next to us. oooh…. ari kept asking me to look at his feet to see if it was as big as Frodo’s. he was a lot cuter in person and i didn’t see his feet. anyways, while Dave and Jennifer stayed, we’re, the New-Yorkers stepped out at 1am and went to the hotel for our nightly rest.