The City of Angels & Santa Monica

I'll be honest. I have never really liked California. Don' t hate me. Hear me out. This was mostly based off my experiences in the southern part of the state. As may NorCal folks have been quick to tell me, this may have been part of my problem. Granted, the majority of my time spent in California involved Disneyland, with the exceptions of driving through to Vegas one spring break, a few days in Santa Cruz, visiting colleges (Pepperdine & UCLA) with dad and a senior trip to San Diego with girlfriends. Don't get me wrong, I freaking love Disneyland, the 101 is way better than Interstate 5 if you have the time, Malibu is gorgeous and San Diego is definitely fun. The thing is, I just never felt connected with it. It's a wonderful, beautiful place to visit, but I am not really a big city girl and California has so many people. So many, in fact, the population of the entire state of Oregon is equal to the number of people smushed into the city of Los Angeles. Portland is big enough for me. I can only take so much concrete, buildings, smog and traffic. People are important to me and I always felt like everyone in SoCal was in a such a hurry, in-genuine and more materialistic than I am used to in the Pacific NW. I even lumped NorCal into this idea, until my recent time spent in San Francisco and Monterey. These were just my observations from my small, limited sample size...again, prior to this trip.

My incredible friend, Jo, grew up in LA. (This is the same Jo who met us in San Francisco the prior weekend.) She was kind enough to host Cara and I the day before our flight to Lima. I don't think I know that I do not understand how long it takes to get around LA. I just cannot grasp how it can take so long to get from point A to point B when they are only miles apart. It's madness. I can remember looking out the window of a car when I was younger and seeing the interstates weaving on top of one another, 5, 6 and 7 lanes wide in one direction. I am fairly certain there is no interstate in Oregon wider than 3 lanes going one way right now. Los Angeles just overwhelms me.

Anyway, we had less than 24 hours after we landed in LAX from Oakland before we had to get back to the airport to fly to Lima. We crammed a lot in and it was a perfect last day in the United States for 9 months. Being that admission was dirt cheap and none of us had ever seen a space shuttle before, we concluded that heading downtown to the California Science Center to see the space shuttle Endeavor was our best option.

We explored the California Science Center for a little while beforehand since we had some time to kill before our designated slot to view the space shuttle. It is free admission to explore the interactive exhibits of the California Science Center, which I think is awesome. Although, you can tell it is older (late 80s) in comparison to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI), I think most of the exhibits are still very relevant, some of the video is just dated.

Before actually getting to the viewing area where the shuttle is, you walk through a large u-shaped exhibit called The California Story, displaying the history of the Endeavor in many forms. There are videos to watch, posters to read, the actual tires to touch, astronaut belongings and photos of the Endeavor's physical transport across Los Angeles. I really enjoyed looking at all of this prior to viewing the Endeavor. Touching the tires may be as close I as ever get to space germs.

Finally, it was our time to line up to enter the Samuel Oschin Pavilon exhibit. This is the temporary home for the shuttle for the next 5 years, until enough funds are raised to build a museum for it, where it will be on display in its vertical position. When we walked into the hanger, I was surprised at how big the space shuttle was, although I'm not sure how large I thought it would be, it was enormous. Again, there was an abundance of information to read posted around the edge of the building, as well as near the shuttle itself. In case you were curious, it flew 25 missions in 10 years, from 1992 to 2012.

The Endeavor's good side, a view of the 3 space shuttle main engines (SSMEs).

Here we have an actual rocket booster. Working with the 3 (SSMEs) in the picture above, they are powered by liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, which propel the shuttle from the launch pad into orbit with over 1.5 million pounds of thrust in just over 8 minutes.

Anyone else find this odd? A cut, that's all it takes for an emergency rescue? Seems way too easy!

Over 23,000 ceramic tiles that make up the Thermal Protective System cover the entire surface of the Endeavor. These tiles protect the space shuttle from the extreme heat (3000 degrees Fahrenheit) upon reentry into the earth's atmosphere as well as the extreme hot and cold temperatures in outer space. They vary in size and I read cost up to thousands of dollars a piece. Without these tiles, the shuttle would be destroyed.

If you have a chance now, make it a point to go check out the Endeavor. This was easily the best $2 I have spent in a very long time. I know it won't stay this cheap forever, especially once it has its own home, but even then, it is definitely worth going to see and learn about.

After our space high, we were hungry and upon Jo's recommendation, we headed to Phillipe's, home of the original French Dip. I love French Dips and was even more excited to check out this iconic restaurant with a sweet sign.

When my mom makes French Dip sandwiches, we (shockingly, I know) dip our roast beef sandwiches in the au jus sauce. After ordering from one of the dozens of lines, I watched the lady dunk the entire top piece of bread in the au jus sauce before assembling the sandwich. This is either how it was originally done or their way of minimizing waste of the tasty sauce. Regardless, the sandwich was scrumptious, perfectly complimented by macaroni salad and lemonade.

Next, we headed out to Santa Monica to relax on the beach, which didn't look like it was going to be very hard to accomplish.

It was my first time in Santa Monica and I just loved it. We drove out on the pier and parked. It was a beautiful, quiet afternoon and we walked out to the end of the pier to enjoy the ocean view.

Then, we grabbed a funnel cake, walked through the boardwalk rides and down onto the beach to enjoy the treat while the sun set.

This guy was very interested in our sugary plate. I was not a fan of him, which didn't seem to be a deterrent.

Of course, it wouldn't be a trip to the beach without getting my toes wet.

I get it. I finally get where the redemption is from the chaos and turmoil of the city. This is where you come to escape.

I still don't think I could live in, or even near LA, but I am starting to see how people do.

For dinner, we headed up to the 3rd Street Promenade and ate at The Misfit Bar, a stunning bar with fixtures circa somewhere near the 1920s, complete with an original floor to ceiling apothecary cabinet. Although we each ordered our own plate, we ended up basically sharing the bistro steak salad, baked mac & cheese and the ahi tuna burger without disappointment. Our waitress was fantastic. Oh, and I experienced my first celebrity siting in public: Cuba Gooding Jr. Our table faced the bar and he was right behind us for most of dinner. No big deal. Remember how I just mentioned how fantastic our waitress was? She even brought us dessert, on the house: gelato and sea salt chocolate chip cookies. To. Die. For.

After dinner our last stop was Diddy Riese, the one and only famous ice cream cookie sandwich shop on UCLA's campus. I was so full from dinner and (free!) dessert already but just had to try one of the ice cream sandwiches Jo has raved about since our college days...and now I know why.

Just like that, 20 hours later, our time in LA was up. Obviously, there is loads more to do in LA. Today wasn't about how much we saw or didn't see, but a wonderful mix of food, relaxation and time with a dear friend. Thanks for showing me your good side LA, however, I still couldn't stand seeing the Lakers billboards every day.

What are your favorite spots in Los Angeles? I'll be coming back through on my way home in July and would love to add a few more places to check out next time around.

Day Trip to Monterey Bay

After 3 days exploring San Francisco, Michelle, Cara and I took a day trip to Monterey Bay for our last day together. It was a beautiful drive and the perfect mini road trip with the girls. We sure missed you, Kaycie!

Upon arrival in Monterey, we stopped at the bay and took some pictures before heading to the boardwalk.

The boardwalk had a bit of an old time feeling to it. There are lots of chowder restaurants, all offering sample tastes to entice you to eat there. If we had taken every taste offer, we probably would have consumed a whole cup of chowder. We even saw a couple pelicans hanging out. I can't recall ever seeing a pelican in the wild. They were so much bigger than I thought.

There were a couple of cute candy shops with taffy, truffles and elaborate caramel apples, among other sweets.

We caved and bought a bag of salted caramel taffy to share, although I feel like this was actually an act of discipline as I wanted one of everything, especially a caramel apple.

Here, we have the turning point of the trip for Michelle. We decided against chowder and thought we should go back to the crepe shop we saw when we first walked onto the boardwalk, Crepes of Brittany. We decided to split one, the caramelba. In hindsight, splitting it was the worst idea we had all trip, as I'm sure Michelle would agree. It was easily the best crepe I've ever had - one of those times where you savor every bite, saddened by the fact that each bite brings you closer to the end of the goodness. The man who made it (and I'm guessing concocted the flavor combo) is from France. After you taste one of his crepes you will agree, he is a genius.

We nearly ordered another one and for whatever reason that seems absurd now, we decided not to (second worst decision of the trip) and headed to the aquarium.

Located right on Cannery Row (Steinbeck anyone?), the Monterey Bay Aquarium is absolutely beautiful.

From what I understand, the Monterey Bay Aquarium has been recently remodeled and I definitely applaud the design. The exhibits were well organized and very informative. I really enjoyed The Jellies Experience. Did you know jellyfish don't have bones, brains, blood, teeth or fins? The seahorse exhibit was also pretty rad. Oh, and it was my first time touching a Bat Ray. See him on the bottom left corner of the collage? I'd describe the skin on his back as velvet-y with a hint of slime.

As beautiful as it was, admission was expensive at $35, which I suppose is the going rate for adult admission to aquariums these days. I've been to Sea World and to the Oregon Coast Aquarium numerous times, including when Keiko (Free Willy) was there. The exhibits at aquariums tend to be fairly similar and so I feel like I probably won't return to one any time soon, unless it's free. If you have the money and have not been to an aquarium ever or for a while, the Monterey Bay one is a wonderful one to go to, otherwise, you aren't missing too much if you know what they are about.

Against Michelle's will, we drove past Crepes of Brittany without stopping. I'm guessing if she was driving, we would have stopped. Alas, we headed back toward San Francisco, stopping at In-N-Out Burger for early dinner since Michelle was an In-N-Out virgin. The three of us split a chocolate shake, animal style fries and each ate our own burger.

Photo credit: Michelle Waters

You can't do California without a little greasy food from the iconic burger joint, right?

Have you been to Monterey? What did I miss? What do you think of the aquarium? What about In-N-Out, are you a purist, or do you order off the "secret" menu?

San Francisco for a First Timer

That's me, the first timer, here. Living my entire life on the West Coast of the United States, I have been lucky enough to have visited most of the big cities between Seattle and San Diego with the exception of San Francisco. I've had flight connections via SFO more times than I can count, but never experienced the foggy city for myself in my 25 years on this earth.

Thankfully, that all changed as my plans fell together this past year and included starting my journey off with just short of a week in San Francisco with two of my three best friends from college. Michelle and I flew from Portland to Oakland Saturday morning, where Cara picked us up. We dropped our stuff off at her house and took BART into the city from the east side of the bay. I could not get over how beautiful the weather was for end of October; bright blue skies with very little breeze made for a wonderful couple days.

Photo credit: Michelle Waters

Much all of my ideas of what San Francisco looks like are based on what I have seen in Mrs. Doubtfire or on Full House - from the Golden Gate Bridge to the trolley cars to Alcatraz, I was really excited to see it all for myself. I had heard of BART and my first impression upon boarding was how it seemed like the monorail in Disneyland, as it is older than the public transportation system I am used to in Portland. At that moment, Cara informed us we were going to actually go under the bay to get to the city. What? Okay, clearly a little more sophisticated than Disney's monorail. My ears even popped; they are a little sensitive.

One of our other friends from college, Jo, flew in from LA for the weekend and met us at the Civic Center/UN Plaza BART stop.

Photo credit: Michelle Waters

We headed to buy our tickets for transportation in the city. We opted for the 3 Day Visitor Passport for $21. It allowed us to ride any historic streetcar, cable car or bus around the peninsula. (I'm not entirely sure it paid for itself because we walked a lot, but it was very convenient to have nonetheless, especially because a 1 day pass was $14.) The 3 Day pass will increase to $22 in 2013. Click here for current visitor transportation info.

Then, we headed to the Fisherman's Wharf area of the waterfront for lunch. To get there, we exercised our recently purchased transportation pass and rode a streetcar (not cable car). These are one of the two vintage modes of transportation in San Francisco and are also correctly referred to as trolleys or trams. Most were built in the early 1900's when they quickly became the choice of transportation for America, creating the first suburbs. San Francisco has the most diverse collection of streetcars in use today. One of the trolleys we rode had been restored and bought from the City of Philadelphia.

Photo credits: Michelle Waters, left & bottom right

We arrived at Fisherman's Wharf and quickly decided to eat at the restaurant emitting the sweet scent of sourdough bread. The fat kid inside of me wants to say that this was my favorite part of my time in San Francisco and that I could have eaten the sourdough bread for the rest of my life. She also wants you to know that she isn't exaggerating. I have a weakness for good bread and sourdough happens to be my favorite. It was such a dilemma: sandwich or bread bowl?

Needless to say, I would highly recommend Boudin's any time you are in San Francisco if you are even a tiny bit fond of sourdough. They know what they're doing. Look at those sourdough bread animals! There are a few locations, even one at the airport, which up until this point, was the only location I had been to.

Photo credits: Michelle Waters

After nearly becoming bread bowls, we walked around Pier 39 located just east of Fisherman's Wharf on the waterfront. The photo below is from out on the pier, looking back at the hills of city. Can you spot the Transamerican Pyramid, the tallest skyscraper in San Fran?

I was shocked at how many people were watching the sea lions. Coming from Oregon and spending time on the coast in Newport, this was hilarious because, yes they bark, yes they are wild, yes they are fat and so ungraceful, but they're just sea lions. It made me laugh. I suppose if you have never seen them, it is a spectacle.

Moving on a lot faster than most from the sea lions, we gazed at Alcatraz Island and chatted for a while, enjoying the beautiful late fall weather.

Pier 39 has a bunch of restaurants (full service & quick bites) as well as trinket stores to buy souvenirs and goofy stores like the Lefty's Left Hand Store. The two story carousel was beautiful, too.

Before leaving the pier, we stopped to share a couple crepes for dessert from the Crepe Cafe - cause at this point, I definitely needed more carbs in my system.

The four of us shared a chocolate & strawberry crepe and a s'mores crepe. I will never turn down the combination of chocolate and strawberries, but the s'mores crepe was better than I would have guessed! Very delish.

Photo credit: Michelle Waters

Then, we headed toward Union Square to meet my dad who had actually been working a few hours north of San Francisco and decided to meet me in the city for the weekend so I could see him before leaving the country.

Dad and I stayed in Union Square that night and checked out a handful of bars in the area. I loved how old so many of them are because they have such character. It was also really interesting to check out the clientele in each one. The Giants played in the World Series that night and so the bars were packed. We enjoyed happy hour at Urban Tavern where they had pisco on their cocktail menu! I was less than a week away from landing in Peru and there was a little piece of Peru on the menu.

We ate dinner at The Daily Grill. I had the crab cakes which were pretty good and dad had the highly recommended meatloaf, which was very tasty. The service was great, as our waiter was very attentive and friendly. For dessert, we split a piece of carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, candied pecans, fresh whipped cream and cinnamon, which was of course my favorite part. I got my sweet tooth from my dad. (Oh, and the Giants won!)

We hiked around the city a little more after dinner and ran into lots of people dressed up since it was the weekend before Halloween. The next morning (Sunday), we became quite the tourists and took one of the double decker buses around the city for almost half of the route. I could explore this city just looking at the buildings for days.

Photo credits: Michelle Waters, 7 & 8

Look, one of the buildings even had our last name on it!

The double decker bus was a Hop On Hop Off one which was nice because we could get off to go look around and catch another one coming by when we were ready to continue. They pass by each stop about every 30 minutes. For anyone with a short amount of time who has never been to San Francisco, this is a great way to see the city. It makes a huge loop, stops at all the major sight seeing spots and depending on what driver you have, you will receive a very enjoyable commentary on the city, although is a little spendy if you pay on board. Buying tickets online gets you a better deal we found out after the fact.

Dad and I met up with Cara, Michelle, Jo and her friend Ashley for dinner in Little Italy at Pellegrini Ristorante, as recommended to us by the best driver we had, Willie from the Hop On Hop Off bus. This place was delicious. We shared calamari and grilled veggies for an appetizer. I had homemade crab raviolis with the red sauce. I think we all tried each other's at some point without disappointment.

Monday, I said goodbye to dad early in the morning and Cara, Michelle and I spent our last day exploring the northwestern part of the city. We shopped around Chinatown.

We rode the Powell/Hyde cable car, past Lombard Street. Invented in 1873 to climb the hills of San Francisco, these cable cars run at a continuous 9 miles per hour on steel rails and  are completely mechanical, having no motor. While cable cars once were in other major cities, now there are only 3 lines left in the world - all in San Francisco!

We visited Ghirardelli Square and sampled a new flavor, Pumpkin Spice Caramel. Scrumptious.

We took a bus toward the Golden Gate Bridge to take pictures. Before walking toward the bridge, we stopped at the Palace of Fine Arts, which was hands down my favorite place in San Francisco. I couldn't stop taking pictures and kept thinking how it looked like a set on Star Wars involving Queen Amidala.

Photo credit: Michelle Waters for 4 & 7-9

Then, we walked over to the water to see the Golden Gate Bridge, when alas, the fog had rolled in and we could not see one bit of the bridge. We had seen it from afar, but had no luck getting closer pictures. Next time, I suppose!

It is impossible to walk around San Francisco without finding beautiful little quirks of the eccentric city. I just loved the tree climbing up the brick building and the gorgeous mosaic steps.

Our final exploration of San Francisco was around Haight & Ashbury. We took a bus from the Golden Gate Bridge area to the trendy, vintage clothing shop lined, hippieville. I loved the shops and wished we had more time to spend in this part of town.

That is about all I accomplished during 3 days in San Francisco. Here is Michelle's recaps, one and two, if you are curious. There is so much more I would have loved to do - painted ladies, cross the Golden Gate Bridge, Mission District and more. Have you been to SF? What did I miss that I must do next time?