RoadTrip: SoCal

This was my first time spending any significant time in LA and I came away feeling like I missed something.  I understand the weather is great all the time but the City of Angels didn't do anything for me.  I will probably give it another try down the road or maybe need a better tour guide or something.  I felt like we were set up to do pretty good and just weren't able to pull off the greatness that I expected out of LA.

We drove in from Las Vegas and our first stop was the Warner Brothers studio tour.  Megan and I are both fans of movies and hanging around WB for the afternoon seemed like a great time to check out some behind the scenes stuff.  Our tour group had about 8 people, and we seemed to be the only ones that had watched TV or even talked before so our tour guide spent a large portion of time talking directly to us.

BatMobile

Flying Car from Harry Potter

We walked the streets of WB, there was the city street with paint splattered on the sidewalk to make it look like dirty old gum, and there was "Main Street" with houses, town square, school and small shops.  We also took a ride on the golf cart through the swamp used in shows like True Blood and Hart of Dixie.  We also got to spend some time in the Warner Brothers car museum with batmobiles, Austin Powers' car, the flying car from Harry Potter, etc.  In the costumes museum there was a large collection of Harry Potter and then a bunch of other stuff that doesn't seem to have left much of an impression on me.


We were able to check out the props storage which had one of about everything including a set of crystal standing chandeliers that were valued at something like $1,000,000.  The props used for movies and TV shows are stored here and can be rented out by productions but sometimes it just makes sense for productions to buy their own props and then they can sell them back to the studio.

Central Perk from Friends

The highlight of the tour for Megan was without a doubt when we walked into the Central Perk, the coffee shop from Friends.  The cool thing in the coffee shop was that all the stuff that was important, the couch, the coffee table, and the bar were all regular size but because the room was a tad smaller than you would have thought the stuff in the back was all a little small to make the room seem bigger.  Oh the tricks Hollywood pulls on us all.



The highlight of the tour for me was when we got to walk through the set of the TV show, The Mentalist.  The set was going to be used the following week for filming so it was all set up and ready to film.  A few tricks that they use, there are no ceilings, nothing up or down stairs, outside the windows are just pictures, and all the walls move to allow for cameras and crew to be anywhere they need to be.

After our tour, we went to the hotel in Redondo Beach.  I had found a great deal on TravelZoo a few weeks earlier for an oceanview room, breakfast, and bike rentals for $100.  We quickly checked-in and headed back outside to watch the sun set over the Pacific Ocean.  We then found a sushi place that was highly touted on Urbanspoon, and rightfully so.  The sushi was spot on and the service was impeccable.  They let us try a couple different sides without charge and a portion of edamame to enjoy.  After dinner, we found our way down to the Manhattan Beach Pier and had a beer before realizing that we had had too much sushi and our stomachs couldn't take any more.

Uncle Bill's Cafe at Manhattan Beach

The next morning we slept in and just missed our free breakfast which thoroughly ticked me off but we decided to enjoy a bike ride down the beach to cheer me up.  After riding from Redondo to Hermosa all the way to Manhattan Beach we decided to stop and find some breakfast.  This is when Megan realized that she remembered her cousin might live in this area so she texted her.  Brooke, did in fact live in the area and was at the gym working out on her day off from work.  She actually lived a block away from where we had decided to sit down for a late breakfast.  When we told Brooke where we had decided to go, she left her workout and came to meet us at Uncle Bill's because she said it was her favorite place.  What are the chances!

Manhattan Beach

We enjoyed some delicious breakfast as we sat looking out over the Pacific Ocean and decided that we were going to chill on the beach.  We grabbed a few beers and the three of us chilled out in the sun all afternoon.  We finally had enough beach and decided to shower back at Brooke's place before Megan and I went up to Santa Monica to check out the stores and the pier.  We weren't feeling the rides on the pier but did find a margarita that we enjoyed while we watched the crowds wander by.  Brooke had mentioned the name of an Italian place in Santa Monica, Spumoni, that she knew the owner and gave us a gift card, so we went there for dinner and enjoyed some salads, pasta and red wine.

Santa Monica Pier

We then headed up to Malibu where we had found a campsite that was overlooking the ocean from the hillside.  It was a beautiful view and as we fell asleep, we could head the ocean waves down the hill.  The next morning, we originally were planning on driving North towards San Francisco but Megan has a cousin that just moved to San Diego and I have an old college friend that lives in Newport Beach, south of LA so we changed our plans and went back south.

Hollywood Sign Picture

First we stopped off in Hollywood to see the stars and the sign before realizing that this part of town was dirty and touristy.  So we headed off to Seal Beach to meet my college friend Angie, whom I met freshman year in the dorms and have stayed friends with ever since.  We had some salads and sandwiches at Beechwood BBQ on the main drag in Seal Beach and caught up on everything that has been going on since the last time we ran into each a few years back.

After lunch, we were already well on our way to San Diego and made it down to see Megan's cousin, Laurie Beth, her husband, Graham, and their three year old daughter, Mackenzie. We enjoyed catching up with Laurie Beth and Graham and got to do all sorts of fun things with Mackenzie.  We painted some pictures, colored, played with toys and then had some Fajitas for dinner.  After Megan read Mackenzie a bedtime story, we watched the movie Drive, which I loved and Megan not surprisingly fell asleep.

Lion Paw at the Safari Park

The next morning we were decided that we would go to the Safari Park, as they had just been to the World famous San Diego Zoo the weekend before.  I think the San Diego Safari Park was better because the animals had so much room to roam around and were able to interact with each other. Obviously no lions attacking antelope but most of the animals were in the same giant area and we took the safari cart right through it all.  Megan grew tired because of the sun and heat, sorry Mackenzie grew tired because of the sun and the heat so we went back home for nap time.

Megan and I decided to go to downtown San Diego to wander around and see what was happening around the Gaslamp District.  We checked out Petco Park, where the Padres play baseball and had some tequila drinks and snacks at a bar that I had seen on Drinking Made Easy, La Puerta. 

When we made it back home we took Mackenzie and their dog, Bodhi to the park to play on the slides and swings.  We went back home had dinner and went to bed early as everyone had work and school the next day and we were going to start driving North on the Pacific Coast Highway.

Petco Park