Visiting Los Angeles: Reunion Routes

“To drive from coast to coast in the united States is to accept you’re bypassing and skipping the vast majority of it.” – Old Sean

From Sea to Shining Sea

After meeting up with my old university friend from Turkey, Mr. World, I drove towards the West Coast, angling for Los Angeles.

Much of our route was slow, passing through long desert landscapes. There were fields filled with tilted solar panels, a single beacon of directive light shining purely above. We stopped at roadside attractions, tried wildly unhealthy food, visiting odd car shows and drove past nature preserves.

After about five hours, we entered Los Angeles. Curving down a series of terrifying switchback roads, we rolled into the city. Then stopped. And started. And stopped. Because of all-consuming urban traffic.

I actually like LA a lot. But I would never want to live there for any extended amount of time. The traffic is ubiquitous, and worthy of small tirades.

LA’s infamous traffic already has enough black marks and lengthy complaints to t future historians through the ages, but I will say this: For all the swerving, stops, forest of stop signs, road parking, confounding turns and numerous vehicles, I didn’t witness a single accident in three days.

Vegas With Mr. World

While LA’s traffic did increase travel time throughout the city, Mr. World and I managed to fit in a lot of exploring. We took the rent-a-scooters known as Lime Electric Scooters to soar down the coast. Along the shores, we visited Muscle Beach, Santa Monica and startlingly colorful Santa Monica Pier. While here, we also checked inside the Heal the Bay Aquarium.

It was all very pleasant, especially since it was a Monday in the winter. Thus, there weren’t too many crowds. 

We also managed to check out the Venice Canals which are pretty little waterways in their own right.

Out of curiosity, does America have a reason for naming their cities and attractions for more famous places?  Aside from allowing some redneck in Michigan to joke with me about visiting Paris (a township proudly standing in the middle of nowhere) it just seems confusing.

LA Streets

After spending a day on the beach, Mr. World and I checked out numerous other attractions throughout the city.

We visited the enormous La Brea Tar Pits of LA, a pungent fossil fountain in the northern portion of the city, the Urban Light Electric Sculpture located in the same area, the nearby Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Craft Contemporary Museum.

On another jaunt, we visited an obscure tree which held numerous chandeliers (also known as the Chandelier Tree). During another trip, we wandered the meditative stonework of the Peace Awareness Labyrinth. This site hosts a meditation center that requires pre-booking, but doesn’t actually contain a labyrinth. 

During a miniture shopping spree, we managed to see Echo Park for an easy walk. During sunset, we took a bladder-infused hike up Runyon Canyon Park for a skyline view. Upon returning to the city that evening, we browsed the music icon site, The Amoeba, during one of our semi-downtown jaunts that didn’t actually take us downtown.

Solo Angeles

Not all of my trips were done alongside Mr. World. We were both technically in town doing some work. My tasks still involved lots of interviews and photo ops, so I wandered off by myself once in a while.

For example, I was poking around the zoo one morning in Griffith Park. 

Firstly, note that Griffith Park in the winter and spring is spectacular.  The grass is green to the point of an emerald hallucination and the soft-crested hills tend to provide copious amounts of shade. 

While loitering around in front of the LA Zoo, a tour group mentioned that a few members called in sick and passed me a free ticket.  I used this opportunity to do many zoo things, such as frolicking, winking at otters, making faces at orangutans and other adult-like activities.

The rest of my time around Griffith Park was spent at the Travel Town Train Museum, wandering through the hills and driving up to the observatory, eventually wandering down to Sunset Boulevard.

I spent some time interviewing some folks during their lunch breaks in Beverly Hills, but I was rather eager to escape the hoards of people thronging the streets. In hindsight, Beverly Hills is obnoxiously crowded most hours of the day.

Meetings and Munchies

One of the main attractions to LA is the culinary culture. Mr. World has a passion for finer foods, so we spent a lot of our time sampling famous snacks.

Over the course of our visit, we consumed a criminal number of calories which would’ve kept a medieval peasant alive for half-a-year.

We started off by sampling In-N-Out Meals with Animal Style burgers and fries. We ordered street food snacks with hot sauce at The Grove during a shopping trip. For an impromptu dinner, we greatly appreciated Slurpin’ Ramen for their pork cutlets.

Later on, I introduced Mr. World to Galco’s Old World Grocery Shop, which has a selection of over 500 soda options, including a humorous Communist option, called Lennonade.

Other meals included Patra Burgers and a Salvadorian breakfast at Restaurante Y Pupuseria El Mana, where my extremely stunted Spanish showcased its value.

Finally, our time visiting Los Angeles was done. I drove Mr. World to the airport, where he’d fly back home to Turkey.

For myself, I’m turning north again. I’ll be driving to Ventura before the day is over to meet with a friend attending a conference nearby.

So until then,

Best regards and excellent trails,

Old Sean

Written January 29th 2019

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