visiting california - los angeles

so, after the big, long, fun drive down the coast, we made it to Los Angeles.

the first night there, we went to watch clay's band play in little tokyo. it was fun to watch him play drums again.

afterwards, we all went out in silverlake to a place called the short stop (i think). the strangest part of that was how many people from fargo i saw there. in that one small bar, there were like 15 people that i recognized. it was nice, but a bit deja-vu-y.


after a late night out, it was breakfast time. well, it's always breakfast time, but, you know...

clay took us to this funny hawaiian restaurant by his house. they had things like spam omelets with sprouts on them. oddly, everything was really good.

after eating, vince and aaron went off to watch the chicago white sox defeat the los angeles angels, while i went to the getty center with my friend emily.


it was a pretty amazing structure, but i think that my favorite part was the great view of LA that you could see from up there (it's built up on a hill).

while we were up there, the rain started. and stopped. and started. it would go on like this for the remainder of the vacation.


downtown.


that evening, i met up with clay and jake (another fellow that i knew from fargo) at this silly hip hotel called Standard.

we were going to meet a bunch of folks at the restaurant there, but we were pretty early so went went to have drinks on the roof.


in the elevator...


everything on the roof was funny. i don't remember seeing any chairs up there, only big couch-type things that you had to lay down on.


oh, and they also have big round waterbeds (cold waterbeds) inside of fiberglass onions that you can't really get comfortable on.

notice jake's $9 Heineken.


they also have a pool.


elliot in the lobby after dinner. he brought me a crazy dragon sculpture that he made. even though i can't quite figure out how it is going to fit into the decor of my apartment, he is the best.


on the way to this other bar called the golden gopher, this big catering truck went flying through an intersection and somehow managed to spill it's entire contents down onto the street.

we're talking beans, bananas, bread, and god knows what else, just covering the road.

within about one minute, there were homeless people racing towards it to grab whatever they could. it was crazy.


it was also on this night that we stopped off at del taco.



it was the first time that aaron, vince, or i had eaten there.

it was good.

apparently though, you can only say that if you are from out of town. anyone from LA who found out that we ate there was totally grossed out.

don't listen to them.

they are crazy.


clay's house is almost right next to what i think might be the los angeles river.

stunning.


the next day we just kind of wandered around town until we found our way to the Volcom store so that i could visit my cousin curtis.


we chatted and shopped a bit and then had coffee together.

it was good to see him.
(next time though, we are spending more time together.)


then it was off to the LACMA, mostly just to get out of the rain. i couldn't believe how crappy the weather was. it looks like we are in portland.


after driving around in the hollywood hills, we found our way to in-n-out burger.

i love love love this place.

the only problem was that we were going to meet up for sushi only two hours later.
it probably wasn't the best planning, but really, it was delicious.


clay, vince, tizzy, and friend (i forget her name)back in little tokyo for sushi. i have no idea why i ended up in this part of town so much on this trip either.

clay and vince both lived in japan for a while last year, so we just let them order everything. they did a great job.

then it was off to karaoke across the street...

clay got right down to business and sang the first song.


i was proud of him.


later, vince and i (and tizzy!) dueted on paul mccartney's "maybe i'm amazed".

it was truly something.


so, the next day was the last of our trip. emily called and wanted us to come to her neck of the woods to eat breakfast.

after a few wrong turns and some bad directions (sorry emily!), we finally made it to silverlake.


all of the u-turns and one near fatal crash ended up to be worth it. the food was great.


afterwards,sadly, it was time to split up from vince and aaron.

this was one of the most fun adventures that i have been on in a long while. i can't think of two other people who i would have rather had along.

thanks fellows...


before long, it was off to the lovely burbank airport. emily was nice enough to give me a ride.

my flight left at 8pm, getting me back to new york at 5am. i slept a bit on the plane, and then a couple of hours at home. then i was off to work.

it was pretty bizarre to be in los angeles one evening and then at my job on the other side of the continent at 9am the next day.

modern travel is confounding, but great.

oh, and guess what? yep, it has been raining EVERY day since i have been back. it's just unreal. the weatherman said that it's the wettest month that new york city has ever had.

yuck.