Hello again! In this multi-part series, I’ll take you through the experience that was Brian and California in the year 2009. This section is devoted to the surprise vacation of San Diego and Los Angeles.
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles…
There was a great darkness over the land. It’s 4:15am. A loud series of noises emits from my apartment and within a few minutes, lights are ablaze, water is flowing, and a figure is seen frantically moving through the window. That’s me on the morning of my departure. Mostly packed, I’m just about ready to rock. My dad picks me up and we travel to meet my destiny.
Suddenly, there is a strange light ahead on I-95. Cars are slowing and there is a fire in the road. Yes, a car is on fire. Luckily we had left just late enough not to be involved (and as I found out later, just early enough not to be stuck in a huge traffic jam as the road was closed). Something about this trip was bringing good fortune. I arrived at the airport, only slightly nervous since it had been a bit since I last flew.
Fly I did. Smooth flight. While heading over the Philly area, I was trying to recognize the world from above. Amazing how your perspective is changed. Past the winding rivers, dots of cars and houses, and eventually mountains. Sometimes you need to be reminded how small you are in the world. 85 miles from San Diego, the pilot welcomes us and says he can see the ocean. Not my usual ocean, but the Pacific. Sunny and 75. Just like every other summer day in San Diego. It’s Always Sunny in San Diego is what the show should have been really called.
Today was a timing match. Flying into San Diego, quickly dropping off my large luggage at the hotel, running to find the Amtrak train to Los Angeles, then trying to navigate Los Angeles’s public transportation to get to the Marrakesh House. Yowsers. Now I was actually more nervous than flying, as I was alone in two brand new cities and unsure what to do if anything went wrong. I didn’t even know if anyone was going to be home when I got there.
In rapid succession, I progressed. Luggage locked, I walked my way up the beautiful promenade that runs past the Gaslamp Quarter. My first photos from California 2009 came from this area. It’s very empty. Peaceful and quiet. Finding the Amtrak station, I just picked a random seat on the top level of the double decked train. Silly me. I had a window seat on the wrong side, staring longingly across the train just to see the coastline views. I arrived in Los Angeles without issue and waited for the bus. And waited. And waited. Finally, after seemingly every other possible bus in Los Angeles came through, the “express” (ha) bus shows up and I’m onto the road. Giving the driver a crossroad, I could only imagine where I would be.
The bus reaches my crossroad in Culver City. Not what I expected at all. It wasn’t the glitzy “rich” area that I had placed in my mind for whatever reason. Luckily it wasn’t the worst area either. Hopping off the bus, I reach into my bag and pull out my special map printout of the half mile I needed to walk. In the middle of nowhere. Praying that someone is at the house. Turning off onto a road on a steep incline, a climb toward my goal. The view is spectacular. You can see almost all of Los Angeles, including downtown, the beaches, and even the Hollywood sign (with my sufficient camera lens).
Walking up to the Marrakesh House, I’m warmly greeted by Chris and his assistant Michael, who are both working outside. What a relief. What a HOUSE. Not extravagantly large, there are two electric cars parked, solar panels on the roof, a view like none other, a pool in the back, and beautiful Moroccan-type decorations. I settled in and wandered a bit with my camera. Chris needed to run errands for the upcoming Burning Man. When he returned, snacks were offered and Mark arrived.
Little did I know that this Mark was Mark Neale, writer/director of the MotoGP documentary “Faster” and among other things, a writer for U2’s “ZooTV” tour. An English man, he joked around and told various stories, including a favorite of his, a one-liner he thought up for U2 that wound up being used in every show in the tour. The set apparently featured a large amount of “TV” screens with the band pausing and flipping through them: “You’re not here to watch TV, are you?!” Rocking ensued soon after.
The group of us go for a spin up to the top of the hill where the house is, apparently it’s a scenic overlook. The sun is setting. Didn’t get the ride in the Tesla, yet. Mark leaves and Chris holds me up on my offer of buying dinner. Feeling bad that I’m a recent college graduate, we splurge on delivered pizza. Nice. Then, unsurprisingly, I get popped the question. Do you know how to fix A/V stuff? Don’t worry, that wasn’t the question I was looking for either. The house had a system to have video and audio playing in every room. It was sick. After some fiddling, a movie is running in all the rooms. Sick.
At this point, it’s late and I’m exhausted. I’d spent so much time running around. Chris then comes up to me and asks if I want to hit the LA scene. There’s this really cool club he wants to show me. “You’re gonna need this” as I’m handed a blazer. What kind of place is this? It’s time. It’s a dream come true. It’s my time to get a ride in the Tesla all-electric sports car. “!!!”
This car handles everything like a champ and features instantaneous torque. It’s absurd. Chris shows off a little by firmly implanting me into my seat with the acceleration. “!!!”
After zipping through Los Angeles a little, we arrive at the Edison club, a converted old power plant. Walking up to bouncers in my newly donned blazer, let’s get this show started. Oh wait, apparently my (quite stylish, thank you very much) Adidas “athletic shoes” are not allowed. You’ve got to be kidding me. Chris really wants me to see this place and let’s me his borrow shoes. It was worth the hassle. The inside featured beatastic music, crazy shaped incandescent lights, and machinery for the vibe.
With the club visit quickly finished, the night was young. Unexpectedly, Chris starts giving a grand tour of the city in the Tesla. Downtown, Hollywood, Sunset Strip, and Beverly Hills were not spared. We even drove up a windy hill road to look across skyline. Stellar. One more stop at the SLS Hotel, we grab a quick drink and head back to pass out.
Waking up in some sort of travelers trance. It was the middle of the day and the house was empty. Sheesh, I must have been exhausted. I read a book and enjoyed the view of Los Angeles a little more. The time quickly approached when I needed to make my way back to the train station. Strapping on my backpack, I trekked the half mile back to the bus stop and waited. And waited. And waited. Unbelievably, it took an hour and a half in the hot Los Angeles sun for a bus to show up. What? I had given myself two hours. And now there was no way I was catching my train? I would have expected traffic to be an issue. Silly “express” buses.
Slightly panicked, I make my way to departures board. Another train is going, but no track number is listed. Need I remind folks that Union Station in Los Angeles has twelve tracks. Using my best judgment, I made my way to the track that my train had arrived on, where an Amtrak train is sitting. No conductors or other people to be seen, I stand there. Eventually a girl walks up, apparently just a
s confused as me. She’s a Hollywood movie assistant going the same way. Guessing some more, we both walk down to the board again and see a small line forming for Amtrak. Oh. But hold on, what’s all the commotion behind the line?
The commotion is the section of the station being used to film a scene for a TV series. Cameras, props, actors, and support staff, all included. Mesmerized by the filming, we miss the line leaving for the train. Noticing a group heading through the station, we run to catch up and barely make it on the train. With the train full, there’s no window seat for me this time.
I still managed to be a professional tourist, snapping pictures and helping out another photog with his settings. The coastline is great. RVs and sunsets. I made it back to the hotel and got a free upgrade. Checking out the dining menu, I could burn $1035 on a bottle of Hennessey XO. Seriously?
Ahhh, sunny San Diego. After a good nights sleep, I needed to pick up the Go Card, which basically meant I owned the town for the next two days (or in reality that I could be a legit tourist). The place to pick it up was the “International Visitor’s Center.” I put it in quotes because I’m looking for this place expecting something bigger than a doublewide trailer. Oh wait, that’s what it was. It quite literally was a trailer on a street corner.
Anywho, I missed the early Petco Park tour, so I ventured to the USS Midway that was basically across the street from the “International Visitor’s Center” trailer. The USS Midway is an aircraft carrier that was in service for 50 years starting in the 1940’s. It was pretty sweet, actually. Other than being ginormous, they had jets and helicopters on the deck. It gave a great view of the surrounding city, especially from the bridge. In my short stay, I couldn’t sprint down the navy ladders like in the movies. Maybe next time.
I soon made my way down to Petco Park. Not sure exactly why I wanted to do the tour, but it was worth it. I almost wound up with a personal tour, except an uninterested family showed up 10 minutes late. I was able to check out the visitor’s clubhouse, private suites, press area, dugout and fields. The tour director gave the whole history of the place including the Western Steel Company building that was made a part of the stadium and also the Candy Factory building that they picked up and moved as one piece. Pretty neat. Oh, and apparently they’ve only had like two rainouts since 1975.
It was well after lunch and I was starving. I wandered to a nearby restaurant, Toscana, and enjoyed a Turkey Delight sandwich along with a couple local beers. Not exactly sure why this wound up in my journal, but it was delicious and heck, you might want to know (otherwise I don’t know why you are still reading, really).
After lunch, I caught a trolley and wanted to head up to Balboa Park via the bus. I accidentally assumed that all the bus routes going through/next to the park actually stopped there. Apparently, there’s a highway there. Apparently, I was supposed to magically know this. I would up halfway across the city. Luckily the bus stopped by a trolley station and I was able to adventure back. It was actually kind of neat to see the a bunch of the non-tourist city. I made it back to the place where I picked up the wrong bus and grabbed the correct one. Now where to?
Balboa Park is huge. Really, it is. There’s like a bazillion museums, etc in there along with the San Diego Zoo. Seeing as it was getting later in the evening, I opted for just the zoo. Who doesn’t love animals? If I remember correctly, its one of only two zoos in the US to have pandas. I pretty much trekked through the whole zoo. Hippos, polar bears, and pandas were my favorites. Excellent.
Making my way back to the Gaslamp Quarter, it was dinnertime. It was dinnertime and a Friday night. The place should be called the San Diego People Zoo during this time. Offering a couple blocks straight of restaurants, food, and entertainment, this was the hub of fun (and mob of people). If you really want to know, I ate at the Rock Bottom Brewery where they sell nitrogenated beer they brew there.
Another night goes by and it’s my last full day in San Diego. I was awakened by housekeeping trying to invade my dreams at 8:30am. At least she was apologetic and left right away unlike the Greek grandmother from my Europe trip. Ugh. Banging on the door at 7am, broom in hand, she yelled and yelled for us to wake up. But I digress.
I needed to dot some i’s and cross some t’s for tomorrow traveling (you know, like getting the airport, etc). After this, it was time for lunch (notice the food theme?). Rockin’ Baja for angry tacos and a giant mug of Stone IPA. Then, it was back to being a tourist in Balboa Park. Much photography, wandering, and sightseeing happened. One place of interest was the Automobile museum with its collection of cars from all eras. Nice.
Running out of time left in San Diego, I made the choice to try to hit the Old Point Loma lighthouse and a beach for sunset photography. Taking the bus out to the lighthouse required two transfers and apparently stopped at 5:30pm. I got there at like 5:45pm. Weak sauce. My new mission was Mission Beach.
Conjure up all of your mental images of a California beach. Yup, this was that. Featuring a roller coaster, boardwalk (with houses along it), parks close by, and small neon lit shops along the streets, you have Mission Beach. What a gorgeous place. What a gorgeous sunset. What a great finish to touring San Diego. Tomorrow was transfer day to my next destination, San Francisco. In the next part, I’ll highlight there (and it’ll be much shorter, I promise).
