![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.gottobepresenttowin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/DSC02539.jpg\" "\\"DSC02539\\"")
<\/a>\nAll packed and ready to go.<\/p>\n
When we showed up at the security check point, people were randomly selected to go through the expedite security line. We were lucky to be selected. All I had to do was send my bag through the xray machine, empty my pockets, and walk through the metal detector. Didn’t have to take off my shoes, take out laptop. etc. etc. It was great!!<\/p>\n Speaking of bathrooms, there is a nice bathroom inside the Admirals Club. I went in at a little bit before 7 to do my, uhm, business. Awesome, I am the only one in the bathroom! Then at exactly 7:00AM, no less than 4 others come into the bathroom at the same time to do their business. Apparently, 7:00AM sharp is the unspoken time to do your business.<\/p>\n The Mazda 3 is a joy to drive!! Mazda always makes really well handling cars, and I was super impressed with how this Mazda 3 drove. The turn in is actually shaper than my Audi A3. The brake feel was awesome as well!! I was really worried that they were going to give me some POS car from the car rental, but the 3 exceeded all my expectations. The only minor drawback is that it could use a little bit more power, but I love the car so much that it’s a small negative that I can overlook easily.<\/p>\n After our dessert, we had to get back to OC’s place so we can hit the road. OC says that Friday afternoon traffic starts up at 1:30 and if we don’t get out of town, we could be stuck in traffic for hours and hours and hours and hours.<\/p>\n OC suggested that on our way out of town, we should go check out the Getty Center for a great view of LA since the weather is so nice.<\/p>\n To be continued at Cali Coast Day 1 Part 2<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My good friend RS, who I’ve known since college, is getting married!! He moved to LA right after school and has lived there ever since. The wedding is taking place in Santa Barbara wine country, a few hours drive from … Continue reading <\/a>
\nArrived at the Airport Flyer bus stop a block away from my condo. Ugh, it’s sooooo early. I hate early flights.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nOur bus shows up right on time. It’s depressingly dark inside.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nShort lines at the airport. Also, Fuck You American Airlines for the $25 check in bag fee.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nOf course, I always eat The Salt Lick at the airport whenever I fly out. This time is no exception.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nWe’ve got plenty of time, so we came up to the lounge to eat our breakfast and lounge around for a bit.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>
\nDelicious!!! Though, I wish it wasn’t so early. I got less than 4 hours of sleep last night.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nSo sleepy…<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nAftermath…<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nRH catching up on some Zzzz…Is it me, or does that sleeping eye mask look like a colorful bra? By far the best thing about traveling with another person is that they can watch your bag while you sleep or go to the bathroom, and you don’t lose your seat in the process.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nGot on our flight, time to sleep.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>
\nZzz…<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>
\nWe made it to LA! It was a quick flight, under 3 hours. I was able to sleep most of the flight, so I feel a little bit more rested.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nPalm trees, don’t have much of these in Texas.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nGot onto the rental car shuttle to the rental car center.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nWhen I think of LAX, I always think of this spaceship looking thing in the middle of the airport.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nAt Hertz. I had reserved the car online already, so hopefully the rental process will go quickly.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nThey had all these kiosks inside, but no one was using them. I tried using one, and quickly figured out why no one was using them. Instead of a normal kiosk where you just do everything through the screen, this kiosk just connects you to a live person over the phone. What’s worse is that you walk up to the kiosk, and you have to wait minutes just to connect to someone on the phone. Fuck that, I am waiting in the regular line. Seriously dumb idea. I bet they make you talk on the phone with a real person just so they can upsell you on a more expensive vehicle or insurance, etc.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nFortunately, the regular line isn’t very long. What did take a really long time was when we actually started speaking to an agent. They didn’t have the car that I had reserved(Ford Focus), so the agent told us to wait, and he just walked outside without explaining anything. 10 minutes later, he comes back and says that he’ll give us a Mazda 3 instead. I was actually pretty happy, since I like Mazdas.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nHere’s our car. Time to get on the road!<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nSuper serious driving face!<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>
\nFirst stop is to visit my friend OC, the Jodhpur Indian Flamingo, who lives in Redondo Beach. Redondo Beach is just a short drive South from LAX.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nI show up at OC’s place, and immediately she offers me some Pocky. Rare Cheesecake flavor. Do they also make a Common Cheesecake flavor?<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nOC lives a couple blocks from the beach. I can see myself living here. It’s quite nice.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nMet randomly in Jodhpur India, hung out for half a day, and have been friends since. Pretty cool, eh.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nOC offered to drive us around in her car, Sweet Pea. It’s a 98 Pathfinder. My very first car was a 98 Pathfinder, so this brings back all sorts of memories for me. Her driver’s seat had a tear in the same spot as my old car. Sigh, I kind of miss that car. It is still the most reliable car that I have ever owned. Sniff.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nSaw this guy walking three dogs. I saw one of the dog walk kind of funny, then realized that it was a three legged dog. Then I realized that all three dogs walked kind of funny, then realized that all three dogs were three legged dogs!! This guy has a three legged dog fetish!! JB, this guy has got you beat!<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>
\nOh look, a nice mural with dolphins and whales…except, this is actually a planet killing power plant.(I just said that to be funny, I don’t actually have a thing against power plants)<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nI think this is Hermosa Beach, just North of Redondo.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nI believe this is now Manhattan Beach, which is just a bit North of Hermosa. Manhattan Beach is supposed to be the most expensive of the three.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nBeautiful.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\n24 minutes parking meters. Doesn’t make much sense to me. Seems like an odd number to pick.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>
\nThe girls wanted to go into boring stores to look at boring things to buy.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nThis store is kind of exciting though…<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nGoing to walk out onto the pier.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>
\nAll those are beach volleyball courts. OC tells me that this is where beach volleyball first started.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>
\nLooking North.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nLooking South. To the right of the photo, near the power plant is where OC lives.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nWe saw a seal swimming around just by him\/herself.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nRH and I are on Texas time, so we are two hours ahead. We are getting hangry. It’s time to eat.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nDumb mother, with her two dumb kids. Go Texas! Hook ‘Em Horns! Beat OU!!!<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nLunch spot. We were supposed to eat Indian food, since OC and I have always eaten Indian food as our last meal when we see each other(we are leaving right after lunch). Well, apparently Indian food isn’t exactly beach town friendly, so OC couldn’t think of an Indian place to eat around here. I guess we’ll just have to settle for something more local, fish tacos. They eat fish in India, right?<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nBeat the lunch crowd.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nSaw this in the restroom.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nTime to eat!<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nGR, I ordered this banh mi tuna sandwich because we had that banh mi sandwich just earlier this week. And a locally brewed beer to help wash everything down.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nBy the time we left, the whole place was packed.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nOC asked if we wanted dessert. Yes, obviously.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>
\nNever had guava flavored ice cream before. Gotta try it.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nYum.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nThey also had chocolate covered bacon here. I love bacon and all, but I am not sure how much I am buying into this new bacon craze lately.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nWhat about it, we have our luggage open in the middle of the street. SoCal is getting unseasonably hot weather right now. RH was getting hot in her jeans, so she decided to change out into shorts. We should have brought more warm weather clothes. The positive side of the heat is that OC says the sky has been clear instead of foggy like it’s been when the weather was cooler.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nTwo very proper ladies.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nOur farewell group photo before we hit the road and head out of LA. OC, thanks for showing us around your hood!<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nLeft OC’s place, quick stop for some snacks and drinks, and then we are on our way out of town.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nAh, I remember these stop lights that regulates onramp traffic into the freeway. They are here to prevent too much traffic entering into the freeway at once, because that actually slows down overall traffic flow rate.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nThe two pandas on the jeep.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nThey are fucking with the word “enjoi”. You can thank RH for forcing me to upload the cropped version of this photo that she took.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nSo happy to be…<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nStuck in traffic…<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nAnd more traffic. Actually, there were some traffic at spots, but it was mostly not too bad.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nWe parked at the parking garage, and waited for the tram to take us up to the mountain top to the Getty Center.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nHere comes the tram.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nLucky for us, there are not many visitors at this hour.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nThe 405, seen from the tram on the way up. Traffic is starting to build up.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nNow I have a map of the grounds. We’ll make a quick visit to the garden, a quick view of the paintings, and of course, the amazing city view.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>
\nFirst stop is to the garden.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>
\nRH took this photo of me and my head dress.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>
\nBeautiful view. We think we can get an even better view from the balconies in the buildings, so we are headed there.<\/p>\n