Los Angeles

Safe in LA- Gold Motel

I love this band and in an effort to relate to my recent experience in LA I thought I'd share this upbeat jingle. 

My best friend, Ashley came to visit me in California a few weekends ago and I was super excited.  She earned a free flight on Air Tran proving the the point system works, but it would only fly her to LAX where I had to pick her up. 

I hadn't been to LA since I was 8 years-old.  It's actually where I saw my first hooker and later realized was the premise of Pretty Woman, an amazing movie. 

Day #1

The trip to LA from SD was a lot longer than I had anticipated. I thought it was a mere 2 hours away, but after sitting in traffic, battling Santa Ana winds and trying to wake my butt up from slumber I realized it was a longer journey.

After what seemed like hours I picked her up from the airport where we then headed to downtown LA to check into our boutique hostel/hotel, Stay on Main. I recommend hostel/hotels, private rooms if you can get them, but it's the best deal.  Hotel rooms tend to go for $150 a night and when you think about it you're literally in the room for a few hours.  It's a place to store your luggage and rest your head, but when you travel, at least for me, you're out seeing the sights not watching bad cable in the hotel room.  Thus, I've stayed in hostel/hotels in numerous locations.  Definitely read a plethora of reviews and watch for star ratings. I'm sure some people can be harsher than they need to, but it is helpful to get a personal opinion.  Stay on Main earned 4 stars in my book. It was clean, cozy, contemporary and they had mini bathroom essentials (as I forgot to bring mine).

Our next stop was wandering the streets of LA, where personally I did not feel safe.  LA or Hollywood Blvd was just dingy and not as glamorous as television and movies make it.  There were a lot of homeless people and the streets smelled like urine.  It was kind of daunting walking around alone. Hence we snapped a couple of photos, found ourselves in the middle of a Ryan Gosling movie set and then grabbed a bottle of wine to drink in the hotel.

Day #2

We booked a bus tour, which is also another one of my traveling recommendations, although some people may find it dorky and uber touristy I think it's an excellent way to see a lot of iconic aspects of the city in a short amount of time and for cheap! On our city tour we avoided traffic, parking and getting lost.  We saw a lot of LA from Hollywood Blvd to the Sunset Strip to Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive to Paramount Pictures, just to name a few.  It was totally worth it and this particular tour bus stopped at various locations to allow passengers to hop on and off.

It was a fun quick trip, but I was ready to get back home and show her around San Diego and if you're wondering the traffic back was horrendous.