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On Saturday morning (8th of August), I'm getting on a plane for LA, California with a friend. This'll be my first time to the states and I'm totally clueless about.. well.. everything.
At first it was gonna be 4 guys, 1 car, 3 weeks and just doing whatever we felt like. One guy ran out of cash, one guy burst his eardrum and can't fly for 6+ weeks, so now we're 2 guys..
Anyway, we've rented a car for 3 weeks, which we'll pick up at LAX (Los Angeles international airport) upon arrival.
From there we booked 2 beds at Venice Beach Hostel, Pacific Avenue (1515 Pacific Avenue, Venice, 1515 PACIFIC AV, Los Angeles) just to have someplace to sleep once we get there.
They're charging 40$ a night per person for shared rooms and my entire traveling budget (excluding plane tickets and car rental) is something like 1500 dollars (I'm a student, like most of you  ) so naturally we'll look to go someplace else than LA once we've figured out what we wanna do.
And that's the problem. Since everything's gotten so messed up (with 2 guys missing and all) we don't really have any solid plans. None of us want to stay in LA for more than a few days; spend some time at the beach, walk Santa Monica Pier, visit Six Flags, Universal Studios (although I heard it's overrated) etc.
From there we're planning on driving north, via Santa Cruz (where the other guy's cousins live) to San Francisco and perhaps watch the 49ers play a pre-season football game on the 14th of August. After SA we're thinking of going to Yosemite and Lake Taho. And that's it. No more ideas atm.
My question to you; I was wondering if anyone from CA could give me some pointers/suggestions/ideas on what to do and what not to do over there? Perhaps someone's even close enough to meet up - I absolutely wouldn't mind. Every and any tip would be greatly appreciated.
Good places to stay? Funny (yet not overly expensive) things to do? Go south from LA (San diego?) or north (SF?) etc. Brainstorm all you like - I'm happy to listen!
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Calgary25969 Posts
Are you going to Blizzcon?
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hehe, no I'm not going to Blizzcon
And about the Blizzard job - haha why not. I'm taking a break from my studies this fall anyway (physiotherapist).
No, but really, not planning Blizzcon
Is it even possible to get tickets there this late?
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Belgium9945 Posts
should atleast go to the TL Meet
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On August 06 2009 00:43 RaGe wrote:
should atleast go to the TL Meet
I'll try. Really depends on where we are at that time. If we're at Lake Taho, it could prove difficult if you know what I mean.
*heading over to the Blizzcon Meetup thread*
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go to malibu and see meatpost!! its only 45 minutes north of LA!
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Meatpost? Never heard of it *runs off to google*
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On August 06 2009 00:15 GinNtoniC wrote:hehe, no I'm not going to Blizzcon And about the Blizzard job - haha why not. I'm taking a break from my studies this fall anyway (physiotherapist). No, but really, not planning Blizzcon Is it even possible to get tickets there this late?
lol why not planning Blizzcon?
I know I definately would if I was around at that time
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if you're driving be prepared to rage.
use sigalert.com to check traffic before you go anywhere or else a 20 min drive can become 1-2 hours. avoid rush hour. godspeed and welcome to the WESSIDE.
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CA10824 Posts
if you're traveling within the greater LA area, expect an average drive from one location to another to be about 1 hour.
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My only suggestion to you is to eat at In-N-Out (at least once).
Other than that, hope you have fun over here!
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+ Show Spoiler +(801): You dropped me off at the wrong girl's house.
(1-801): There's no such thing as a "wrong girl" make it happen.
(801): alright see you in the morning.
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Check out Santa Barbara and go wine tasting.
San Diego: Gaslamp district, zoo, Sea World, Padres games, Balboa Park
LA: Getty museum is quite impressive, K-town (all-you-can-eat bbq, karaoke), Sunset if you want to club/party/bar, Standard rooftop bar is nice to chill, UCLA campus and Westwood very pretty, USC if you wanna get shot, Dodgers games. C&O is a nice family-style Italian restaurant by the beach that most visitors enjoy.
The Orange County Fair might be going on during that time also. Rides, games, food, petting farms, etc. A bit overpriced but definitely something you should do once. A true look at unhealthy American food in all its disgusting glory, e.g. deep-fried Twinkies, barbecue, cotton candy, churros, etc.
If you're there for 3 weeks, you might consider dropping by Vegas for a few days. I'd say it's worth it if you've never gone. Stay somewhere cheap but with good location in relation to the Strip.
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On August 06 2009 05:29 ZukFFB wrote:
My only suggestion to you is to eat at In-N-Out (at least once).
Other than that, hope you have fun over here!
seconded.
taking a bike ride down the beach is one of the things you can do here that you prolly wont do anywhere else except florida or something
6 flags is pretty fun
universals is very overrated, but it has better food and shops than other parks.
you gotta try the food from marked5. it's a street vendor that sells japanese hamburgers that are amazing. bit pricy though. Follow them on twitter or find them on the web.
Try out some of food here. it's really diversified and really good, especially the mexican and azn food. Hollywood is a pretty popular site to visit....but it sucks imo.
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You need to go to some of the amusement parks imo
Disneyland in Anaheim
Sea World in San Diego
Universal Studios in Hollywood, LA (it's decent)
Yosemite is a good idea, but you may want to go up Redwood National Park or King's Canyon/Sequoia National Park.
Redwood has the tallest trees and that's pretty much it, but there's a lot more to do at King's Canyon/Sequoia with better views when hiking.
good thing about national parks is that they're pretty cheap :p
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another vote against universal or anything hollywood.
stick to venice/santa monica/getty if you are only doing a few days in la
recommend on the waterfront cafe for maximum weather enjoyment + drinking + people watching
yosemite and redwood are both must see imo, you got the time
you should think about taking highway 1 all the way to sf, at least in one direction. fantastic drive.
santa barbara and vegas are good things to consider, though can get expensive
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Wow, was away for a couple of hours watching Pulp Fiction and Bridge on the river Kwai (two friggin long movies) and came back to find this. Thanks so much for all the good tips so far, I'll definately be sure to check out as many as possible!
Vegas is unfortunately not gonna happen, soleley due to my economy. Could set up Twitter too - never felt the need for it before.
About blizzcon - is there any way to get ahold of tickets this late anyway? I was under the impression that those were sold out ages ago.
If you know something I don't (please do tell ), then yeah sure, ofc I'll go if we're in the vicinity.
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why all the hate on universal? Is it just because it doesn't have that many coasters? :/
The place is a must see imo. The first time you go it's a great place, but yeah the second time it is bland. The movie tour, shows, and the 3 (sigh) rides are all decent.
but if you go to any theme park, it MUST be a weekday (monday - thursday). Get there early because the best time is in the morning from opening to like 11:00 or 12:00. Make sure you get to ride all the best stuff in those first hours because lines will be very short.
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On your drive north, drive up Highway 1. On your drive down, go down the 5 through the central valley if you want to see California's agricultural side; go down the 395 if you want to see the mountain/desert scenic side of California. Note that anything that isn't the 5 is relatively slow, so plan for a 1.5 day drive. If you take the scenic route, I'd say just sleep in the car at a rest stop if you want to save money. I usually camp along the way, but I'm assuming you don't have any camping gear.
Oh and try the beer in the Bay Area (look on Yelp for microbreweries). Another good resource is wikitravel.
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On August 06 2009 10:39 gchan wrote:
On your drive north, drive up Highway 1. On your drive down, go down the 5 through the central valley if you want to see California's agricultural side; go down the 395 if you want to see the mountain/desert scenic side of California. Note that anything that isn't the 5 is relatively slow, so plan for a 1.5 day drive. If you take the scenic route, I'd say just sleep in the car at a rest stop if you want to save money. I usually camp along the way, but I'm assuming you don't have any camping gear.
Oh and try the beer in the Bay Area (look on Yelp for microbreweries). Another good resource is wikitravel.
Great set of tips! Yeah, we might have to sleep in the car a few times to save that cash..
Is Central Valley something you'd recommend for its scenery or just for "hey it could be fun seeing"? Cause it's kind of far from the original route we've planned out.
On the whole Blizzcon note: Could anyone say yar or nay on chances of acquiring a ticket right there?
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you could come to my house and get stoned and chill lol
i'm off until august 31
p.s. I live in Riverside, CA.
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Well the Central Valley really is just miles and miles of farmland. Don't know if you get the opportunity to see that in Sweden so if you want to see something thats somewhat unique and vitally important to California, it'd be the Central Valley. If it's really out of your way, just go down the 395--you'll probably get more out of your trip. Oh and you probably don't want to sleep in your car if you're driving down the 395; the weather on that side of the mountains can get pretty hot or cold. Just check the weather a couple days or a week in advance.
If you do sleep in the car, make sure to steal a couple pillows from the Hotel before you leave. They make all the difference in the world. A blanket wouldn't be a bad idea either.
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On August 06 2009 10:39 gchan wrote:
On your drive north, drive up Highway 1. On your drive down, go down the 5 through the central valley if you want to see California's agricultural side; go down the 395 if you want to see the mountain/desert scenic side of California. Note that anything that isn't the 5 is relatively slow, so plan for a 1.5 day drive. If you take the scenic route, I'd say just sleep in the car at a rest stop if you want to save money. I usually camp along the way, but I'm assuming you don't have any camping gear.
Oh and try the beer in the Bay Area (look on Yelp for microbreweries). Another good resource is wikitravel.
Great set of tips! Yeah, we might have to sleep in the car a few times to save that cash..
Is Central Valley something you'd recommend for its scenery or just for "hey it could be fun seeing"? Cause it's kind of far from the original route we've planned out.
On the whole Blizzcon note: Could anyone say yar or nay on chances of acquiring a ticket right there?
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if you were anywhere near this place called Shin Sen Gumi, I would totally recommend it. It's this japanese ramen place that's just heaven. It's not expensive at all, and you basically eat until you're full (unlimited noodle refills for 95 cents per refill- each refill has the original amount of noodles)
universal is worth a go, just because jurassic park is pretty fun.
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That's actually great! Experiencing good food can sometimes be just as valueable as anything else.
God knows we don't have interesting enough restaurants back home......
At risk of being annoying; I have to ask again if anyone knows whether or not there's even a slight possibility to grab Blizzcon tickets right there, right then the 21st?
Aiming for the TL meetup, but could get pretty boring pretty quickly if everyone runs off to the convention hall while I'm sitting around drawing circles in the sand.....
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I'm actually gonna do a shameless bump. Going away in 36 hours, some more info about blizzcon before getting on the plane would be great!
Don't have a chance to get any ticket via the website before going and the fact is I don't even know if we'll be close to Anaheim around the 21st, so buying tickets at the door is the only real option.
Is that even possible?
edit: Ok, reading thoroughly at the website confirms that there seems to be no way to buy tickets any other way than in advance. So that's that. Too bad.
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go to malibu and go to beach we'll hang out and surf :D
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Also if your going to cali You should go to a baseball game or something, six flags is a must. universal studios is decent but Six flags is the best.
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On August 06 2009 16:36 Rayzorblade wrote:
you could come to my house and get stoned and chill lol
i'm off until august 31
p.s. I live in Riverside, CA.
Really? Can you PM me your phonenumber? Heck, I'll PM you to PM me 
Leave within 24 hours.
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o shi- i wanna see layzorbrade!! : )
ginntonic, the 5 is kind of boring hahah. i drive it when going from socal to norcal and vice versa and it's just rows and rows of agriculture or empty space, although there is this cattle ranch where there are hundreds and hundredssssss of cows -- it's ridiculous to see and smell haha. just take the scenic route : )
if you're going to go to a theme park, go to disneyland or six flags; forget the other ones >__>! although disneyland is kind of kiddy, you have to go to it at least once in your life
for norcal, use yelp.com and you're basically set! you might want to look into couch surfing if you want to save money!
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Someone already said it - but if you've got a car and the weather is nice , drive all the way up Highway 1 along the coast. From LA to San Francisco. There's some really breathtaking coastline and also some interesting old spanish missions.
Coastal Oregon, Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver are also great and just further North.
Alternatively, head East. Utah, Arizona and Nevada are all fantastic states to visit.
edit: nearby LA, also consider driving to Joshua Tree national monument which is maybe 2 hours away. It's a nice day trip.
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Spent my days with a woman unkind,
Smoked my stuff and drank all my wine.
Made up my mind to make a new start,
Going To California with an aching in my heart.
Someone told me there's a girl out there with love in her eyes and flowers in her hair.
Took my chances on a big jet plane, never let them tell you that they're all the same.
The sea was red and the sky was grey, wondered how tomorrow could ever follow today.
The mountains and the canyons started to tremble and shake
as the children of the sun began to awake.
Seems that the wrath of the Gods
Got a punch on the nose and it started to flow;
I think I might be sinking.
Throw me a line if I reach it in time
I'll meet you up there where the path
Runs straight and high.
To find a queen without a king,
They say she plays guitar and cries and sings... la la la
Ride a white mare in the footsteps of dawn
Tryin' to find a woman who's never, never, never been born.
Standing on a hill in my mountain of dreams,
Telling myself it's not as hard, hard, hard as it seems.
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On August 07 2009 19:08 nvnplatypus wrote:
Someone already said it - but if you've got a car and the weather is nice , drive all the way up Highway 1 along the coast. From LA to San Francisco. There's some really breathtaking coastline and also some interesting old spanish missions.
That's the plan
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On August 07 2009 18:58 paper wrote:
if you're going to go to a theme park, go to disneyland or six flags; forget the other ones >__>! although disneyland is kind of kiddy, you have to go to it at least once in your life
Disneyland's really worth visiting at this age?
I'm quite childish though, so what the heck! Are the tickets for Disneyland expensive?
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Unless you like wine tasting, don't ever come to the Temecula/Murrieta area.
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lol, ok, I won't
My phone number over there should be +46 73 512 78 58, if it even works (it doesn't always in other countries)
Anywho, if anyone wants to meet up or anything, just call/text me!
Thanks for all the pointers so far - you're all great!
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On August 07 2009 21:50 GinNtoniC wrote:Show nested quote +On August 07 2009 18:58 paper wrote:
if you're going to go to a theme park, go to disneyland or six flags; forget the other ones >__>! although disneyland is kind of kiddy, you have to go to it at least once in your life Disneyland's really worth visiting at this age? I'm quite childish though, so what the heck! Are the tickets for Disneyland expensive?
Disneyland is still quite fun. Might also want to consider California Adventures...
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If you're staying in LA, go to Pink's Hot Dogs... the line is pretty long sometimes but it's SO WORTH IT BRB HEART ATTACK
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On August 08 2009 08:24 Refrige wrote:Show nested quote +On August 07 2009 21:50 GinNtoniC wrote:On August 07 2009 18:58 paper wrote:
if you're going to go to a theme park, go to disneyland or six flags; forget the other ones >__>! although disneyland is kind of kiddy, you have to go to it at least once in your life Disneyland's really worth visiting at this age? I'm quite childish though, so what the heck! Are the tickets for Disneyland expensive? Disneyland is still quite fun. Might also want to consider California Adventures...
its like 50 bucks for one ticket and the foods gonna cost you another 30. souvenirs gonna cost even more =p
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if u are up for it, go to yosemite and climb half dome
lol
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so, I'm currently in Piedmont, San Francisco,staying at a friend's house. I'm having a great time here, San Francisco is such a beautiful and great town.
I'm sorry all of you LAers out there, but LA did absolutely nothing for me. At all.
We stayed in Santa Monica towards the end though which was really pretty and laid back. The beach and the pier were all great and Santa Monica downtown was just really chill. Anything and everything else towards downtown LA was just ugly and crowdy. The city is so huge and spread out that it takes forever to go anywhere and compared to San Francisco the architecture is like a Mordor. There's miles after miles of low, grey garage-like buildings with fast food stops on every corner. San Francisco has beautiful architecture, color and views.
I'll admit, Beverly Hills was a nice neighborhood and Hollywood (through all its tourist cliché) was nice to have seen, but all in all, we fled out of LA before the end of our 5th day.
Did try out Six flags, InNout and lots of great stuff in the area though! Did not get to meet up with Rayzorblade even though I texted and called you 
Tomorrow we'll be going to Russian River and on tuesday to Yosemite.
Then we'll see what happens!
Lots of thanks to everyone for all the suggestions and insipiration so far!
All in all, California is just a wonderful place!
The drive north on Pacific Coast Highway (we took 2 days to really let it sink in) was absolutely breathtaking!
I see why a lot of you people love it here!
More to come later!
oh and if you want to see pictures from the trip, I uploaded tons on http://www.resdagboken.se/Default.aspx?documentId=3§ion=journey&journeyId=368275&userId=266231
The diary is in Swedish, but all of the pictures are right there on your right side, so just click on one and scroll through.
Gnite!
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lol, you tried to get in contact? T_T I'm 100% sad now if you did, cos I never got any txt or missed calls! was really looking forward to having you over!
nevertheless I'm glad you're enjoying San Francisco. LA does suck! gl hf the rest of your time in California!
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I did! I thought I even got one of those reports that says your text has been delivered!
I don't know if I texted or PMed to you here on TL, but I know at one point I said we were gonna spend the entire afternoon down at Santa Monica pier and have dinner by the Parise Wheel thingie (What's it called in English? ^^)
I'll actually be flying home on Thursday morning due to a job offer, but my friend will stay the full period and fly back to Sweden from LA the 29th of August.
So my friend is probably gonna pass through LA once more. I'll hand over the number you PMed to me at the beginning, but I'll warn you, he's very, very antidrugs whereas I'm not, so the smokie thingie is gonna go out the window with him! :D
I believe he will stay at Santa Monica Motel (cause that's where we stayed our last days before leaving LA and it was cheap + we liked it) Either way, I'll stay in contact with both of you!
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Yes, I"m glad you agree SF>LA
SD is also a great place in Socal, way better than LA, but it looks like you're not in that area anymore.
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Nice resedagbok, I hope you're having fun!
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If were doing a TL meet up in LA IM IN!!
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Sorry for offtopic but, Anyone know how much Blizzard testers get paid?
Those hours are perfect for me and I need another job.
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East Bay Area is actually a very nice place to chill. If you want to just check out some interesting life, relax and get some good grub you can go to Berkeley and walk the main aves and stuff. theres actually a Norcal LAN on the 22nd in Berkeley too if you like. Also. i dont know where youre from, but if youre from Europe, you should try some California Asian food. I would argue we have the best outside of asia. Some key hot spots of great chinese food are in SF, Oakland, Milpitas, LA, Irvine, and Arcadia. For specific places just ask :D hope you have a great trip!
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BoT, definitely try In-N-Out burgers (I dont think they are that amazing but everyone else does) it's better than most fast food. Maybe try out some mexican food too, you gotta find the right places though. I'm not talking chain fast food like del taco or taco bell (but if you haven't tried that, try those too).
Universal studies, Six flags magic mountain, disney land, knott's berry farm,and water parks (raging waters/hurricane harbor,etc). I haven't been to the first 2, but If I had to choose from the ones I have been - it'd be knott's, they have shows and stuff like a county fair does and they also have a bunch of roller coasters and thrill rides. If you go in october they change the whole park to Knott's Scary Farm and they have costumed employees creeping up on you and scaring you as well has haunted houses and 3d glasses.
PS- I'd remove your phone number off the previous page, remember it'll be here forever.
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EPT
