VeeshanVault

Posted: **January 1, 2008, 11:58 pm**

What's fun to do in and around LA and San Diego?

I don't want to do the totally stereotypical bullshit like look at the stars on the walk of fame. Fuck that.

Posted: **January 2, 2008, 12:08 am**

That a huge area you are talking about covering.

In San Diego, the Gaslamp is pretty fun depending on the night.

If you are in LA and can get to Catalina, that can be pretty cool too. A small island with several bars on the shoreline. Other options, During the day, the Getty is cool. Hollywood at night is fun, also Universal citywalk at night.

What type of things are you wanting to do and what time of year??

Posted: **January 2, 2008, 12:16 am**

Time of year: Right now.

Types of things: Dunno, Southern California types of things. My only real plans at this point is to eat good Mexican food and go to the beach. And hike around the Santa Monica mountains.

I like bars, restaurants, interesting neighborhoods, distinctive and unusual things. I don't like tourist kitsch.

Posted: **January 2, 2008, 12:19 am**

I think he was trying to say that Southern Cal is a pretty general area...what area of Southern Cal do you plan to be in?

Posted: **January 2, 2008, 12:27 am**

A few days in LA and a few days in San Diego. With a car. So I have a lot of range. I'm in north LA now, and I don't know where my San Diego sleeping spot is located yet.

I'm kind of a seat-of-the-pants sort of guy with respect to this sort of thing.

Posted: **January 2, 2008, 12:44 am**

Sueven wrote:Time of year: Right now.

Types of things: Dunno, Southern California types of things. My only real plans at this point is to eat good Mexican food and go to the beach. And hike around the Santa Monica mountains.

I like bars, restaurants, interesting neighborhoods, distinctive and unusual things. I don't like tourist kitsch.

I agree with Tyek. Check out Getty. It's free to go and gives you at a minimum some good views of LA. Westwood is pretty cool to walk around in and is close to Getty.

As far as restaurants go, book yourself reservations at the Sage Room in Malibu. It's a great Italian restaurant at the corner of Kanan and PCH that's actually owned and run by... Italians. It's a nice restaurant with great food. No need to wear a tie, but I'd dress nice/business casual or better. Reasonably priced @ <$50 per person unless you go crazy with wine and shit. You're right across from the Beach.

Zuma is basically North on PCH, and there's a beach just North of Zuma called El Matador that's quiet and secluded with some cool rock formations. Several music videos were filmed there. It's small, but it's nice. More for walking along or taking your girlfriend to hang out/picnic than for any kind of watersport. Alternatively you could head South on PCH to Venice/Santa Monica, which I guess could be considered touristy, but they're not really... People really do live like there and it's kind of neat I guess. Santa Monica has an outdoor mall called 3rd Street if you wanna do some shopping...

In the Hollywood area, Hollywood and Highland is supposed to be pretty cool. I've not been there, but I've heard good things about it. They used to do a jazz night there once a week if you're into that.

I can think of a lot of places to go, but those are the ones that stand out/fit your requirements. If you need further clarification, on anything feel free to ask/PM me.

One kind of cool thing you might wanna try is to head somewhere like Mt. Baldy where there's snow everywhere, then drive down to the beach all in the same day. There aren't a huge amount of places in the US where you can do that, and its beautiful pretty much everywhere.

Posted: **January 2, 2008, 12:49 am**

Thanks guys!

I just came from Idaho, so I'm kind of burned out on snowy mountains. Everything else sounds like fun though. Will have to consult with my compatriots.

Posted: **January 2, 2008, 1:04 am**

One thing to avoid for sure is Tijuana unless you are under 21.

Some suggestions, We are getting rain this weekend, not sure if snow is coming around. Arrowhead and Big Bear are great when there is snow. Wind out my way (near there) is bad right now. 50+ mph gusts, but hopefully mountains are not so bad.

For nighttime stuff, Hollywood, Universal Citywalk, or even Downtown Pasadena (especially this week) are a blast. If you get some time during the day, Venice Beach is worth it just for the freakshow aspect.

Catalina as I said is cool. They have a nice little deal going there, you can take a sub around the island, nightlife is hit or miss, but with the new year just happening should be good.

For daytime stuff, Catalina, Venice Beach, any of the amusement parks, but for cool rides the one you are probably close to Magic Mountain is fun, but watch out for the Gang issues. (Lots of thugs love that place)

Newport Beach is great anytime, lots of "crusing" and nice looking women. Great small restaurants and you have the beach.

When heading down towards San Diego I would recommend the City of Del Mar. There is a small, old hotel, nothing special, but it literally is on the beach. You open the door and walk out onto sand. The wife and I love to stay there. Nothing special accomodation-wise, but it is cool to be right on the water. If you stay there, a restaurant Jake's, (http://www.jakesdelmar.com/) 9Noel is fairly close to there, so he may know the better night spots in that area), is literally 2 doors over is amazing and right on the beach, you could get wasted then walk home, or walk up to the old downtown area and check out some of the bars. It might be more of an older, romantic type of area to stay, I have been married for years, so I don't troll for women, at least until I convince the wife to try a threesome.

Downtown San Diego has the Gaslamp. It is touristy but it is a lot of fun, and eat outside the women that walk around are amazing. San Diego is great for golf, you also have the area near Sea World that is decent for beaches.

I am sorry I am not able to drive, I would have met you somewhere and bought you a beer. (Not that I would expect you to take me up on that, but I would have offered.)

I am sure others have cooler younger ideas, I am close to 40,, but for the love of all that is good in this world avoid Tijiuana unless you need a prescription filled. If you feel the need to go to TJ for a "Massage" then walk over the boarder, and stay on the main streets whenever possible. About 10 miles outside of TJ is nicer though. You could do the Senor Frogs touristy thing.

Again I am not sure who you are with. The Del Mar thing will score big points if you have a lady friend with you. The Newport Beach or Pasadena thing might help you find a lady friend.

Hope that helps and enjoy the area.

Posted: **January 2, 2008, 1:11 am**

Thanks! I promise I'm reading all of this and looking into all of it.

And I would have seen if it was possible to meet up with you and noel, except this trip isn't really conducive to it. I'm visiting a cousin in LA and a friend in San Diego, and will be sticking close to them the whole time. But let me know if you're ever in the DC area with some spare time.

And yeah... planning on passing on Tijuana.

Posted: **January 2, 2008, 1:16 am**

Well have fun, sorry about the rain coming. We got about 1 inch last year and already have 3 inches for this season with more coming.

Posted: **January 2, 2008, 1:33 am**

Tyek, I live in Northridge.

I have an office I'm never at in Northern SD though.

I agree with everything Tyek said. Especially the part about TJ.

BTW Suev, I didn't realize you were in DC. Do you know of a good crab shack you'd recommend if I can somehow get my way over there this summer? I lived in MD til I was 10, and that's the one thing I really miss living out here in CA. Nothing like a long assed-picnic bench with butcher paper rolled out and a basket of crabs caked in Old-Bay with a pitcher of beer.

Posted: **January 2, 2008, 2:02 am**

Hit up a Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles.

At least that's what I'd do.

Posted: **January 2, 2008, 2:08 am**

noel wrote: BTW Suev, I didn't realize you were in DC. Do you know of a good crab shack you'd recommend if I can somehow get my way over there this summer? I lived in MD til I was 10, and that's the one thing I really miss living out here in CA. Nothing like a long assed-picnic bench with butcher paper rolled out and a basket of crabs caked in Old-Bay with a pitcher of beer.

Just DC or is Baltimore ok?

Posted: **January 2, 2008, 2:10 am**

Baltimore is a lot better. When I do get over there, I normally fly into BWI so I can visit my grandparents/family who are in Glen Burnie.

Posted: **January 2, 2008, 2:12 am**

Must do In-n-Out,

Wouldn't hurt to do Tommy's Chiliburgers (Although make sure it is one of the real one's, not the 50 other fast food joints that stole their name and added a number behind it.)

Also maybe Pinks if you are near the USC campus.

Noel,

I guess I always thought you were in the Vista area. I think I read Calabasas and was thinking Carlsbad. 5 years on painkillers I guess eventually all the brain cells you have left disappear.

Posted: **January 2, 2008, 2:19 am**

No worries, believe it or not, I kind of figured your line of thinking would be that to lead you to think that. I used to be in Calabasas, but moved over to Northridge after I got married/a house.

Tommy's is a good call though if you've got time for only one burger joint, In-N-Out is the one not to miss. You are so right on the name thing Tyek... how the hell that happened is beyond me.

Also, an awesome local taco stand place is Titos Tacos in LA on the corner of Washington/Sepulveda. Cheap food, but the place is open from 10AM til Midnight (I think) and there are lines inside and outside 8 deep pretty much the whole time.

Posted: **January 2, 2008, 2:56 am**

Truant wrote:Hit up a Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles.

At least that's what I'd do.

I've heard good things about this place. I'm going to try it out this weekend when I'm in San Diego.

I don't care if it's "touristy", San Diego is all about Sea World if you've never been. Seeing Whales, Dolphins, etc up close is something everyone should do at least once if you haven't. I know there are other Sea Worlds around the country so not a big deal if you've been to one before.

Don't go anywhere near Mexico. Anything worthwhile in Mexico isn't located close to the U.S. border.

Posted: **January 2, 2008, 3:06 am**

I think Roscoe's is in LA, Winnow. It ain't touristy as far as I know!

Tyek, I live in Northridge.

I am sorry, Noel.

Posted: **January 2, 2008, 3:14 am**

Canelek wrote:I think Roscoe's is in LA, Winnow. It ain't touristy as far as I know!

It's a small chain. There's one in S.D.!

Posted: **January 2, 2008, 3:18 am**

Oh wow, didn't know that!

I thought there was just one.

Posted: **January 2, 2008, 6:13 am**

So many things, so little time!

I did manage to hit up an In-N-Out today. Tomorrow apparently involves Venice Beach, taking a walk around some canyon in Hollywood, eating tongue and fish tacos at some local taco place, and a couple other things that I don't remember at the moment. Beyond tomorrow has not been planned yet.

Noel: I can recommend a good crab place for you, but I should wait until I get home and consult with the local Marylandians to do so. I live probably 25 minutes from Glen Burnie.

Posted: **January 2, 2008, 9:40 am**

Rubio's fish tacos are awesome

Posted: **January 2, 2008, 12:29 pm**

charter a boat and go fishing, my friends and i had a blast

we used helgren's (i think) sportfishing based out of oceanside CA right next to pendleton.

with everything (day licsence/rod/live bait/frozen squid) it cost us 60~ each for like 5 hours.

Posted: **January 2, 2008, 3:54 pm**

Winnow wrote:
Canelek wrote:I think Roscoe's is in LA, Winnow. It ain't touristy as far as I know!
It's a small chain. There's one in S.D.!

I only new of the 5 in the LA metro area. The domain for their website expired, so information is harder to find.

As far as SD. I would personally go to Legoland!

As a disclaimer, these aren't recommendations of kickass places you should go. Just places that I would want to go on the off chance that they might interest you too.

Posted: **January 2, 2008, 7:49 pm**

charter a boat and go fishing, my friends and i had a blast

we used helgren's (i think) sportfishing based out of oceanside CA right next to pendleton.

with everything (day licsence/rod/live bait/frozen squid) it cost us 60~ each for like 5 hours.

I fully agree, but I think the best time for a fishing trip is late July, early August....Tuna season. I could be wrong, but that is usually when we do the overnight fishing trips.

Posted: **January 3, 2008, 11:48 am**

Tyek wrote:
charter a boat and go fishing, my friends and i had a blast

we used helgren's (i think) sportfishing based out of oceanside CA right next to pendleton.

with everything (day licsence/rod/live bait/frozen squid) it cost us 60~ each for like 5 hours.
I fully agree, but I think the best time for a fishing trip is late July, early August....Tuna season. I could be wrong, but that is usually when we do the overnight fishing trips.

It's been 18 years since I moved from So. Cal. but my work buddies and I were into fishing out there for several years. Tyek is correct in that the summer is more fun for local surface fishing, or in his case offshore tuna/albacore runs. Winter still has some fishing activity but is "rock cod" bottom fish such as *~*stragi*~*'s trip.

On the other hand I saw the weather channel forcast for So. Cal. 60 deg, rain and wind all weekend, while it's better than 10 deg and snow, it's a tough break for a trip to San Diego.

Posted: **January 3, 2008, 1:19 pm**

After living there 3 years, I'm not a huge fan of socal. I do, however, highly recommend hitting Laguna Beach (I don't know if it's gotten more touristy after the show or not) and going to the museums and galleries (Laguna Beach was one of the first artist colonies in the west). I can also recommend the Mission San Juan Capistrano. Whether or not there's any shows going on, it's very pretty.

Posted: **January 3, 2008, 7:59 pm**

I'm skipping my San Diego trip this weekend. Doesn't look like a good time to visit SoCal this weekend Sueven!

http://www.accuweather.com/news-blogs.a ... blog=clark

Worst Storm Since 2005 Coming to Southern Cal

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

The strongest series of storms since the record setting 2004-2005 winter rainfall season is heading to Southern California. For the purpose of this posting, and probably future postings the rest of the week, I will be concentrating on Southern California. My fellow blogger Paul Yeager has quite a bit of information about central and northern California in his blog.

A series of storms will affect Southern California from late Thursday or Thursday night through Sunday. The first will be a rather weak storm sacrificing itself to moisten up the currently dry air now over Southern California. From late Thursday through Thursday night there will be a couple of showers or a bit of rain at most, with small rainfall totals of less than a tenth or two.

The second storm is the one that will be the powerhouse. It will have everything a big rainmaker needs for this region, ample dynamics, a lot of subtropical moisture, and a strong south to southwest low level jet in excess of 50 mph. As one goes through the daylight hours of Friday rain will become steadier and pick up in intensity from Santa Barbara south to the LA Basin. Winds will pick up as well, increasing to 20 to 40 mph in the coastal lowlands and upper deserts by late Friday and Friday night with speeds climbing to 60 to 80 mph in the mountains. The heaviest rain in this area will come Friday night and Saturday morning, before tapering off to some lighter sporadic rains. Snow levels, initially around 6,000-6,500 feet Thursday night, will climb to 7,500 feet or higher on Friday and stay at that level through Saturday morning before falling to near 6,000 feet late Saturday afternoon.

Any rain in San Diego County will continue to be sporadic and on the light side during Friday and much of Friday night. Here the heaviest rain will wait until mostly during the day Saturday with snow levels way too high to worry about. Saturday is the time of most concern for flooding in San Diego County.

The third storm will come in late Saturday night and Sunday with light to moderate precipitation amounts. Snow levels fall more, down to 3,500 feet in northern LA County to around 4,500 to 5,000 feet in southern San Diego County.

Below are my expected precipitation amounts for the ENTIRE storm. Again, by far the greatest amount of rain falls during the second storm. This is when the threat of flash flooding is going to be the greatest. Not only will this storm bring at least 70 percent of the entire rainfall amount from the three storms, it will be coming down in a rather short period of time.

-Coast and valleys from Orange and Los Angeles County through southern Santa Barbara County: average 2 to 4 inches of rain with isolated 6 inch amounts.
-South-facing mountain slopes from southern Santa Barbara County through the LA County mountains and east through the San Gabriel range: 7 to 12 inches with isolated amounts to 15 inches.
-Coast and valleys of San Diego County: 1 to 3 inches of rain, on average.
-West facing mountain slopes of San Diego County: 3 to 6 inches of rain with locally higher amounts possible.
-Mountains above 7,500 feet: 5 to 7 feet of snow.
-Mountains 6,000-7,500 feet: 1 to 2 feet of Snow Saturday night through Sunday.
-Mountains 4,000-6,000 feet: 6 to 12 inches Saturday to Sunday, or Saturday night/Sunday.

Consequences of the Storm:

No matter where you live there will be flooding concerns. In the lowlands it will mostly be urban and small stream flooding and low-lying areas. In and near the mountains outside of the burn areas there is a serious flooding threat that could be life threatening. In, and near, recent burn areas there is a high risk of major flooding along with devastating, and life-threatening, mudslides and debris flows. If you live in, or near, these recent burn areas NOW is the time to take all the precautions you can to save life and property. Mandatory evacuations may be placed in these areas by local agencies. Be prepared now. If evacuation order is placed, please head them. Strong winds Friday and Friday night can cause damage in themselves.

Posted: **January 3, 2008, 9:31 pm**

HAH! we never get more than .5 an inch a month and you come the wekend we are spossed to get 5 plus inches!!!~

Anyways sueven, I'm in SD and if you want to do the local bar scene I'm your man...

If it aint drinkin related then well yer on yer own, cause if i aint at a bar pickin up sluts I'm at home playin on the computer...

We do however have a zoo, you know its world famous, and tigers dont eat people. Sea World can also kill a day. Gaslamp clubs and Pacific beach clubs can be a good "coledge kid" time, but the real pleasure is the gaslamp resturaunts. Some very fine food to be had if you got the $$. For mexican food, there are two types, the Roberto's style fast food, generally they are all good (the lower the health rating the tastier) and then there is Fidel's in solana beach (1 exit north of del mar). No other place can compare hands down, and very reasonably priced.

619 847 3880 if you have any real questions about SD.

You can hang wit da noysy. Hell I still owe ya for lettin me borrow that haste cape some years ago... (maybe that was severin) =)

VeeshanVault

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