Lily and I spent the past four days Santa Barbara, California, and we both really enjoyed our time there. The city has beautiful beaches, a nice pier, lots of cool stores, and some pretty good restaurants downtown. A couple days ago we went to a great farmer's market right on State Street downtown, and apparently there's a farmer's market every day of the week in the Santa Barbara area in a different place each day! Last night, we had a good, reasonably priced dinner downtown at a place called Opal. All in all, it seems like a pretty good food town. There's a lot going on for such a small city - it's too bad that housing rates are among the highest in the country here. Santa Barbara is on the short list of places we've visited so far on this trip that we would consider moving to when we're done with this trip - if we can afford the rent.
We weren't even sure we'd be able to stay in Santa Barbara for more than one night, but thanks to a new discovery, we were able to stay, have a great time, and meet some new people. For a couple weeks now, we've been having problems finding cheap or free places to park the camper overnight during our travels through southern California. Someone pointed us to a website called couchsurfing.com, which is a very large community of people from all over the world who partake in couchsurfing, whether it be as travelers, or as hosts. Basically, generous people open out their homes and lend their couches to travelers who do not have a place to stay or people to stay with. It's a fun, cheap way to travel, and you get to really get to know new and interesting people along the way. While we do not need couches to sleep on, we do need places to park, plug in, fill water, ect.
We didn't know anybody in Santa Barbara and just discovered couchsurfing.com, and on very short notice, a really cool guy named Kyle emailed us and took us in! He let us plug in, hang out at his pad with his roommates and friends, and use his shower and bathroom. He and his friends told us what to do in town, where to go for dinner, and more, and of course we returned the favor by cooking for them.
Tonight, we got to San Luis Obispo, which is about halfway between Monterey and LA and again another couchsurfer responded to the short-notice request and let us park in his driveway! After spending a lot of time basically by ourselves between Denver and Las Vegas, it's nice to actually socialize with people for a change, and get to know new people.
We really wish we had discovered this sooner!
-Ben
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Friday, December 12, 2008
LA - NOT a tourist friendly city (but at least Marilyn is here)
You'd think that Los Angeles, being home of the stars and thus home of star-watching, would be a city that would do its best to welcome tourists so it could make as much money off them as possible. But if you're a visitor to LA, you're really on your own as far as figuring out how to get anywhere.
LA is known for its legendary traffic, but it also has exhorbitant parking costs, so what visitor is going to rent a car here? Better to take the public transportation and get where you want to go for a lot cheaper. There's still a problem with that plan though! There are at least three different cities operating public transportation around the LA area: Los Angeles, Santa Monica, and Culver City (which, incedentally, is just a part of west LA). On top of that, many of the bus numbers overlap from city to city, so when you want to get on the Metro 2, you might end up on the Blue Bus 2 instead (since they stupidly pick up at many of the same spots along their [very similar, but not similar enough] routes!). As for the LA Metro, there are Metro Local buses, Metro Rapid buses, Metro Express buses, and then just three or four Metro Rail lines for the entire city.
The public transportation has been a source of frustration for us for the past few days, and we realized how much we loved the simplicity of Boston's MBTA. We also have a greater appreciation for New York City's extensive subway system, as well as all the crosstown and up/downtown buses. Even the public transportation in LAS VEGAS was easier to deal with than here. At least in Vegas, all we had to contend with was the lack of expediency, but we always knew where we were going. In LA, the buses are slow, fares are not constant through the three seperate systems, and many of the buses have different AM/PM routes.
The biggest issue is that the vast majority of Los Angelenos drive their own cars, so there is really no motivation to update, consolidate, and streamline the current public transportation. There really needs to be a Los Angeles Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority, but LAMATA doesn't really roll of the tongue.
Good news (for me anyway): Yesterday we visited the cemetary where Marilyn Monroe was buried; we saw her Hollywood Boulevard Walk of Fame Star; and we saw the concrete slab in front of Graumans Chinese Theater where Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell immortalized their handprints and shoeprints for the premiere of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes in 1953. We also had a lovely dinner at Campanile, courtesy (mostly) of Ben working there for a couple days!
We'll be heading up the coast again on Sunday or Monday. Trip Stats: we've surpassed 5800 miles, we're holding steady around 9.5mpg, and our cost per mile at this point is down to 36 cents/mile! Yay cheap gas!
-Lily
LA is known for its legendary traffic, but it also has exhorbitant parking costs, so what visitor is going to rent a car here? Better to take the public transportation and get where you want to go for a lot cheaper. There's still a problem with that plan though! There are at least three different cities operating public transportation around the LA area: Los Angeles, Santa Monica, and Culver City (which, incedentally, is just a part of west LA). On top of that, many of the bus numbers overlap from city to city, so when you want to get on the Metro 2, you might end up on the Blue Bus 2 instead (since they stupidly pick up at many of the same spots along their [very similar, but not similar enough] routes!). As for the LA Metro, there are Metro Local buses, Metro Rapid buses, Metro Express buses, and then just three or four Metro Rail lines for the entire city.
The public transportation has been a source of frustration for us for the past few days, and we realized how much we loved the simplicity of Boston's MBTA. We also have a greater appreciation for New York City's extensive subway system, as well as all the crosstown and up/downtown buses. Even the public transportation in LAS VEGAS was easier to deal with than here. At least in Vegas, all we had to contend with was the lack of expediency, but we always knew where we were going. In LA, the buses are slow, fares are not constant through the three seperate systems, and many of the buses have different AM/PM routes.
The biggest issue is that the vast majority of Los Angelenos drive their own cars, so there is really no motivation to update, consolidate, and streamline the current public transportation. There really needs to be a Los Angeles Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority, but LAMATA doesn't really roll of the tongue.
Good news (for me anyway): Yesterday we visited the cemetary where Marilyn Monroe was buried; we saw her Hollywood Boulevard Walk of Fame Star; and we saw the concrete slab in front of Graumans Chinese Theater where Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell immortalized their handprints and shoeprints for the premiere of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes in 1953. We also had a lovely dinner at Campanile, courtesy (mostly) of Ben working there for a couple days!
We'll be heading up the coast again on Sunday or Monday. Trip Stats: we've surpassed 5800 miles, we're holding steady around 9.5mpg, and our cost per mile at this point is down to 36 cents/mile! Yay cheap gas!
-Lily
Monday, December 8, 2008
San Diego - Our kinda place
San Diego's got a lot going for it. It's got very nice weather, beautiful beaches, a nice city park, and lots of good Mexican food. It's wonderful to be able to enjoy the weather and do outdoorsy things at this time of the year. I guess that's one of the big advantages to full-time RVing - we get to drive to where the weather is nice.
We were lucky to find a great RV park to stay for a few of our nights in San Diego right on Mission Bay called Campland on the Bay. For 20 bucks a night, we were able to enjoy a spot just a couple hundred feet from the beach, and just a thirty second walk away from the pool/jacuzzi, with all the necessary RV hookups that alone usually cost $40/night. There were a ton of big RVs there, and a lot in San Diego in general, and I can see why.
We visited a couple beautiful beaches close to where we stayed. Mission beach is a thin strip of land about two hundred feet wide with the ocean on one side and the bay on the other side. We parked the RV, hopped on our bikes, and biked north along beach on the wavy ocean side and then back south along the back on the calm bay side. We also had lunch on Ocean Beach, which is a dog beach (dog park on the beach), and visited the ritzy town of Coronado Beach, which is near a U.S. amphibious Navy base where you can see Marines and Seals training from the highway.
We spent our last afternoon/night in San Diego at Balboa Park, which is the world's largest urban cultural park. There are 15 museums in the park, all of which normally cost money, but we happened to visit on a night when they were having a holiday festival, and all of the museums were free! We had a great time biking and walking around the park, and then enjoyed visiting a couple of the museums amongst the throngs of local festival go-ers.
Our favorite part of the night was the San Diego automotive museum. This place is full of beautiful exotic, classic, and vintage cars and motorcycles. But the highlight was a car and trailer from 1954 that broke (and still holds) the world's endurance non-stop record across the United States. For seven days, three men drove in five hour shifts drove over 7,400 miles from Anchorage, Alaska to Mexico city, re-fueling on the run from trucks on airport runways along the way. The custom car/trailer refilled the radiator and changed oil on the run, and even had hydraulic jacks with wheels attached that enabled the passengers to change a tire while still driving! The trailer holds 230 gallons of gas, 15 gallons of oil, and 30 gallons of water (50 more held in a tank in the car). At the back of the trailer is a tiny table for eating with a nation-wide mobile phone (in 1954?), and the men used a catwalk attached to the bottom of the war to walk outside and climb onto the trailer while moving. The story behind the car/trailer was also very cool - a man named Louis Mattar built it over seven years as a hobby with $75,000 of his own money, with no sponsors.
If anyone reading this visits San Diego any time soon, you should definitely check out that museum. The Mattar car was a lot of fun to see and read about.
We just got to LA, and we're staying with Lily's uncle Bob's brother Art. I'm going to work at one of the city's great restaurants while we're here. Then it's up north along the Pacific Coast Highway towards our next week-long stop, Monterey.
-Ben
We were lucky to find a great RV park to stay for a few of our nights in San Diego right on Mission Bay called Campland on the Bay. For 20 bucks a night, we were able to enjoy a spot just a couple hundred feet from the beach, and just a thirty second walk away from the pool/jacuzzi, with all the necessary RV hookups that alone usually cost $40/night. There were a ton of big RVs there, and a lot in San Diego in general, and I can see why.
We visited a couple beautiful beaches close to where we stayed. Mission beach is a thin strip of land about two hundred feet wide with the ocean on one side and the bay on the other side. We parked the RV, hopped on our bikes, and biked north along beach on the wavy ocean side and then back south along the back on the calm bay side. We also had lunch on Ocean Beach, which is a dog beach (dog park on the beach), and visited the ritzy town of Coronado Beach, which is near a U.S. amphibious Navy base where you can see Marines and Seals training from the highway.
We spent our last afternoon/night in San Diego at Balboa Park, which is the world's largest urban cultural park. There are 15 museums in the park, all of which normally cost money, but we happened to visit on a night when they were having a holiday festival, and all of the museums were free! We had a great time biking and walking around the park, and then enjoyed visiting a couple of the museums amongst the throngs of local festival go-ers.
Our favorite part of the night was the San Diego automotive museum. This place is full of beautiful exotic, classic, and vintage cars and motorcycles. But the highlight was a car and trailer from 1954 that broke (and still holds) the world's endurance non-stop record across the United States. For seven days, three men drove in five hour shifts drove over 7,400 miles from Anchorage, Alaska to Mexico city, re-fueling on the run from trucks on airport runways along the way. The custom car/trailer refilled the radiator and changed oil on the run, and even had hydraulic jacks with wheels attached that enabled the passengers to change a tire while still driving! The trailer holds 230 gallons of gas, 15 gallons of oil, and 30 gallons of water (50 more held in a tank in the car). At the back of the trailer is a tiny table for eating with a nation-wide mobile phone (in 1954?), and the men used a catwalk attached to the bottom of the war to walk outside and climb onto the trailer while moving. The story behind the car/trailer was also very cool - a man named Louis Mattar built it over seven years as a hobby with $75,000 of his own money, with no sponsors.
If anyone reading this visits San Diego any time soon, you should definitely check out that museum. The Mattar car was a lot of fun to see and read about.
We just got to LA, and we're staying with Lily's uncle Bob's brother Art. I'm going to work at one of the city's great restaurants while we're here. Then it's up north along the Pacific Coast Highway towards our next week-long stop, Monterey.
-Ben
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Las Vegas - Bring Money
After two weeks visiting national parks in Utah, Lily and I were more than ready to return to civilization. We bypassed the Grand Canyon for a variety of reasons, mainly because we would have had to drive at least a few hundred miles to get there. We were ready to be back in a city - if that's what you want to call Las Vegas.
See, to me, Las Vegas is more of a giant adult-themed 24-hour amusement park than a city. It's lots of fun, but it's best when you have lots of money to blow. We were there for a few nights, and since we didn't have much disposable income (or any income at all), we spent just one day/night doing the fun things one generally does in Vegas. We had a lot of fun that night, and as a result, not so much fun the next morning. Still, we enjoyed our time there, and will be happy to return if/when we are floating in money.
Now we are in San Diego, enjoying the ocean. I still can't get over the fact that it's December, and we're wearing shorts and T-shirts. Today we biked along Mission Beach and had lunch on Ocean Beach. It's 70 degrees in December - I think I could live in a place like this.
Our camper, on the other hand, is becoming more and more of a pain in the ass to live in. The system of piping leading from our freshwater tank to the water pump decided to leak after thirty years. Today is the first day we've been able to enjoy ourselves - we've spent the past three days attempting to find a solution for a thirty year old system of water piping. I am happy to gloat that we did fix the problem, and are very proud of ourselves for figuring it out. I can guarantee you one thing: the next camper we own will not be older than we are.
-Ben
See, to me, Las Vegas is more of a giant adult-themed 24-hour amusement park than a city. It's lots of fun, but it's best when you have lots of money to blow. We were there for a few nights, and since we didn't have much disposable income (or any income at all), we spent just one day/night doing the fun things one generally does in Vegas. We had a lot of fun that night, and as a result, not so much fun the next morning. Still, we enjoyed our time there, and will be happy to return if/when we are floating in money.
Now we are in San Diego, enjoying the ocean. I still can't get over the fact that it's December, and we're wearing shorts and T-shirts. Today we biked along Mission Beach and had lunch on Ocean Beach. It's 70 degrees in December - I think I could live in a place like this.
Our camper, on the other hand, is becoming more and more of a pain in the ass to live in. The system of piping leading from our freshwater tank to the water pump decided to leak after thirty years. Today is the first day we've been able to enjoy ourselves - we've spent the past three days attempting to find a solution for a thirty year old system of water piping. I am happy to gloat that we did fix the problem, and are very proud of ourselves for figuring it out. I can guarantee you one thing: the next camper we own will not be older than we are.
-Ben
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