California Summer 2015 part I

Arrival in Pasadena & Santa Monica

This is the beginning of a post for our trip to the southern California area in August of 2015.  Sarah landed an intership at NASA/Caltech Jet Propulsion Lab for the summer between her sophomore and junior years at MIT.  So, seizing an opportunity, we decided it would be fun to fly out there and spend a week with her.  She set up her schedule so that she could get the Friday of the week we were there off, so we got to do two and a half days wiith her working, and three with her off.  At this time, two days before leaving, we are reading up on Disneyland and thinking about spending a day at Disneyland and another day at California Adventure.  We are evening thinking of moving from our Arcadia hotel to an Anaheim hotel for the two Disney days.  We shall see.

In an effort to pack light this trip - I am trying something new.  No computer aside from my phone and ipad on this trip.  So, to blog, I have my bluetooth keyboard and am using the wifi feature of my Olypus EM10 to transfer photos from the cameral to the ipad.  So far, it appears to be working very well.  Also, we are finding Google Now to be of incredible use for directions, finding attractions, and just al sorts of things.  

Two days later, sitting at the Gate at Newark Airport, did decide to just bring my tablet.  Waiting to board our flight to LAX.  The flight leaves at 8 am, we got up at 4 to get here, got thru security and were sitting at the gate by 6:15.  The flight is a six hour flight that lands in LA at about 11 am local time.

Two hours later, flying over western NY maybe?  We have escaped the rain that blanketed the east coast and have sunny skies and can mostly see the ground below.  Mike has the window seat and is really enjoying it,as he hasn't flown in about seven years.  Hopefully, we will do more of this in the future, as in going to Florida, or the Midwest.  We have decided that when we get to LA, we are going to look for an In and Out Burger for lunch.  

Our plan is to explore Pasadena today, Santa Monica Pier tomorrow, JPL and Caltech on Thursday, then we move to the Disney portion of the trip for Friday and Saturday, and finally, a Hollywood tour bus on Sunday.  On Monday we say good bye to Sarah and fly home on a red eye.

So, on Tuesday, after arriving in LA, we did, indeed, find a In-n-Out Burger as soon as we had our rental car.  and I am happy to say, it lived up to the hype, it was a very good burger.  Fries were good, but nothing special  We managed to get an outdoor table, and had a good lunch.  Then a frantic ride to our hotel, as we had our first taste of LA traffic.  On the way, we saw the spot where they filmed the final confrontation between Tony Stark and Jedediah in the 1st Iron Man movie, that was cool to suddenly recognize the site.  Anyway, we got checked in, rested for an hour and then headed into Pasadena.  The architecture here is awesome - lots of mission style bungalows, lots of stucco with red tile roofs.  So different than the east coast.  After driving around and touring, we picked up Saran and when to a Thai restaurant called Abricott in downtown Pasadena.  It was wonderful and we all had a great dinner.  Sarah had been there before and was happy to be our guide for that.  Then we dropped her off, headed back to the hotel after what had been a very long day.

Day 2

The next day, we got up, had breakfast and headed to downtown Pasadena, where we found the visitor's center and picked up some information on walking tours of the town.  

Next we took an hour and fifteen minute car ride to Santa Monica.  First, we discovered the Will Rogers LA County Beach, with parking at the beach for only $9.  We parked, headed down to the beach, where Mike jumped waves, and Liz and I got our feet wet in the Pacific Ocean.  I had a great time taking pictures - the beach was just beautiful and not at all crowded.   We all agreed that west coast people don't realize how lucky they are.  

Next we headed into Santa Monica, where we discovered a whole tourist area including the Santa Monical Pier and a big mall.  We ate lunch at an outdoor Mexican restaurant named the Blue Plate Taco, where we had tacos, fajitas, chips and guacamole, and finally, shared some churros for dessert.  It was delicious.  

After lunch, we walked down to the pier, where we mostly people-watched and took photos of the various attractions.  Santa Monica Pier is the official end of historic Route 66, and there are signs to commemorate it - that was a photo-op we couldn't resist.  We also posed for some pictures with the Pacific Ocean as the back drop.  It was a good day.  Heading back, we hit heavy traffic and it took about 90 minutes to go about 30 miles, but we all agreed that it had been worth it.  It was a great day.

Finally, we picked up Sarah and went to a Himalayan restaurant called Tibet Nepal House, where we had all kinds of weird but good "Himalayan spiced" food.  After driving around for a while, we dropped Sarah off and headed back to the hotel, where we all promptly fell asleep after a long and fun day.

Continue to Part II