By: Ethan Levine
7/11/03 – 7/18/03
Ah, so we eventually crossed the border into California. Let’s just say I didn’t think a place existed that had more traffic than the New York, New Jersey, Long Island area until we got to California. It took six and a half hours to get from Vegas
 to San Diego. Megan had told us it would only take three hours (this mistake was  cleared up as it should take 4-5 hours when we arrived).
Well, we eventually arrived at San Diego. We were staying with Hannah, a friend from Dartmouth. Actually at this juncture in the trip, Hannah was going to accompany us up to San Francisco on our tour of California. She lives in a beautiful house in Del Mar that overlooks the Pacific Ocean. And when I say house, I’m talking three buildings with an entrance gate. Marc and I got to share one building to ourselves. It was extremely beautiful.
We were most definitely hungry and Hannah and her mother did the sweetest thing for me. They had gone out to get kosher chicken for us so I could eat meat. It was really thoughtful and the dinner we had was clearly the best I had since I left. We even lit the Shabbat candles for Friday night. I was so happy. Also, another surprise occurred when Hannah handed me yet another package from Becca. She had sent me another care package on our sixth month anniversary. It definitely made me smile.
That evening we tentatively planned out our trip through California and in the process made a decision that we’d stay the next day to take it easy and spend another night at Hannah’s house.
The following morning, Megan, Hannah and myself got up early to take a beautiful hike  through Torrey Pines State Park. It took us through the hilly area leading up to the coastline and then along the San Diego beach. It was a wonderful way to start the day with its breathtaking sites (see Picture #1, see Picture #2, see Picture #3). We ate really good crepes when we got back courtesy of Hannah’s mom. Thereafter, Marc and I decided to hang around and relax while Megan and Hannah decided to go off on their own into San Diego.
Personally, I got a chance to catch up with these updates and more importantly, finish the fifth Harry Potter! So good! Easily the best one yet. I’m just not psyched to wait another 10 years for the sixth one to come out. C’mon J.K. Rowling! Anyways, I ended up typing these updates on the porch in the sun. Wow, the weather here is fabulous. In the 80s probably, sunny and no humidity. I’m gonna like this upcoming week.
That evening we relaxed, made ourselves dinner, and took a short bath in Hannah’s Jacuzzi. It was really nice and relaxing sitting outside underneath the stars and moon. We retired pretty early that night as we had a big day ahead of us the following day.
The next morning we were treated to some good bagels. Einstein Bros bagels are pretty good; a little mushy, but for the West Coast I was pretty impressed. We then drove up to Los Angeles. I’m telling you, the traffic is probably the worst in  the L.A. area. I felt whenever we used any of the interstates in the area there was traffic. Even at 10:30 AM the following morning it took us a half hour to go like 10 miles. I’d hate to drive during rush hour.
We eventually reached Santa Monica where we hung out at the pier. It seems as if the Santa Monica Pier is a haven for homeless people. I guess if I were homeless, Southern California would be the way to go; the weather is the best year round and when you’re sleeping outside every night, that’s something you gotta consider. Now, I heard all these great things about the Santa Monica pier, but to be honest, I wasn’t all that impressed; sure it was a big pier, but it was kinda small relative to places I’ve been in New Jersey, specifically Seaside (see Picture #4). It seemed like it was just the quarter the size of Seaside. You know when you start comparing something to Seaside, NJ, there’s a problem. Then we walked south down Venice Beach which was pretty cool. Unfortunately, we didn’t really have the energy to go all the way down to where the freaks were, but we passed the Muscle Beach and other places along the way. Seemed pretty cool.
Thereafter, we walked along the Promenade and met up with my friend Matt from Dartmouth, whose house we were gonna stay at that night. We grabbed a Jamba Juice. Mmmmm, wish they had these places on the East coast. Those are some good drinks. It’s like a meal in a cup.
We then took a driving tour of L.A., going through UCLA, Beverly Hills and Hollywood. Marc almost got us killed going through a 4 way stop sign trying to follow Matt. They have them all over the place, I don’t get them. One way should have the right of way and the other way should have the stop sign. Or just have freaking traffic lights. In Beverly Hills, we got out and walked down  Rodeo Drive (see Picture #5). I was thinking of getting something there, especially something from the art gallery exhibition we walked into which featured original Rembrandts, Picassos, and Mattisses. Let’s just say I was lucky that it was a Sunday and many of the stores were closed while walking with Megan and Hannah.
Afterwards, Matt took us to see the Grauman Chinese Theater in Hollywood (see Picture #6) where the Walk of Fame is and you can see movie stars’ footprints and handprints cemented in the ground (see Picture #7). Then Matt took us up to see the Hollywood Sign which gave you a spectacular view of the countryside (see Picture #8, see Picture #9). We were getting pretty hungry and decided to go to Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffle House (highly recommended from many sources). Yep, that’s right, chicken and waffles, what a combo. I opted for the waffles, extremely good! Megan was discussing how she should come up with a restaurant with an odd combo. I suggested kiwi and beef, they’re both good, right? Well, the suggestion was not well received, oh well, I tried.
We headed back to Matt’s house for the evening which was an old Spanish style house from the 1920’s. It was really nice minus the no air conditioning; well,  at least we weren’t in the southwest anymore. We tried to go see Pirates of the Caribbean, but it was sold out. After much discussion in the video rental store, we selected Simone. Needless to say, I passed out 5 minutes into the movie.
The following morning we headed out towards Santa Barbara. I got to drive up along the Pacific Coast Highway with the mountains to my right and the Pacific Ocean to my left, it was a really fun drive. We were checking out a bunch of campsites at beaches, but we didn’t realize that these campsites were away from the beach with beach access, so we were like, ok, let’s just sleep on the beach that night.
We walked around Santa Barbara for a bit. It really is a beautiful town with a ton of restaurants and shops (see Picture #10, see Picture #11). Afterwards, Megan, Hannah, and I hung out on the beach while Marc took advantage of the free Internet access at the nearby Borders. The beach was quite relaxing and by late afternoon, the weather was really enjoyable (see Picture #12). We grabbed some food at the supermarket and then headed to a spot on the beach where we used the portable stove to cook ourselves dinner (or maybe I should say where Megan cooked us dinner). We were a bit sketched out by the homeless people sleeping right by us, but I looked at it as a cultural experience :) It was a beautiful night and we easily fell asleep after having a couple glasses of wine each (yea, alcohol was definitely illegal on the beach).
When we woke up in the morning everything was soaked from the moisture or something like that. Oh well, I guessed they’d eventually dry. Plus it was my Birthday!!!  Woo Hoo! All presents should be sent to 8 Thurston Drive; Livingston, NJ 07039; I will receive them when I arrive home. Thanks in advance.  At the crack of dawn, the brilliant duo, Megan and Hannah decided to go skinny dipping in the ocean in the 60 degree weather. Let’s just say I was fortunate they didn’t invite me for various reasons. Megan and Hannah had ‘secretly’ planned to cook something for breakfast in the morning; French toast and eggs. Not that I didn’t realize something fishy was going on when they told me at the supermarket they had to go get some “other” things for themselves. I’m good at playing dumb (sometimes I don’t play it I guess). Mmmm, it was really good and a great start to the day!
So, we began heading up North to San Simeone where Hearst Castle was located. When we arrived there we were unpleasantly surprised when they let us know that we had to wait almost 2 hours for our tour. Fortunately, they had a stellar 45 minute movie available for us. Unfortunately, their A/V equipment was malfunctioning and we had the pleasure to view this ‘fabulous’ movie sitting 50 feet away on a 17 inch TV screen. The tour itself was amazing; Hearst Castle was a beautiful blend of Greek, Roman, French and Spanish architecture thrown into one complex. Whether it was the Neptune Pool (see Picture #13), the castle itself (see Picture #14), its rooms, or the Roman Baths (see Picture #15), everything was spectacular. Wayne, our tour guide, was a little quirky, but made sure Marc was ostracized from the group by using flash photography when it wasn’t allowed. Overall, definitely worth the $18 for the tour. 
Afterwards, we headed towards Monterey via the cliffs of the Pacific Coast Highway. The Pacific Coast Highway was a beautiful drive with awesome views. Clearly, we were fearing for our lives around 20 mile per hour blind turns with 500 foot cliffs to our side. Along the way we stopped a few times at vistas and got some sweet views (see Picture #16). The drive took a bit longer than anticipated so we drove straight through into San Jose where we were going to spend the night with my friend Tina and her family.
Tina and her parents were so hospitable to all of us. We arrived and sat down immediately for dinner. Her family is Italian and they had prepared an Italian meal for us. Her mother served us a lasagna type dish with focacia on the table. I figured, wow, this is a really nice dinner. So, when she asked if I wanted seconds, I figured sure, I’ll have a little bit. Little did I know, that was just the first course. Well, let’s just say we were fed quite well that night (see Picture #17). Since it was my birthday, they put a couple of candles in a Tiramasu cake (which was SO good!). We went to bed pretty early that night as our stomachs were still digesting the massive amounts of food.
The following morning we thought we’d get a fairly early start, but didn’t realize we’d have another multi-course meal for breakfast. Then Tina’s mother gave us an entire orchard of plums as well as a whole bakery’s worth of bread to take with us. They were so nice and made sure we were eating enough. Looks like Jewish families and Italian families have a lot in common.
Eventually, we got on the road and headed southwest to Santa Cruz for the morning where we checked out the boardwalk there. Afterwards, we visited UC – Santa Cruz where they have beautiful redwood forests and we ate our lunch enveloped by huge redwood trees.
That afternoon we drove up to San Francisco where we first headed towards the Golden Gate Bridge. The bridge is absolutely beautiful (see Picture #18) and you could also see a pretty nice view of Alcatraz. Afterwards, we navigated our way through the hilly streets to Ghiradelli Square. That’s right, as in the chocolates. They had a factory and ice cream shoppe there which had free samples as you walked in the door. I’ll be honest, I walked in and out of the door a few times in order to get some of that free chocolate. Hannah, Megan and I shared a banana split while Marc had, guess what? A chocolate milk. Well, at first they said they didn’t have it. Ghiradelli Factory (see Picture #19) doesn’t have CHOCOLATE milk? Well, let’s just say that after asking the manager, Marc was somehow able to obtain a glass (who would’ve figured?).
We traveled to downtown in search of a restaurant to go for my birthday. Yea, it was the day after and I had eaten everything but the kitchen sink the night before, but the three of them insisted upon treating me to dinner for my birthday (I’ll be honest, I didn’t argue all that much with them; it really was very nice of them). Eventually, courtesy of Let’s Go, we went to this trendy place called LuLu’s in the South of Market district. The food was SO good. Mmmm….By far the best restaurant we had eaten at on this trip. I guess there’s not much competition when you’re pitting this place against Wendy’s and Quizno’s Subs.
Afterwards, we dropped off Megan and Hannah as they were going to stay with a friend in San Mateo while Marc and I were going into Berkley to stay with a friend from high school, Steve. We drove over the Bay Bridge which I think has to be longest bridge ever created. It was like 5 or so miles long. Ridiculous. They only charge a toll one way over the bridge, inbound into San Francisco. Funny though, usually you get hit up for that eventually, but we weren’t planning on driving back into San Francisco so we got away without paying the toll. Budget trip, sweet.
We eventually found Steve’s place in downtown Berkley where we hung out, caught up and went to bed. The following morning we had to get up really early because Steve had an interview in the city with a temp agency. Oh, it looks like some people are doing useful stuff with their summers unlike the three of us. Oh well, at least we’re having a great time.  While Steve was interviewing, Marc stopped in two different cell phone stores and a watch shop to get his cell phone and watch fixed. See, the day before, in Union Square, Marc and I raced each other and he broke his watch on my arm. Don’t ask, I have no idea. We then walked down to Pac Bell Park, the home of the San Francisco Giants to see if we could pick up some tickets for that evening’s game. Fortunately, we were able to obtain some pretty sweet seats. The stadium is absolutely beautiful, just built about 3 years ago; I got really psyched up for the game later that day. We headed back up towards Steve to meet up with him after his interview. We stopped at another cell phone store along the way. After meeting up with him, we stopped at a couple more cell phone stores. Sometimes, the sights that make a city  unique aren’t enough for Marc, he likes to check out the cell phone stores too.
Eventually we started to tour and we took a walk through Chinatown which is apparently the biggest Chinatown in the U.S. (see Picture #20). It was cool to walk along the streets going into the shops and see all of these cheap trinkets. The people were pretty nice for the most part, except when we went into this one store. I was examining something, by picking it up and looking at it, deciding whether or not I wanted to buy it. The dude in the store yelled at me, “Look with your eyes, not with your hands.” First of all, I’m not 5 years old and need to be yelled at like you’re my mother. Second of all, duh, that’s what eyes are for, I don’t need a Kindergarten lesson. So, I obnoxiously picked it up again, put it down and walked out. The next store over, I bought one.
After Chinatown, we walked through North Beach which appeared to have some really nice Italian restaurants on our way up to Fisherman’s Wharf. At Fisherman’s Wharf, we walked around and got some nice views of Alcatraz (see Picture #21). We also got a chance to see the sea lions there (see Picture #22). Afterwards, we rode one of the cable cars back to the main area of the city go pick up Marc’s cell phone
Steve then left us as Marc and I grabbed some dinner before the baseball game. We took one of the aboveground subway  lines to the game and got to our seats. Pacific Bell park is  absolutely beautiful from the inside (see Picture #23) as it sits right on the cove where homerun hitters like Barry Bonds splash shots into the water. Unfortunately we saw none of that. But I got a cool shot of Ray Durham hitting a single up the middle (see Picture #24). The stadium is a bit on the small side, seating just over 40,000. Although it was nice and new, it was still no comparison the atmosphere you’d find at Yankee Stadium. At Yankee Stadium, the crowd is awesome and you really feel into the game. At Pac Bell, you could almost doze off because it would get so quite. And it’s not like the Giants are a bad team, they went to the World Series last year and have some awesome players. But it was so quiet when a run wasn’t being scored by the Giants except for some dude behind me yelling to players and telling them to splash the ball (hit it into the cove). The most excitement occurred when everyone did the wave. Well, I must say they did a damn good wave.
We headed back to Steve’s after the game and passed out immediately, we walked a ton that day and had no energy. The following morning, Megan and Hannah took the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit System), i.e. the subway. Speaking of which, why must other cities come up with these witty acronyms or names for what can just simply be the Subway. It’s not like NY has copyrights on it or anything. The T? I mean, come on, it’s not a T, it’s a subway car. The Metro? Give me a break, it’s a subway system. The Underground? No kidding! It’s underground, it’s a subway system. Anyways, they met up with us for a quick breakfast and we headed out. After dropping Hannah off at the Oakland airport, we headed EAST! That’s right, we embarked on our return. 
Unfortunately, driving through California requires you to sit in the car three times as long as one would ordinarily sit in the car because of the wonderful traffic. We took about 4 hours to go 100 miles. Yea, not such fun times. Oh well. Eventually, we made it to Lake Tahoe just to see it (see Picture #25). And then we headed back into Nevada.
California was a great time. The place has probably the best weather I’ve ever experienced in the United States, especially up the coast line. We never needed to stay in a motel and we got a chance to camp out on the beach. The traffic is less to be desired and I’m not a big fan of the “We hate America because we’re a bunch of liberals” mentality. Overall though, the people are so nice and the cities fun, exciting and beautiful. It’s a definite “must-return-to” place in the future and I’m glad we stayed for a week.
Back East we go via Route 80. I’m hoping it’s a lot more exciting than people have told us.
Hope all is well with everyone else!
Later dudes and  dudettes (California style?),
Ethan
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