Friday, July 18, 2014

Los Angeles & San Diego

Dijkstra would definitely recommend taking highway 5 from South Bay to Los Angeles but he would have definitely missed The Madonna Inn; a kitschy hotel located close to San Luis Obispo. 
  

Men's bathroom is a must to visit (women's does not even come close to it).



Mostly pink and bright colored decor.




Solvang, CA is supposedly an authentic old-style danish town in the heart of California.
Located only 20 minutes off highway 101.



Danish pastries were good but not terrific, and of course over-priced.



Beautiful resting area near Goleta, CA
Latitude: 34° 28' 26.964" N
Longitude: 120° 8' 30.096" W


We were super lucky to find a free parking spot next to this Venice Beach style building.


LAPD was watching us.


And finally the Venice Beach.


Despite strong waves and currents many people were in the water and lifeguards from "Baywatch" were on a constant alert to preempt a tragedy.


As expected Venice Beach boardwalk had no shortage in weird characters and in weed.




Griffith Observatory has the best views of LA. Unfortunately for us, the observatory is closed on Mondays.
Yep, smog over the city of angels.



Apparently James Dean's "Rebel Without a Cause" was filmed right here. 


Embassy Suites Los Angeles - Downey is little expensive, $200 a night, but each suite contains 3 beds so if one squeezes 6 humanoids into a suite just the free breakfast pays off for the hotel. 



Whoever watched Beverly Hills, 90210 cannot pass Beverly Hills High without taking a picture there.


Hollywood Walk of Fame is boring but everyone has to do it, at least once.




Yes! Michael Jackson!


A new star is born!


A staircase to nowhere next to Grand Central Market.



The food at GCM is overpriced but creative.
The german sausages were mostly american.


My favorite was coddled eggs with potato puree. Or as the call it - the SLUT.


Tropicana Bakery and Cuban Cafe at Downey, CA was simply amazing.


Especially this one!


Surfing next to Pacific Beach Park in San Diego.


This beach is famous not for its calm waters (they are not) but for San Diego Sand Castles.


Unconditional Surrender or more commonly known as a sailor kissing a nurse sculpture is located near USS Midway.



USS Midway served 47 years as an air carrier and is simply the best air carrier museum in the US.
A word of warning. Parking next to the sailor statue has a two hour limit. USS Midway is just too big to see it in two hours so San Diego police is on high alert to collect money from unsuspected tourists. We parked around 2pm and the museum is open until 4pm. So ten minutes to four we started literally running towards the car and because the museum was about to close it was really difficult to get to the car on time. We were lucky. But hundreds of others were not so lucky. As we watched tourists running towards their cars, San Diego police was swift and unrepentant to do their ugly job.









The admiral had his own kitchen!


Real map from the Gulf War.



Say no to buffet style sushi. Sushiya sushi were so much better (and even cheaper overall) than any all-you-can-eat sushi I have ever tried.



Nico's Mexican Food has the best burritos in San Diego.


And we were lucky to catch Wednesday's farmers market next to the burritos place.


Mount Soledad Veterans Memorial



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