National Lampoon's (California) Vacation Part II
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 12
Having hit the Getty and the touristy Hollywood Walk of Fame, we didn't really deem it necessary to spend another night in Los Angeles. So we loaded up the rental and checked out of our room at the Best Western Hollywood Hills Hotel. Our hotel, by the way, had by far, the nicest room I have ever stayed in at a Best Western. I know that may not sound like much of a compliment, but Megan and I stayed at Best Western hotels in both Florence and Venice in Italy, and neither of those matched their Hollywood counterpart's elegance. That said, we were never forced to call the front desk in Italy because 15-20 jackasses decided to form a chorus and start singing Latino pop songs around the pool at 3:00 AM either. To their credit, the front desk squashed the little sing-a-long in a hurry, so I'm not going to hold it against them. Let's just say that I was extra thankful the next morning that the hotel was connected to the 101 Coffee Shop, a somewhat famous LA coffee house. Anyhow, if you ever want to visit Hollywood, I would actually recommend this hotel because it's cheap, the rooms are nice, and its a good location.
Before totally making our exodus from LA, we still had a couple of stops to make. We began by checking out the Los Angeles Farmers Market and having a delicious breakfast there at the Kokomo Kafe, where Megan swears she saw Noah Baumbach. After browsing the shops and stands at the Farmers Market, we did a little shopping at an outstanding outdoor mall right next door called The Grove. Both the Farmers Market and The Grove are definitely worth checking out if you're in the area, especially if you like shopping. And unlike Rodeo Drive, which we cruised through next, you'll actually be able to afford to by stuff there. Since neither of us saw much point in shopping at stores that sell purses that cost more than our cars, we didn't even stop along Rodeo and continued to Santa Monica Pier.
I know that Santa Monica Pier is the West Coast's oldest pier and is designated a National Historic Landmark, but really, it's kind of lame. It's probably a cooler place to be for kids, or if the weather is nice, but since we had neither of these acting in our favor, we were pretty underwhelmed. After we had enough of the cold wind, the fine mist it was nearly soaking us with, and the plethora of annoying tourists, we grabbed some carnival-style snacks for the road, but not before Megan re-lived her favorite scene from Big and made a wish at Zoltar.
Megan must have wished for better weather, because as soon as we got back in the car and began making our way North up the Pacific Coast Highway, the sun came out and it was nice enough to visit a beach in Malibu.
After our relaxing walk along the beach, continued our trip up North. The drive along Pacific Coast Highway was amazing. The highway twists and turns along the coast and offers majestic views of the ocean on one side, with equally captivating views of the mountains and valleys on the other. If you're ever out West, a road trip along the PCH is well worth your time.
As I've been saying, the drive North towards San Simian was spectacular. However, the only real SNAFU we had took place during this portion of our trip. Along the PCH, it seemed like you came across a new town every 5 minutes or so. Seriously, most towns just bled into new ones, with little if any space in between. This seemed pretty logical to me, as everyone knows beachfront property is in such high demand. Needless to say, I wasn't really too concerned about my gas gauge as their seemed to be no shortage of towns to stop and fill up. That is, of course, until it got dark and the fuel light came on. Suddenly, we were miles away from civilization and looked to be in dire straights. The situation got worse, when we saw a sign for a town called Lompoc, which directed us away from the main highway. Seeing little choice, we took the road leading to Lompoc which seemed to lead us only deeper into the mountains. It was only after we had already committed to driving to Lompoc that we were graced with a sign which read Lompoc: 30 Miles. I don't remember ever being so stressed about running out of gas. As we drove up and down the mountain roads, and I watched the gas gauge creep closer and closer to E, Megan and I began taking note of the location of call boxes along the road and how far we were from each one as we passed them. Did I mention I had to pee like a race horse, as well? When we finally saw the lights of Lompoc, I was elated, but pretty certain that if I didn't make the right call on where to actually get gas, we could still stall out in the middle of town. Luckily, I took a quick left, and found a gas station with fuel to spare. Unfortunately, the didn't have a restroom and I had to drive across to the street to a bowling alley. Definitely a harrowing experience, but it was also comforting to find that no matter where you go in this country of ours, bowling alleys are not only a mainstay, but they're also pretty much the same and attract pretty much the same kind of people.
After our little adventure in Lompoc, we took a highway out of town and linked back up with the PCH and once we hit San Luis Obispo, we decided it was time to find a hotel for the night. We hadn't booked a hotel for the night since we were unsure exactly how far North we would get before we wanted to call it a day. Cruising down the highway we passed a Motel 6, which sounded good enough especially considering the Lompoc mishap, but we decided to check out the next couple of exits first. And are we ever glad we did, because just up the road we saw a structure illuminating the night sky that caused us both to exclaim "What was that?!?" What it was, my friends was where we ended up staying the night, a hotel called The Madonna Inn.
Since the Madonna Inn is worthy of a post all it's own, I'll leave my little travelogue here until next time.
Having hit the Getty and the touristy Hollywood Walk of Fame, we didn't really deem it necessary to spend another night in Los Angeles. So we loaded up the rental and checked out of our room at the Best Western Hollywood Hills Hotel. Our hotel, by the way, had by far, the nicest room I have ever stayed in at a Best Western. I know that may not sound like much of a compliment, but Megan and I stayed at Best Western hotels in both Florence and Venice in Italy, and neither of those matched their Hollywood counterpart's elegance. That said, we were never forced to call the front desk in Italy because 15-20 jackasses decided to form a chorus and start singing Latino pop songs around the pool at 3:00 AM either. To their credit, the front desk squashed the little sing-a-long in a hurry, so I'm not going to hold it against them. Let's just say that I was extra thankful the next morning that the hotel was connected to the 101 Coffee Shop, a somewhat famous LA coffee house. Anyhow, if you ever want to visit Hollywood, I would actually recommend this hotel because it's cheap, the rooms are nice, and its a good location.
Before totally making our exodus from LA, we still had a couple of stops to make. We began by checking out the Los Angeles Farmers Market and having a delicious breakfast there at the Kokomo Kafe, where Megan swears she saw Noah Baumbach. After browsing the shops and stands at the Farmers Market, we did a little shopping at an outstanding outdoor mall right next door called The Grove. Both the Farmers Market and The Grove are definitely worth checking out if you're in the area, especially if you like shopping. And unlike Rodeo Drive, which we cruised through next, you'll actually be able to afford to by stuff there. Since neither of us saw much point in shopping at stores that sell purses that cost more than our cars, we didn't even stop along Rodeo and continued to Santa Monica Pier.
I know that Santa Monica Pier is the West Coast's oldest pier and is designated a National Historic Landmark, but really, it's kind of lame. It's probably a cooler place to be for kids, or if the weather is nice, but since we had neither of these acting in our favor, we were pretty underwhelmed. After we had enough of the cold wind, the fine mist it was nearly soaking us with, and the plethora of annoying tourists, we grabbed some carnival-style snacks for the road, but not before Megan re-lived her favorite scene from Big and made a wish at Zoltar.Megan must have wished for better weather, because as soon as we got back in the car and began making our way North up the Pacific Coast Highway, the sun came out and it was nice enough to visit a beach in Malibu.
After our relaxing walk along the beach, continued our trip up North. The drive along Pacific Coast Highway was amazing. The highway twists and turns along the coast and offers majestic views of the ocean on one side, with equally captivating views of the mountains and valleys on the other. If you're ever out West, a road trip along the PCH is well worth your time.As I've been saying, the drive North towards San Simian was spectacular. However, the only real SNAFU we had took place during this portion of our trip. Along the PCH, it seemed like you came across a new town every 5 minutes or so. Seriously, most towns just bled into new ones, with little if any space in between. This seemed pretty logical to me, as everyone knows beachfront property is in such high demand. Needless to say, I wasn't really too concerned about my gas gauge as their seemed to be no shortage of towns to stop and fill up. That is, of course, until it got dark and the fuel light came on. Suddenly, we were miles away from civilization and looked to be in dire straights. The situation got worse, when we saw a sign for a town called Lompoc, which directed us away from the main highway. Seeing little choice, we took the road leading to Lompoc which seemed to lead us only deeper into the mountains. It was only after we had already committed to driving to Lompoc that we were graced with a sign which read Lompoc: 30 Miles. I don't remember ever being so stressed about running out of gas. As we drove up and down the mountain roads, and I watched the gas gauge creep closer and closer to E, Megan and I began taking note of the location of call boxes along the road and how far we were from each one as we passed them. Did I mention I had to pee like a race horse, as well? When we finally saw the lights of Lompoc, I was elated, but pretty certain that if I didn't make the right call on where to actually get gas, we could still stall out in the middle of town. Luckily, I took a quick left, and found a gas station with fuel to spare. Unfortunately, the didn't have a restroom and I had to drive across to the street to a bowling alley. Definitely a harrowing experience, but it was also comforting to find that no matter where you go in this country of ours, bowling alleys are not only a mainstay, but they're also pretty much the same and attract pretty much the same kind of people.
After our little adventure in Lompoc, we took a highway out of town and linked back up with the PCH and once we hit San Luis Obispo, we decided it was time to find a hotel for the night. We hadn't booked a hotel for the night since we were unsure exactly how far North we would get before we wanted to call it a day. Cruising down the highway we passed a Motel 6, which sounded good enough especially considering the Lompoc mishap, but we decided to check out the next couple of exits first. And are we ever glad we did, because just up the road we saw a structure illuminating the night sky that caused us both to exclaim "What was that?!?" What it was, my friends was where we ended up staying the night, a hotel called The Madonna Inn.
Since the Madonna Inn is worthy of a post all it's own, I'll leave my little travelogue here until next time.
posted by Christian at 8:50 AM
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