The Wanderful Life of Jasmine : The Road to Hollywood

After our stay in San Francisco, we headed out to our next stop--Los Angeles. There are several possible routes to get to L.A. from S.F. The long route is the coastal route that takes about 9-10 hours. The short route takes about 6 hours. For the first 2-3 hours or so, we took the coastal route which was beautiful. We had an amazing view of the mountainside and the ocean. However, we decided that we didn't want to drive for that long, so we switched over to the shorter route. I never quite realized how flat Oklahoma actually was until the drive through California. It seemed like the slopes and hills were endless.

We didn't actually stay in the center of L.A. Instead, we rented an apartment in the city of Marina Del Rey. We were about 5-10 minutes from Venice Beach and about 25 minutes from Santa Monica Beach. The apartment was super nice and spacious. It was definitely a lot better than the small, old and slightly creepy hotel in San Francisco.

After unpacking in our new apartment, we headed out to Korean town in L.A. We went to a Korean restaurant and spotted our first celebrity--a famous Korean chef that appears regularly on Korean T.V. Since I don't watch Korean T.V., I didn't know who she was. But my Korean brother-in-law and sister recognized her.

On our second day in So Cal, we headed to the beach. Our first beach stop was Venice Beach since it was very close to our apartment. The beach was very clean and the atmosphere was great. We spent a few hours relaxing on the beach, taking lots of photos, and creeping on a beautifully sculpted lifeguard that looked like he belonged on an Abercrombie advertisement. After spending a few hours on Venice Beach, we headed to the well-known Santa Monica Beach. There was much more activity on that beach than on Venice Beach. Instead of just lounging in the sand, we decided to rent bikes for an hour and bike along the beach. It was a lot of fun and a great way to take in the sights. When our hour was up, we took a stroll through the pier that was filled with food stands and bustling with entertainment. After we had enough of the beach, we headed down to L.A. to see the famous Hollywood sign. The navigation took us up a hill towards the sign, however, the route was blocked off before we could actually get to the sign. Sooooo....we parked our huge van and trespassed into the blocked off path and took some pictures near the sign before heading down. YOLO, right?

For our last day in So Cal, my parents wanted to visit Little Saigon, which has the most Vietnamese people outside of Vietnam. We spent a few hours eating and walking around the Asian Garden Mall. Then, we decided to head back to L.A. and visit the center of Hollywood. We strolled along the Walk of Fame and took touristy pictures with the stars on the ground. The Walk of Fame was crowded with tourists, people dressed as celebrities, and street shows.

While I can't see myself living in San Francisco, I can definitely see myself living in So Cal. I love the beaches, the weather and the atmosphere in general. It seems like a fun place to live for a while. I can't wait till my next trip to California now!