Road to Santa Barbara

Day 2
Los Angeles --> Santa Barbara, CA
Temp: Balmy. Humid California. In the words of "Throw Momma From The Train"... 'It was SULTRY... the night was SULTRY' (but the air conditioning in the car - albeit not the hotel - is AWESOME)
This post by: Craig (and Crystal... one picks up when the other leaves off with a jetlag flake-out)

So anyway, we woke up in our 1 and a half star motel in LA without incident! Crikey! All I can say is EARPLUGS FTW.

We packed and drove across LA (still with the Craig-road-freakout) and arrived in Westwood to meet Cam (who started on the same day as me in the videogame industry all those years ago. Hoorah!) at Pandemic Studios. We met, ate crackin' vegetarian Mexican, then drove with Cam to his WICKID house in the hills and trees of LA. Seriously, this was a side to LA we hadn't seen before. Booyah! There was tea, there were cats, there was an oasis in the middle of LA for all involved. Good times!

Cam and Vlad

Oh yeah, our first coffee in LA turned out to be a crackin' good one. If you're in Westwood, head on into the little shop called Profeta, directly opposite Pandemic. Great coffee, YES!

Cam's awesome (possibly misquoted) description of LA: "Los Angeles is like a schizophrenic friend: it's inappropriate and illogical at times, but displays the occasional flash of brilliance which makes the whole experience worthwhile." An apt summation.

At Cam's house, we saw his WICKID music studio.

Craig ROCKing OUT!!! in Cam's home studio

After dropping Cam back at the office, we headed on to Venice Beach. And fully and hoorah, the overcast day had by now turned into the best, sunniest, Californian afternoon EVER.



So we're wandering on a sunny beach full of stalls and shops selling t-shirts, stoner art, peace sign necklaces, marijuana doctors (who prescribe marijuana on the spot after a brief consultation), bong stalls, beggars "...spare change for marijuana...help me get high..." and Crystal says, "Let's hire bicycles!" So we do!

Coolest thing at Venice Beach? The soundtrack. Under Pressure, Radiohead, and Funky Town... TWICE.

Venice beach volleyball nets, a la Top Gun

Saddest thing we saw at Venice Beach? A phenomenally steroided 45 year old man, wearing nothing but the tattiest, most grungy, most faded USA FLAG speedos, which hung like a threadbare flag in a breezeless day over a shrivelled crotch..

(don't worry, we didn't take a photo of that)

Oddest thing we saw at Venice Beach? A couple, who had driven all the way to one of the coolest beaches around, who took out their deck chairs and picnic and sat IN THE CAR PARK NEXT TO THEIR CAR instead of walking the THREE METRES to the sand and wonder of the actual beach.

Anyway, so we drove from there to Santa Barbara. It went well, Crystal was fully good at right-hand driving YES!


And two beers and a veggie burger helped me to cope YES!

Craig unwinds with beer, fries and a bucketload of ketchup

Crystal asked for a 'low alcohol beer' and got a 'no alcohol beer' (it was surprisingly tasty).

We grabbed a hotel at a RIDICULOUSLY COMFY Best Western, and that was the night!

...stay tuned for more shenanigans, soon!