Random day in LA for no reason

Nov. 20, 2009

Los Angeles

(Mostly pictures of the Hollywood Sign and Wooly Mammoths)

Due to the fact that my very LIFE was a vacation living out in California, I actually had a lot of vacation days built up, so I decided to take this Friday off to go dick around somewhere in Southern Cali. It was the Friday right before the week of Thanksgiving, and Papa and Mama Sevs were coming out to San Francisco for the week, so I was all "GUESS WHAT, I'm extending this vacation." So yeah, I got up real early on Friday and drove down to LA. That's something a normal person would do, right?
First thing I did was drive up to the Hollywood sign, because the last time I was there it was super dark and looked real shitty. This time it was significantly better conditions.

This is about as close as you can get by just randomly driving around a neighborhood

Not too crazy. I then went down into the city to see the La Brea tar pits. Smelled pretty terrible, but it was interesting to see.

"Saaaave meeee Jeebus!"

They even had a cool little museum about prehistoric animals caught in tar pits! I got in for free with my military ID (working on a naval base has its perks) and saw DINOSAUR BONES w000000t! You could even see the labs where research was being done.

These are the true miracle workers of Jurassic Park

It was about that time that I said to myself "Self, you should go check out the beaches. I hear they are pretty 'fly.'" (That's what the kids are calling it these days, right?) Venice Beach is pretty awesome. Quintessential California beach: people playing volleyball, teenagers skateboarding, ROLLERBLADES EVERYWHERE. I hung out there, then drove up the Pacific Coast Highway past a bunch of other really cool beaches. So stereotypical. But so beautiful.

Pacific Coast Highway: great road, or GREATEST road?

I decided to spend the night at Jimmy's place, who lives in San Jose, near San Francisco. That would get me closer to the city to meet my parents when they arrived at their hotel the next day. It was an awesome day, so I drove up the Pacific Coast Highway most of the way to San Jose. This is something every American should do in their lives. Preferably with a convertible. It's just so... I can't think of a descriptive enough word, so I'm going with my fallback here: AWESOME. Sure I spent about $40 in gas that day. TOTALLY WORTH IT. I got to Jimmy's place around the time the Sun set, so we just hung out at his place for the night.