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Me in front of the "Hollywood" sign in Hollywood, California.
(wed/05/16/07)
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"I wish they all could be California girls..."
-The Beach Boys
About two months ago my boyfriend, who's originally from California asked me if I wanted to go to Los Angeles with him to visit his family. I said sure, and went online that night to order my plane ticket. We went on that trip about a month ago but I never got the chance to write about it. The trip happened between May 15th and May 17th, 2007. Here's what happened:
Like all native New Yorkers I had my preconceived notions about LA all set. I thought everyone would be all fake and plastic and everybody was either an actor, trying to be an actor, or a washed up actor. The concierge in me though definitely wanted to take in all the tourists sites I could. I only had two days. As soon as I arrived to LAX I was ready to hit the ground running. LA was gonna know that Adam B. Irby was there! So here's what I saw:
Day One:
Beverly Center:
We've all heard about the celebrity sightings and all the references to this mall on different TV shows and movies but finally seeing it in person I realized it's just a big ass mall. It was a cute mall, with cuter stores than your average suburban mall (we really don't do malls in New York), but a mall nevertheless. We didn't stay there long.
Hollywood:
As we drove through the streets of LA I asked my boyfriend to let me know when we were approaching Hollywood because you know I had to play the song. Jay-Z and Beyonce bumped out of the speakers as we drove down Hollywood Boulevard greeted by lines of tall palm trees on each side of us as far as the eye could see. Most people think Hollywood is a glittery and glitzy place. It's really not. The epicenter of Hollywood, Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue where Grauman's Chinese Theatre and the Walk Of Fame are is very reminiscent to Times Square. Hollywood itself looks like any normal American city with normal sized middle class housing and regular people. It was cool to see the iconic record shaped Capitol Records Building but it was kinda weird though that it leans a little to the left.
Janet Jackson's Star on The Hollywood Walk Of Fame:
I'm a huge Janet Jackson fan, actually we both are. So when my boyfriend first approached me about going to LA the first place I thought about was visiting Janet's star on the Walk Of Fame, which she got in 1990, shortly after the release of the "Rhythm Nation 1814" album. Much to my chagrin, Janet's star was in the ghetto! The Walk Of Fame was much longer than I thought running all the way from Grauman's Theatre several blocks down Hollywood Blvd and even down some side streets. Why is Janet on a side street? To be exact (click here for a Google map of the exact location of Janet's star), Janet's star is located on Vine Street between Selma Street and Sunset Blvd in the middle of the block on the right (east) side of the street next to the parking lot for Washington Mutual Bank right across the street from Smoothie King. While Vine isn't exactly a side street, why couldn't Janet be on Hollywood Boulevard closer to the Chinese Theatre? Even her producers Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis are on the main drag. I'm not gon' lie. I was a little tight about that.
The LA Subway System:
Another one of the first things I wanted to do was take the subway in LA. I actually like to try out the rapid transit system in any city I visit. Here in New York, the subway is a way of life for us, 75% of us (including me) don't drive, so it's a vital thing here and it's the fastest way to get anywhere, especially in Manhattan. In LA where everybody starts driving at 15 and where everything is at least a 30 minute drive from one thing to the next I found the subway to be pretty, very clean, well kept, efficient (for the little ground it covers, LA is big, and really spread out), and very empty. I had to convince my boyfriend to park the car he rented so we could take it as he himself had never taken it before always opting to drive like 99% of LA. There's also this thing about earthquakes and everybody's scared of being underground if one happened... pussies! What's funny was that anytime I mentioned the fact that we took the subway to every friend of his I met in LA they all gave me that same "you took the subway" weird look. What's even funnier is that the subway fare is collected on the honor system. I guess LA is trying to do anything they can do to get people to take the subway.
Downtown LA (Union Station & Olivera Street):
We took the subway to LA's Union Station, which is like LA equivalent New York's Grand Central Terminal (architecturally) and Pennsylvania Station (due to the fact that they both carry Amtrak). Union Station was one of the most beautiful municipal transportation structures I had ever seen. It's construction is a lovely mix of Art Deco and Spanish Architecture. Outside Union Station is historic Downtown Los Angeles. We stood on Olivera Street in front of an ornate cross on the spot where Los Angeles was founded. What's interesting is that Los Angeles is not the city's full name. LA's full name is: "El Pueblo De Nuestra Senora La Reina De Los Ángeles" (translated: "The Town Of Our Lady The Queen Of The Ángels", no wonder why Spanish people have so many names!), founded September 4th 1781. In case you didn't catch it yet, I'm a geography nerd, a road geek, and a history buff. You know I was living for this!
Roscoe's Chicken & Waffles:
Half the fun of traveling for me is to eat at all the different places you can't eat at at home. I already had In & Out Burger right after I got off the plane. Now it was time for dinner. I had dinner that first night at the world famous Roscoe's Chicken & Waffles (the one on Pico Blvd, there are five of them) with my boyfriend and his mother. The chicken and the waffles were excellent. It definitely lived up to all the hype.
South Central LA:
I don't like to go nowhere without visiting the hood and South Central did not disappoint. It is everything you see in the movies. We visited my boyfriend's friend's house over there and it looked just like it did in the John Singleton movies ("Poetic Justice", "Boyz In The Hood" and "Baby Boy") standing on the front stoop of the house I felt like anytime Justice and Iesha (Janet's Jackson and Regina King's character from Poetic Justice) would come walking up the block, poppin' gum and that Tupac was gon' pull up in the mail truck. Then at that instant a police helicopter flew over, it was an amazing moment.
Skid Row:
To continue my tour of the West Coast hoods I got my boo to take me on a late night drive through the back part of downtown to see Skid Row. Due to the fact that the skid row here in New York, the Bowery was cleaned up years ago (now it's the eastern border of NoLIta and lined with overpriced condos) and that our homeless population has gone down considerably (I'm not sure how though, all I know is that I don't see them so much anymore) I thought that places like LA's Skid Row couldn't possibly exist anymore, boy was I wrong. I had never seen such urban devastation in all my life. People sleeping in tents and making shanty towns on the streets, people begging and trying to get into the car even as we stopped at traffic lights. And there was a police station in the midst of it all. Why isn't anything being done about this? You wouldn't think that a place like this would lie in the shadows of the gleaming Library Tower and a few miles from Beverly Hills, Bel Air, and Malibu. I ain't gon' lie I was a bit scared being down there. It's definitely not a place I want to walk through at 1AM.
Day Two:
Hollywood... Again:
After having breakfast at a restaurant in Hollywood near where my boo used to live we drove up to the Hollywood Hills (mountains are more like it) so we could get some pictures by the world famous "Hollywood" sign. Shortly after that I met my boyfriend's father.
Beverly Hills & Bel Air:
Beverly Hills was everything I imagined. Rodeo Drive is like 5th Avenue with sunshine. All of our designer favorites Prada, Louis Vuitton, Versace, etc. were all there. On the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Rodeo Drive I was excited at the site of the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel, especially because it was the hotel used in one of my favorite movies, "Pretty Woman" starring Julia Roberts. We even had a celebrity sighting, Nicole Richie walked past us on Rodeo Drive.
The Beaches (Santa Monica Pier & Venice Beach):
After driving for what seemed like an eternity down Sunset Blvd we finally got to Pacific Coast Highway. That's it, that's the end of America. It was such a crazy thought. I had never seen the Pacific Ocean before and to know that I had traveled to the other side of the continent amazed me. We didn't spend much time at the beaches because it was still a bit too cold to be on the water. We had a funnel cake at the little amusement park on Santa Monica Pier and we got some fake designer sunglasses and matching henna tattoos at Venice Beach. Even though it was cold I still had to run out into the ocean so I could at least be able to say I dipped my feet into the Pacific.
We were supposed to go clubbing in West Hollywood (LA's gay area) that night but after we had dinner we got back to the hotel and fell asleep. And as y'all know that was fine with me 'cuz I'm not big on the clubbing thing anyway. That next morning before our flight back to New York my boyfriend and I spent some more time with his mother and grandmother. While I had a great time in LA just being able to spend the time with my boo made it all worthwhile.
It's so crazy how this dude all the way from LA came into my life when I wasn't even looking for him. Because New York dudes definitely weren't doing for me. Y'all know, you read the blog. What was so great about that trip was how happy we were then and how he introduced me to his family and friends. Being able to type this now as he lies here asleep next to me knowing that we are even happier now is amazing. I wish they all could be California boys, then maybe some of y'all single hos could be a little happier!
