DAY ONE (19 September 2015):
This vacation trip to the Los Angeles region had been in the planning
stages since the end of 2014, when I first started going out there for
work. I’d pick up brochures from the
kiosk at the hotel of interesting places that I wanted to check out if I had
the opportunity. Since my yearly
vacation with the parents has been consisting of them flying to another city
and me meeting them there, it made since to do it here as I was quickly getting
familiar with the area. And I figured
all the reward points I was earning from hotel stays and car rentals would
build up so it would offset the cost to visit.
The plans to visit here got put on hold at the
beginning of 2015 when my personal life exploded, and the person who was
supposed to be joining us on this trip (as part of the “meet the parents” stage
of the relationship) was no longer in the picture. As the year passed the half-way mark, and I
began to heal from those events, the plan was set in motion again. The only change, other than the obvious, was
the logistics of it.
As my company had decided that it cost too much
to send my counterparts and I to our respective regions in the L.A. basin (as it was said it “wasn’t
necessary” to interface directly with our dealerships and customers), I hadn’t
earned as many reward points as previously planned. Also, the original idea was to be in the
region for my “work week,” and then pick up my parents when they flew into LAX,
so we’d have the following week as “vacation week.” They would’ve stayed in the same hotel I’d
been staying in, so I wouldn’t have to change reservations and crap like that.
The L.A.
travel journals I’d been keeping while at work had started to get repetitious,
as there were only so many ways I could describe the same places I was going
for work. The last full entries of daily
travel had been the January 2015 entries, as February I only noted a couple of
the special side trips I did, and didn’t keep any notes on the subsequent
visits (excepting for what was needed to write Trip Advisor articles). And since it’d been a couple months since my
last business trip here, I was looking forward to returning to the area, and
seeing what (if anything) had changed.
I booked myself the earliest flight as possible from
Austin , so I’d arrive in L.A. after 8 am. While it’d still be hours until the hotel
would allow me to check-in, I figured I could make a couple quick stops before
Mum & Dad arrived … then they let me know they were coming on a 10 am
flight. Well, no reason to hang about
the airport, but I didn’t want to go too far away either. I had the idea of visiting a couple of my
dealership for a social call (at least the ones who the contacts had moved from
business relationships to friendships), but many of them didn’t work the
weekends. I then remembered something
which had been on my list to do on the last couple trips out, but I was just
never able to fit it in.
I drove down to Torrance to make a quick visit to a place
which had been on my list ever since I realized where it was. On my business trips, I’d always visit my
dealer in Torrance
on the morning of my final day, as it was easy to get to the airport from
there. I knew a particular building had
been used for the exterior shots of a show I liked, and I didn’t even consider
looking for it until my March trip.
Turned out this place was only mere blocks from my dealer, but visiting
there on a week day could’ve presented a problem.
It was easy to get to, and had a small car park
in front of it where I could leave Becca (which was the name my rental car had
given me). I was able to snap a few
exterior shots, and that was it. I could
see some landscaping was going on, and I didn’t want to go wandering around the
area. While it’s a public place, there’s
still the creep factor of doing that.
Had I seen an authority figure there, I would’ve asked if it was okay to
do so (which I’m sure I wasn’t the first tourist asshole to do so).
In order to take pictures, I use the actual camera
(because it has an awesome zoom, and able to take steady shots), and the phone
(for when I want to quickly send a shot in a text message). I sent a picture of the school to a couple of
my friends with the caption of “I’m visiting the Hellmouth” to those few who’d
get the reference.
After that, I find a nearby coffee shop that I
was able to sit in a shaded outdoor patio area to have a drink and a light
snack until it was time to head back to LAX to pick up Mum & Dad. I knew we were going to have lunch once
they’d arrived, I wasn’t going to be able to hold out that long without
something light to nibble on. Oh, by the
way, the coffee shop I was at was an annex to a gas station, so it wasn’t even
worth writing a Trip Advisor article on.
When I was nearly at LAX, I could see a SouthWest plane coming in for a
landing. Since it was around the time of
Mum & Dad’s projected arrival time, I knew I’d joke with them later that I
saw them land. I parked Becca and went
across to the baggage claim area I was only at a couple hours earlier. I felt like a local waiting for them to
appears, although I guess you could say in a way I was.
Once we gotten their luggage, it was a quick
drive down the 405 to Seal Beach ,
where we’d be staying. I commented that
driving in Los Angeles was like driving in Austin , except instead of
three lanes of traffic going in one direction there were six. Mum’s comment was better me than her having
to drive it. Since it was still early to
get into the hotel, our first stop was lunch, and what better place to do that
than Main Street , Seal Beach
Arriving at the Hampton Inn, the people behind
the front desk did recognize me from my previous business trips, which was a
nice touch. With our baggage dropped off
and tummies filled, today would be a short day (as Mum & Dad had been up at
an even earlier hour to make their flight, and they’d be catching up on sleep
tonight). In order for them to get the
guided tour experience, I drove them down Pacific Coast Highway all the way past Laguna Beach .
It was great to enjoy the view, but hard for me
to take pictures as I drove. We noted
not how close various houses were to each other, but the way they were built in
the terraced landscape. Now when you
hear about heavy rains causing mudslides which wash away homes, you
understood. But the natural vistas were
what we preferred to see, and Mum commented that she thought Crystal Cove was
very pretty.
After a light dinner where we planned the next
day’s activities, I took in my ritualistic sunset view from the Seal Beach
Pier. Every night when I was here for
business (when possible), I’d walk the pier and watch the sunset, and I planned
to do that as many evenings as possible this time. Being able to see that was always something I’d
considered a work-perk and a gift, and I wanted to enjoy that gift as much as
possible this week.
One of the reasons why I chose to stay at this
property for the vacation was not just the location, but the breakfast. There are cheaper places in the area to stay,
but then it’d end like the Houston
trip we did in 2013 where we ended up needing to purchase food every morning
(thus creating a greater trip cost). And
I had a plan to use the exercise room both morning and evening in order to get
some additional miles in, as Mum & Dad aren’t into doing things where they
have to walk a long distance. There is a
method to my madness when I plan things.
More Information on Places Visited or Mentioned:
Los
Angeles (CA): https://www.lacity.org/
Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffy_the_Vampire_Slayer
The Hangout:
http://www.thehangoutrestaurant.com/
Crystal Cove:
http://www.crystalcovestatepark.org/
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