So it begins.

Another little adventure, exploring around, pondering the doings of people and places. This time around, I decided to take a peek a mainland USA, just to see what it’s like, so I chose California, mostly because it’s close (12.5 hour direct flight) and they speak some understandable form of english, although the US doesn’t officially speak english. 😛

I’d been thinking about this trip, or at least a larger variation of it for a few years, pondering where I might go, how I might go about going there and when I get there how I might get around the there while being there to be gone to. Yes.. it was complex. 😛

My original plan was far grander a tour than what I ended up doing, mostly I restricted it down due to cost… yes, cost… ever since Trump took office, and the world looked at America as a joke again, prices changed.. and the basics of it all is the currency conversion was painful, that and the cost of accommodation.

I did use AirBnB, and I must admit that my experience there was wonderful, aside from the price, that wasn’t wonderful, when they hit you up with a bunch of other “fees” … so as an example, the accommodation might cost say $70.00 per night, that’s not bad, but then a lot of them also charge a “cleaning fee”, a “Service fee” etc.. and then you need to convert that currency, and .. well.. honestly a Hotel works out better, still expensive, but better.

My Grand Plan was to fly into LA, drive to SF, cross into Canada, drive/fly to the East Coast, cross back into US, NY, PA, FL, NV, LA and then out again.. but meh.

I left myself semi flexible with my 9 days in CA, with the first few and last few set as having to be in LA.

Lets Begin.

As best I can, I will post Links to the various places I went, food, interesting stuff etc 🙂

Videos will be BELOW The introduction to each part.

Part 1 – Day 1 & 2

I left Auckland on Friday the 16th of Feb at about 11pm, and arrived at LA on Friday the 16th of Feb at about 2:30pm,… great, didn’t really lose much of a day lol.

I flew Air New Zealand because I knew as a big airline they would port fairly close to the entry/exit bits of the terminal… kinda. It was good, a good flight, i got upgraded to what they call Premium Economy (I paid for it), and it was ok.. not great, but ok. The general service and meals etc were good, i cant say the value was worth it, but it was an interesting experience.

I picked up my rental car from Hertz, which was NOT the car I had pre-booked (as a guaranteed car) I had booked and was confirmed for a Toyota Prius, and ended up with a Ford Fusion – Hertz said “Oh we don’t have Toyotas”.. Morons.

Left the airport and went to find my AirBnB in a suburb called Highland Park. The traffic in LA wasn’t too bad I guess, considering I was in peak hour traffic trying to get across town from South (LAX) to Highland Park (Northish).

After checking in at the AirBnB, i went exploring in a suburb called “Old Pasadena” because there was an Apple Store there and my iPhone was playing up, issues with the TimeZones in respect to the Calendar. I got that sorted and then went back to relax.

The next day, I wandered around the main shopping street in Highland Park called York, and it was really nice. Lots of new eateries and interesting things to see, and at night, street food!! Yeah!! 🙂

After looking around there, I found myself back at Old Pasadena where I had dinner before returning back to my AirBnB to rest up.

My AirBnB: https://www.airbnb.co.nz/rooms/11207904

Dinner: https://www.1810restaurant.com/

Apple Pasadena: https://www.apple.com/retail/pasadena/

Part 2 – Day 3

I went adventuring around and ended up at a place called Irvine in Orange Country. It was…. interesting. I spent some time here, mostly looking for a car park so i could explore.

I ended up parking at the Civic Centre (sports complex), and had a look around, it had baseball fields and stuff.. meh not my thing really.

Also made some comments about the car I had, a Ford Fusion… nice looking car, not so nice to drive.

They have a really nicely laid out walkway system, so walking from where I parked my car to the main shops was actually quite nice. Took me about 10-15 minutes casual stroll, mostly flat, and I followed a creek … very nice 🙂

Shopping at Irvine was weird, it was mostly block after block after block of apartments… intense suburbia… who’d have thought.

The shops were mostly things like fast food, and the usual “small town” type clothing/retail stuff.. nothing to write home about, although that’s what I’m doing.

I ended up having some Asian style Chicken which was meant to be spicy,  it was fairly bland… looked spicy though, but that’s about it lol.

In the video I touch upon some general observations about society and the area, and what’s happening in respect to how people are gaining access to the US via having babies.

Go check out Part 3 Day 3, the continuation 🙂

Part 3 – Day 3 (continued)

Picking up where the previous video left off (ran out of time on the video)…

I walked back to the car via the walkway, which was nice and enjoyable, the weather was very good, clear and warm, not to different to an Auckland Summer, but without the rain Hahahaha yea 😛

Found something while exploring.. watch the video to see what it is 🙂

After being done with Irvine I drove back to my AirBnB in Highland Park and went down to York again to get me some yummy street food for dinner and to see what happens at night. My AirBnB host recommended I try the street food, and she was was not wrong, it was AWESOME!!

That sums up my chill day, tomorrow, leaving LA. 🙂

Dinner: https://www.instagram.com/charliestacos01/

Part 4 – Day 4 – LA to Palm Springs / Indio – Day 1

Today I left LA and headed to Palm Springs… don’t ask why, wasn’t totally sure myself but hey, it’s an adventure right 🙂

I left early to try and not get too caught up in the traffic and for the most part it worked out nicely. Worked out what had been bugging me about the car and its handling, watch the video.

After about 1 and a half hours or so heading SOUTH, I stopped at a place called Riverside Country, where I got some breakfast at the local McDonalds, which was nasty… Also found their shopping mall, which used to be a old race track… it’s now a very large shopping complex. however, that said, many of the shops repeat themselves over and over, … so not really all that interesting.

After that, i had another 60 or so miles to my destination in Palm Springs, a place called Indio, .. the desert… cause I wanted to explore the desert and also lined up a Model to shoot out in the desert 🙂 FUN!

Driving out, there was snow, actual snow on the hills, and the temperature drops fairly dramatically, but it’s dry, so not so bad.

Got to Indio, it’s a little windy shithole of a town, with nothing much to offer, on the scale of things, it’s a lower economic area. However people were really nice and friendly.

Got myself some Viet for dinner, and crashed out.

Part 5 – Day 5 – Indio / Joshua Tree – Day 2

Day for had been planned out with two shoots, but alas one of them (the morning session) flaked out. I had met up with her the evening before to do some planning, and had a feeling it wasn’t going to happen, but that’s ok because that means I could explore the area a little.

I ventured out, and found a place called Palm Springs Tramway, it was ok, not really that interesting as I grew up in Queenstown and would be forever on the local Gondola there, but I admit, it was nice to be up in the hills again.

I found some surprisingly good coffee too 🙂

The temperature there was 17F, which was about -7.5C for me, and OMG It was LOVELY!!! The weather was dry (being the desert in all) so the air was crisp and clean, and me, being a typical Mainlander (South Islander), was in Shorts and a Teeshirt.. YESH!! People were looking at me all funny because they were wrapped up in their warm jackets lol… softies the lot of them LOL.

After that little adventure it was time to head off to my afternoon photo shoot in Joshua Tree.

I had a quick lunch at the Frontier Cafe, also where the model and I had arranged to meet. The shoot went really well, and also it was my first time shooting in such a diverse landscape as a desert, really an awesome experience and the model was awesome and such a trooper for being in the all-together in the 0 degrees weather 🙂

After shooting for a few hours there, we wrapped it up as it was getting dark and very very cold very fast, and I headed back to my hotel in Indio  and also to see the local carnival which was on.

A little inside note on the desert, the model knew the area well, but I got a bit of an eye opener… our first shoot, we were maybe about 50 meters from the car, the car was on the road/track side, and we walked to a nice spot, where the model undressed and left her clothing next to a small bush, no higher than about 30cm, we shot there a little then ran back to the car so she could warm up… I went back to where I thought her clothes were to collect them.. and spent about 10 minutes looking for them. It was then, that it came to me, though I was line of site with the car, I walked back to where i thought we had shot, only to realise that it all looks the same.. and i then understood, just how easy it is to get truly lost in such a vast space, where everything looks like everything else.

Watch the video.

Coffee: https://nz.yelp.com/biz/4-paws-coffee-co-palm-springs-2

Tramway: https://www.pstramway.com/

Frontier Cafe: http://www.cafefrontier.com/

Joshua Tree: https://www.nps.gov/jotr/index.htm

Part 6 – Day 6 – Drive to San Francisco – Part A

Today I set off on a long LONG drive from Palm Springs up to San Francisco…. and I mean LONG… LOL, I have to admit, my calculating of time was fairly terrible, cause I managed to hit LA in peak hour traffic LOL, awesome, awesome!

I decided to drive the I-5, which is the inland main freeway, because it’s faster and I needed to be up San Francisco for a booked shoot.

Leaving the North end of LA……I saw and drove into NASA-JPL .. wasn’t allowed to visit it because they only take bookings weeks and weeks in advance.. but it was trip to drive through the gates and get turned around LOL

Now, pay attention folks…

I stopped at a place called Avenal, which is pretty much half way between LA and SF. It’s also where I saw and smelt the most disgusting thing ever…. mass dairy farming in arid dry middle-of-nowhere desert. The smell was the first thing that hit me when i was driving north of Avenal, it reminded me a little of the smell from meat works.. but it was worse, .. honestly, it smelt like decaying rotting meat, shit, and whatever else, all mixed together,.. it was seriously bad, and i had to wind up all the windows cause it was making me queasy, and not afraid of dead meat, but this.. this was something all together different.

I watched a documentary on NetFlex a while back about the food industry (dairy) in the USA and how corrupt it is.. and they made mention of places like this, with snippets of video footage of horrible conditions the animals lived in.

That was what I saw.

Now I come from a dairy based country, and I know shit ain’t right here .. but this was crazy. watch the documentary.

Further up, I stopped about an hour from SF to fuel up the car and have a short break.  I made SF at a reasonable time, checked into my hotel, which was old.. clean but old…

I ventured up the road on the recommendation of the hotel manager to a dining establishment called Rocco’s for some yum Italian food.

After that, it was back to the hotel and pass out lol it was a long LONG drive and i was shattered.

NASA-JPL: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/

Documentary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food,_Inc.

Rocco’s: http://roccoscafe.com/

Part 7 – Day 7 – San Francisco & Shoot – Part B

Woke up bright and sparkly this morning and got ready for my day shoot with the model I had booked.

There’s a LOT of homeless people everywhere….

The model turned up bang on time, which was awesome and we wandered off and did the shootings.

We shot around the place and had fun and went across the Golden Gate Bridge a few times, I got an education from her about the local goings ons which was awesome.

We had lunch at a swanky Golf Club, shot some more and went home.

Part 8 – Day 8 – San Francisco Exploring – Part A

I had decided the night before that I was going to stay one more day in SF, I had a day up my sleeve so thought it would be a good idea to actually get some exploring done. I was not disappointed at all.

My model from yesterday had given me some really great tips and ideas about places to see, so, i did that, and had a explore.

I got up at a reasonable hour and looked at the map provided by the hotel, and walked my way from my hotel to what they called Union Square, where the Metro (the call it BART) and the Cable Cars are all based.  I had a light brunch there,

Along the way there, I saw even more homeless and in the video I talk about it a bit, and what is being done about it.

Watch the Video.

After brunch i caught the classic Cable Car and went for a ride. It takes you to the Piers, the well known Fishermans Wharf etc etc…

The cable car was kinda cool to ride on, i mean, its another tram right, but its an icon of SF so worth the trip.

The streets in SF are like they are in the movies… FUN! 🙂

When we got to the pier, I got off (end of the line anyway) and wandered around. There’s lots of “tourist shops” everywhere, and the usual splattering of annoying tourists… lol. A clear view of Alcatraz but who cares.

I got hungry and found a very flash seafood place to eat at called The Franciscan … this place is a MUST!!

After a very yummy feed of food of crabs and chowder and a sunday i wasn’t able to finish…. I wandered around the famous Pier 39 and looked at the shops and offerings and some seals…

By that time, it was getting dark, and i thought i should look at heading back, and decided to walk.

I went for a walk, and ended up at Starbucks (granted it was a really short walk) and rested for a bit before looking at the map and google maps to route out an idea of getting back to the hotel.

The video was too long, so part B follows…

The Franciscan: https://www.franciscanrestaurant.com/

Part 8 – Day 8 – San Francisco Exploring – Part B

Continuing on from PartA of Day 8…..

After resting up at Starbucks for a while I had planned out a rough route back to the hotel, with a walking time of about 3 hours… lol cause im mad like that, but wanted to see some of the sites at night.

After leaving Starbucks at the Wharf, I followed google for a while and saw some pretty cool things, SF at night is beautiful, so much happening.

Passed lots and lots of eateries, live music, buskers, shops open till 10pm.

I didn’t at all feel afraid. 🙂

Watch the Video.

I found ChinaTown … so I explored that a bit… there was live traditional Chinese music being played and i had to stop a while and listen, did the obligatory donation and recorded a little for the video. 🙂

I wandered in and out of lots of Chinese shops, mostly all aiming at the tourists but still cool fun to poke around.. 🙂

After ChinaTown, I kept walking, and ended up in JapanTown

Watch the Video.

It was quite a bit later by now and most everything was closed except a few restaurants where i found myself a late dinner before finishing off my walk back to the hotel.

I’m leaving the next day, so had to get packed and ready for that.

The walk back was interesting, I walked though a bunch of homeless people, who were literally camping on the street, fire going, and they were shooting up, right there… in the open.

Part 9 – Day 9 – Back to LA from San Francisco

Today marks the trip back to LA from SF, a long 9 hour drive, the plan is to leave early and get to LA at a reasonable hour, drop of the rental car a day early, and check into the Hotel at LAX, where i’ll chill.

The drive back was fairly uneventful, a long drive, with a couple of stops.

One of the places I stopped at is called Santa Nella, it’s about 2 hours south or so from SF, i stopped to get breakfast and see a war memorial for the Korean war, which didn’t exist.

Breakfast was Dennys… here’s the thing about Dennys… when I first visited the USA, it was Hawaii to visit my friend Jen, and the very first food i had there was Dennys.. so i thought this was kind of fitting.

Carrying on, I stopped at another place called Lost Hills to buy some more water and stop for a quick breather.

Next stop is a place called “Vista Del Lago” Visitors Centre. This place is quite interesting, you get to watch videos of how water gets to California, how it was routed many many years ago, and why there’s a water shortage. Totally worth a stop and visit for a half hour or so.

After that I carried on and rent directly to Hertz and dropped off the car, and caught an Uber to my hotel.. the Sheraton … swanky last night treat before I fly tomorrow.

Once booked in… I went exploring a little of Downtown LA again, see the next video below..

Vista Del Lago: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vista_del_Lago_Visitors_Center

Part 10 – Day 9 – LA Downtown at Night

So after checking in, I grabbed an Uber and went into downtown LA to a place i didn’t get a chance to visit before called “The original Farmers Market” and to be honest it wasn’t all that interesting, mostly a collection of little grocery stalls marketing themselves as organic etc.. and some food stalls, and then behind that a larger more modern shopping mall complex.

One thing of note is a store called “American Girl Place” … this place, i swear is a obvious sign of a culture going down hill rapidly… Conan O’Brian did a show about it… it was… weird… and in person, it’s messed up. Talk about teaching kids that reality isn’t good enough. Seriously, watch the video from Conan, i’ve linked it below… really… watch it…. seriously…. 😛

After that, I got another Uber to Little Tokyo, aka Japan Town LA. it was mostly closed, but there were a few things open, a few Model stores, and places to eat, it was late, i was hungry (when am I not lol) so I got some food at a quite nice Japanese eatery.

I walked around a little more and then caught another Uber back to the hotel and did some editing and went to sleep.

Tomorrow I fly out of LAX, the intention is a late checkout at 3pm, check into LAX and clear through customs.. then relax and wait for my flight.

Market: https://www.farmersmarketla.com/

Americal Girl: https://www.americangirl.com/

Conan’s Show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJpaQWWgaC8

Part 11 – Day 10 – LAX

My Final part day in LA, I got up after a very nice sleep in, hehehehehe, and went and had brunch in the fancy hotel bar and caught some video of that, so as usual…

watch the video…

After lunch, I chilled for a hour or so, then caught the shuttle from the hotel to LAX.

Departures was fairly painless to make my way around, found Air New Zealand, and checked in, way way way to early.. i had about 6 hours to waste.. OMG how….

I spent hours just walking around, looking at the same old shops over and over and over hahahah ok so now i know, i can be there 2 hours before, because I can Check In via Air New Zealand app 😛

Anyways, finally got on board, and the flight was as expected… long. watched too many movies, ate too much food, and fell asleep for short durations….

Watch the video.

What was cool was the morning, when the sun was rising as we were flying.. watch the video to see what i mean.

Landing in NZ was painless and getting through Customs was super fast and easy, caught a taxi and .. came home.

and as the song goes…. “here’s where, the story ends”.

Thank you for coming along on this small glimpse of my little adventures to California.

I hope you will take that step and go adventuring yourself.

To all the amazing people I met, I hope your respective lives are awesome and mayhaps we may meet again.

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