Outlets, Random Things and the Road to San Fran

We both went straight to bed after the fireworks on the 4th so I have to recap two days worth of experiences. The 4th started off as usual with our visit to the local place for a late breakfast. I had the skillet with chorizo and scrambled eggs and Simone had oatmeal and scrambled eggs - the rest she didn't eat because apparently it was a bit gross.

Our first plan was to get Simone's camera checked out at Samy's, turned out that shop was one of those that was closed on the 4th. The good thing is we walked past this place:

Unfortunately that one was closed as well, so I didn't get to check it out :(
Below are some photos Simone tool of a local petrol station, looking a bit different from the usual.

After our failed trip to the camera store we made our way to the big outlet mall. It took us an hour and a half to get there by bus, but all the bus rides we took had the advantage of showing us parts of LA you don't usually get to see. Once we arrived it was very much a tourist mecca, Asians got dropped off by the busload.

For my bro in law - an entire shop dedicated to Le Creuset cookware :)

I wanted to take a shot that showed the massive size of this mall, it turns out I took a shot of some other massive things as well :o

As a refreshment we got some frozen yoghurt. In this place you just take a size cup you want and fill it yourself with whatever flavour you're after and toppings of your choice. At the end it all gets weighed and you pay by weight. This was really yummy and refreshing on a rather hot day.

In the evening we made our way to Exposition Park. When we read "food vendors, live entertainment" we were both expecting food vans etc, similar to what you'd get in Australia. What we got was more a block party in da hood. Let's just say that it was hard to find a Caucasian person and Simone felt especially white :) But it was all peaceful and even though police were present in larger numbers they were not needed. Below are some photos and video of what we saw.

 After getting up on the 5th we checked out of the hotel and went to pick up our rental car a few blocks away. The car is a red Ford Fusion and is pretty speccy. It's got interiour floor lighting as well as cup holder lighting, a place in the ceiling to put your glasses and the usual features like bluetooth, USB, extra charger etc. We drove to Samy's to sort out Simone's camera and got it sent to Nikon for warranty repairs/replacement. In the meantime Simone got a new camera, the D3200 which is a pretty nifty piece of kit for the price.

We stopped at the Farmer's Market for brunch, I had my first taste of gumbo much to Simone's disapproval, she reckons I should have waited for New Orleans before trying this. But my argument was that I had to have something to compare it to :)
I had a seafood gumbo which was very tasty, corn bread and mustard potato salad on the side.

On the way out we saw these, and no we did not buy any!

The following are photos and a montage video of our very scenic drive to Monterey on Highway 1.

We stopped at this place called Nepenthe, which is a restaurant located on the coast in a gorgeous spot with a great view. I was a bit sceptical about the food as the reviews of this place, whilst not outright bad, were not overly favourable. The common view was that the food was overpriced and not that great. It turns out that was not the case with our meals. Yes the food is expensive on US standards. Our mains were between $26 and $31. But the food itself was very tasty, Simone had the chicken breast and I had duck. The entire meal (drink, mains and dessert) came to $100 including tip and given the location, you really can't complain. 

This was a half basket of chips. I'm glad our waiter didn't just bring us the normal one.

Dessert was a Dutch Apple Pie with vanilla icecream. Yum!

Day 4 - Venice Beach, Santa Monica and a rant

Today we didn't have to get up super early - Simone chose to go to the gym in the morning for an 8am session and we met back at the hotel to go out. First we had brunch at our usual place (can you have a usual place after only 3 days??) - Simone had the omelette and I tried the fish tacos, which were quite tasty. I have taken a liking to the hot sauce they have there too, it's very different from Tabasco in that is isn't as aggressively spicy, but rather a more flavourful spicy.

After a long ride on the bus (1h20m) we arrived at Santa Monica pier where we had a bit of a look around. Photos are from both of us, so they may be doubling up of subjects. Speaking of photos, Simone's D5100 has packed it in with the same dreaded shutter error she had out of the box with her first model. That's pretty shocking. The camera is still under warranty but actually claiming it whilst traveling could present some challenges. We'll see how that works out.

Her immediate replacement will likely be the D3200 which has just come out and will serve her purposes the best.

 Simone had to take a photo of the Big Dean Cafe of course...

 From the pier we made our way to Venice Beach on foot, which was quite a pleasant walk. The whole beach front area is really well developed, with toilets/showers, volleyball nets, basketball courts, plenty of parking, shops etc etc. Cottesloe seems pretty pathetic in comparison. And the walk path is separate to the bike path so you stay out of each other's way. Heaps of people on bikes and rollerblades/skatboards.

Below are some photos from one of the shops there that have artists' displays in front of them. There are also heaps of medical marijuana dispensaries and hippies are everywhere. It's a show just sitting down and watching the weirdos go past. One of those preaching guys was not making friends when he stood yelling in front of people who just wanted to have catch some rays on the grass in the sun. I'm surprised he didn't have things thrown at him.

After the walk and a bit of a mission to find a shirt that Simone wanted but no shop had in her size or quality she was after, we made our way to downtown LA to have dinner and catch the movie Ted. An R rated comedy about a guy and his Teddy bear.

Spinach and Cheese dip

I had the BBQ chicken salad (shock horror!!) and no I did not eat that tower of fried onions they put on top. The salad itself was really yummy and plenty to go around.

Simone had what she thought was a single slider and sweet potato fries. Turns out she got 4 sliders. She had two, I had one and we left one.

The movie was good, but I could not believe how many very young children were in the audience. This is not a kids movie! Parents, you are idiots if you think your 4 year old child is ok to see an R rated movie that contains heavy swearing, sexual references, sex scenes and tits as well as violence. But I guess if these are the kind of parents who would say the F and the C word in front of your 4 year old, then I'm not surprised you are unfit to make an appropriate movie choice for your child. Things like that annoy me greatly and it's no wonder that kids these days grow up to be self centered assholes. Now get off my lawn!! God I feel old sometimes *sigh*.

Tomorrow is of course the 4th of July and Simone has chosen a good location to go to to catch some celebrations and the fireworks in the evening.