Tag Archives: LA

Cross Country Trip, Travel

Los Angeles, California

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We find a really nice resort that is about 3 miles from both VIS and Seibon for a pretty good deal so Chris tells me to book a room for two nights. We pull in and the place has its own huge golf course, driving range, really cool outdoor area and pool. We run upstairs to shower and change and look out at our amazing view over the city. Irving comes to pick us up him and Chris meet for the first time. Chris said that Irving was a lot taller than he expected and Irving said Chris looks like the actor that plays Spiderman.

After the meet and greet, he take us out to one of the most famous Hot Dog Stands in the world, Pink’s. We drive into LA and then wait in line for over 45 minutes to get a bunch of really big hot dogs, cheese fries, hamburgers, onion rings and root beers. Talk about a delicious heart attack on a plate. We were soooooo hungry and it was such a tease to wait in line for so long smelling it. We thought we would be able to eat all the food we ordered but there was no way that was happened. We had about two hot dogs and a burger left over for breakfast the next day. We get back to the hotel around 12:30 and watched some tv and went to bed.

In the morning we both really wanted to go to the pool but Chris was backed up on work. Instead of watching tv while he worked, I went down to the pool for an hour or so while he finished up. We drove over to Seibon to meet Mikey, Chris’s sales rep there and to tour the facility. We learned a lot about the company and it was great to see how the warehouse and staff work. After a few hours at Seibon, we went over to VIS to meet Irving again and tour their warehouse. It is weird that two companies that sell a lot of the same products can run their companies so differently. VIS let us see a lot of their newer hoods and showed us how they made their body kits.

After spending all afternoon at the warehouses, we went back to the resort to rest up for an hour or so and take showers. (We actually stopped by Walmart too because I desperately needed to dye my hair. I did that the next morning).

A few hours later, Irving came and picked us up and took us to a really good Japanese restaurant. There were 5 of us eating dinner and we ordered over 20 plates of food. Irving ordered everything and we had such a good variety of amazing food, Japanese beer, and Sake. We ate, drank, and told them all about South Carolina and Clemson. Haha the one girl didn’t even know where South Carolina was!! We ate until we were stuffed and then went to consume more calories and eat ice cream. He took us to this frozen yogurt place, I am not sure what the name is but they called it Crack Berry because it is so good, it’s addicting. Chris would describe the place as Korean looking and it was delicious. We had kiwi, strawberries, and rice berries?? on it. Let’s just say at this point, I don’t think we could have eaten any more food. We get back to the hotel and we tired from eating so much and from being out all day so we just went straight to bed.

The next day we wake up and started calling all the body shops around where we were staying because the rv needed to get a tune up because something was wrong with the “lifters.” Unfortunately we were staying in a very Asian town and everyone kept saying “Oh so sorry, we no work on American cars.” We also had the problem of no one wanting to work on something so old. We finally found someone that would look at it a couple miles away. We booked an extra night at Pacific Palms resort so we didn’t have to check out of our gangsta rood and drove off to take the rv in. Instead of loading the dirt bike, Chris drove it and blocked traffic so I could change lanes easier while driving the rv. We get to the shop and the guy says that the problem is just with the oil and tells Chris how he can fix it himself.

From there we go off and get some lunch. Miss Brittney Kirk texted me and specifically told me to go to In N Out and get and animal burger. Of course and I am going to listen to her J. So we get our burgers and fries and it was defiantly worth the stop. From lunch we go back to the hotel and reeelllaxx. We were staying at this beautiful resort and barely had time to enjoy it yet. Yes it was Friday night but we didn’t even feel like going out. Instead we went to the pool for a couple of hours and then went to get a drink from the bar and sit at the huge outdoor fire pit.

Since we were at the pool, Chris had forgotten to bring down his wallet. Of course we were ided, so we had to go all the way back upstairs to prove he is 24. We though the drinks were going to be really expensive because the place looked really fancy and all the waiters were wearing tuxes but you could get anything on draft in a big glass for $5.00. We order our beers and go to sit outside. A cocktail waitress asks if we wanted any appetizers and we decided to order a few for our dinner. We got teriyaki wings, lobster tacos, and calamari. The food was all really delicious and plated really well. We had a couple more drinks and then decided to hit the hot tub.

We go to jump in the hot tub….and to our surprise it wasn’t hot. We thought that if we turned the dials on, it might heat up, but it didn’t. There were two Mexican couples sitting by the pool and they overheard us complaining about the hot tub. They call down and get the hotel staff to come out some we can tell them about it not working. His name was Jose Louis and they all live right in town. They come up and stay at the resort on weekends to relax and he said the hot tub has been broken for 4 weeks. We start chatting with them and when our beers run out, they start offering us coronas, the best way to start a friendship.

We end up hanging out with them by the pool all night laughing and making jokes. They shared their beer and we shared our moonshine. Then all even called me Marisa (like with the Spanish accent. Most of you probably don’t even know that my name is Marisa because I hate being called Marissa. Well anyways it made me miss my daddy because they said it with an accent like he does).

The two couples were so nice and we even ordered pizza and got it delivered poolside. It was around 11 when 3 hotel staff come out to tell us that the pool is closed. We tell them that we will leave when we are done. Haha (we were still grouchy about the hot tub not working) We finish our food and go to walk over to the fire pit, when Chris and I realized that moonshine had gotten us kind of drunk. We decide to go upstairs and call it a night. We made plans with them to meet in the lobby at 11 to go to this really good Mexican restaurant in the morning but we had to bail out because Chris was getting too many phone calls. We packed up and left the resort slightly more relaxed than we had been in a while.


Cross Country Trip, Travel

Where in the world are Reese and Chris???

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Yes yes most of you must be wondering where we are due to the lack of posting. We stayed in San Diego until Sunday July 6th and then left and started driving up the coast. We only drove about an hour or so because we left pretty late from Kevin’s. We also had nooo food, so before we stopped at the state park where we were going to spend the night on the beach we made a trip to Albertson’s to stock up. Of course this turned into Chris reading the newspaper as I shopped for food, but hey what do you expect, he is a boy. He did pick out a handle of Jack Daniels that was on sale for $30.

We pack up our food and drive over to San Clemente State Beach and realize that there is a “campsites full” sign outside; great, just what we needed. We decided to drive through there anyways because we were still sooo tired and recovering from our crazy week with Kevin. Luckily there was an empty spot so we plugged in and pretty much went straight to bed. The next day we woke up and tried to reserve the campsite we were staying in again for Monday night that way we would wake up at the beach on my birthday, but no it was reserved. We stayed in that spot 2 hours past what we were supposed to (we wanted to get our full $34 out of it) and when the next people were honking to get in the spot, we quickly unplugged and drove over to the beach (we didn’t have to pay the ten dollar fee to park at the beach because we had already paid to camp the night before).

We spent the whole day hanging out at the beach, napping, and watching all the surfers. The waves are pretty crazy there but the water was WAY to cold for us to go in. Right behind the little stretch of beach that we were sitting on was the oceanfront railroad tracks and we saw at least 5 passenger cars go by us that day. The sun was beginning to set, so we hiked back up to the parking lot and made dinner right there (one of the convinces of living in and rv).

It’s around ten o’clock and night and we were still homeless for the night. Chris wanted to just sleep in the parking lot at the beach but I didn’t want to wake up on my birthday to someone towing us or an expensive parking ticket. Instead we drove 2 miles away to another state campground that was also completely full. We drove through and found a nice secluded spot and plugged in. Chris made a fire and we just relaxed until midnight when….I turned 22. (I even got a really cool video of little Kuhsie duck singing happy birthday with a corn muffin and candle. Maybe I can upload it later with Chris’s help.)

We woke up and cleaned up the campsite, and then went to go take showers, which cost 25 cents for 2.5 minutes!! Well we of course have no quarters so we go up to the booth and they don’t have any change at all either. We go back to the rv and dug around for change and came up with 5 quarters to share (i wonder who used more time…).

We left the campground and continued up the coast to Laguna Beach where we were going to have lunch for the day. After the short 45 minute dive we had to figure out where we could park our house. Parking was ten dollars most places so instead of giving money to a parking lot, we decided to pay ten dollars and park at a state campground, which we ended up regretting because they were all assholes to us and kept giving us Such a hard time when we were loading and unloading the dirt bike (they even accused Chris of riding around in the park and he had to continuously tell them that we were only using it to get to town.)

Well we rode into town and drove all around Laguna Beach (to me it didn’t look the same as what the tv shows looked like). Yes the houses were all huge and nice and there were a lot of nice cars everywhere but it’s not one of my favorite stops on this trip. We find this little Mexican place that you can see the water and the beach from their balcony. I ask if they have any weekday or happy hour specials (Chris and I are always looking for a great deal) and the waiter says “um I don’t think anyone has ever asked me that before” I guess they aren’t used to cheapos like us. Well we have a nice 50 dollar Mexican food lunch and head back to the rv so we can continue onward to LA.

Chris drove this next stretch because there was no way I was going to drive the rv through LA’s traffic.  People are speeding around us left and right and blinkers, well I don’t think they mean anything to people in LA. Chris had to put on music after awhile to calm his road rage. We get to Culver City (about 8 miles outside of LA) and check into the Radisson there (I had a free stay saved up from a bad experience Chris and I had at a Radisson in Niagara Falls for my birthday last year).

We have a nice bottle of wine in the room and call a Taxi to head off to dinner. We were going to  pay the $45 each way to go into Hollywood but instead we just went and ate at this really nice Cheesecake factory right on the water. The food and drinks were all really good and it was awesome to eat right on the beach. (my mom said that I could charge a dinner under 100 dollars and it just happened that our bill came out to 99.99 with tip:) haha I’m so tricky. After dinner we walked over to this really cool bar where we had some big margaritas and watched some motocross on tv. The bar was two stories, had a fire pit and plasma tvs everywhere. Our waitress was awesome and Chris asked if I could get a free shot since it was my birthday. She said sure as long as I went downstairs and took it with the head bartender because her birthday was in two days. We finish our drinks and go down to get my shot at the big bar. The bartender said it was another guys birthday too! His birthday was the 9th, mines was the 8th and the bartenders was the 10th. She pours us all (even Chris) a free shot a Patron…whoop whoop!!

After the bar we walk down to the beach and sit on the lifeguard stand for a little while. It was nice and cool out and we knew this was going to be the last time we were at the beach for a while. We started to walk back and there was a little convenience store were we bought a couple of really good cheap bottles of wine and Chris bought me the newest Cosmo magazine (since it was my birthday). We go to call a cab and see that there is one right outside of the bar we were just at. We go up to the cab and I guess some foreign girl had called for it and was trying to round up her friends inside. The driver didn’t care one bit, he told us to just hop in and $17 dollars later we were back at the hotel. It was a fun night and nice to come back to a big room.

In the morning we started to pack up (and of course got an extension on our checkout like we do everywhere). Chris does some work and we decide that since we are on this side of LA, we should take the dirt bike out to do all the sightseeing this afternoon before we got to City of Industry to see VIS and Seibon for Chris’s work. We left the rv in the parking lot and drove off to Rodeo Drive and Hollywood.

First we arrived at Rodeo drive and drove down looking at all the expensive stores that I won’t be able to afford until way after my law school debts are paid off. I didn’t even want to go look in the shops because I know I can’t afford anything. We did see about 50 people outside of one store with a bunch of cameras so we guessed someone famous was in there. We drove on trying to find a place to eat lunch and couldn’t find restaurants anywhere; people in LA must not eat. We finally see this place that has a nice patio outside and flowers, I think it was call Chick a Roo??? We order our food and go to sit down outside. I grab a magazine because Chris loves to read things while he waits for food. I opened it and start to realize that it had a lot of like gay news in it. I thought that was just how the issue was. Then Chris looks up and realizes that there are two big rainbow flags in the street; we totally stopped to eat in the gay part of town without knowing it. It worked out because everyone was super nice and the food was pretty reasonable.

From there we drove into Hollywood. We parked the dirt bike and walked the main strip where all the stars are and the Chinese Theatre. We did the touristy thing and put our hands and feet in the molds and walked the street while getting harassed by people trying to sell maps of stars homes. After a little bit of walking, I actually got to shop for the FIRST time this whole trip. I think I went in like 3-4 stores and bought 3 new dresses (all on sale). After I got a few new clothes, Chris decided that he really wanted a new cool “west coast style” t-shirt to wear. For those of you who don’t know, it’s the t shirts that have a lot of designs on them, skulls sometimes, they are the cool things to wear. Well we started looking and most the ones we likes were right around 100 dollars; there is no way Chris was going to pay that for a t-shirt. So we keep walking.

And walking. We kept walking down the road going in tons of stores that sold that style of shirt. Chris didn’t want too extreme of a shirt because he wants to still be able to wear it on the east coast and didn’t want to pay over 40 dollars for a shirt. Finally we find this store that had a shirt we both liked for around 40 dollars. It was a smaller store away from the tourist area so the owner comes up and offers Chris a 15% discount. After we hear that, we find another one that he likes and end up getting both shirts for a good deal….almost an hour and a half after our search began.

We walk back to the dirt bike and head back to the hotel we were are sure the rv is racking up a crazy parking bill. We also had to get out to City of Industry to we could meet Irving for dinner. (Chris’s VIS rep that he has never met and done business with for years) I go inside the hotel to pay out parking bill and somehow talked the guy into validating it for FREE…total score because it saved us almost 30 dollars. We loaded the dirt bike and headed off on the hour drive to the other side of LA, through rush hour traffic, while trying to find a decent hotel to stay at.