Los Angeles

Jul 05, 2006 13:21


Just got back last night from spending a week in Los Angeles.

I flew in on Tuesday, which required me to go from BWI-->ATL-->IND-->LAX, taking 11 hours total, since Airtran doesn't fly directly to LAX from BWI and taking the direct flight from ATL-->LAX would have cost about twice as much.

When I landed my cousin Hyun-Jung picked me up from the airport and we met the rest of the family (both of my sisters, my mom, three other cousins, two uncles, and their corresponding aunts) for dinner at some Korean restaurant. We ate at Korean restaurants almost every night out there, and apparently Korean culture says that it is bad to drink by yourself so my uncle kept feeding me soju. After dinner, I went out with the male cousins (Ricky and Hyun-Jung) to some bar in Koreatown. Hyun-Jung (I call him Danny) doesn't drink, so Ricky and I split a small bottle of Johnny Walker Black while the bartender chatted with us.

Wednesday I met Ricky and my sister Gina for lunch, since both of them (Gina was in town for work so she went there earlier and is staying later than me) worked very close to the hotel I was staying in in downtown L.A. We ate at CPK, which is about the same as elsewhere. They went back to work and I took a nap at the hotel. Before dinner, we went to visit my grandparents, who are now staying in a convalescent hospital (nursing home). Dinner was at another Korean restaurant, with more soju.

On Thursday, my sister Rosie, my cousin Hey-Sung, and I drove around Beverly Hills and saw the Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits. My dad flew in also, and dinner was pretty much the same as Wednesday.

On Friday my parents, sisters, and Hey-Sung went to the Getty Center. We took the garden tour, which showed how the landscaping and such played into the whole design of the museum (which is very geometrical in nature). After the tour, we wandered around the various pavilions looking at paintings, sculptures, and photographs, and walked around the big central garden. For dinner, I got my first taste of In-N-Out Burger, which is quite delicious. Unfortunately, I didn't find out about their "secret" menu until just now so I didn't get a chance to try one Animal Style. When we got back to downtown we moved from the Sheraton Los Angeles Downtown to the Westin Bonaventure. Friday night, we were supposed to meet with Ricky and my other cousin Hyun-Sun (Tiffany) but stuff happened and they couldn't make it, so Rosie, Gina, Hey-Sung, and I had some drinks at the rooftop bar on top of The Standard hotel. We went back to the hotel, and for some reason (they claim it was because it was the holiday weekend so things were slow) they cut the power to the whole hotel around 1:00 AM. Ricky and his friend Will picked me up around 1:45 AM and we went out to some after-hours Korean trance club. That closed at 6:00, so then we went to some other underground after-after-hours garage party club and stayed until about 10:00 or 11:00. I saw people dancing, swinging glowsticks on strings. Now I've been to my share of raves but I've never seen people doing crazy stuff like these people. One guy looked like he had some serious nunchuck skills when he was doing his thing. Will had those color-changing LEDs and I saw some girl use them to do the ball dance, and in the darkness it really looked like she was holding some magic glowing orb. After the party we crashed at Will's place in West LA and watched some Michel Gondry videos.

Saturday I woke up around 17:00 and went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. We went out for Brazilian barbeque at the M Grill but I was exhausted so went immediately to sleep after dinner.

Sunday was spent at SeaWorld San Diego. On the way there, I heard some noise that sounded like an elephant, then a couple seconds later we saw some car roll over 4 or 5 times on the interstate about 5 car lengths ahead of us. Luckily we were able to stop without getting hit, so we got out and called 911, along with about 20 other people since everyone has cell phones nowadays. The driver got out of the car and seemed OK, but the woman sitting in the passenger side was a bit banged up, but definitely alive, so we contined on to the park. Unfortunately the Penguin Encounter exhibit was closed but we did see most of the other things. We were waiting in line for the Journey to Atlantis ride but one of the cars got stuck so they shut it down while we were waiting. On the way home we stopped at a Burger King which was connected to a (closed for the night) Rice King.

On Monday we met with our cousin Jenny on our dad's side who used to live in GA. Jenny has two kids, Michelle and Patrick, and the last time I saw them, they were still little little kids. Now Michelle is going into 11th grade and Patrick is able to talk. We ate lunch with them, and also with a couple aunts and several nephews and nieces from my dad's side. We had no idea that our family was so large. For the longest time growing up, I wasn't aware that I even had any cousins. Dinner was at some Korean BBQ/sushi buffet, so I stuffed my face full of sushi and sashimi, and of course more soju.

Tuesday morning I had to catch an 8:00 flight, taking the same route in reverse (LAX-->IND-->ATL-->BWI). I went ahead and checked in online the night before, but I didn't have a printer so I couldn't print my boarding passes, but I figured I could print them out at the kiosks at the airport. Unfortunately, LAX lacks these kiosks so I had to stand in line with everyone else. I get through security and grab a quick breakfast, then jump on the plane. Everything was pretty uneventful until I landed in ATL around 17:30. Rosie, Hey-Sung, and my dad also flew back on Tuesday, but their flight wasn't until 10:30, and my flight was a little late, so they landed about an hour after I did, and we met up. The plan was for them to hang out at the airport with me until my flight, but my flight kept getting pushed back so eventually they left. I finally got on the plane around 21:30, and we were in the air at 22:15. My flight was supposed to leave at 19:12. They said it was because of all the rain in the DC area, but it was probably the pilots that wanted to watch fireworks. Finally, I get home a little after midnight. I decided to take the day off work today to recover.
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