Over Labor Day weekend, a few friends of mine generously invited me to tag along with them on a road trip down to Los Angeles. I had been putting off my “I should go to LA” trip for a while now, so the time was ripe, and I went.

As kind of a disclaimer, I should probably state ahead of time that I don’t think I’ve ever said anything nice about Los Angeles. I like to laugh at every mean thing said about it, including the traffic, the superficiality, and the smog. Every time something bad happens to it, I laugh and think to myself, “serves them right!”

I’m really entirely sure why this is. I have a friend in San Francisco who once described to me a little bit about the relationship between SF and LA. He tells me that back in the early 80s, before Silicon Valley really took off, SF was in fairly bad shape, an insular city that was deteriorating. (I haven’t objectively confirmed this, but it’s worth noting that SF only saw a 0.48% increase in population from 1970 - 1980, so clearly something was going on.)

Around that time, and even to more recent times, the joke was that every time someone from SF was asked about LA, their response was, “Ugh, LA is so terrible.” When someone from LA was asked about SF, they said, “Oh, I just love San Francisco, it’s so quaint!”

I think that it might be a second city complex. Boston has a similar one-sided relationship to New York City (n.b. Red Sox vs. Yankees), and I would not be surprised if there are other cases throughout the country and the world.

Anyway, back to LA. I know I said previously that I have never said anything nice about LA, but I think I’m going to have to amend that: I would not want to live in LA, but I can see its appeal.

The trip began with a trip down I-5 from San Mateo. The really only notable part of the trip is how desolate it is. It’s incredible to me how little there is between SF and LA. There are no major cities to mention, and even the minor population centers are relatively far apart. For the most populous state in the country, it really makes you wonder where those people actually live.

When you do finally make it down into LA, one answer to that question comes quickly. The city itself is giant, flat, decentralized, and sprawling. Even “LA” itself is something of a misnomer; though there is a large City of Los Angeles, it’s intermingled with other cities such as Santa Monica, Inglewood, Beverly Hills, and others. Though some of those cities have their own unique identity, it can be hard to identify exactly in which city you’re traveling.

We started off by heading to Venice Beach. It was a Saturday evening, and the beach was relatively quiet. Though the famed Muscle Beach was closed for the night, the rest of the boardwalk was pretty happening and we went for a stroll. For dinner afterwards, we drove to Hamburger Mary’s, a fabulous hamburger restaurant in West Hollywood. The food and drinks were awesome, though the waiter was pushing really hard for tequila shots. (No thanks.) At the restaurant, I also saw my new favorite music video: Sean Ensign - Wanna Be With You.

On Sunday we started off by heading to Randy’s Donuts, which you may not know about, but you’ve definitely seen. They’re famous for their gigantic donut sign.

I had a chocolate raised and a devil’s food donut, and they were both awesome. It’s definitely worth checking out!

The rest of Saturday was a whirlwind tour of LA. We drove through many of the different neighborhoods of the city, through downtown, old LA, Chinatown, Silver Lake, Beverly Hills, and Hollywood. We even made a trip up Mulholland Drive to take a picture of the famous Hollywood sign.

We spent a few hours in Santa Monica in the late afternoon. I went swimming at the beach, which I think might have been the first time I’ve been in the Pacific Ocean since I went to San Diego when I was 12. Later, we walked through downtown Santa Monica, including a stop at the notorious Famima!! Later that night, we went back out to Silver Lake for dinner at El Conquistador before turning in.

Finally, on Monday, we went for breakfast in Marina del Rey, which turned out to be pretty but a little bit boring. Finally, for the last stop in LA, we took a walk down Melrose Avenue into some fun shops, then we finally headed home. We only stopped once for a quick dinner in San Luis Obispo on the way back.

Overall, the trip was pretty awesome. I got a great look at the city. I actually even look forward to visiting again some time in the future to catch some of the things I didn’t get a chance to see this time around.