We’re going to visit Kamran’s family in Southern California for the second time starting tomorrow, and I thought maybe I should actually post some photos from our first trip now. This way, it seems like I’m not lazy but just, you know, holding out for the right time. Or something.
I’ve already made a few posts about California–what I expected to do, the one and only difference between L.A. and NYC, Laguna Beach, the lovely wedding we went to, and one-half of our trip to Disneyland–but here are the things I didn’t mention before:
The flight over the desert was pretty incredible. Growing up in Ohio, the colors were entirely new to me, and so was the lack of vegetation. Or vegetation that wasn’t brown, at least.
Kamran’s parents’ backyard happened to be a little oasis with palm trees, a fountain, roses, and bunnies, but driving for miles and miles and seeing nothing but dried-out brush and actual tumbleweeds and bare mountains was kind of awe-making for me; I couldn’t stop taking photos of lovely Saddleback Mountain especially. I absolutely loved the scenery but wonder how long a person can live there without noticing that everything around her is dying.
And seeing the landscape wasn’t the only first for me. It was my first time seeing what an absolute nerd my uber-cool boyfriend was in high school
and my first time being driven by him in a car, which he tried to make our last time by trying to kill us:
It was strange watching my usually-lovable gentleman friend for the past almost-five years become this lane-switching, aggressive-passing, going-with-the-speed-of-traffic maniac. (Just kidding, but seriously, I would’ve surely died my first time trying to merge onto the highway.)
It was my first time eating a giant beefy burrito at Albertaco’s, which Kamran claims all the locals call Alberto’s, but I think he was secretly just embarrassed by his evident illiteracy:
and my first time eating in a room full of people from California:
I had Wienerschnitzel for the first time
mousing over this photo may amuse no one but me
and learned what the big deal is about In-n-Out (the big deal is that it’s delicious, and I wouldn’t die if I had to eat that every day instead of Shake Shack, although obviously there will be a Shake Shack in L.A. in about .02 seconds):
We made Kamran’s friend’s wedding more about us than her,
Disneyland more about us than any kids,
and nights with Kamran’s friend Gary and his wife, Diana, into creepy family portrait time:
We walked around downtown San Juan Capistrano, which is like a little hippie village thrown into the middle of rich, Republican Orange County. We found an antique store that stretched a whole block, a movie theatre with maybe two screens, a pay-by-the-pound frozen yogurt shop that was evidently a new concept in California, and a new friend for Kamran just wandering the streets:
My friend Beth drove down from San Francisco, and we met our friend Bridgette,
who lives in the most stereotypically 1970s California neighborhood I can imagine,
for dinner at The Cheesecake Factory, because I apparently have to eat there every time I leave the state. We sat on the water underneath portable heaters in the middle of August, and I couldn’t imagine liking weather more.
We left early one morning for Kamran’s old undergraduate stomping grounds, stopping at a shady convenience store with a wall that happened to be modeled after Kamran’s shirt:
We drove around Pasadena for a while:
and then stopped at Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles for a lunch of Arnold Palmers:
chicken dripping with syrup:
and waffles soaked with both:
both chicken and syrup, I mean; not Arnold Palmers
Afterward, we went for a long walk around the Caltech campus, posing with Kamran’s old swimmin’ hole:
his old dorm hall:
and the room in the physics building that houses a copy of his undergraduate thesis:
This was the last time we would see the Caltech t-shirt he’d purchased in the gift shop an hour earlier.
We had a lunch at Pink’s:
which is known for its block-long lines full of celebrities (we saw no one remotely famous and were only in line for a few minutes for this cole-slaw-covered beauty):
We then spent the afternoon wandering around Santa Monica. Well, actually, we spent an hour in Santa Monica traffic and then had only enough time to walk to the Santa Monica Pier:
before meeting Kamran’s uncle for dinner at Joe’s, where we had delicious beef and a sighting of comedian Andy Kindler:
(this is not Andy Kindler)
We had lunches with Kamran’s family, where I got to try my first albaloo polow, or Persian sour cherry rice, and wildly saturated kebabs:
Kamran’s niece basically cried through the entire lunch, and Kamran’s dad had to entertain her, and I was reminded that I’m way more interested in food than children, but the kid sure is cute, snot and all:
I met so many of Kamran’s old friends (this particular meeting included fried ice cream!):
and had probably the best beach experience of my life, even when my bathing suit was coming off and Kamran was having to tell the children around us to shield their eyes:
But more than any of this, being in California was just feeling different. There’s so much about it that can’t be recorded in pictures, although you can bet I tried. It’s driving past the power station at night, where the sky’s filled with yellow light in the otherwise empty desert. It’s eating the foods from Kamran’s childhood that he didn’t even like back then but craves now. It’s trying to find a song we can agree on from his iPod full of punk music on the way home from houses of friends I’ve heard about for years. It’s the corner of Antonio and Banderas Streets and trying to remember my high school Spanish to translate the city names. It’s having perfect hair and skin every day and people giving up their parking space for you at the beach and all of the houses looking exactly the same but entirely different than any other houses anywhere else. I’m sure I felt the same way when I moved to New York, but the point is that it’s not New York.
18 Comments
oh hello, i live here! did you have the animal style fries at in n out? because everyone needs to experience those at some point in their lifetime. just sayin! have fun!
Oh, yeeeeeah. We did have the animal style fries last time, so this time, I want to get the bag of fries that they fill to the top at The Hat. Are you aware of that place, or is it some gangsta joint where only Kam and his friends hang out?
I looked into restaurants in Kamran’s parents’ area, and there were only FIVE on opentable.com! Liiiiittle bit different than NYC. If he and I were going to go to L.A. and do some wild tasting menu, where would you send us? (He says we’re only eating his mom’s cooking, by the way. I’m just daydreaming.)
Well…. NYc dining is MUCH MUCH MUCH different than la. I know of a few places that are supposed to be nice, but having never eaten there I don’t know how good they are. My friend just ate at the bazaar by Jose andres at the sls hotel and said it was mind blowing, so I’d start there. But really my favorite thing in la is the garlic breadsticks from prizzi’s on Franklin, you absolutely have to go there an get those or your trip is incomplete.
Oh, funny, Bazaar was the place I wanted to go last year, but Kamran’s uncle was afraid we wouldn’t be able to hear each other talk there. I was actually asking Kamran just the other day where we could go for pizza, so thanks for the Prizzi’s recommendation! It’s apparently right next to the Upright Citizens Brigade, too!
If you can elaborate, how do you think NYC dining is MUCH MUCH MUCH different than L.A.?
It’s just…. different. Fine dining in LA isn’t what it is in NY, it’s all flashy and celebrity centered and it’s just not the same. All of my friends who have lived in both NY and LA agree, food in LA just isn’t a thing like it is in NY. Los Angeles is also kind of a hidden city, too…. you have to be an insider, know where your’e going and what’s good, you can’t just stop in anywhere or you’ll be disappointed.
That said, Prizzi’s is the greatest EVER, their deep dish pizzas are super good but the garlic breadsticks oH MY GOD, you can die happy after one of those. Make sure to get the full order, half is not enough!!! I’ll try to think of other places to recommend, but my favorite restaurants are usually vegetarian or vegan places – we cook a lot at home because here you can actually buy more than a handful of groceries since you’re not carrying it on the train or 100 blocks on the bus!
My Google Reader recomended your blog and I love it. I also love that you went to OSU because I did too!
Anyways, you take gorgeous pictures. What kind of camera do you use?
Whoa! I didn’t realize Google Reader recommended smalltime blogs like mine! Pretty cool. My boyfriend loooooves The Beach Boys, so I loved your first blog post. And also your feelings about sorority life. Haha.
Thanks for the compliment! All of these pictures are from my Canon S90, which I recommended 100 times over. I just upgraded to a Nikon D5100, so hopefully this year’s pictures will be upgraded, too!
Aww! Thanks for reading my new blog.
Totally! I hope you keep it up!
Wait, there are Republicans in California? Who knew?
Great pictures. That beach looks amazing. I’m ready to pack my bags and head there now… except I don’t think my hair or skin are perfect enough. Oh well, I’ll just console myself with all that delicious food.
No, no, it’s California that makes your hair and skin perfect! It’s the cool breezes and the lack of humidity. I went with yucky subway dirt all over me and came back sparkling.
Remember that whole voting-to-ban-gay-marriage thing? Yeah, there are Republicans in California.
This time, when you get in the ocean, make sure you give Kamran your camera. Because that was one of the funniest posts I’ve ever read, but it needs pictures.
Um, I know I said I try not to be amused by myself the other day, and I know you said you don’t even try, and I’m glad you didn’t, because I re-read that post once you mentioned it and actually LOLed once. Oh, Kelly, I’m so glad I can admit these things to you and we can be narcissistic together.
Half-nude beach photos coming riiiiiight up!
tony fuckin’ flags.
That and “mira! mira mira mira mira mira!” are the most impressed upon things from my Spanish-speaking friends in college.
Is there no humidity in SoCal?
That sounds like so much, fun… I hope that you and Kamran have a wonderful time!
Oh, and please take lots more photos, too! These are stunning, U.M.! Love ’em all (naturally)!
:)
How funny. I was in CA for years – hard to imagine it feeling foreign.
About the desert – the longer you’re there, the more you realize how *alive* it actually is. It’s just that you east coasters associate alive with bright, riotous, leafy green, and here, everything that’s alive has major, prickly defense mechanisms.
It’s beautiful in the spring.
Best. post. ever.
I meant to tell you earlier just how sexy I think that Disneyland collage is. You should totally digitally scrapbook all your photos like this and then print them up in photobooks!