Rajivc-food-travel-life: U.S. Travel Tales, Chapter one - The place where there is too much fun, L.A :)

Hello people.... Sorry for the indefinite lull.. thanks to the new job, new commitments,new responsibilities & my laziness ;)

I couldn't spare time to sit down compose my thoughts & write a blog.... I cannot believe that the last time I actually blogged was about six months ago :O crap!!!

so let me put on my creative hat & move my butt to a comfy chair where I can blog :)

Before I begin I would like to share that my blogs have hit a new milestone & i get approx 200+ readers a day that for me is a great feeling & a great achievement :) Thank you for your Love :)

Please do share this blog with your friends and travel buddies & please do comment on my posts which will inspire me to travel more and write more & probably I can upgrade to a personal website instead of blog-site :)

So getting down to business..

The United States is such a large country & I had the opportunity to visit many places in the country during the holiday season.

Probably the most exhausting month where in I visited Washington,New York,Atlantic city,California,Grand Canyon,Las Vegas and many other places ;)

I thought that it wouldn't make justice to this place if I write about all the beautiful & amazing places i visited in a single post.

So instead I am going to split my experience into multiple blogs so that it is enjoyable :)

I was thinking which place to start writing about first & felt what better place to start off than the west coast and to be more specific "L.A" :)

Los Angeles

Have you ever wondered how a particular city was named in the past? for example, legends have it that Bangalore or Bengaluru as it is known now was named after "Benda Kaal Ooru" which means "Town of Boiled Beans".

Similarly it is said that the name Los Angeles comes from the Spanish language and it means "The Angels" after visiting LA and being mesmerized by the the beautiful landscapes & the beautiful beaches I think probably this is the reason this place is called "The Angels" , probably Angels frequented this place to experience the sheer beauty this place has to offer :)

The Plan

I was planning to take a break from work during the holiday season. Due to the screwed up weather in east coast I thought I can visit my friend who lives in LA & visit nearby places. What started as a plan to visit just LA ended up as a plan to visit other places too like Vegas,Grand canyon etc...

more on these places in my future posts :)

So to accomplish this plan of visiting these places I took two weeks off from work...

The Trip....

As usual wifey was traveling with me & to avoid wasting even a single minute in the trip she booked the 7AM flight :/

Such a pain to wake up early that too during winter.

So we boarded the flight at 7AM and reached LA at around 11AM and we had the entire day at our disposal.

After lunch & a quick nap we headed out to our first destination Point Vincente Lighthouse,Palos Verdes to watch the sunset.

Point Vincente Light house

One look & I instantly fell in love with this place. Love at first sight it was which made me visit this place time and again while I was in LA just to watch the sunset.

You can have one of the best sunset experiences in this place & it is a must visit place.

Few pictures below.

So after the visit to Point Vincente we were back & had inhouse party & that concluded day 1

The party begins :)

We visited other beaches in the following days namely Venice beach , Redondo beach & Santa Monica beach.

Each of these beaches are pristine & beautiful. Redondo beach is a quiet beach compared to its counter parts i.e., Venice beach & Santa Monica beach which are bustling with people & some amazing street performances.

One special mention about Venice beach, this is a great place to take a stroll in the evening while you are in LA.

This place has some nice gift shops & recreation spots where people indulge in painting, Skateboarding etc. A real treat to watch.

Thanks to Blogger now I can upload videos in my Blog... by doing so even you too can experience some amazing stuff :) so here are some amazing performances on the beaches of California.. Watch & enjoy

Few pictures from these beaches ....

Redondo Beach

Santa Monica Pier

Also we happened to bump into a small eatery in Vennice beach called Bombay & had some amazing hot samosas & tea.... a perfect end :)

Beaches - Done what next? something which is in a must do thing while you are in LA.... Think Think :) of course

Hollywood!!!!

Hollywood was always in my list of 10000000000 number of places to visit before I die ;)

It was a driving force behind me visiting LA in the 1st place. I devoted one complete day to visit Hollywood and surrounding places like Beverly hills etc.

Few pictures form the visit to Hollywood.. took them from my phone as my SLR battery was dead... hence the pics suck :(

My friend posing ;)

Pics of the Hollywood sign from few parks in the vicinity.

Our next destination or outdoor experience i would call it was Universal Studios! another must visit place and another place in my list of 10000000 number of places to visit before I die ;)

Universal studios

Universal studios is a whole day activity & we enjoyed it to the fullest.

We loved the shows the rides the food.... We absolutely loved everything in this place and guess what it so happened that I was randomly picked to be a volunteer for one of the stage shows ;) I had to wear a space suit & walk around on the stage & was given complementary drink coupons for volunteering...

I couldn't have asked for more :) all in all an amazing experience we had at Universal studois :)

Some pics

Superb Performance!!! one of a kind!

Me the Astronaut ;)

Beaches - Check, Hollywood - check, Universal studios - Check what's left to indulge in? of course nightlife of LA :)

We walked the hall of fame :) we also visited some of the best clubs this place has to offer & indulged in some amazing delicacies.

Special mention - "Hummus bar Express"

I had never tasted Hummus or if I can put it this way never heard of Hummus before but once i had it there was no looking back.

I have fallen in love with middle eastern food & the food at Hummus bar express was lip smacking & extraordinary..If you are in LA do visit this place.