California blog series, part II: Los Angeles

That's Erin and I in the middle, venturing out into the Pacific

Los Angeles - cool to visit, couldn't live there. That pretty much sums up the city for me. The above photo should be evidence enough of the obvious allure of the place: the weather. In fact, the one day that wasn't perfect, we were already so accustomed to it that I had to stop and remind myself it was still way nicer than what I would've been experiencing in Canada. However, unlike San Francisco, I could never see myself living in the City of Angels, and not only due to the fact it's in the US. Here's an excerpt of my musings.

Money is the be all and end all in LA. As Greg [Erin’s uncle] explained to me, the culture is such that the car you drive in many ways defines you as a person. This is why he lets his wife take the Envoy, while he drives an old Civic. Since she is new to the city (relatively), he wants to help her make a good impression. And cars do rule in the concrete jungle of LA. Thankfully, our hosts were accommodating enough to carpool to work and give the keys to their second vehicle to a complete stranger, thereby giving Erin and I the power of mobility. The transit system is not as friendly as San Francisco and we would’ve been screwed otherwise. And, I must admit that, as much as I loathe the city’s materialism, I generally enjoyed driving along the interstate. My mom worries about me taking the car to Toronto and a complete stranger entrusts me with his car on an unfamiliar 7-lane highway (each direction!) – welcome to the California mentality.

All in all, though, LA was the least impressive of the three cities we visited, I thought. The beaches were amazing – of a magnitude inconceivable in Canada – and the weather was pretty much perfect, but the total package didn’t do as much for me. Still, diving into 7-foot waves in the salty Pacific is not an experience I’ll soon forget. And it would admittedly take a while for me to tire of perpetual cloudless blue skies, warm weather, and cool evenings.