Weekend Getaway

Last weekend I went on a mini-vacation of sort with my friend Tim who came and visited me from out of town. Tim is really my best friend and having him in town is really just fantastic fun.

The weekend was really a bit crazy to begin. He came into town on Thursday and I was supposed to pick him up at the airport. But of course I couldn't because I was at the Marshalls' shoot. So instead he took a cab to where I was shooting and then borrowed my car. I felt a bit bad leaving him to fend for himself that day cause my shoot didn't end until 8pm.

We finally met back up and had dinner at Garden Cafe in Arcadia. I ordered a mixed grill. I thought I deserved something really nice to eat that day after a long shoot.

The next day we had dim sum lunch with my other best friend Christine. I insisted to have Tim try dim sum. I am a big advocate of Chinese (real authentic) cuisine. No Panda King or China Wok for me.

I had an audition that afternoon so we checked in to our hotel at Venice Beach and then went back to Hollywood for my audition. That night we ate at Santa Monica Pier, at the Mexican place at the edge of the pier. But it wasn't really all that good. We had some seafood but they weren't all that fresh. We then walked around 3rd street and ate some dessert there. Just taking it a bit easy.

On Saturday we went to the Regan Library.

I've never been there or any other Presidential Library. It turned out to be surprisingly fun. I actually enjoyed it tremendously. Tim loves going to Presidential Library. That was the one thing he had to go to while in LA. It was neat to be able to see some cool things especially walking through air force one. Yes, the actual Air Force One was there.




This was the one that was made in the 50's and was in commission up till the first Bush term. I was very surprised at how small it was. The ceiling was also very low. I'm near 6'1 and Regan was 6'3 or something like that. I nearly touched the ceiling so Tim was saying Regan had to crouch down all the time. His room was also very small too. The whole plane really was really small in today's standard. Of course the one Clinton, W. Bush and Obama has is much bigger. It even has a bed and shower and a upper deck according to the people there who told us. Technology, we've came a long way.

There was actually the Football there, that's the center computer board that controlled all the nuclear weapons in the US. The President was supposed to have direct control over that and have access to the US's nuclear arsenal at all times. So it is actually true. It was neat to see.

Overall the Regan Library was really neat to experience. I am thinking one day I want to bring my parents there.

That afternoon we were supposed to go to both the Getty Villa and the main Getty Center. But we ended up only going to the Getty center cause we ran a bit late and missed our appointment time to the Villa. Well I guess I will have to do that next time.

Going back to the Getty was cool. It is a great museum and we saw a lot of cool stuff. But I have seen the permanent exhibits there already and the shows they have there atm isn't my cup of tea. Though I did like the dialogue with giants exhibit of photography. I do love trees, but there really weren't that many tree pictures.

That night we had Caribbean food in a place called Cha Cha chicken in Venice. It looked like a hole in the wall during the day and just wasn't all that appealing looking. But Tim wanted to have some Caribbean food so we went anyways. I had a Salmon Nigril and it turned out surprisingly good. I'm definitely going back there some day.

We then drove around a little and I showed him West Hollywood, Westwood and then we had a snack back at 3rd street in Santa Monica. I ended up buying a jacket for my Dad at Zara, one of my favorite clothing stores in the world. I absolutely love that brand. I first bought something from there back in Hong Kong and was so thrilled to know that they have a couple stores here in LA. Their clothes are really high end and very fitting.

Sunday we took it easy and finally had a chance to actually check out the boardwalk on Venice. I actually never walked there before despite having lived in LA for so long. The beach is actually very lovely. I love the little shops with little cool stuff in them.

We ate lunch at Baby Blues, a Memphis BBQ restaurant. I saw this on the Travel Channel and wanted to find it. The hotel staff actually didn't even know about this restaurant and it was just like 8 blocks away from them. It turned out really good, some of the best BBQ I've ever had. We spent the rest of the afternoon just hanging on the beach and relaxing. I miss just sitting on the beach.

For dinner, we went back to the San Gabriel valley to have seafood dinner at one of my favorite Chinese Restaurant. We had Crab, Shrimps and Scallops. I really love Chinese style seafood. I do think it's among the best way to have seafoods.

I then took him to old town Pasadena and walked around a little. I bought a book for pictures of dogs for my friend Christine. One of those bargain books. I then bought another photo book for myself, a bargain one too, of America's National Parks by Philippe Bourseiller. I love photography, really do. I'm overdue for another photo journey.

After Pasadeana, I went to Tea Station and met up with Christine and Michael for a drinks. That's what my friends mean when we say we are going out for drinks.

Finally Monday, we just packed up and had lunch before taking Tim to the airport. I then had an audition in Santa Monica.

That was my weekend getaway, wrapped up with still my acting stuff.