Transcript of Podcast #15: Exploring Southern California (L.A., San Diego, Long Beach, Malibu, and Pasadena)
In Attendance: Aimee Jiang (she/her), Vidya Venkatesan (she/her)
Aimee : Hello, everyone welcome to another episode of the GIC podcast. My name is Aimee Jiang and today we are going to talk about some things to do in LA, San Diego, Long Beach, maybe Pasadena, some other areas around Southern California. I have mentioned this in multiple podcasts but there is a really strong importance on maintaining your wellness during grad school, and one of the things that a lot of our students like to do, and something I encourage is to get out and explore the local area. So I’m going to pass it over to my co-host today to introduce herself, and then we’ll get started.
Vidya: Hey, everyone, I’m Vidya Venkatesan a third year graduate student in the Astrophysics Ph.D program and I’m really excited here, to be here, and to share all the things that you can do all to, and to share every, all the fun things you can do here in LA, Long Beach and uh
Aimee: San Diego.
Vidya: yeah, San Diego
Aimee: Sometimes we forget about San Diego, I think, I was talking to someone recently about the San Diego airport because it’s also an international airport, and everyone was like, I never think about looking at flights out of there, because it seems like it’s further away than it is. But with traffic sometimes getting to San Diego is actually around the same time as getting you to LA and I think sometimes a little bit easier to get to San Diego. just in general. Although there is like this one part where we have, I think it’s a Navy Base for the U.S. Military, and there’s always traffic around the base. Just a few things to keep in mind. So I think we’re gonna start with talking about LA, because, I think LA is probably the most well known area in Southern California, that students want to go to. So in a few of our podcasts we have talked about taking the train, like the Amtrak to LA, because it is going to be significantly easier to get down there. You can also take like an Uber or a Lyft. Those tend to be kind of expensive. and then you can drive but traffic is kind of hectic. So, yeah, there are multiple ways to get to LA, and I would say, it really depends on what you want to do with how you would get there. So what are some things that you like to do in LA? And maybe we’ll talk about some recommendations on how to get there based on those activities.
Vidya: Well, the first thing that I’d recommend is Santa Monica Beach cause the first day I arrived in LA, that was the first thing I did. Cause I’d seen those in movies like all the time, like Hollywood, Santa Monica Beach. So th those the first thing I did I went to Santa Monica Beach, and then I saw the sunset. And I was also like reflecting on how like I’m from India, and like how I’m in a completely different country now I was just so beautiful. So I would say, Santa Monica Beach is one of them. There’s a lot of things to to do there. You can rent a bike and then bike from Santa Monica to Venica Beach. That’s a, that’s a cool thing to do, especially if you’re, I’m a big sucker for sunrise and sunset. So that’s the time I’d like recommend doing that. And then there’s also the Santa Monica, the amusement park thing that that’s also on the pier. So that’s something that can also be done. And there’s a lot of good like food places around there, too.
Aimee: Yeah, yeah. And I think it’s very Californian food, like a lot of fish tacos. So a lot of like Mexican influence, because most of, a lot of Southern California has a lot of Mexican influence. If you don’t know about, anything about California history, most of Southern California, if not all of it. I’m trying to remember where the border was, but it used to be a part of Mexico. So Mexico has a huge influence on this area, and then you add, in the very like kind of California beach vibes, which give you a lot of fresh vegetables and things as well. I found a lot of vegan options and vegetarian options in, like the Santa Monica area. So some great food. Parking is really expensive. So I would, and hard to find on busy.
Vidya: Yeah and hard to find!
Aimee: Yeah especially in busy seasons. So I would say my recommendation would be if you’re going with a group to try and do like an Uber or a Lyft, or do a combination where you like take an Amtrak closer to the area and then finish it off with public transportation, or an Uber or a Lyft. But I agree, Santa Monica, when I moved to California from Washington State, that is what I thought all the beaches looked like, because that was what you saw with either Laguna, which we talk about in another podcast on like Orange county area beaches and then Santa Monica, because you mentioned that pier that has an amusement park on it. There’s like a big Ferris Wheel that is like a very visually iconic place. You see it in a lot of TV shows a lot of things on Instagram. When you like, search for like Southern California, you will see that like iconic pier. So I think that’s great. And then Venice Beach I think, is pretty well known for being kind of a quirky little area. It’s got a lot of body builders, there’s like outdoor gyms as you’re like walking around. We were talking about it earlier, it’s got some, maybe less kid friendly vibes to it. But it, it is a really big, nice beach. There’s a lot of outdoor volleyball like sand volleyball pits. So definitely a great option. It’s so funny because they’re in like walking, biking distance, Santa Monica and Venice. But there are 2 very different kind of feel to them, like the vibe is very different in both of those beaches. And Venice Beach also has, and is pretty well known for having a really big skate park and like kind of roller blade culture, roller skating culture. So that’s always a good option. So outside of those 2 beaches which I think are kind of the most iconic beaches in the area. LA is also really known for its kind of like museum culture. Have you gotten to go to a lot of the museums over there?
Vidya: Yes, I have been to Getty Museum, and then there is also the Getty Villa. Those two. So if you do that those two things at once, then you you get like free parking for one of them. So that’s a good thing to do. And then, it’s funny when you go to the Getty Museum like you take the tram to get up there, and then, you can see, have a good view of 405 the free way. And it’s also really funny, because, you see, see, people like stuck in traffic. And then you’re like, Oh, oh, I I was just stuck in traffic there, too. But yeah, Getty Museum, I think, is beautiful. There’s so many like, as someone who really likes to appreciate art, I can’t to draw that good art myself, but as somonewho appreciates it like, I would recommend Getty Museum. There’s also LACMA, which again, I think it’s also pretty popular. People will see that in like TV shows and film move movies and stuff. So yeah, those are the two that I’ve been to in LA. But I know there’s also a car museum (It’s called the Petersen Automotive Museum) that’s next to LACMA. And then the results of the Science Center where I think that’s also near downtown LA..
Aimee: Yes, there’s a science center near downtown LA, there is another one. There’s a like a Discovery Science Center in Orange County that we’ve not talked about before in any of the podcasts. So that’s always an option. Really kid friendly, that one, I think, called like the cube, or something like that. But there is the one in downtown LA. There’s also La Brea Tar Pits, which I believe is also near LAMCA. It smells terrible, but they found like, it’s like an active tar pit that they found a lot of dinosaur bones in. So that’s kind of a unique. I haven’t been to that since I was a child, but I still remember that it smelled really bad. So I think that is near that area around LACMA which is kind of downtown Korea town area is, I would say, one of the areas that has the majority of museums down there (Aimee forgot to mention the Oscars Museum, recommended by another GIC mentor). There is also the Natural History Museum, which is closer to like UCLA area. I’ve been there, that’s kind of an interesting one as well. Trying to think, the Getty Museum is really cool, and I know that they do a lot of like events. Sometimes, like around the holidays, they’ll have like a special event. Sometimes they have people come in and talk about architecture, because outside of the Getty Museum being a a place filled with a lot of art, there’s actually a lot of architectural history there as well. Last time I went to the Getty Museum, my mom was in town, and we were just going to walk around, but she had never been before, and we had a short period of time, and I was like, Oh, I don’t really know what to highlight for her and my husband ended up getting us, it’s free to do some of the tours that they have, and he ended up getting a tour that was all about the architectural history of the Getty Museum itself, and like it was really interesting how much thought and mindset went into like the natural light of the area, and even like you mentioned the tram like getting the parking structure built further away, so that it was kind of quieter and that the tram would take you up, and you would get a view. You can see the water if it’s not like too smoggy, and the 405, which I always find funny, too. I think, about how you’re stuck in traffic, and I’m enjoying myself. And then you can see, I think it might be Culver City. There’s like a a city with some taller kind of, not skyscrapers, but taller buildings that you can see from there as well. So it’s always really interesting place to get some good views, but also get art, and they have a really cool garden there. That has, there’s like a little boardwalk that goes through the garden that has different sounds of water. I really enjoyed that, there was like water trickling down small rocks and big rocks and under a bridge. So it’s like a nice place, I saw a lot of people having little picnics at the Getty Museum in the garden, or like grass around the garden. So date night idea, if that’s that you want to do. Parking does cost, if you just go to the Getty Museum if you don’t go to the Getty Villa and the Getty Museum (they generally combine parking so you pay once to visit both, it doesn’t waive parking to visit both. The Getty museum is generally free, events may have additional costs.). So check the website for more details on those things. So we talked about museums and the beaches. There’s so much stuff to do in LA, it can be kind of overwhelming. But there are some hikes in that area, and I think you and I have both done it. The Hollywood sign hike is probably the.
Vidya: The Hollywood sign hikeis epic
Aimee: And I forgot about that museum, because that is a museum as well at the beginning of that hike.
Vidya: Oh yeah!
Aimee: Is the oh, I’m gonna not remember.
Vidya: Griffith Observatory
Aimee: Griffith Observatory! And I’ve gone when the moon was almost a full moon, and they have, like a telescope on the moon, and you can see really close. And it was a long line, but it was free. They have some really cool stuff at that observatory as well. Again, parking’s kind of terrible, but that one is really hard to get to without driving your own car. But you’ve done the hike over there. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Vidya: Yeah, I, I forget how long it was. I think there’s different trails that you can take, but I’m pretty sure I took the longest one. But it was very worth it. Although if you do that over the summer, it gets really hot. So I recommend, like starting early, early in the morning but yeah, I think it’s as you go, get to the top like you get a whole like really nice view of Mount Baldy. and like other like a high peak mountains around there and then you also get a good view of LA, downtown LA and, and then also the the observatory, of course. But yeah, I would recommend, like, if you do it over the summer start early because of based on what trail you take you. There’s also a chance that you might get lost, and then, you know find another trail. And like all of that, because I remember that did happen to me.
Aimee: Yeah, yeah, it. There’s a lot of trails over there. There’s also a couple trails that take you to other parts of the Hollywood sign, so like the the hikes that we’re talking about are the ones that come off of, the trail heads are kind of around the Griffith Observatory. There are some other hikes, that aren’t necessarily legal. So do watch what you’re finding online for the Hollywood sign hikes because there’s some that go through like private property. So you want to be really careful, because the last thing you want to do is get in trouble with trespassing as an international student with a visa. In general, people shouldn’t, but especially for students on a visa. So the Griffith Observatory ones are cool. You get, not super close up with it but there, are still some really good views of that really iconic Hollywood sign. And then Hollywood itself is, it’s an interesting place to go where you can see the walk of fame. And there’s the…
Vidya: The Chinese Theatre
Aimee: Yeah the Chinese theater. So there are some other fun stuff. Have you been down to the Hollywood area?
Vidya: Yes, I have walked around the walk of fame and everything, and then they, they also have some churros and stuff that they saw. It’s still good, yum, yum. And then there’s also like, a museum, Lady Tucson (we could not think of the name but it is Madame Tussauds) like the wax museum where they have, like all kinda yeah, I don’t think I’ve been in there because it costs $30 or something.
Aimee: It’s very expensive
Vidya: But I know there is that. Yeah.
Aimee: Yeah, no, there’s definitely a lot of options down there. The only thing I will say is, there are a lot of people dressed up in character costumes that want to take your picture. Be really careful with those because they do want money. So if you’re expecting to just get a picture, they are going to ask you for money, and they can get very demanding if you don’t pay them. So just be mindful, that is definitely a touristy area. Same with, a touristy area, not same kind of vibe but Beverly Hills is known, for like it’s high end shopping and I do see a lot of people that go down there. One of the things you can do is you can do those like bus tours. That kind of take you around some of the famous spots within Beverly Hills, or like downtown LA. So If you want to be really touristy, that is an option for you to take those buses and kind of get an idea of what the areas look like without having to drive yourself. So you can take that, like Amtrak, public transportation into LA, and maybe take one of those bus tours and not have to worry about trying to find some other kind of transportation and driving.
Vidya: And driving
Aimee: And driving, yeah
Vidya: Yeah and driving in downtown LA, which is the worst.
Aimee: So bad, and parking is expensive and terrible. So I highly recommend finding any other option for that. There’s also a lot of concerts film festivals and things which we’ll talk about in another podcast that will come out in a few weeks. So we won’t go over that today. But we will talk about that in the future of things that in particular happen, majority of the time in LA. On the way to LA, there are 2 other kind of bigger towns, I would say that people tend to stop at. You and I talked a little bit about Pasadena, which has, like the Rose Parade at the beginning of the year. And you’ve done a hike over there. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Vidya: Yes, so I have also done the Rose Parade I was there for, like one of the New Years, I think this was before everything shut down. The, the Rose Parade is amazing. I would highly recommend, although you’ll have to go, go there and like stand, like stand, like stand in line, for, like I, I like pretty much 2 to 3 hours or something, and I have to make sure it’s you’re someone who’s short 5’2’’ like me. You have to make sure you get to the front so that you’re able to see everything but it, itt’s really worth it. So that’s Rose Parade. But yeah, a hikewise. There’s a height called Eaton Canyon. Eaton Canyon Hike. It also has a waterfall. So that’s like the another thing but it’s a 4 mile hike. So again, like I’d recommend starting early in the morning. although you don’t have to, because there’s a waterfall. So if, if it gets hot, you just you get soak yourself in the waterfall.
Aimee: There you go!
Vidya: But it’s beautiful. It’s like, so naturally, it’s so green. And like, I, I loved it.
Aimee: Yeah, I think that’s something that I really love about Southern California is we have these big cities, or like big downtown areas. But we also have a lot of natural areas that are reserved for parks and state parks and a lot of our beaches that we talked about and another podcast are also state parks. So take advantage of the nature. It, sometimes, when we’re in more of the city space, it can feel like there’s not enough trees or nature or water around us outside of the beach. So I definitely recommend that. Pasadena has, like a cute old town Pasadena downtown area that’s got some restaurants and shopping, and it’s just kind of a cute place to walk around. as well. And again we’ll talk about concerts. The Rose Bowl has a lot of concerts. As well as like sports events that happen there. The other town depending on which direction you take to get to LA, that you might pass as you’re going to LA, is Long Beach. They obviously have beaches, as their name suggests, but they’ve got a couple of other attractions. as well. Can you speak on, I think you said you went to the aquarium?
Vidya: Yes, yes, I love aquariums, and, like I also am into scuba diving. So Long Beach is definitely one of the places that I love around here. It’s like much easier to get them to go to LA The Aquarium of the Pacific. I think there’s an entry fee, and there’s also a parking you. You have to pay for parking. But again it goes into the like maintaining the aquarium. So like, I’m, I’m fine with that. But yeah, it’s beautiful. You can see sharks. You can like pet stingrays. And then I also saw smiling sting rays. They their face looks like they’re smiling. And then you know all those cool things that you seen aquariums, jellyfish and everything. So it’s it’s really beautiful.
Aimee: Yeah, I love the aquarium there. And they do a, a really good job on trying to like, educate the public on
Vidya: Yeah
Aimee: things in our local area as well that you might find in the water around us, and I think that, that’s, it’s a really fun place to go as an adult. But if you have little kids with you. I see a lot of them just like in all over the big shark tank.
Vidya: yeah
Aimee: Definitely a cool place to check out if you have kids as well. I’ve also been to a comedy club that wasn’t that far away from the aquarium. That had a lot of kind of big names that come to the comedy club, but they also had kind of some smaller kind of more local comedians. And I think there is a place in Irvine Spectrum in Orange County that has a comedy club. But this definitely had some bigger names to it. But was closer and a better option than having to go all the way into LA, which there’s a lot of comedy clubs down there where you can see some like really big names. But check out the Long Beach one (called the Long Beach Laugh Factory), I think that’s kind of a fun way to go de-stress, laughing is great medicine when you’re stressed out. So it’s always a good place and Long Beach is also, and this is just a random side note. It’s also where a lot of our cruise ships go out. So if you’re like on a holiday break, and you want to take a cruise. I’m not a cruise person, but if you like boats. They do have a lot of cruises that go out of that area as well. So you can maybe look for some travel deals, and and try and do some like short, they have, like all short ones, to Mexico and.
Vidya: They, they also have the ferry to Catalina Island. So before the pandemic, I did take that to go to Catalina Island and then I scuba dived there. So that was really fun. Yeah, it’s just a 20 min ferry from Long Beach to Catalina Island and you see a whole different beach vibe and like island, it’s, it’s it’s just beautiful.
Aimee: Yeah, and Catalina doesn’t get as crowded, I think, because you do have to take the ferry. So that is always a great option to go out. I see a lot of boats in that area. So, there’s like some smaller rentals, too. If you want to go like on a sailboat, Those things can get pricey. But there are some options. Long Beach is definitely like a big port. When we had the kind of during the pandemic there was that time where there was a backup of cargo ships. A lot of the cargo ships go into Long Beach as well, and you could see that from some of the beaches that they were like cargo ships like waiting in the distance to drop off cargo because there was a lack of people able to take them off. So Long Beach has kind of a unique history and then a kind of cool little downtown. But those are kind of the 2 big towns that you may run into, depending on which route you take going north into LA. But, like I mentioned earlier south into San Diego, can sometimes have a little bit less traffic and there are some different things to do down there. There’s Lego Land and SeaWorld which are more amusement parks, which we talk a little bit about in a different podcast. But have you had a chance to explore San Diego at all?
Vidya: Yes, yes, I’ve been to San Diego. I went to Balboa Park which is, I feel like that’s also a big one to the spot. And then there, there’s, they also have the Japanese Garden. Which is so beautiful you can see the, the I forget the name of those fish like koi fish, is it koi?
Aimee: Yes, yeah, the koi fish.
Vidya: Yeah, you can see those big koi fish and like it, it’s literally it does feel like you’re in Japan. It’s just so pretty. And like, because you, you know, if you go to LA, it feels like you’re in the desert or something, because you don’t see trees and anything, and then you go down there to San Diego and like the the Japanese Garden and you it’s all green, and it looks like really pretty. So that, that’s it one thing that I’d recommend Japanese garden, and then also the La Jolla Beach. That’s a big one.
Aimee: That’s over by UC San Diego. So one of our sister schools is in La Jolla and so I know I’ve had some students that maybe gone down for like a conference to at San, UC San Diego, and been in La Jolla and gone to the beach. That’s a really nice beach. There’s also couple of other beaches down there that maybe are a little more like young party crowd type beaches, I would say, La Jolla is pretty family, friendly. Balboa is a nice area. I’ve also been to downtown San Diego. There’s like, kind of an area, you can walk around with a lot of restaurants. and I trying to think I think it’s like gas lamp district (it is actually called Gaslamp Quarter) is right over by the convention center, which, if you are into comics or anything kind of comic-related, Marvel, DC comics. That is where San Diego Comic-Con is held, and that is really popular. I went to it a few years ago. It was amazing. It’s kind of hard to get tickets to, but if you manage to get tickets to it, that is a really cool experience. Kind of can see what’s coming up for the next year. You can attend like Q&A sessions with some really big names. I know when I went this is gonna, it’s been a while. The Flash TV show, the DC comic show was just coming out like it was the year that it was going to launch. So they had, like the whole cast there, for, like the premier of the kind of spotlighting the show. So that was cool and but yeah, definitely a great place, if you like to nerd out on comic things but they hold a lot of conventions both in LA and San Diego Convention Center. Have a lot of conventions for different things. So that’s always a good option to to kind of check out as well. One thing we didn’t. I forgot to talk about earlier, LA, what people assume is LA is not just what is actually Los Angeles, it kind of expands into some bigger areas. And I feel San Diego is kind of the same way. There’s a lot of communities kind of on the outskirts of San Diego that people just kind of lump into that area. So there’s a lot of outlets on the way to San Diego. there’s like Carlsbad, I want to say, has an outlet,
Vidya: oh yes!
Aimee: Theres a couple of them. So if you’re looking for some cheaper clothes, maybe, especially during the holidays, they have really big sales and a lot of those little outlet malls. So that’s always a good option. LA has the Citadel, which is one of my favorites, because there’s a big Disney store there, so I always like that one. But thinking about that, LA, people assume Malibu is part of LA, and I’ve done a lot of hiking in Malibu. But you’ve done some driving around in that area as well. Any recommendations for what people should check out in Malibu, which I think a lot of people probably know there’s like a Miley Cyrus song all about living in Malibu. But it’s a pretty big one for surfing and hiking as well.
Vidya: Yeah. So the beach, for sure is pretty good, although it does get crowded.
Aimee: Yes
Vidya: I feel like. But then, even driving, just driving around there. It’s, it’s a little, if you’re a new driver, or like it, it can be scary because I am a new driver, so for me, like driving in like the hills, it’s like ughhh, but it’s it’s worth it. The, the view is amazing and like yeah. And then I think it’s a little, Malibu, can be expensive for grad students, because there’s there, there’s there’s, I think, like some national labs there as well. Like and then, like, I think, I think, rich people live in Malibu. I’m, I’m just gonna say that. Yeah.
Aimee: Yeah, definitely. you’ll see, I think there’s there’s even one of the beaches is called Millionaire’s Beach, because all of the houses, they’re probably worth more than a million, millions of dollars now. They’re probably more like Billionaire Beach now (it is called Billionaire Beach now). But there’s some really fancy houses that you can walk by on like a cement pathway in front, of in front of them. So it’s definitely a more expensive area. What we usually do when we go up to Malibu. We love to drive the PCH, which is the big highway that’s like right along the water goes all the way down to San Diego, and it goes all the way up to Washington State. So it’s a very long road but it’s really cool to drive that through the Malibu area, because you do get to see a lot of different beaches along the way. But we always pack a picnic because even the restaurants and food out there is expensive.
Vidya: It’s expensive yeah
Aimee: So pack a picnic, enjoy the beach, and the look into the life of some, lot of famous people live kind of along the beach over there. So it’s definitely different than maybe something of your smaller beaches in, I think La Jolla is a little more expensive of an area to to live in. But it’s a definitely Malibu has its own kind of culture around, around that. I think that was pretty much all we wanted to cover with San Diego, LA Long Beach, Pasadena, Malibu area. Any tips for people as they’re looking to kind of get out and explore some of these areas?
Vidya: Well, I would say, like, it’s better to plan these things during the weekends. So like, at least because I feel like driving to LA and back like a at least needs a day. And then you also mentioned Carlsbad, right Carlsbad, so they they had super bloom like recently. So that that that’s also like a really like cool thing to do like during spring. Is it just beautiful like they have flower beds everywhere. But yeah, I feel like this because you need to, either you drive or you take public transport to get there and public transport, it’s gonna take even longer than driving. So I’d say, just plan accordingly, and make make sure you give yourself time. So maybe weekday is not the best day to do it, although, like as a grad student, you can do it over like during the week because can just take a a week day off. But yeah, it’s it’s gonna be a whole day thing.
Aimee: Yeah.
Vidya: And then it’s tiring driving and everything.
Aimee: Yeah, it is. And I think you know, most of those places. You’re gonna hit some traffic if you’re driving yourself. But public transportation obviously will take some time as well. So I agree. I think that would be my tip is to plan for it to be longer than you anticipate. While it maybe, says San Diego, is like an hour and 10 min away from Irvine. It’ll probably take you 2 hours to get there and find parking and so you definitely want to take those additional things into consideration. And just look, stuff up ahead of time. See what the hours are. See where parking is. That’s something I always forget to do, and then I regret it. When I get there, is you really should check out where the parking is nearby, what it costs, and doesn’t mean you can’t like, look around and try and find other parking options, but have an idea of where parking is because and all of these areas parking can get really hard to find and you don’t want to just kind of take whatever, because it can also get really expensive. Yeah, I think that was really all that we had for that. So thank you for joining us today and we will have another podcast together from you and I, where we’ll talk a little bit about some of these areas, more particular like events and concerts and festivals and things. So thank you for joining us.
Vidya: Thank you for having me.