Las Vegas

Our final stop was the crazy Las Vegas, the city that never sleeps. Everyone made a big hype about Vegas, and it certainly did not disappoint. We were there during the 4th of July long weekend, so The Strip was crazy packed.

The first night, we watched Cirque du Soleil, KA. The tickets to this show were $125 each. The show was pretty amazing, it was a total surround stage setup, and the actaully stages people performed on were totally gyrational. It was tilting and moving 360°, and at one point the performance was done with the platform tilted at 80°. The technical effects are absolutely second to none, some totally rad scenes were performed. All in all, a fantastic show, definitely worthy of checking out.

We walked down the main Strip and check out almost all the hotels/casinos. This is believe it or not a whole day affair. It takes a loooong time to walk around everywhere and it gets really tiring by the end of day. Here are things I noticed about the different casino and hotels:

• the most luxurious: Bellagio
• the biggest monster: Caesar's Palace
• the cooliest themed: tied Luxor & Treasure Island
• the best one no-one's ever heard of: the Venetian
• the one with most hot chicks: Mandalay Bay
• the bully: MGM Grand

What's a trip to vegas without buffets? We ate at a different buffet each day we were there, with the last being the best, the Bellagio Buffet. We went in at late lunch and stayed 'till dinner. Another absolute necessity in Vegas? the strip clubs. We went to the DejaVu one night, and this was by far (and I mean far) the best club I've been to. Anywhere. Most my friends would also agree. I had front row seats to jello wrestling match, which was a real treat. I don't think I can go anywhere else now after this.

On the 12-hour drive back home, we went through Yosemite National Park. This was a beautiful park with tons of mountain/snow/valley scenery. Too bad I slept through almost all of it.

San Diego

Our next destination is the southern-most city of San Diego. It's about 30 min. away from the Mexico border, and the city of Tijuana. Since the legal age in Mexico is 18, I went across the border on two nights, since I wouldn't get in anywhere in San Diego anyway. I also just wanted to check out what Mexico was like.

To which I respond extreme disappointment. Tijuna was very run down and ghetto. When we went to strip clubs, it felt really dirty and I had constant thoughts of a loooong shower. I didn't really feel like staying and if anything, the club turned me off.

Now back to the civilization of SanDiego. We caught the sunset at LaJolla beach the first day there. The interesting part is that, the water was actually warm here. All the other beaches, a dip was comparable to ice water, but here we stayed in the water for 30 min enjoying the warmth. We took a cruise around the Harbour and also checked out the University of San Diego campus. It was a beautiful campus; very clean and cool architecture all around. We spent a full day at the San Diego Zoo. It's pretty famous, but after looking through it all, it seems like any other zoo to me, except they have pandas here. Worthy to see nonetheless.

the OC

Right below Los Angelos county is the infamous Orange County. This is where Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, and Laguna Beach all lie. Newport Beach is where 'the OC' takes place, Huntington Beach is where Hollister CO. gets all it's inspiration from, and Laguna Beach is obviously where the show 'Laguna Beach' happens.

I must say Newport and Laguna are the two best beaches I've ever been to in my life. Everything about them is superb. Definitely wouldn't mind going there again, but next time, I gotta slather on hella lot of sunscreen. Going to all these beaches everyday did a number on my skin, I got burned on my shoulder and feet quite bad. Right now is the peeling-skin-stage. And the chicks, oh the hot chicks . . . wow. I was secretly hoping to catch a glimps of maybe a cast member from Laguna Beach, but... I don't think that happened.

Once away from the beach, the city themselves are quite impressive too. The residents here are mostly rich, which is reflected in the upscale downtown areas and starring at the huge houses on the hills was fun too.

LA

Next, we came to LA. It was really overwhelming, because there was absolutely endless stuff to do here. Every corner of this giant metropolis offered something unique to check out. The 3 days we were here seemed really short.

We first checked out Malibu beach. Again, awesome beach, worthy of its famous statuary. We hung out in Hollywood quite a lot. Visited the Universal Studios Citywalk, Hollywood Boulevard, where all the famous entertainment landmarks are; such as the Kodak Theatre, Walk of Fame, the Chinese Theatre, and Jimmy Kimmel Live. Some of us toured the NBC studio and lined up for taping of the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, while others went to see the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. I was sooo close to getting into Leno. In a line up of 400+, there were only 15 people in front of me before they filled up. While in Beverly Hills, we drove to the Playboy Mansion. It's actually quite cleverly hidden so as to avoid random visitors like us. It was gated real good, and we couldn't see much of the property, but the fact that we were at the gates of the Mansion is story enough. We also went to Long Beach, only to find a freakish scene of total absence on the stretched-out beach. We did however find West Coast Choppers. This is the bike shop where Jessie James works on the show Monster Garage. Pretty rad display of rides there.

One thing I have to mention though: driving in LA is absolute horror! the highway gets jammed on Sunday nights at 8, people honk at random, and no one gives any room. I was so glad when I drove out of LA.

Santa Barbara

Our first stop was the beautiful Santa Barbara. Just as important as the destination is the route to get there. We drove down the gorgeous scenery of Highway 1. It does not get better than this; wind blowing in your hair, California tunes cranked high, mountain side curves along the coast and the Pacific ocean to your right the entire way. This road is actually where a lot of car commercials are shot.

The small city of SantaBarbara is very lively with the college crowd. Everyone from UCSantaBarbara comes downtown to party at night. We were only here for one day, but I really enjoyed the atmosphere. Unlike other places we visited, majority of the crowd here is around my age, which was very good at the beach. Surprisingly, the sand was so hot, it was impossible to walk bear feet.

SoCal 2006 roadtrip

Whooooooooo!!!
I just came back from an 11-day roadtrip all through southern California and Las Vegas. We went to Santa Barbara, Los Angelos, Orange County, San Diego, and last but not least Las Vegas, Nevada.


All this came together with most of us Actel new interns, with some of the old ones too, who planned most of it. There was a total of 21 of us, renting 5 cars. Driving through Cali is absolutely awesome! It's great to be on the open road, but riding on the California west coast is way above anything. I'll describe each destination separately, and here are some of the (above par quality) photos I took along the way:

• album 1
• album 2
• album 3