I’m back on the blog and also back in Pomona for a few days. I have some great stories and photos to show from this past week when my friend was visiting from Sweden. Our week started out by going to Universal Studios. We went on 3D rides, saw the mechanics of special effects and went on tour behind the scenes where parts of the top movies of all times have been recorded. It was a lot of fun! We also wandered along the Citywalk, just outside of Universal Studios and ended up doing iFly. iFly is a vertical wind tunnel, like indoors skydiving. It was insane!
The day after we went to Venice Beach in Culver City, LA. Walking along the boardwalk you could see a variety of booths selling art, rare objects and henna tattoo. It was also crowded with street performers. Dancers, musicians and even freak shows. We had some lunch along the way at a corner place called Poke Poke. Similar to sushi, only you got it in a small bowl, rice, tuna and seaweed mixed together. I also tried Funnel Cake for the first time. It kind of tasted like waffles with strawberry jam and whipped cream. Delicious!
Later this week we went to Six Flags Magic Mountain in Santa Clarita to go on the most crazy rollercoasters I’ve ever experienced. It was like nothing I’ve ever been through before. Rollercoasters with a variety of loops, slopes and positioning. Tatsu, was a clear favorite. The seats were positioned underneath the tracks and your body in a horizontal position. It was like flying! It was also very fast and even had a large inverted loop, so strange! Goliath was also one of my personal favorite. An enormous rollercoaster built with steep vertical drops and high velocity. What a day!
We then continued on to Santa Barbara, a city by the coast a bit outside of LA. It had a downtown which actually offered walking distance to different parts of the city, a rare situation in the states from what I’ve seen so far. It was a really pretty town with a lot of small boutiques along the sidewalk. We sat down with the homeless for a while and played a few songs for them. Then we continued to the pier and street performed a bit. We also visited a Salt Cave downtown where you could get different kinds of salt treatments like massage, scrub and also inhaling salt particles for cleansing. We skipped the treatments but got to visit the cave for a while anyway. It was unique. We also went to do some chocolate tasting. Truffles of Santa Barbara are truly delicious!
The last day we spent in downtown LA by the Hollywood Walk of Fame and took pictures with the stars. We ate lunch at Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles which I’d heard a lot of positive things about. I was not disappointed. Such a friendly staff and food consisting of fried chicken and a tasty waffle covered in maple syrup. So unhealthy, but so good! We continued to Ripley’s Believe it or Not Museum, which as expected was a strange experience. So many weird facts. Fascinating!
We finished off the week by going to The LA Gun Club to try out some real guns. It was the first time I fired a real gun. It was very loud in there and we wore both ear plugs and the large ear protection to decrease the noise. At first we shot a regular hand gun and I was surprised about how much you had to tense your body to soften the recoil. It was an experience but not my cup of tea. So when my friend decided to try an AK-47 I stood by the sidelines and watched him shoot the picture of a zombie.
So now I’m back in Pomona for a few days and will probably be going back to Apple Valley for a few days this weekend to record some music with a friend. The weather is still amazing and I love California. Thankfully I still have half of my trip to go 🙂