CA Travel Guide
Tags: Smuggling / Lizards / Crime / U.S. Customs / LAX / Weird Travel / Animal Smuggling / Money Belts / → All Tags
Leapin' Lizards! Cali Man Busted Smuggling Aussie Reptiles in Money Belt
Things travelers should put in a money belt: Passport, tickets, cash, emergency contact information. Things travelers should not put in a money belt: lizards. It may seem rather obvious to most readers of this blog, but there's one guy in California who somehow never picked up this basic tenet of travel wisdom. As the LA Times points out, 40-year-old Michael Plank was arrested by U.S. Customs agents at Los Angeles International Airport this week when he was found to have 15 lizards stuffed in a money belt. Plank was on his way back from Australia and apparently decided to bring 11 skinks, two monitor lizards, and two geckos with him to his LA home, where they'd be worth around $8,500.
Tags: Art Travel / Los Angeles / Los Angeles Travel / → All Tags
Run, Don't Walk to See David Lynch's Painting Exhibit in LA
Los Angeles' reigning auteur of "weird," director David Lynch, doesn't limit his mode of creative expression to the screen. Though better known for helming films such as Mulholland Drive and hawking the benefits of transcendental meditation on college campuses, the fabulously-coiffed Lynch actually began his career as an artist. In 2007, a major retrospective of Lynch's multimedia art was featured at Paris' Fondation Cartier, and earlier this year, a selection of his photographs were on display at L.A.'s Michael Kohn Gallery.
We deemed the latter exhibition, a visual offshoot of the Danger Mouse/Sparklehorse album Dark Night of the Soul, a mediocre representation of Lynch's creative bounds. We've yet to see his paintings in person, but as dedicated Lynch-o-philes we'll be rushing off to see his first L.A. painting show in a decade at Santa Monica's Griffin Gallery.
Tags: Movie Travel / Celeb Travel / Award Show Travel / → All Tags
One Year Later, 'Slumdog Millionaire' Stars Jetsetting Couple
Last year, audiences around the world watched as Jamal and Latika (spoiler alert!) reunited for a Bollywood-style dance on a Mumbai train platform. Now Dev Patel and Freida Pinto, the stars of Best Picture Winner "Slumdog Millionaire," are a jet-setting couple chasing their next big projects all over the globe.
The young actors, British and Indian by birth respectively, were spotted recently at LAX after a romantic lunch at La Conversation Cafe in Los Angeles. Pinto recently finished filming her role as the title character in "Miral," a drama about adoption shot in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, Israel with Best Director nominee Julian Schnabel. Now, she's filming Woody Allen's new movie "You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger" in London with Naomi Watts and Sir Anthony Hopkins.
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Football Rivalry Travel: The Bruins And Trojans Head To The Coliseum
The weather is getting cooler, and college football is going strong. Here’s the scoop on just one of the country’s best rivalries to help your sports travel planning.
· Rivalry Match-Up: UCLA at USC on November 28.
These two teams have been playing since you great grandparents were in college, so there has been plenty of bad blood over the years to get the rivalry going. Students see each other around town since both schools are located in Los Angeles, so the constant trash talking isn’t just between the schools’ coaches. Yes, they too love to mouth off at one another whenever they get the chance. USC leads the all time series and will probably bring home the win this year. However, if UCLA can pull out a win, the Victory Bell will be sporting Bruin blue for the holiday season.
Stadium Info and tips on where to sleep and party, after the jump.
Tags: Holiday Travel / San Diego Travel / California Travel / Events / → All Tags
San Diego's December Nights Spread Holiday Cheer Under The Palm Trees
It's hard to feel the holiday vibe in San Diego when the temps hover at 80 degrees and the only trees you see are of the palm variety. But when traditional events like the Balboa Park's 32nd annual December Nights roll around, it starts to feel a lot like Christmas.
San Diego's kick-off to the season will take place December 4 from 5 to 10 p.m. and December 5 from noon to 10 p.m. in Balboa Park. More than 300,000 revelers are expected to attend December Nights, the largest free community festival in the city. Start off the festivities at the International Christmas Festival at the House of Pacific Relations Cottages. There you can get eats from all around the globe like Polish kielbasa, Panamanian fried plantains and Filipino lumpia, a yummy kind of egg roll. But wait, there's so much more...
Tags: Travel Snapshot / Flight Attendants / Uniforms / LAX / Guessing Games / → All Tags
Can You Guess The Stylish Flight Attendants?
Yesterday we were participating in some research at Los Angeles International Airport around the baggage claim at Terminal 4 which aside from being home to domestic airlines like American, is also a part of the airport's international terminal.
While we were there, three young ladies in stylish khacki trench coats with adorable little bows in their perfectly coiffed buns caught our attention. We've seen these international flight attendant uniforms before but we were never quite sure what airline they worked for. We now know the answer but do you? Hint: The answer lies in the hair bows.
Do you know the airline that puts their flight attendants in such pretty outfits with cute hair decorations? Put your guesses in comments below. We'll reveal the answer tomorrow.
Tags: Shopping Travel / Neighborhood To Know And Go / Los Angeles / Los Angeles Travel / → All Tags
Off Rodeo Drive: Our Guide to Shopping LA's West Third Street
In this installment of Off Rodeo Drive, we're calling attention to a Los Angeles shopping destination that some would say looks like a shadow of its former self. Driving down West Third Street just past The Grove, you'll notice many more empty, stripped-down storefronts than there were just a year ago. Contemporary favorites like Built By Wendy and Pixie Market—both New York transplants—have shut down, along with a beloved cookbook store whose departure locals mourned.
Yet, West Third Street remains one of our very favorite places to shop in the city. Stores that have stuck around have earned their loyal clientele, customers which include oft-photographed celebrities ducking into Joan's On Third or Toast for a post-shopping lunch. So, without further ado, here are five stores to hit in the area for a quality retail fix—after the jump.
Tags: Christmas Alternatives / Wine Travel / California Travel / Napa Valley Travel / → All Tags
What Napa's All About: Bed and Breakfasts and Wine Tastings
Gift giving, twinkling lights, and plenty of booze often make for a festive holiday season, but going overboard with the latter wouldn't garner a stamp of approval from Kris Kringle. Leave it to Napa's wine producers and humble Bed and Breakfast proprietors to class up those awkward, alcohol-tinged family gatherings and raise some money for charity in the process.
Plenty of Napa Valley wineries are having holiday Open House events on weekends, but to experience a smorgasbord of varietals, vintner offerings, and enjoy the quaint charm of Downtown Napa, buy a ticket to the annual B&B Tour & Taste Event. The four-hour affair will take place on December 5th from 2:00-6:00 PM, when ticket-holders will go from one B&B to the next to "ooh" and "aah" over wreaths, ornaments, and tinsel decor.
Tags: Thanksgiving Alternatives / Thanksgiving Travel / California / California Travel / Lake Tahoe / → All Tags
Ditch Cooking and the Fake Smile for Thanksgiving in Tahoe
Lake views and no cooking; that's what we call Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving can either make you feel elated or totally stressed out—usually some combination thereof. After that Pumpkin Pie high, your mind might turn to thoughts of dishes that need to be washed, relatives that need to be entertained, and horrific Black Friday shopping. The benefit of hightailing it out of town during this time is being able to push some of these worries away, while still enjoying the Thanksgiving spirit.
Lake Tahoe is always a favorite holiday destination, for its views of the water, skiing, and the fact that it's pretty much the opposite of a harried urban setting, however overrun with tourists it can get. We found some last minute event deals at the Hyatt Regency Resort that offer easy and relatively cheap remedies to some of the problems we mentioned above.
Tags: Twilight Travel / Celeb Travel / Los Angeles Travel / Movie Premiere Travel / → All Tags
Twilight Mania Hits LA For 'New Moon' Premiere; NYC Is Next
After a whirlwind promotional tour of Europe that included London, Munich, Paris and Madrid, the cast of New Moon arrived back in Los Angeles this weekend for the movie's official world premiere.
The premiere takes place tonight at Mann’s Village Theatre, 961 Broxton Avenue, in Westwood Village. The entire cast is expected to be on hand and the red carpet arrivals are scheduled to take place between 5 PM and 6:30 PM. The After Party will also take place in Westwood, at an undisclosed location near Lindbrook Dr and Glendon Ave around 9:00 PM. If you're thinking about heading down there tonight to ogle the cast as they hit the red carpet, you won't be alone. The L.A. Times is reporting there are hundreds of fans in line already and most are decked out in RPattz tees or carrying signs that say things like, "Suck my blood, Edward."
Tags: Boats / World Records / Active Travel / Rowboats / Cool Tricks / → All Tags
Cool Tricks: Two English Dudes Row Across North Pacific (Almost) Unsupported
After 190 days and 7,000 miles of rowing a cutting-edge rowboat across the North Atlantic, two British dudes arrived in San Francisco on Friday and promptly drank a couple of beers. The Golden Gate Endeavor, as the journey was called, left Choshi, Japan near Tokyo on Friday, May 8, 2009 and passed under the Golden Gate Bridge on Friday, November 13, 2009. The duo had hoped to be the first to row unsupported between Japan and the U.S., but they ran out of food about 100 miles from the finish and accepted an emergency helicopter drop. That doesn't make the trip any less cool in my book.
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San Francisco Gets Freaky This Weekend With Animation
A scene from Metropia, not for the kids
If you happen to be visiting the San Francisco Bay Area this weekend and are looking for a last-minute culture fix, our suggestion is the Fourth Annual S.F. International Animation Festival. The festival's kick-off took place earlier this week, with an Opening Night screening of the new Wes Anderson movie The Fantastic Mr. Fox.
While Fox is a larger studio release, most of the festival's programming gives due time and attention to films that don't have the same hype or budget attached to them as a Pixar release—obscure international offerings, shorts, and other movies that don't usually find a place at your local cineplex. Don't get us wrong, we're still Pixar devotees, but this weekend's lineup is refreshingly challenging and less mainstream than, say, the umpeeth movie in the Shrek series.
