Due to a sudden decision to meet some of Mr. Worm’s business partners and clients down in L.A., we decided to be bold and daring and drive down over – consider it a business-road-trip. Theoretically speaking, if we were to drive down non-stop from Seattle (give or take a few visits to various rest areas and fast-food restaurants) it would take 16-18 hours on the road. But since it is considered to be a “road trip”, it took us about 18 hours driving and one night spent at a hotel.
~ Part I: THE DRIVE ~
A couple snaps of the car situation on the way down.
Our “first” stop was at some outlet mall in Oregon which was quite disappointing. The only stores that we would even care to walk were only Puma, Calvin Klein, Guess, and BCBG. But the selections were scarce, and not what we would wear. Mr. Worm commented: “This is probably one of the most ghetto outlets I have been to. Suddenly, I miss Pittsburgh – it’s not so bad after all.” Afterwards, we discussed the reasons for this. Oregon state seems to be a rather green city, i.e., the residents could care less about fashion and all the material things that a normal city would fetishize, so to speak. In fact, the next morning, I had read in the newspapers that Portland is one of the most bike-friendly city.
A quick irrelevant but amusing observation. Apparently, Super 8 Hotels is quite common from Oregon into California. For those of you who are Taiwanese, you can wonder what kind of jokes can be made from this:
Super 8 Hotel = 超及 八 = 超 機八 旅館
For the first night, we stayed at Quality Inn (the first one after crossing into the borders of California). First of all, it was not “quality” by cleanliness standards: the floors felt as if there were microscopic dirt and rocks. Overall, it was not too bad, but for the rate ($99/night) it was definitely not worth it. The next morning we woke up at 6:30 am, and began crossing the mountains.
For breakfast we went to a Denny’s some 20 miles south along I-5. Stepping out of the car outside of Denny’s, we both took a whiff of northern Cali’s air, and came unanimously to the conclusion of how similar the smell was to urban Taiwan: thick, hot, and a little humid with that faint, uncanny smell akin to raw produce and sewer. >_<”
The drive itself was not very interesting after we passed the mountains. Either we could see the horizon, or there would be lots of farming plantations with crops such as grapes (California raisins and wine) and other fruits, olive, nuts and a little cotton. Some of the trees we could not immediately identify. So on our way back, we finally decided to stop on the side and find out what they were. There was one particularly interesting (almost ugly) tree that caught our eye. I thought it was an olive plantation. But it wasn’t until Mr. Worm picked up a shell and broke it open that we realized it was an almond tree.
Also on our way back, I saw another plantation of citrus trees, noticeable from their extremely green and abundant leaves. I also saw a set of three signs posted along the plantation in this order:
MANDARINS
LEMONS, TOO
IT’S GOOD FOR YOU
It was pretty cute and funny. ^_^
Other snaps while driving (the last two were taken at a rest area somewhere along central Cali).
Heading back to Washington, our night was spent at Holiday Inn in Redding, California. We liked it very much: good customer service, very clean rooms (we had a king bed deluxe suite), and an outdoor swimming pool. It was really too bad neither of us had packed our swimming suits. A jump in the water would have felt so nice in 110 F weather.
Yes, it was *extremely extremely* hot.
~ Part II: FOOD, DINING, & SHOPPING (sort of) ~
It is no wonder that most of our friends that have been to L.A. always complain about why we cannot have the same quality of Asian cuisine in Seattle. There are three words that describe L.A.’s dining: deliciously yummy, freakin’ cheap, and pretty fast. Our first food was Beijing cuisine, and I must say that the veggie buns were the most authentic and most yummy I’ve had in America. The outer shell tasted like it was made from scratch, and the whole bun itself as if made immediately *from scratch* upon order. For our first night, we had dinner with Mr. Worm’s business partners at 金都, which was quite good, except there was not much I could eat except one plate of Chinese brocolli and picking some veggies from a few other plates. It was much too meaty for me. The last day we were in L.A., we went back to the same place for “morning tea”, i.e. dim sum. IT WAS REALLY GOOD. We ordered about 6-7 different plates which totaled under $14. In Seattle, the same kind of order would cost at least $20 with the same quality.
Another very yummy restaurant was at our second night, also with business partners at 半島. This time, I actually summoned up the courage to say, “I don’t eat meat. Is it alright if we order more vegetable plates?” The service was slow, the people were loud, but the food was exquisitely good and the price extremely low. It totaled to about $70, but that was with a soup, two appetizers, and six different dishes including seafood. I don’t even want to think about how much it would cost here in Seattle.
Something else that struck us about these places was how very Hong Kong everything seemed. All the names of the shops and restaurants were in Chinese, the shop attendants greeted you in Chinese (which would almost never happen in Seattle unless they knew you personally), and the behavior of the customers were just so…… Chinese. I know I’m lacking adjectives, but there’s really no better way to describe it. Seriously, if you sit down at a restaurant, close your eyes, you would almost believe that you are actually in Hong Kong.
We did not do much shopping – except for alcohol and pastries – since most of the time we had to go do business with some clients. Mr. Worm told me that a typical day during a business trip would be like this: have a morning meeting over breakfast, go visit a client, go have lunch with the client, go meet another client, have an internal meeting, go have dinner with clients/partners, talk more business over dinner, go to a bar and continue talking, return to hotel and rest… and the next day begins and ends the same way. For some people, this would seem like the executive life of luxury, but I’ve realized that on a long term scale, it is actually rather tiring. (-_-)*
*sigh~
If only Seattle’s food was as good as L.A.’s…… I mean, our food is pretty good. But Asian cuisine, specifically various Chinese specialties (e.g. Hong Kong style, Taiwanese style) could certainly use much improvement. Of course, In L.A. it is a must; there is simply too much competition and too many Asians. So far, the best Taiwanese food I’ve had in America is still Rose Tea Cafe in Pittsburgh.
Mr. Worm was seriously considering relocating to L.A. Chinese food is much better, his partners live there, people drive faster…….. The problem is, real estate prices are ridiculously high. If you don’t have at least $60,000 USD, don’t even think about buying a house there. We joked with his boss, “Yeah, we’ll just sell our 5 bedroom house for $50,000 and come to L.A. and get a 3 bedroom condo.”
