Los Angeles (by Niki)

Our drive to Los Angeles from San Diego was painless and it virtually felt like the cities were connected because there were so many communities in between. I suppose the coast of California is too beautiful to let any square meter go to waste!

Like it or not, I think everyone who goes to L.A has some preconceived notions or expectations of their visit. I'm not sure exactly what mine were but a certain image of Katy Perry's California Girls song mixed with a culture of celebrity craze and a pinch of a classic hippie lifestyle comes to mind. Although these concepts are probably out there (and we certainly did not see much of this city of 12 million), I found L.A to be a totally welcoming, laid back, obviously hectic city with everyone being too busy jogging, doing Yoga, or preaching about a cause to be judgmental or superficial.

We arrived early in the afternoon and went straight to Jon's place for a quick catch up. His place is in the perfect location: near Venice Beach but set back far enough to have some peace from the energetic and eccentric promenade along the ocean. Maryam being the sweetheart that she is let us stay at her beautiful apartment in Santa Monica which was the perfect place for us. That evening we simply took in the mellow vibe of Santa Monica before Jon and Maryam swung by for a visit, enjoying the numerous parks (including a dog park for Diego!) and walking on the promenade along the ocean. The beaches are an endless length of sand, perfectly set up for spontaneous volleyball games or for catching some rays which many people were doing because it seems to me that the sun is always shining.

Having gone to bed early the night before, we woke early the next day and were excited to go rollerblading again but this time with Diego. The only problem was the hills getting down to the ocean promenade and I chickened out while Josh whizzed past me and walked down to the bottom. I was eager to see the infamous Venice Beach which is so often featured in movies so we headed in that direction. Coming from quiet, calm Santa Monica, it is instantly apparent when you cross the threshold into Venice Beach. Suddenly the stores take on a certain edge selling anything from medicinal marijuana, fishnet stockings, to longboards with all the street stalls selling any kind of art you can imagine or a few creative ones setting up humorous photo-ops like a dog in sunglasses laid out like she was passed out or a family of aliens. Jon let us know that chain restaurants are banned from the area which creates a really cool local vibe with some excellent food.

We had a great morning enjoying the beautiful coast and exercising with the masses (I'm not sure I have ever seen a more fit city!). An obvious concern is the large vagrant population and it's not unusual to see over 50 homeless people sleeping around the beach on benches or grassy areas and they certainly add a colourful flavour to the mix. My biggest complaint was that a large percentage seemed to be dog owners and three of these dogs (during separate incidents) decided to try and take a chunk out of Diego and with that we decided to drop him off and head out on our own.

For the afternoon we headed to Third Street Promenade which is a pedestrian only shopping street in Santa Monica with some designer and some affordable clothing. We enjoyed a lazy day of grabbing coffees, perusing the stores, and sharing a sun dried tomato goat cheese pizza (yum!). On our walk back home we spotted the iconic sunset with the ocean in the background and the palm trees in the front; it was beautiful. I'm not sure if it is because of the smog but the sunset creates a wonderful expanse of pinks across the sky and actually, it was one of the nicest sunsets I had seen during our entire trip. It was the perfect end to a wonderful day experiencing the quirky and the fashionable side of L.A.

Since our previous day had been so leisurely we set out to see more of L.A the next. We didn't entertain ideas of going to Disneyland or Universal Studios because we had both been there before (although I was six!) and we were more interested in seeing a more real version of L.A. After exhausting Diego at the doggie park we headed off to Robertson Avenue which we had read was a fun shopping street (and you might get lucky and spot a celebrity or two). We had fun going into the overpriced stores and pretending like we belonged and then we had lunch at a popular cafe that did not live up to expectations. While we walked over we felt like awesome tacky tourists trying to glance into the restaurant The Ivy where celebrities are a guaranteed sight if you are willing to pay over $100 a plate. I was looking so hard that I graciously tripped in front of the paparazzi standing on the sidewalk!

Without spotting a single celeb we headed to Rodeo drive just to drive through. This is the most expensive shopping area in L.A where people spend in the thousands, not the hundreds and a reservation is required to shop. We drove down the fairly bland minimalist street which was quite unattractive with designer store after store and nothing to break up the monotony. Not impressed we drove to Beverly Hills to ogle at the spectacular houses. The area itself could be described as worn out as it is an older part of town but some of the mansions were quite a sight to see (if you could see them at all past the security fence and tall shrubbery). Apparently you can get a star map and go around finding their houses but I thought our Robinson Avenue quest was tacky enough for one day. We continued our drive down Sunset Boulevard which is another popular street and it was definitely more our style with endless breakfast cafes and funky shops.

Since we had explored the virtues of several other religions abroad (Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, B'hai, Islam, Christianity etc.), we thought we should learn about Scientology as well. We headed to the famous Celebrity Scientology Center which is named such because it was previously a swanky hotel where celebrities stayed before it became run down and taken over by the Church of Scientology. As we were taking a picture of the plaque, a young man approached with a big smile and wondered if we would be interested in a tour and of course we said yes. We were unsurprised but disappointed when the "tour" became pressure to join the church where money conveniently and automatically exchanges hands.

The Church of Scientology was started by a man named L. Ron Hubbard in 1952 based on his theory of Dianetics which focuses on the "reactive mind" (ie: after food poisoning a person may become nauseous instantly upon seeing/smelling the offending agent again) and using a process called "auditing" to overcome this negative reaction. Obviously Scientology is much more complex than that but the basic concept is achieving spiritual balance through addressing all the experiences of our "reactive mind" and freeing oneself of that negativity to achieve happiness and sanity. In its simplicity the religion sounds like it may have some redeeming points but upon further investigation it definitely takes a turn to weird town.

Although I had a suspicious feeling about the tour, I was more than willing to sit and pretend to drink the Kool-aid for an hour. We joined a friendly middle aged couple for the tour who were either excellent actors or were sincerely interested in joining. The tour started with a fluffy introductory video telling us that we had been invited to open our minds (and later we would find that the invitation could easily be reneged upon if you challenge them too much or won't fork out the money).

The tour became really interesting when our guide started talking about the basics such as medications being toxic and the only thing needed to "cure" mental illness or even conditions like blood pressure is Scientology's vision of spiritual balance. He adamantly told us that the "insane" (yes he really used that word) did not have a chemical imbalance but a spiritual one according to Mr. Hubbard who was "prolific in 19 subjects" (read: College dropout). Further, he stated that "all of the insane people should be taken off their medications and sent to a ranch to calm down. Only then can they start the auditing process to become sane."

For obvious reasons Josh and I were extremely interested in this stance and we may have taken our questions too far as his demeanor towards us changed and our, let's drink the Kool-aid act failed due to our skepticism. But how else are a pharmacist and a therapist supposed to respond when some uneducated pompous man tells us that Scientology has no time for "the insane", it just wants to help regular people (read: wealthy and gullible) and that anyone joining the church is required to go off their medications before being audited. That's "insane" if you ask me!

He then proceeded to show us the machine they use for auditing. It supposedly produces electrical signals in response to negative thoughts and this can be utilized to detect repressed events or emotions. Welcome to Psych 101 without the bullshit machine. Due to my interest, I tried to think of happy thoughts when he tried to suggest negative events like, "think of a recent disagreement you have had" and yet the needle consistently showed I was upset about something. Perhaps I was simply upset about the Church of Scientology but I am sure he wouldn't have thought of that.

The tour quickly turned into high pressure sales with insistent questions like, " aren't you going to buy a book?" "You should buy the Dianetics book..." "I think the perfect course for you is the one on eliminating toxins and it's not very much money, just $50 each right now. Don't you want to take it?" I was surprised and then again not surprised by how quickly the talk turned to money. I have since learned that the courses can become very expensive in the upper levels and a session of auditing can be insanely pricey as well so it is obvious who their target audience is. As soon as it was clear we were not going to give them any money, the gentleman abruptly excused us stating that he was going to continue with the other couple alone. A very enlightening experience although I wish I could have pretended better so I could glean more insight into the Church of Scientology (which apparently "is not a religion" according to him).

After our eye opening experience we headed back to Santa Monica although certainly not quickly. One of the major complaints locals have living in L.A is regarding the urban sprawl and the less than adequate public transport system. Looking around on the freeway shows that almost every vehicle contains one person and the traffic lanes are simply congested. It wasn't our first or our last fight with traffic but it was a daunting ride home and we weren't even the unfortunate commuters working all day and driving all night to get home. Hopefully this is something the city will improve upon in the future.

Jon had the wonderful and generous idea of shooting a music video for Josh's wedding song, "Waiting for Niki" and we set out to do that all the next afternoon. We were both nervous about being in a video but Jon was such a pro he put us at ease quickly with his fun and quirky ideas. First Josh had to perform the song several times so Jon could take many different kinds of shots. Jon had a really good eye and found the perfect spot on Venice Beach amongst some rocks along the ocean that occasionally shot sprays of water over the rocks and onto Josh's back which was fun to watch because he had to pretend to be unperturbed by it. It was also fun for me holding the reflector and watching all the people glancing over curiously with some taking pictures or video, perhaps hoping they were spotting a celebrity.

To make the video a little less serious, Jon and Josh came up with a series of goofy things for us to do and without giving away any clues, we had a lot of fun playing on the beach and experiencing the Muscle Beach concept. We also perused Venice Beach boardwalk for some inspirational quirky ideas (which may have included a tasty sandwich stop) and it did not disappoint. The entire afternoon was a blast watching Jon work and learning more about what he does and how he does it and being goofy playing around for the video. It was a wonderful gift from Jon and I can't wait to see the final product!

Afternoon turned into evening and we met up with Maryam to go to an event called Artwalk in downtown L.A. After battling the traffic again we went to a groovy well known local place (oh the privilege of hanging out with locals) that served delicious New York style sandwiches and a gravy type sauce for dipping, huge bowls of chili, and amazing sweet potato fries. Our supper ended with the waitress shaking up a bottle of coke and spraying it on us but we got a free drink out of the deal!

Walking around downtown we ducked into art galleries along the way which were very busy. I love the concept of Artwalk because it's a great way to get people out of the house to see art in a casual unthreatening environment. We ended up in a neat old building filled with displays with the best one being a collective canvas where everyone can contribute by painting on it. The live music started and we enjoyed dancing, taking in the atmosphere, and posing for Jon's "party camera." We had an awesome time out and could hardly believe that we were already leaving the next day.

We said our goodnights and our goodbyes to our wonderful hosts, Jon and Maryam, reluctantly. L.A is an intoxicating city, full of life and endless entertainment and I feel lucky that we will have family to visit there as an excellent excuse for an awesome time. We had an amazing time hanging out with Jon and Maryam and there is no doubt that we will be back!