California

We just arrived to Portland, OR after driving up the coast of California from Los Angeles on Highway 1.

We met up with Al in Los Angeles. Apparently he knows some people and the first night we were there we got a free dinner, free drinks and VIP/back stage passes for a show at The Music Box, one of the largest music venues in L.A. The venue is huge and we were allowed on the balcony upstairs to meet the bands and what not. We met the owner of the place and he told us that he has to make $300,000 a month just to break even.

The next day we were hooked up with free kayaking in Marina Del Rey for a few hours and then went to Santa Monica beach and walked around the pier for a bit. There were people on slacklines, rings and monkey bars. Slacklining is a lot harder than it appears.


Epic Slackline Fail.....................

Afterwards we headed to UCLA's campus to throw the frisbee around for a bit then to Westwood. We walked into a grocery store for some watermelon and two girls asked if we wanted $15 each to fill out a survey. After filling out a questionaire on our favorite celebrities, consumer brands, TV commercials and what not we left with $15 cash each. Not bad. We also found some free chairs on the side of the street and carried them back to Al's place.

The next night we were hooked up with more free food and drinks. There was a line forming outside the Music Box since 9:00am for a show and we were told we could get free VIP/back stage tickets again but we declined. Al knew someone else who works with Jimmy Kimmel. We ended up going back stage of Jimmy Kimmel Live that night where there was more free food and drinks. As we were arriving Megan Fox was just leaving but we were introduced to David Arquette.

We left LA and headed north up the Pacific Coast Highway. The beaches along the coast are gorgeous. We found a camp site not too far off the coast. We got there late enough and left early enough to avoid the fees. Continuing up north we made it to Big Basin and checked out the Redwoods.



***Hey Dan here. I have to interrupt because Jesse failed to mention the event that cost us about 12 hours in the car in a big loop between L.A. and San Fransisco. So we were driving up the Pacific Coast Highway for 3 hours or so before we had to fill the gas tank in Santa Maria. No big deal. We continued another 3 hours before stopping for food in a town called Carmel just south of Monterey. We were about to get food when Jesse realized he left his wallet on the gas pump 170 miles south. Oops! We were lucky enough to have a receipt for an iced tea from the place so we were able to get the address and phone number. Some good citizen must have turned in the wallet so we backtracked 3 hours and then turned around and headed north again almost to the point where we ate lunch. Epic Roadtrip Fail.....lol..!!!!****

From there we ended up in San Fransisco. We stayed with two girls Jesse met in Italy for a night. That night we met a kid who took us out the next day to show us around the city.