Vacations Blog

This is what you won't see at airports this holiday season.

The good folks at Orbitz were nice enough to send along a list of the U.S. airports with the heaviest amount of holiday travel. They also offered up some words of wisdom.

Their travel advice falls along the lines of flexibility, utilizing technology and staying in the know. It’s fairly straightforward common sense, but you know what a lot of people forget to pack for when traveling? Common sense. It’s true.

The list and links are provided below. Read More »

As mentioned previously, we were on our way to do a whole lotta nothin’ in the town of Ojai, an hour or so outside of Los Angeles.

Before leaving, I had done a quick Google to see what it was known for and here’s a few that caught my eye:

From the cities main website, I discovered that they were making a big push for artists to help out renovating something in town – what it was escapes me now, but I liked that the lead story reached out to the right-brainers in town. Below that, however was a phone glitch affecting city hall’s runnings and that intrigued me even more – a $40,000 purse for whomever had the best eye for making the town better, but in the office of those who ran it, the voicemail wasn’t working properly. Read More »

It should come as no surprise that women are much, much smarter than men. But with that being said, my attempts at making my girlfriend drive me all over the greater Los Angeles area to find locations from my favorite films backfired yesterday.

It was mean.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

As I mentioned earlier, I have begun this ‘entitled’ project all over the area, finding the places that I feel like I deserve to see while I’m here. We’ve covered Swingers and True Romance, and I plan on finding a few more.

But when I found out that not far from where I lived was a school that was the local for a handful of my favorite films, I had to go.

When you first get to Marshall High School, you can immediately tell why it was constantly popping up in the cinema, what with its massive entryway and tree-lined yards. But a quick walk around the premises and you’ll start to remember the scenes that were shot here: Read More »

There really is nothing to do in the towns of Santa Paula and Ojai – and that’s exactly why we went. We could have driven 3 hours to Joshua Tree, sure, or gone down to Tijuana simply so we could write ‘…is in Mexico!’ on our Facebook profile and then hightail it back to San Diego – there’s enough to do outside of Los Angeles, but it all seemed so – goal orientated.

If you go to a National Park, you feel the need to hike and that’s just silly and in no way relaxing. If we went to a museum, I’d have to act like I know what my girlfriend was talking about all the while wondering if the café would give me a beer.

See – too many road trips out of town come with immense amounts of pressure. So when I asked ‘what’s there to do there?’ when she suggested it, she came back with ‘not a lot – there are some shops in Santa Paula and a cool little Mexican restaurant’, I was sold. Shops meant she had something to do and tequila meant I did as well. Read More »

There is no better movie in the history of movies than True Romance.

I think that should be repeated…a few times – both for confirmation’s sake and to up my word count.

There is no better movie in the history of movies than True Romance.

There is no better movie in the history of movies than True Romance.

I mean, sure, you’ve seen it and loved it, but let’s recap very quickly some of its finer attributes before getting into the locations around Los Angeles you can visit and pay homage. Read More »

Look, I – as well as most guys – can understand the need to run things by our significant others before acting on them. Yes, a call from Blockbuster before renting True Romance and Bladerunner for ‘date night’ would be nice. No, not everyone appreciates bourbon being on sale when told to run out and grab some wine for the dinner party. Michael Jordan posters do not make for a proper engagement gift, etc.

I understand. We all should.

Which is what makes this quirky little story even better. Read More »

The first time I was offered a ticket to San Juan Capistrano’s Mission, it was by my Mother. Who was with her Sister. It was a nice gesture, but being single and broke, I chose to go ahead and let them go, less that be the final straw in the crumbling fortress that was originally my self-confidence.

7 years later, I found myself slightly better and decided to take the trip down from Los Angeles as a statement of my healing.

I was 33, making ridiculous money from blogging articles like these and was ready. Read More »

Okay, I need to come clean a bit as I’m already getting some heat for my ‘Los Angeles for The Entitled’ posts and they’ve only been up a day or so.

Look, Los Angeles isn’t a bad place, okay? It’s just the people who make it bad – a lot like Paris.

But the city itself is cloaked in as much wonderful history as it is hauntings- old architecture, unless it gets used as an exterior for a movie, will either be forgotten, torn-down, or both.

So, being car-less, I decided to follow an old book I picked up at a used bookstore some time back, a wonderful pictorial dealing with the amazing old buildings that surround the desperate and self-conscious town. Read More »