Epic Journey Log Entry #7
Long Beach/Arrival
jetBlue has 3 hubs – Boston, NYC, and Long Beach – and to get *anywhere* you must fly through one of those. Since I wanted to fly into Austin for the weekend to stay with my friend Naomi and had to fly out of Long Beach anyways, I decided to do a 1-night stay there.
And I am so glad I did.
When I flew in I wasn’t really sure what to expect or what exactly I was going to do. When I landed at 1:00pm I was at first taken aback by how tiny the airport was. You think the Toledo airport is small? HA! Fly into Long Beach! I was crazy surprised that it was the major West Coast hub for jetBlue – only 4 gates and when you board/leave the plane you get off outside and have to walk outside!
Chris, this girl who’s originally from Strongsville (near Cleveland) picked me up – which I was incredibly thankful for because Cali has weak public transportation since *everyone* and their momma drives. She had to run some errands real quick but we did stop at a taqueria where I got asada and lengua tacos – gotta love *real* Mexican food in California! The asada was great, but the lengua (cow tongue) was ‘eh’ – it wasn’t really seasoned so didn’t have much of a taste.
Then something unexpected happened.
Chris pulled into a parking lot that was cracked and light-weight shady looking with a dilapidated building that stood ominously before us, and said, “Do you know where we are?”
I looked around and suddenly felt apprehensive because the area *really* didn’t seem very legit. Since I had just met Chris for the first time that day my second thought (preceded by ‘huh?’) was ‘Oh god, I wonder if this is the part where she turns into an ax murderer like everyone warned me about and I’m going to die in Long Beach!’
Of course, I didn’t say that out loud.
Instead, I said, “Um, no…should I?” while I kept my eyes on her hands, just – ya know – seeing if she reaches for a giant butcher knife/ax/ninja star.
She gestured towards the red covering that hung over a door. “We’re at Fangtasia!”
OH.MY.GOD.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Let’s backtrack, Gentle Readers. I knew that Chris and her roommate Suzie lived a couple miles from the bar where they filmed the Fangasia bar scenes but for the life of me just did not recognize it/expect that she would take me there. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Fangtasia, it is the ‘vampire bar’ in the TV show ‘True Blood’ that just aired its 3rd season on HBO. It’s one of my favorite shows and is adapted from one of my favorite book series.
Needless to say, I was fairly ecstatic.
The bar, which is named ‘Alex’s Bar’ was closed so we couldn’t go inside, but Chris got me to recreate a death scene by one of my favorite characters, Eric, who fell right in that parking lot. I laid in the same-ish spot and got my picture taken :)
After that highlight we headed back to their apartment which was an adorable place set right by the beach. Chris and Suzie are a bit older, early to mid-thirties, so they had a very nicely decorated apartment that even had a balcony. Chris had to go to bed (she’s a nurse with a 7pm-7am shift) so I met Suzie, who is an incredibly awesome person.
Suzie took me out and we embarked on an excellent Long Beach/Orange County adventure. First up, we headed to the beach so I could see the Pacific Ocean for the first time! It was nice, but sadly Long Beach does not have very nice beaches unless you go farther South. Due to the refineries and the fact that Long Beach’s port is the 5th busiest in America, the water isn’t that clean and Chris said it has an oily feeling to it. Plus, it was kind of cold!! The area was very breezy and sadly not the kind of weather that would make me want to lay out.
However, I did see something neat. Apparently a recent trend that is big in Long Beach is ‘kite surfing’. Basically, you surf while wearing a harness that is attached to a giant kite. Sounds silly/crazy/weird but it was cool to watch and it definitely made for a brightly colored beach with all the kites flying!
No comments:
Post a Comment