OT: Suggestions needed on Palo Alto and Pomona

[HuskyHawk]

Well this took an interesting turn...

Typical bs. Pay it no mind.

 

[jleves]

We are here through Sunday afternoon. Then we take the red eye back. Friday is Pomona College day. We may go the Dodgers game after that. Saturday could be a good day for the observatory. Thanks for the suggestions!

Is that 104 for Claremont?

@HuskyHawk mentioned Pinks, but if you go to the Dodger game, then you really should hit Tommy's afterward. It's about a mile from the park on Beverly and Rampart. It's been around for over 70 years and has the most iconic chili burgers. They have two lines - make sure you go to the one at the little shack on the corner, not the one attached to the new building - it's just better.

If you have time on Sunday before the red-eye think about a drive up to Big Bear. It's pretty cool and you can get a completely different feel for the area just an hour or so away.

 

[HuskyHawk]

@HuskyHawk mentioned Pinks, but if you go to the Dodger game, then you really should hit Tommy's afterward. It's about a mile from the park on Beverly and Rampart. It's been around for over 70 years and has the most iconic chili burgers. They have two lines - make sure you go to the one at the little shack on the corner, not the one attached to the new building - it's just better.

If you have time on Sunday before the red-eye think about a drive up to Big Bear. It's pretty cool and you can get a completely different feel for the area just an hour or so away.

Bingo. That was the place I wanted to mention and forgot the name until late last night. I only went to Pink's once, but we got Tommy's chili burgers many, many times. Love those things.

 

[8893]

Griffiths is nice at night actually. Also, Hollywood Bowl is a great time. Saw a best of John Williams movie scores there. People picnicking and drinking wine along the road up to it. Wonderful venue. Dodger Stadium is pretty cool. You'll understand the nickname once you go (Chavez Ravine). Burbank is an interesting neighborhood.

I'm a fan of chili dogs at Pinks on LaBrea in LA. Have fun.

Totally agree on Hollywood Bowl. If anything is there that is remotely of interest to you, go. Other than Red Rocks, probably the coolest concert venue I've ever seen. And you can bring in anything except kegs, and I mean anything. Get there early and grab a spot to picnic beforehand. Brought my entire family to see Dr. John's tribute to Louis Armstrong there and it was a highlight of our trip.

Also agree on Pink's. Great dogs, great legendary joint. Make sure you take a silly picture in the hot dog cut-outs.

 

[Paesano]

Here at Pomona and, yep, prettydamn hot!!!

 

[Paesano]

On the red eye back home. Thanks to everyone who proposed ideas.

It was an expensive trip but nice to see the eldest son again. He has another 5 weeks out here but he is making the most of it. I would have jumped on this opportunity when I was 19 too. But this experience has revealed something I didn't know about myself. I became quite attached to my kids. Still trying to figure out why and how to cope with it.

 

[jleves]

On the red eye back home. Thanks to everyone who proposed ideas.

It was an expensive trip but nice to see the eldest son again. He has another 5 weeks out here but he is making the most of it. I would have jumped on this opportunity when I was 19 too. But this experience has revealed something I didn't know about myself. I became quite attached to my kids. Still trying to figure out why and how to cope with it.

So where did you go - what did you do? What was great? What was meh? We want details - or at least I do.

 

[Paesano]

So where did you go - what did you do? What was great? What was meh? We want details - or at least I do.

Well, as you might imagine, the heat at the end of the week did limit us a little. I get dehydrated easily and I did get dehydrated. Early in the week we got in some good beach time. We did Santa Monica Pier and Venice Beach. My kids are still little children at heart so they built sand castles. The temperature was perfect at that time and the beaches weren't overrun. And the boardwalk at Venice was an "experience". We also walked around and ate in Beverly Hills while the weather was nice. We visited the Ferrari dealership, which had a La Ferrari in the showroom.

We took the train up to Palo Alto to do the Stanford information session and tour. It actually was informative. They were more honest and detailed than east coast schools we visited. We also found a nice Jewish Bagel place called Izzy's. Then we took the train back to LA. The ride was nice and it was nice to not drive but I might opt to drive if we did it again.

We did take in a Dodger game but didn't go to Tommy's after. They had fireworks after the game and then it was pretty late.

Pomona College was nice but HOT. We got a chance to speak with their athletic director, which was also informative. We ate at Walter's per one suggestion. Claremont and Palo Alto are both nice places to spend 4ish years.

To avoid the heat we spent some time at the California Science Center. Seeing an SR71 and Space Shuttle up close was pretty cool. We also spent some time shopping at Fry's and working on my son's car. He bought a fixer upper 300ZX to drive to the beach while out there.

We hit some Mexican restaurants and walked around downtown a little too.