Gogo Rocket

So they're going to tell me what I need to change and stuff.  I'm reasonably confident this will help.

Celebs who live in Cali

Alec Baldwin is coming with us!

27 signs you live in Silver Lake

      Celebs who live in Silver Lake:

• James Franco
• Drew Barrymore
• Chris Pine
• Zachary Quinto
• Chris Parnell  (I think I'd recognize him)

I found a particularly critical post about Silver Lake on UrbanDictionary:

Research has led me to believe Echo Park is cheaper.  There're conflicting reports about Los Feliz, I think the book said it was so expensive I didn't even consider it.  

      

June Trip!

So I've been researching all sorts of things in regards to our trip in June. This blog has some really great tips as to when to buy airline tickets: http://www.farecompare.com/travel-advice/tips-from-air-travel-insiders/

We should shoot to buy our tickets no earlier then mid-late March so I'm thinking the very start of april will be a good time frame to buy tickets. The airlines usually start discounting tickets 3 months out from the flight date.

I've also been comparing a TON of different sites and airline websites. So far southwest is the cheapest ( about $320). The blog also said that tuesdays around 3pm is the best time to buy tickets because most airlines will do sales just for tuesday afternoons, though it also said the southwest airlines sales are usually early Tuesday mornings before most other airlines.

Let's keep an eye on Southwest and meet up on a tuesday morning at the end march/start of april and get our tickets then!


I also check prices for other airports close to LA but LAX has the cheaper flights. The rental car will be a little more money there though...

More more more

"While still centrally located on the Westside, the area known as West LA tends to be less expensive than nearby Westwood, Brentwood, and Santa Monica.  Here, the streets are more urban, dotted with convenience shops, gas stations, and strip malls, many of which could use a new coat of paint."

There's a city called Tustin, so I kind of want to live there.

It's where the A is.
Plane tickets have been stuck at $368.00 since we first checked.

The Kayak thing does say to wait:

Airfare is $150 cheaper if we fly from Chicago

It might be worth it to take the train to Chicago and fly out from there

More Whole Foods!

 This is the list of stores within 35 miles of the Brentwood location:

And here's the map of nearby stores:

 

Pretty sure Ted was blowing smoke when he said Midwest was the largest region.  There's no way we have more stores in the Midwest than California.

      The West LA store is super close to Culver City, which I think was still one of our possible options.
      Unfortunately, Echo Park and Silver Lake are here:
     

Which means the only reasonably close store to them is Glendale.

 Ugh someone made this guy at Colectivo wear a beardnet and he looks as sad as a dog with a cone.

Well, that's all I've got for today!

Research Trip is 146 days away!

Checklist (to be amended at later dates!):

1.) Inventory all of our stuff!

2.) Buy plane tickets for June 24th trip

• Look for places to stay (coachsurfing?  AirbNb?  Groupon hotels?)
• Schedule appointments to meet with different Whole Foods managers (West California, 4th and Fairfax, Glendale, others?)
• Figure out rental cars and talk to Melvin!  I'm talking to her now this will be updated quickly

3.) Rent UHaul Truck and Hitch (expensive?!)

• Look at other places?  I think we should probably just stick to UHaul.  We have to figure out an August date before renting one, though, so this part will have to wait a little while

4.) 

Going to LA

I like to start Indiegogos, so here's one for our LA trip:
Indiegogo for LA!
My mom will probably give us money if no one else does.

I looked at Streetadvisor a bit on Echo Park, I think that's definitely just our spot to go to:

I should probably be worried about crime, but I think I'll just take a kung fu class or something.  I've been meaning to start jiu jitsu at Neutral Ground.  I think maybe instead I'll just get a safe and lock all of my precious belongings in there every night?  Nah, I'm naive, I'm not even going to be thinking about the crime at all I don't think.

More stuff from citydata.com:

So yeah we probably have our work cut out for us on our June trip.  Sounds a little bit like the horror stories you hear about Riverwest, though, and I never had any problems there.  Taco Bell ad on the side of this page is tempting the crap out of me.

Ok that's it for today!  I think the debate is between Silver Lake and Echo Lake, though, huh?  

The (San Fernando) Valley

So people online and via Twitter keep suggesting that this place called "The Valley" is cheap and awesome.  It's actually called San Fernando Valley. Also, Culver City.

Got a book in the mail, and more!

Some advantages to Echo Park and Silver Lake are that they're close to Griffith Park, "the largest publicly owned park in the United States... 4,400 acres in the hills and features the Los Angeles Zoo, the Griffith Park Observatory Planetarium and Laserium, (the list continues but the zoo and planetarium were the two most exciting things to me).

Silver Lake is south of Los Feliz, which is the rich and "funky" community.  Silver Lake sounds expensive, though, Echo Park sounds better.

Here's what they say about Echo Park:
"This largely blue-collar, Latino community hugs the base of the hills."
There's a park called "Elysian Park", and the topography is kind of steep so there are stairs everywhere, like these called "The Avalon Stairways":

Kind of reminds me of a nice version of our East Side.  Also, Dodger Stadium is nearby, so sporting events make everything hard to get to.  I do not like the Dodgers, but they aren't very good so it's ok.  I'd still go to games to drink, just like I do for the Brewers.

There's still supposedly a Whole Foods coming to Echo Park, but the story about it opening was posted in May and there hasn't been an update.  Luckily we have just enough time that hopefully it'll open.

The best part about Echo Park?  "Housing prices in this urban neighborhood tend to be reasonable."
http://historicechopark.org
www.mta.net (for Metro/bus routes)



Studio City might be one worth investigation. Might.

The "Finding a place to live" section of this book is less fun.  It's pretty dense and I don't really feel like reading it much.  It gives you a lot of options and lists pros and cons, but I kind of just want them to tell me what's the best.

The largest banks on the West Coast are Bank of America, Washington Mutual, and Wells Fargo.  So, I'll probably transfer all of my money to stupid Wells Fargo once it's summer.

Bestplaces.net is a pretty cool website that compares cost of living and quality of life stuff from different cities.
It tells me this about West Hollywood:

For comparison, here's regular-ass LA:

For even more comparison, here's Milwaukee:

Sherman Oaks is expensive, it sounded good though.  I won't tell you the description because it sounded awesome until they started going on and on about how expensive it is.  The closer you get to the beach/ocean, the more expensive everything gets.  So LA really isn't all that bad compared to Venice, Long Beach, Santa Barbara, etc.

A store/city we might want to consider is Glendale.
https://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/stores/glendale
It's the closest one to the Silver Lake/Echo Park area (at the moment):

Originally a Mrs Gooch’s Market, we have been serving the Glendale Community since 1985!

We take up a full city block on Glendale Ave between California and Lexington with plenty of parking, a lovely patio eating area and a park-like atmosphere.

One thing that has not changed is the unique upbeat energy and welcoming “family” feel that we’ve always had at the Glendale store, perpetuated by our dedicated and passionate team members! We are proud that people find us special and we invite you to join our extended family and find out why so many of our customers – old and new friends - choose our market as their favorite place to shop!

We have grown with the community and we now offer more than ever before! We welcome one and all from the surrounding communities such as Montrose, La Crescenta, La Canada-Flintridge, Atwater, Eagle Rock, Silver Lake, Los Feliz Village, Echo Park, Highland Park, Glassell Park, Mt Washington and many more neighborhoods who call our store their "home store"!

Lots of snooty customer reviews again, but the average is 3.8 out of 5!

I wish I had thought of charging that much for a watermelon!
Here's the "Bestplaces" writeup on Glendale:

The good reviews of stores are always "great organic food!" and the bad ones are always like "So Expensive!" or some rant about a bad experience.  We should probably add Glendale to our shortlist of stores though, even if it'd require a commute.







Next Blog:
Move.com

Neighborhoods and stuff!

Hey Justin! Here are some fun things that I found!

This website has things like: "Best Hikes with city views,"(Exercise!) "Best clubs in Hollywood" (famous people!) and "Street style in Silver lake" (Hipsters!)
http://www.timeout.com/los-angeles/los-angeles-neighborhoods

This website seems pretty cool and you can search for news by neighborhood. Neat!
http://la.curbed.com/archives/2013/03/the_best_los_angeles_neighborhoods_for_your_20s_30s_and_40s.php


Also, here is a map of the Metro system. We may want to consider being semi-close to one of the stops.

Here is the Metro website: http://www.metro.net/

And here is the L.A. transit website: http://www.ladottransit.com/

Yay for Websites!

That's all I have so far. I think my next research topic will be fun things to do. ex: getting a tattoo or cool yoga studios or best mexican food in the city (that seems pretty important to know). And stuff on the music scene so I can become a famous drummer. ( Tegan and Sara, if you read this, I'm available for all you drumming needs!)