There’s a saying back home, “lucky we live Hawaii”. Everyone appreciates Hawaii for the great place to live that it is but despite growing up in such a great place, I’ve really loved my first summer living in Los Angeles. Of course work is great and I’ve had a great time with my jobs, but I don’t think it’s enough to just like your job. You have to love where you live.
The difference between the summer and the school year is I’m not going to school. That probably seems obvious but it feels very different to have the focus of my life here be off campus. It feels like I’m sort of student-real person hybrid and it’s been an interesting twist on life here. The best change for me is that I’ve gotten not just off campus to the city, but out of the city to the really explore the Los Angeles area. I’m an outdoors person. I always have been. Downtown Los Angeles is not exactly a nature filled environment outside of the USC campus but it has amazed me what exactly I have been able to find outside of the city. My summer golf obsession has led me all around the city and its surroundings to some absolutely spectacular places. I played on a course in the canyons outside of city that overlooked all of Los Angeles
Looking down the fairway to the city
I played on another outside of Pasadena that was nestled in the mountains and out there you would never be able to guess that the second largest city in the United States was only 30 minutes away.
The mountains on a beautiful summer day
Just look at that view. The weather has been absolutely perfect this summer (and I’m from a place with some pretty nice weather). Every day is the epitome of summer and there are so many ways to enjoy it around the city.
Now I swear, golfing isn’t the only thing I have done this summer (though I have done a lot of it). I managed to make some time to take a trip to the shooting range downtown and practice one of the more fun activities out there.
Reloading the shotgun
Downtown I was also able to grab my absolute favorite seafood, fresh scallops to sear up later. I’ve spent a lot of time this summer working on my cooking and it has been a blast. But when I’m not cooking, there’s plenty of great food around the city to enjoy.
Destroying my arteries with this monster of a hot dog at Pinks
Finally, I spend the Fourth of July in an unusual manner. I wasn’t in Michigan like I have been for 17 out of my 20 Fourth of Julys. My girlfriend and I went to the fireworks show in Exposition Park to watch fireworks over the Coliseum and wow, Los Angeles goes all out for fireworks shows. It was the longest and biggest fireworks show I’ve ever seen and it was funded by the city. Now that’s my taxes at work.
Living in Los Angeles outside the school year has been quite simply awesome. All around, I’ve had a great time here and I can’t believe how fast the summer has gone. Next time I write, I will give an in depth talk about the app I’ve been working on. We released a beta build last week and are gearing up for an end of summer release!
