My family and I were in California this weekend to celebrate my grandmother’s 86th birthday. We try to make the trip every year recently, and spending time with our extended families is always a welcome diversion from the day-to-day grind. Every time that I’m out there someone, either a an aunt, uncle or cousin, inevitably asks me when I’m moving out there. Invariably, I give the same answer, “We’ll see.” In all honesty, the answer should be, “Once L.A. becomes more of a pedestrian city, I’ll consider it. Until then, there’s no way I’m putting up with that much traffic.”As an example, here are the things that my cousin Mark and I did from the time he picked me up at LAX to the time he dropped me off at my aunt’s house Sunday afternoon.
1) LAX to his house.
2) Lunch at Shaka’s, a pretty good Hawaiian cuisine restaurant.
3) The mall to pick up gifts for my God children.
4) Met up with his girlfriend while she had lunch with friends.
5) Hung out at her house.
6) Went to my aunt’s house.
7) Went to In-n-Out
8) Hung out at the Spectrum boardwalk in Irvine.
9) Back to Mark’s.
10) The next morning we went to REI.
11) Then to Sports Chalet
12) Back to Mark’s.
13) My grandmother’s party
14) My other aunt’s house.
15) The movie theatre.
16) Back to Mark’s.
17) Church on Sunday morning.
18) My other aunt’s house.
Now keep a few things in mind. First, everywhere we went was either in L.A. or Orange counties. Second, this was over the course of a day and a half. Last, the cheapest gas price I saw (for premium) was $3.47 a gallon. Now take a guess at how many miles we logged and how long we were in the car.
Milage: a) 80-149 miles, b) 150-249 miles, c) 250-450 miles
Hours in the car: a) 2-4 hours, b) 5-8 hours, c) 9-12 hours
Have you guessed yet? No, ok I’ll wait.
….
….
We topped out at just over 380 miles in almost 12 hours in the car. Look at that list and tell me you couldn’t get most of that done in Chicago in a quarter the milage and half the time. On top of that, Mark gassed up twice while I was there and spent nearly $50 each time. That is the main reason why I could never live in California. I would go nuts spending that much time in any car let alone my own.
Everything in Southern California is built around the car culture. There’s a mediocre, at best, attempt at mass transit in what’s the second largest city in the nation. I think they have all of two rail lines. Everyone drives, the interstates are massive, and I think I have black lung now due to the smog.
Mark was telling me that one of the interstates we were on is being expanded. I looked out, it was already six lanes in each direction (five for regular traffic, and one for the carpoolers.) Honestly, what’s going to happen to Cali if an oil shortage hits? It’s not like they can just switch over to bikes or rely on rail lines.
One thing I have to admire though is the encyclopedic knowledge everyone there seems to have for locations. You could ask someone there where to go for sushi and they’d be able to name four to five new places all over L.A. and Orange counties, all of which are, you guessed it, 45 minutes away. This would be like me telling you that the new Chipotle in Kane county is a way better set up than the one in Will. It honestly, boggles my mind.
Another redeeming factor for California is the fact that they have In-n-Out there. Simply awesome. I can not stress this enough. If I ever ended up living there I would definitely gain 10 lbs. immediately because I'd probably be getting Double-doubles and milk shakes all the time. Don't even get me started on the fact that they have Chic-fil-A there either.
But this brings me back to my original point. Getting to any of these things usually took at least 30 minutes, usually closer to 45, to get to. After spending my 28 years in Illinois, and the last six in Chicago I don't think I could ever drive more than 15 minutes to get anywhere. Unless of course you're talking about the Chipotle over in Dekalb, because that's a good one.
2 comments:
See, the thing I struggle with are the establishment names....
Chic-fil-A? Honestly tell me, would you go to an establishment with that sort of title in Chicago?
It's like you're BEGGING for a deep fried alley rat.
I won't rag on In and Out because our friend Tasha nearly hemorraghes just thinking about a burger from there, and she has pretty good taste. But Chic-Fil-A is just frightening.
You won't have the traffic problem on St George Island! You'd better prepare yourself to slow down. A traffic jam here is three cars at the same time at THE stop sign! Or some guy (usually me) driving just the speed limit coming across the bridge.
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