Trip to LA Part I: Caltech

Earlier this month, N and M began making plans for how to spend the 4th of July three-day weekend. A and R (who are over 21) were going to Las Vegas, so N and M figured they'd have their own under-21 road trip to San Francisco. They invited me to join them, which was both polite and more importantly would reduce their share of gas and hotel fees. I said, "Sure, if you end up going I'm down for that" and left them to their meticulous plan-making - researching hotel prices, parking prices, how loooooong it would take to get there, etc. N and M have done relatively little in the way of sight-seeing this quarter, so I was surprised, but highly skeptical that they would carry the idea through. I was right: the San Francisco trip was too expensive and too short for the amount of driving required, so it was replaced with a 3-day stay in Los Angeles, which has the advantage of being closer, and significantly cheaper since we can stay at the LA co-op apartment. Apparently that was still too much for my friends to handle though, so they reduced it to a day trip to LA. But that was still more than I had expected, given their typical weekend habits. Finally, after a long hiatus, some go-getting! Some adventure! So much in fact, that I doubt it will fit into one post, so I may split it into parts.

Now, I've learned that different co-op sections of have different personalities. When the previous group went to LA, we headed straight to the beach and played volleyball, later going out for good food. This section of co-ops is a little geekier. Our must-see destinations for LA: Caltech, Hollywood, and the Griffith Observatory! I know what you're thinking - Hollywood is not geeky right? Perhaps, unless (like N and myself) your sole goal to see the triple footprints of R2-D2, C-3PO and Darth Vader in front of the Chinese Theater.

Part 1: Caltech

Caltech was pretty awesome. Of course, it was closed because of the holiday, so we couldn't actually go inside any of the buildings, but the outside looks nice. We wandered all over campus trying to find a campus map, finally finding one after we had seen 90% of the campus.

N and M puzzle over the all important question - where ARE we?

We also found a giant cannon - the famous Flemming cannon that some MIT students stole as a prank a few years back - and got our pictures with it. All three of us are thinking about Caltech for grad school now.