Anyone who hasn’t emailed me with their info yet, please do!
This is because the hotel wants this info before they’ll let Shayna have the meeting room (for pizza and drinking!) at the “sister” hotel for FRIDAY night.
Uh.
Shayna, I just noticed that your address isn’t listed on the board. Could you send me an email so I can forward what I have so far? (17 rooms with 33-34 guests)
Mr. Seawitch just heard his aunt passed away this morning. Funeral services are in Las Vegas on Friday afternoon - we will not be back in LA until Sunday.
A big thank you to Shayna for organizing… and please don’t forget me on the next Dopefest! [sub]Unless I do something horrible and spend the week in the Pit.[/sub]
We got the meeting room at the Days Inn on Friday night - Woo Hoo! Details will follow below. I think it’s time for a recap of weekend activities. So, starting from the top…
**What to pack? **
Beach Cities Weather Forecast: Sunny and 80-86 degrees daytime, 54-58 at night.
Where can you meet up with fellow dopers at the airport?
Here’s a terminal map. You’ll only be allowed to meet each other at baggage claim areas. Rental car places are offsite and will require using a shuttle bus to get to them.
Where are you staying?
Ramada Limited
435 South Pacific Coast Highway
Redondo Beach, CA 90277
Phone: 310-540-5998
How do you get there from the airport?
Taxi drivers will not necessarily know exactly where to take you just by giving them the address, so you’ll need to be specific. Tell them (or if you’re driving yourself) to take CA-1 (which is Sepulveda Blvd. [pronounced seh-PUHL-vuh-duh] at the airport and later changes names to Pacific Coast Highway) South towards Redondo Beach. Watch for Torrance Blvd., which will be approximately 7 miles from the airport. The Ramada is only a couple tenths of a mile past Torrance Blvd. on the right side of the street.
Proximity from the motel to me/dinner/beach: http://www.geocities.com/shayna61/RedondoView.html
FRIDAY EVENING
The General Manager for The Ramada & Days Inn hotels has kindly agreed to allow us the use of one of their meeting rooms at The Days Inn in Torrance to gather and hang out for the evening/night.
She’ll have the room open and available for us as early as 5:00PM and we can stay as late as 12:00 - 1:00AM so long as we aren’t blasting loud music. I’ll bring my portable CD player (though it’s really a piece of crap - sorry), but you guys will have to provide the music, as I don’t really have a collection worth listening to.
She is not charging us for the use of the room! We need to send her flowers or something 
There is a liquor store immediately next door to The Ramada and also one across the street. I figured people could pick up the drink/s of their choice and head over to the Days Inn any time after 5:00.
I’ll order a bunch of pizzas and salad from a little neighborhood pizza place that makes GREAT pizza (WAY better than Pizza Hut, et al) and have it delivered at, say, 7:00PM (?? or should I make it 8:00?).
They tell me that for ~40-50 people, we should need 10 - 12 large pizzas (12 slices each) & what they call a “tray salad” and it’ll cost us approximately $175.00 - $200.00 (though the guy I talked to said if I call back on Thursday AM, he’ll be there with the store owner and the owner will likely be willing to give us a discount for such a large order). This is actually quite cheap, even without a discount, as it works out to under $5.00/person if we have 40 or more people! I’ll want to collect money from everyone as they arrive at the Days Inn, so please have cash ready for me (thank you).
The Days Inn is located at
4111 Pacific Coast Hwy.
Torrance, CA 90505 US
Phone: 310-378-8511
The estimated travel time from the Ramada is 6 minutes. Just turn right onto PCH from the motel and go approximately 3.3 miles.
For those who don’t want to hang out at a hotel all night, we won’t be far from an area of town called The Riviera Village where there are a few bars/taverns you can go to. However, this is not a “late-night-after-the-hotel” kind of thing, because last call around these parts is 1:00AM anyway.
SATURDAY AFTERNOON
Obviously, we’ll have people splitting up to do different things, as not everyone will be interested in the same “sightseeing” type stuff. Here’s a list of a few options/recommendations of things to do in and around L.A.
The Getty There is no admission fee for the museum, but there is a $5.00/car charge to park. No parking reservations are needed (they used to be). They have a central courtyard area where there’s often live music or entertainment of some sort and several places to get refreshements. There are also 2 restaurants for lunch and a beautiful garden with a large lawn area where you can picnic. Hopefully the sky will be clear because the views are spectacular.
Then, there’s also:
The Aquarium of the Pacific
The Queen Mary
The LaBrea Tar Pits (very cool if you like seeing pre-historic dinosaur bones and such.)
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (which is actually right next to the Tar Pits, so you could conceivably do both.)
Mann’s Chinese Theater (where you can see all the hand and foot prints of the stars. There’s also the Hollywood Wax Museum [cheesy] and the Ripley’s Believe it or Not Museum within 2 blocks. If you decide to do this, I recommend a visit across the street to The Roosevelt Hotel. Go up to the 2nd floor and see the pictorial of how the city of Hollywood was developed from a vast wasteland to what you see today. The Roosevelt is supposedly where Marilyn Monroe used to live.)
If you’re into nature and hiking, we have some beautiful mountain trails you can hike. Thomas and I did the one at Switzer Falls last time he was here and it was a really beautiful hike.
Here’s a whole list of “things to do in L.A.” where you might find something of interest that I haven’t listed here.
SATURDAY NIGHT
We have a reservation at 6:00PM under the name Cecil Adams at:
El Torito Restaurant
100 Fishermans Wharf
Redondo Beach, CA 90277
(310) 376-0547
It is walking distance from the motel, but there is plenty of parking in the garage at the pier if you want to have your car there for activities after dinner.
After dinner there are, of course, several options. There is an arcade on the pier if you’re into goofy games and such. We’ll be walking distance from the Hermosa Beach Pier Avenue walk street, where there are a number of bars/taverns, etc., many of which have live bands and dancing.
If you don’t mind travelling a bit further, I recommend Hollywood (as a couple of other people have also suggested above).
The House of Blues is about 23 miles away and a 45 minute drive (don’t believe what the map sites tell you - this is L.A., land of the traffic jam). I’d post a link to the directions from mapblast, but you have to be registered there now, so links don’t work anymore. However, I would recommend using them over mapquest because the way they suggest getting there is much simpler than mapquest’s were (IMHO).
Location:
8430 Sunset Blvd.
West Hollywood, CA 90069
323.848.5100
Saturday night they’re featuring “Jazz Mandolin Project”
price : $15.00
show : 7:30 pm
genre : Jazz/Jam Rock
age : all
Then there’s also The Viper Room at:
8852 Sunset Blvd.
West Hollywood CA
310-358-1880
Corner of Larrabee St. and Sunset Blvd.
21 and over.
Doors open at 9:00pm
SUNDAY
There are no plans for Sunday. I’m sure we’ll all just stumble out of bed and head up to the local Pancake House (or the Rocky Cola Cafe is also a good choice) for a hangover brunch.
(Did I forget anything?)
So who’s getting excited??? 
I really appreciate your consideration in avoiding stepping on my penis - Spiny Norman
[sym][sub][sup]©[/sup][/sub][/sym] Jeg elsker dig, Thomas [sym][sub][sup]©[/sup][/sub][/sym]
Excellent Job, Jill!!
Yes, I’m getting excited!
See y’all soon.
Jim
Well darn, I did forget a few things.
First of all, my condolences to you, seawitch, and to your husband on the loss of his aunt. I’m sorry you can’t make the dopefest, but maybe you can make the next one.
Second, I thanked her in email, but I want to publicly say thank you VERY much to Sue Duhnym for gathering all the reservation information to help us secure the meeting room for Friday night. You Rock!
Also, there are a couple of things I left out for Saturday night options…
Hermosa beach is home to The Comedy & Magic Club. There is a late show starting at 10:00PM on Saturday night, but their website is down so I can’t tell you who’s performing. I can tell you that I’ve always had a blast anytime I’ve gone there.
Or, if your going up to Hollywood, there’s the famous Comedy Store. And their website hasn’t updated the calendar since August, so I can’t tell you who’s performing there, either.
Both places require calling ahead for reservations, so if this is something you want to do, now would be the time to decide, because weekend shows tend to get sold out.
Ok, I think that’s it this time. If anyone has any questions, let me know.
Taxis can be expensive. The MTA #232* goes south from LAX to Long Beach and, as luck will have it, goes right down PCH. In fact, there should be a stop within a block of the Ramada. Fare is only $1.35.
*The #232 timetable is in Adobe Acrobat.
Great Job Shitgirl!
Thanks!
Thanks jab, that’s great information to have!
Also, from above, “Or, if your going up to Hollywood…” should, of course, read “Or, if you’re going up to Hollywood…”
<sigh>
Based on the plans, I think some of you are going to need to go to confession on Sunday morning. Or a nice quiet, repentant heart-to-heart with a minister or rabbi.
Jodi, so jealous she could puke
Hot DAMN Woman! That is the dad-blamed best bunch of information I could have ever imagined! Mucho Kudos to Shayna! You’d think she wasn’t planning to meet some Dane and had her mind on actually organizing this thing! I will for sure print out that post and carry it with me.
By the way, another possible Saturday afternoon activity is hugging UncleBill as you sit behind him and see the Pacific Coast Highway the way God intended - on a Harley Davidson. I’ve got the thing for only 48 hours, and if I ain’t sleepin’ or drinkin’, (or flirtin’) the wheels will be rollin’!
<smacks head> I missed this, too. Yes, of course you may borrow my vroom vroom, hon!
And Jodi, I’m so upset that you’re not coming to this. I really wanted to meet you. 
Whose knees do I have to break to get you out of those blasted meetings?
Jill, you ROCK! Thank you for all the hard work you’ve put in
GOOD news from El SPOOFER…
My brother in all his infinite generosity has decided to spot me cash for the weekend, so funds aren’t a problem. Hooray for his oh-so-wonderful self (hey, I’m only sucking up ‘cuz he’s giving me money. As soon as I pay him back, it’s back to the ol’ “brotherly derision” shtick).
Our plans are that we’ll be there late Friday night (read: after 11:00), and almost all of Saturday. We can’t stay over Saturday night, however, which means we won’t get to enjoy everyone’s company for the “closing ceremonies” (or whatever… I’ve been in Theatre for too long) on Sunday.
That’s our plan, and we’re sticking to it. Now we just need to con our mother into letting us use the car for a day…
GAH!! I keep remembering things that I meant to include in the above post and didn’t. :mad:
Another Saturday afternoon option, for those interested in the shopping thing, is to visit the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica. It’s several blocks long, where cars ar not allowed to drive, so the streets are swarming with people and there are often street performers. There’s also the Santa Monica Pier, which has a permanent fair/carnival with rides and games and such.
Or, if you want to see the wild and wacky, visit Venice Beach. It’s a promenade with the beach on one side and cheap touristy stores on the other. Lining the beach side are all kinds of funky artists showing/selling their wares, tarot card readers, street musicians and entertainers, etc. It’s very funky - and very crowded on the weekends. Parking will cost you as much as $12.00!
And instead of declaring myself done, I’ll just leave it that I’ll be back when I think of something else I forgot. 
If it helps, I also reserved a room at the Motel. Sadly, I’m going to have to reneg on my offer to Weirddave for a place to crash - turns out my Friday night date will be joining us Saturday night and spending the night. (Be kind, you cretins - this is our first weekend date.) So, basically, I’ll be getting some all weekend and getting to hang out with you folks. What more could a Gay Guy ask for?
Again, as I won’t be arriving until Saturday afternoon sometime, messages left at the motel as to where people are going for the day would be appreciated so I don’t show up and have no one there, and I’d have to wait for everyone to get back - boring!
Did I mention I’m doing the nametags?
Esprix
Me.
So you’re telling me you can’t ride the Harley and flirt at the same time? I’m very disappointed in you - I know you guys have problems multi-tasking, but this is ridiculous. Remind me again why I’m doing this… 
And Shayna, thanks so much for researching and posting all the info and links, and for getting the meeting room.
Saturday afternoon I’m actually meeting up with a friend of mine from Glendale for a couple of hours, but I’m sure I’ll be able to fit some other fun stuff in.
Thank you, Esprix, for making the nametags!
See? I told you I’d be back…
Yet another option for Saturday is to just stay in the South Bay and do the local beach thing. Hermosa and Manhattan beach rock (though less so in the Fall since School’s back in session so there aren’t as many college students around).
You can just lay in the sun or walk along the strand (on the corner where Hermosa and Manhattan Beach meet, is the house that was used for the exterior shots of the beach house in Beverly Hills, 90210), join a beach volleyball game or even rent bikes or rollerblades (call Marina Bike Rentals: 310-318-2453). If you’re a serious bike rider or blader, you can actually take The Strand all the way up to Venice Beach! :eek: And if you’re really adventurous, you can rent jet skis, kayaks, paddle boats or go parasailing (call Beach Cities Watercraft Rental: 310-372-7477).
So if you don’t have a car and/or aren’t into the museum/shopping/sightseeing thing, just stay in the area - there’s plenty to do!