★All American★

Playing: I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor-The Arctic Monkeys
Reading:Vogue September 2012

It was one of those weekends, where I had no idea what to do and decided to just head down to the beach area. Recently, the USS Iowa moved to San Pedro, so I decided to go check it out. (Smooth transition!) Down in San Pedro is Gaffey Street Diner, which is one of those all-American restaurants that looks like a complete dive, but actually sells really amazing food. I originally saw it on Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives, but I've gone back to it many times. The breakfast food tends to be better than the lunch courses, but my Country Fried Steak With Biscuit and Home Fries was pretty good although it was a tad burnt. The gravy is definitely one of the best things at the diner, so I highly suggest the Biscuit With Gravy there.

Parked in the lot right next to the USS Iowa was this wonderfully retro car. I feel like the cars from the fifties and sixties had more personality than cars do now, but I suppose that's because car manufacturers are aiming for more aerodynamic cars to increase fuel efficiency nowadays. You can actually see a lot of these vintage cars around the beach areas here.

As for the actual ship, it was incredible how large it was, but you didn't get to see a lot on the ship. They roped a lot of it off, so it felt like a tour, but the traffic was awful. You'd be standing at one spot for ten minutes to get into a room and then you'd be rushed through the rooms. In a few years, I think they'll improve it to a near perfect tour. However, this launched my dad into one of his Proud to be an American speeches that he gives me whenever we visit anything semi-patriotic. Like baseball games...

The whole area of San Pedro and Long Beach is filled with areas for commercial shipping. The boat pictured here carries around crates that are later attached to eighteen wheelers and ships them from country to country. Also, the red nub, for lack of a better word, protruding from the ship's front is used to break waves for a smoother ride and the people who operate the machines used to load and unload the crates make around $400,000 a year. Sounds like a good job to me and sorry for the random facts. My friend, Chelcee, always complains that I share useless facts with her. It's a trait I picked up from my dad.

Overall, the area around the USS Iowa is very lovely and if you're into military stuff and the USA's defense systems, I suggest visiting it. I actually saw quite a few foreigners there from Germany, France, and I believe, Belgium. At least, that's what I picked up from listening to them speak. If you'd like to, San Pedro and Long Beach also offer deep sea fishing trips, helicopter tours, seafood dining, and lots of Mexican culture, especially at this one port that is filled with Mexican seafood places. It's actually one of my favorite places to get seafood now.

 Also, I recently bought some Alexander McQueen sunglasses for myself, so that I can go out in the sun without my eyes watering, plus a Vince Camuto blazer. If you would like to see more photos of them, you can see them on The Suburban Urbanites. I did a perfume trade for the first time, where I got Dolce and Gabbana's Light Blue in exchange for my L'eau D'Issey. Super excited to wear it! At Target, I bought 10 Things I Hate About You, which is one of my favorite movies ever, and some notebooks for me to jot down ideas in. I like how each one is focused on some of my favorite cities: New York, Paris, and London.
Ooh, and then I purchased some more Sentimental Circus stationary to use for writing to my friends. It's so cute in a creepy, Tim Burton-esque way. Anyways, I hope you're enjoying your summer, while I sit at home doing my summer assignments and moan about how school needs to leave me alone.