Recommendations - USA

Hi everyone.

I am off to the West Coast of the USA next week. 2 week trip Starting in LA, then on to Portland and San Francisco with a 3 day trip out to Yosemite and Lake Tahoe.

I’d love some recommendations for cool design related stuff in the cities. Also into beer, food, abstract and interesting art and would like to do a bit of clothes shopping while over there too.

Thanks,

SF:
My favorite restraint is probably the Wayfare Tavern: http://wayfaretavern.com
Definitely checkout the SFMOMA expansion
hit up Fillmore St (Pacific Heights neighborhood), Hayes St (Hayes Valley) and Union St (Cow Hollow Neighborhood) for shopping. On Fillmore there is a great shop called Zinc Details, on Union there is Attys’, on Hayes St there is another design shop across the street from Nancy Boy… drink some BluBottle coffee!

LA:
you should hit the museums. The Pettersen Auto museum was just completely remodeled and is very cool. it is across the street from LACMA, one of my favorite art museums. The Broad is amazing, the Getty and the Hammer are also great. For shopping in LA, hit up Fred Segals, and everything on that strip of Melrose. Walk the Sunset Strip, I recommend staying at the Standard Hotel on the Sunset. Got to Undefeated and Supreme sneaker shops. Walk Abbot Kinney st in Venice beach.

Portland:
walk the Perl District, NW 23rd street, Mississippi St (eat at Porque No tacos while on Mississippi)… drink Stumptown coffee… don’t go to Voodoo donuts, that is our tourist BS!

In LA the Petersen auto museum is great. Also I recommend the Broad, it is free and they have a nice collection of contemporary arts.
When you’re near the coast you can visit the Getty Villa, Eames house and Santa Monica beach. The pier in Santa Monica is nice, it’s the end of Route 66 and they have great food.

Here’s an interesting exhibition going on at LACMA in LA if you are into horror movies.

Taste of San Pedro
https://www.evensi.us/the-taste-of-san-pedro-2016-crafted-at-the-port-of-los/178972199
You can also visit the USS Iowa while you’re there.

Just got back from the USA. Amazing experience. I would love to move to Portland for a year or so and explore more.

In LA, we went to Disneyland, Universal studios, the Broad and downtown LA, Explored Hollywood and ate some amazing Mexican and Korean food and visited Angel City Brewery. Tried to get to LACMA and the Griffith observatory but ran out of time and jetlag kicked in.

Portland, stayed just of NW 23rd st and explored that area. Went on a beer tour and hit up Rogue taphouse. Did some shopping downtown, visited wine bars.

Then flew to SF, hired a car, drove to Yosemite and explored yosemite valley for a few days, did some hiking, saw the giant sequoias. Drove through the sierra Nevada to Lee Vining and Carson City to Lake Tahoe, hung around there for a day, drove back to SF via Sacramento.

Went to Muir woods - beautiful and drove back over the golden gate bridge. Visited SFMOMA and Alcatraz and did more shopping in Height and the Mission. Had some Mr Holmes cruffins, blue bottle coffee and in ‘n’ out burger.

Can’t wait to visit again in hopefully not too long. Love the American hospitality and attitude. So much more welcoming than Aussies.

West Coast = Best Coast :slight_smile: Just kidding East Coast friends (not really though … )

In all seriousness, glad you had a fun time. Sounds like an inspiring trip. I want to do that and I live here!

No kidding needed, it’s true - the wife and I took ten days last month to meander up PCH from San Diego to SF - the West Coast IS the best coast. I’ll take a cliff-side glass panel house in la Jolla any day. Or a nice brownstone in SF for sure. LA not so much.