:: alanwang.net ::

We’ve gotten pretty into being closer to the naked outdoors lately and decided to start with this one campground that’s about 2.5 hours from Marina Del Rey.

In a nutshell, the boulder basin campground was clean, well kept and offered extraordinary views and environment that blew all of us away. Great quiet retreat that offers lots of space for each campsite.

Few of the great highlights:

-Temperate summer weather because of its elevation (~7200ft above sea level). During our visit the daytime temperatures werearound 87F and nights are about 67F.

-Beautiful views of tall majestic trees and gigatic breathtaking boulders. Makes you feel like you’re in Colorado somewhere and NOT Los Angeles! Lot’s of hiking trails around the campground and fire rings/picnic tables are provided for each site.

-Well kept grounds and extremely clean bathrooms with little or no smell. Bathrooms are outhouses but extremely new and clean.

-Seamingly low traffic campground so you have privacy and an extremely calm environement.

-Campground sites are pretty well spreadout but you can still hear your neighbors.

-~10.00/night per site, sites accomodate 1-8 people. Pull up driveway with room usually for 2 large SUVs. The 2nd car is 5.00 extra. No RV hookups.

-This campground does have running water but it is subject to regulation depending on droughy conditions.

- Click Here for our pictures from the trip, we had a blast and were blown away by the campground!

::General Info::
Name: Szechwan Restaurant
Genre: Chinese (General mix of Chinese food)
Address: 2905 Washington Boulevard, Marina Del Rey, CA, 90292
Cross Street: Lincoln/Abbot Kinney


:: Ratings ::
Food: 7/10
Staff: 8/10
Decor: 7/10
Cost: 6.00-10.00/entree (large portions)

:: Review ::
We’ve driven past this place probably about 100 times literally. Each time the faded front facade took away our appetite so we never brought up the courage to stop and actually eat there. Amoung other reasons it’s one of two Chinese restaurants in a predominantly mixed-race area; to be blunt there are few asians or chinese.

We were extremely surprised to not only find a decent variety of Chinese food but the service and staff were extremely friendly and warm. The menu consisted of various Cantonese styled dishes like Chow-Mein, Chow Fun and assortment of stir-frys to Taiwanese style noodle soups. Of course they also had most of the popular American-Chinese dishes; Kung-pao shrimp/chicken, Mushu pork, broccoli beef and the like.

The inside proved to be much more presentable then it’s exterior. They had beautiful traditional Chinese paintings spread across many parts of the dining room and it was lit fairly well and felt quite spacious. The entrance lobby area felt large and generous and unlike most dingy Chinese restaurants this place was generally pretty clean.

Given the location, cost and overall dining experience I think we will frequent this place when craving some typical down home Chinese cooking. Plus they have a 9.95/person entree special that includes .

Yeah… I’m not going to write about anything deep here just wanted to say that this July 4th we decided to just really chill out. No BBQ’s, no parks; not even people . Charlene and I just really chilled out and spent time. It was definitely nice to have some quality and quiet time.

I realized that no matter what holiday, what’s so important are traditions. Maintaining and carrying on traditions on holidays are so important/meaningful especially for children.

We ate at Szechwan Palace today on Washington Blvd. It has a danky ass front door and from the outside looked as if it were Wa-Ching’s hang-out. BUT, we were pleasantly surprised. For once we actually have a decent Chinese restaurant to go to locally that serves good food and has great service! Oh and also they speak both mandarin and cantonese which means we get to practice both.

Marina crew, we gots to get our drink on in there; oh yeah.. oh yeah… gigitty gigitty.

Happy 4th!