1. Wildwood, New Jersey

Located on the Jersey Shore, this boardwalk is “two miles of smiles.” Aside from the regular food and games of a boardwalk, it has an amusement park called Morey’s Pier and Beachfront Waterpark. And, every memorial day weekend Wildwood hosts an International Kite Festival. So hurry over! The Festival is held from May 27th to May 30th.

International Kite Festival (5/27-5/30)

The Wildwood Sightseer Tram Car transports passengers from one end of the boardwalk to the other

2. Coney Island, New York

One of the country’s oldest boardwalks, this 2.7-mile beach is a popular spot for New Yorkers. Astroland is a 3.1-acre amusement park on Coney Island first built in 1962. It has kiddie rides and adult rides, and rides both new and old!  The “father of the America’s roller-coasters” is located there… it’s called the Cyclone and began running in 1927. It still runs, but don’t worry it’s been renovated over the years. To learn some history about the boardwalk, the Coney Island Museum is open from 12pm to 6pm on Saturday and Sunday, and costs only 99 cents to get in!

3. Santa Cruz Beach, California

Located on the west coast and full of fun is the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. It offers rides, laser tag, bowling, and mini golf. And, of course it has an arcade and lots of places for food.

4. Chicago Navy Pier, Illinois

The Chicago Navy Pier is pretty different from the rest of the locations on this list, because it is does not have oceanfront property. Rather, this pier is located on the shores of Lake Michigan and close to downtown Chicago. It offers much of what the others do, only there is no beach for swimming. Visit the link above to check out the events and activities offered at the pier.  Something that would be really cool to check out is the fireworks show offered every Saturday and Wednesday of June, July, and August!

5. Old Orchard Beach Pier & Boardwalk, Maine

Maine is well-known for it’s spectacular beaches — Old Orchard Beach is one of them. It’s pier, built on stilts, is quite small but definitely not lacking in charm. And on the beachfront are many more attractions such as Palace Playland (an arcade), a carousel and Kiddieland for youngsters, and rides such as the Galaxi Coaster or the Gondola Ferris Wheel. For more things to do, visit here!

Want to know of a few more great boardwalks around the U.S.? They can be found in my next post, “Top 11 Family Friendly Boardwalks, Part 2.”

Upon getting off the boat we had to walk along steep twisting paths to get to the actual building. We received headphones which would act as our audio tour guides. It was really cool to have the headphones to listen to. You can actually hear what they were saying unlike too many tours where people talk over the guide. It had sound effects and told you where to walk so that you would stay in synch with what was being said. There were a lot of very interesting and sometimes scary stories about escapes and fights between inmates. One that sticks out in my mind is about an inmate who took a knife from the dining hall and pulled it on one of the guards. A few inmates also stole spoons from the dining hall in attempt to dig their way out.

There were several levels of small, claustrophobic cells looking down onto the main walkway which they called Broadway. Each row had a name like Times Square, C-Block, D-Block etc. Inmates could go outside into this small courtyard surrounded by a stone wall topped with barbed wire for recreational time and movies were shown twice a month on Sundays. It looked like a pretty rough place, but it was for some of the most dangerous criminals in U.S. history such as Al Capone and George “Machine Gun” Kelly!

I highly recommend visiting Alcatraz if you are in the area but make sure you buy tickets ahead of time. They sell out fast and are time specific! Go to https://www.alcatrazcruises.com/index.aspx to buy tickets. Keep in mind that there is no admission fee to the island itself, just pay for the ferry and that’s it.

We flew into San Francisco International Airport. I remember that the plane landed on a sort of peninsula that stuck out into the San Francisco Bay. It felt like we were going to land right in the bay until the ground magically appeared below us! The plan for the week was to travel around to the neighborhoods surrounding San Francisco to put on our show. We had several “host churches” where we went to perform and then we stayed with a family who belonged to that church. It was a great experience getting to know all of those new people. I have to say it was a little nerve wracking to go stay with someone I didn’t know but all of the people were so welcoming. I had nothing to worry about!

One night we stayed right in the city of San Francisco at the Westin Saint Francis Hotel. It was beautiful, the rooms were large and it was very comfortable. The next morning there was a buzz going around that some political figure named Barack Obama was staying in the penthouse of the hotel for some sort of convention. None of us knew who this supposedly well-known person was, so nobody made a big deal of it. Oh, only if we knew then what we all know now!

During our free time we visited Alcatraz, Glide Memorial Church (where a few scenes from the movie Pursuit of Happyness was filmed), Pier 39 and Sausalito (a city just over the Golden Gate Bridge). Over the next few weeks I will blog about each one of these specifically, so stay tuned! I highly recommend making San Francisco a vacation destination, it’s worth it! If you want to stay at the Westin Saint Francis check out their website at http://www.westinstfrancis.com/.

Have you ever stayed at the same hotel as a celebrity?

Diddy Riese is in Westwood, California, and serves hotdogs, Hawaiian shaved ice (similar to Korean shaved ice, mentioned in another post in this blog), brownies, and coffee. What brings the lines, though, is the ice cream sandwiches.

On display, they have 12 types of cookies, with almonds, white chocolate, oatmeal, etc., and 12 flavors of Dreyer’s Ice Cream (which is Edy’s on the East Coast), and from there you pick two cookies (which can be two different types) and a flavor of ice cream, and voilà, you got this heavenly ice cream sandwich for only $1.50. Yes, only $1.50! Which only further proves that it is truly something divine.

I didn’t understand the extent of Diddy Reise’s fame until I came back home and talked to people about it who have apparently heard of it or made it vital to their own trip to LA to go to Diddy Reise. Also, after a week of being home from California, I turned on the Independent Film Channel and saw a short news bit on Diddy Reise. Funny how things work out.

So treat yourself to something unearthly next time you’re in LA. And please, don’t be scared of the line, it’s worth it.

Anime Expo, called AX by those who attend the gatherings, is a well-known event in Southern California. Billboards and posters can be seen throughout LA advertising AX. Though the event is in LA, people come from all over—San Diego, Bay Area, Nevada, Arizona, etc.—just to take part.

In short, AX is an anime convention. It is hosted and funded by the Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation every year on the 4th of July Weekend for 4 days. This year 44,000 people attended at the Los Angeles Convention Center. (The day after AX, Michael Jackson’s funeral was held at the Staples Center across the street)

Now, I am not into anime or anything. Growing up half-Japanese and with a majority of Asian friends, it was only natural for me to know a bit about anime. I grew up watching Dragon Ball Z at friends’ houses, I have seen a fair amount of episodes of Sailor Moon, like most people I do love Hayao Miyazaki movies (Spirited Away, Kiki’s Delivery Service, My Neighbor Totoro, etc.), and I own one manga (Japanese comicbook), but never in my life was I a fanboy of some sort.

So why did I go?

My friend asked me if I wanted to go and I knew it would definitely be an experience. And something to tell you guys, of course.

So what do people do at anime conventions? You probably know already that people like to dress up for these events. It is almost looked down upon to not dress up. A lot of people buy their costumes, such as Totoro and Pikachu costumes, but most made their own. This may seem odd, but I realized that these people are extremely creative. Some spent weeks making their costumes just for those 4 days.

Some friends who dressed appropriately:

Innapropriate dress:

To get a badge, which allows you to get into the main area of the convention, the cost is $30 for a single day. For the full 4-days it is $70. In the main area, clothes, costumes, pins, videos, magazines, paintings, food, candy and everything related to Anime and Japanese culture is sold. I will admit, the prices could get pretty high, but a lot of was worth it. Many up and coming Anime cartoonists were selling their work, and despite not being a huge fan of the Anime art style, some of the works did leave me breathless.

A dance was held for the participants and performances on the 2nd day, and give-aways and contests were held throughout the day. I got a few free bumper stickers, and not gonna lie, they’re pretty hot.

This may seem odd, but there is almost a family-like relationship between all AX attendees. Yes, all 44,000. In America, where Anime isn’t something the majority of the population appreciates, enthusiasts of Japanese culture are a tiny minority. AX offers enthusiasts 4-days of being with thousands of like-minded people. And it seems as if they care about each other. Everybody talks to everybody, and I did not meet one person who minded helping me out or was simply unfriendly.

AX was definitely an experience. If you are a Japanese culture enthusiast, deeply appreciate Anime or Japanese video games, you will love the environment of AX.

Hey guys, it’s Hye Sung. I know it seems like I disappeared for a bit after writing my first two blogs on here, but no worries, I am still here. I was actually away for 10 days in Southern California, visiting friends and attending a sleep away camp.

I have been really busy since I got back, so I haven’t really been able to update, but I promise you, an entry will come soon. I have a lot to say this time, and I won’t be blabbering on and on about food again. Okay, I might, but you can handle it.

While I am here I guess I should just say that Southern Cali is pretty cool. I didn’t get to go down to San Diego, but I was in LA (all over the place) and in the San Bernadino Mountains for camp.

I will show you some pictures from One Heart Camp

This was taken right before our massive game of Capture the Flag. Intense.

Morning Massages

In summary, California is cool. More to come