"Sprawling Suburbs" a Los Angeles Travel Page by Etoile2B

I was born in Southern California and I've always been proud of being a native Californian. I was lucky that I spent a lot of my formative years in Los Angeles. To this day I have extended family in the area and I went to University here. When I was growing up I always thought that I would settle in the southland, but the more I traveled and the further I moved away the less attached I became to Los Angeles. Eventually I came to believe that I would never return except for the occasional trip to see family and friends, but life has a funny way of working out. The longer I lived outside of LA as an adult the less enchanted I was by the city, and it's now to the point that I'm only living here because of circumstance.

I'll admit, I have a love / hate relationship with Los Angeles. LA is a very difficult place to move without knowing anyone. It can seem virtually impossible at times to make real friends out here. This is a generalization, of course but true. Due to a lack of urban planning at the time the city was developed, the traffic here is unbearable and keeps getting worse. Although, Los Angeles does have the most spectacular freeway system I've ever seen, but it's just not wide enough to accommodate the massive growth the city has experienced over the years. Unfortunately the mass transportation system is awful and everything is very spread out so when visiting this city your best bet is to rent a car.

That's not to say that LA is all bad - not at all! Here we have the most amazing weather all year round, so even in the winter all you'll need is a light sweater or jacket at night. The beaches are nice and plentiful. There's so much to do and see here. If you're into the outdoors you can camp, hike, ski, swim, surf? you name it, year round. Los Angeles is a great, fun place to visit any time of the year.

Since everything is so spread out here and people tend to lump everything in Southern California together I will be too... So think of my Los Angeles pages as more "Southern California" pages than anything else.