Just got back from the opener....here is our experience. Warning it's a bit wordy...
Let us start out about the game itself and the atmosphere......We left our hotel around 10:30.....that was kinda mistake as we thought the area would be open..it was not. So we went across the street to look around The Forum......the home of Wilt. and West, and Goodrich, and Hairston(didn't know he was from Winston-Salem...right down the road from us)......That was my team.that was My Lakers.
So we check that out and make our way into the SoFi area.....inside the chain link fence with cut outs all around the Stadium itself. Now is where your eyes kinda swirl around....there's this there's that. The feeling is kinda like this isn't a sport stadium...it's something in the middle with water falls, palm trees, and shapes all around. When you come in you have The Equipment Store...to carry you into RAMS gear....Well IMO the stuff was kinda not my cup of Bourbon.....Most of the stuff of course is going new label type....Funny thing happened here...I met some guys who mentioned my Jersey (Snow....white/blue) talked about the old days....I turned them onto Throwback Joes...(did this several times as we walked around).....True point...it feels really good when you see how people recognize jerseys/players numbers when going back more then 50 years....Makes me feel "I am not alone in my age...people do remember."
Inside the place is crazy, you come out on 300 and the Oculus is right out there floating in the air, look up and you can see through these panels. When the game got late those same panels turned white...you couldn't see through them at all. Rich Eisen had some mouth going to commemorate the fans 1st showing...didn't here him....That place is loud...it was at maybe 70,000 it was loud both ways...those bear fans could be heard when they were making plays..Our seats were at the top but IMO we got the same feeling as anyone with lower seats.
I just keep remembering what Raheem was talking about before the season started...He wanted MAD plays...it was all about the win....Well IMO he needs to change up a bit.....MAD...Make A Difference plays....man every play makes a difference...I am afraid he's putting emphasis on getting a turnover, or a sack...IMO I would much rather see a D that gets 3 and outs anyday. This offense needs the ball as much as possible, if you are playing a bend don't break D waiting for a turnover the other O is taking up our O's time....Yes the win counts. that's obvious...not sure a bend don't break deal is working with teams with real O's.....it won't work. It's wasting our O on the bench.
Now to our Hotel and food we met....Stayed at the Hyatt Place (El Segundo)...about 10-15 minutes from LAX...this was about noon time PST....Nothing around the Hotel at all, but you're about a 10 minute ride to Manhattan Beach...do it, go there, great beach...clean, safe, surfing in front of your eyes, watched a hydrofoil surfer..that was crazy watching him ride the water like 2 foot or so above the water standing on a surfboard. Went to a few places over the week.
Mary wanted a belated Birthday dinner so we chose the Strand House....right there overlooking the beach.....great fish I had Halibut and Mary chose Sea Bass....it was worth her wait. Up the hill from there is Simmzey"s...sandwich place. We went here 1st on our opening day....Mary met a fellow Irishman....Barry from Dublin, he was the manager of Simmzey's...So they are going on about all things Irish and all things American...I sat drinking a drink....Here comes the the 1st weird thing...Mary uses up all her phone taking pictures all all sh^t you do on these phones....It happens that Barry is still on duty when we walk by (we can't get a Lyft because the phone is shot)...Barry calls her lass a car and pays for the car as well....telling us it's for Karma (he's turned out to be a bears guy)..he was putting the wammy on us pre game.....I thought about this when in bed and said I need to make sure we pay him back and give him back extra....LOL......nice guy, met several people like that..They make a bad a$$ burger and a great Cuban sandwich as well. An off the wall place we kinda came on was the Sandbar 66.....on Manhattan Beach Ave. A blue little building with a tower and a church like stained glass window in the tower. Not cheap but great tuna burger.....
The stadium takes on a totally different world at night......we walked around a bit taking some shots with my Nikon and some filters..Crazy, just crazy. The 1 big problem...after a game we found it a huge pain getting a Lyft/Uber...it didn't even happen. The lot is right were the Forum is and there were no cars there, no taxis. no share rides.....Standing around, everyone is told to stay behind this railing and wait.....we get tired of it, go to the middle of the street and I ask a guy holding a flashlight where's a cab....at that same time a cab magically comes toward us....the guy I'm talking to runs to the cab. At the same time a couple are approaching the cab as well...the cabby points to me and says he's the guy I'm picking up...(I'm wearing my circa 94 Starter lightweight jacket) LOL...like that was the difference maker....We get in and immediately people start rushing the cab, shooting the finger, calling the cabby out....He's got a Russian type accent and he's going back at the finger dude....I say let's just go let him get the blood vessel pop...he takes back (cheaper then a ride sharing car)...
Couple more days at the beach and this was our story.....You gotta check the Palace out, and the Hyatt was clean and quiet, and for our needs the beach it was great. Right there and the same, clean and quiet. And walk The Strand....above the bike way traversing up and down Manhattan beach....nice million dollar bungalows....LOL....That was Mary's walks everyday, while I laid my a$$ in the sand.
