Tag: Van Nuys Airport

AI knows everything about Van Nuys. But it has no opinions about Van Nuys. 

It hasn’t lived here 20 years, woken up under helicopter patrol, been robbed, assaulted, attacked or killed. 

It hasn’t driven down Victory Boulevard on a Saturday afternoon in the summer heat when there isn’t a soul walking down the street, just eight lanes of vehicles speeding past trash, ugly apartments, homeless encampments and mini malls. It hasn’t witnessed charming ranch houses with flower gardens, mature oaks and picket fences turned into concrete paved, iron fenced, security camera rentals with dozens of SUVs and strangers smoking weed next door. 

It knows nothing about the way Van Nuys was in the 1950s when every boy and girl was blond haired and rode their bicycle to school and lived on fifteen cent hamburgers and never gained a pound.

So perhaps ignorance, absent biases and prejudices, is the best approach to exploring Van Nuys.  

Why not give Van Nuys a chance to succeed in fantasy where it has failed in reality?

Magictravel is artificial intelligence for travel planning. I asked it to come up with a three-day itinerary for a visit to Van Nuys, and it supplied me with a refreshing, cynicism free, daily calendar of events.  

Blithely ignorant but well-informed, practical minded in suggestions, woefully dumb in logistics, it served me up activities and destinations timed for travel and visits.

Day One: 

For breakfast they recommended Nat’s Early Bite and I do like that place. I’ve eaten there many times. French toast and coffee for two in 2017 was about $20 so I assume that will be $45 now. 8-9am.

Breakfast would be followed by a shopping tour of the Sherman Oaks Galleria, which, if pre-pandemic memory serves me, has about three shops, many vacancies, and twelve places to eat, eleven of them frozen yogurt. 9-10:30am

Exhausted by so much shopping there, I would drive for 36 minutes to have lunch at Tokyo Fried Chicken in Monterey Park. 12-1:30pm.

Then I would get back on the freeway, drive 25 miles, all the way from the San Gabriel Valley to Encino, to spend three hours in 5-acre Los Encinos State Historic Park with its 19^th Century Adobe House. I would spend three hours here, walking around in the hot summer heat, from tree to tree, truly stimulated by this fascinating place. 2-5pm

For dinner I would dine at The Front Yard on Vineland Avenue in the Beverly Garland Hotel. I only know from a recent visit there, that this is (shockingly) a quite lovely place with flowers, trees, fountains and a very civilized atmosphere quite unlike that which exists on Vineland under the freeway. 6-7:30pm

After dinner I would return to Woodley Park and take a nighttime stroll from 8-9:30pm. There are no cafes, no breweries, no dessert places, just many parking lots, a duck pond, and darkness. A little boring but this is considered top notch in Van Nuys. 

I didn’t ask for a suggestion on where to stay, so just assume I spent it at my home in Van Nuys. 

Day Two: 

We are eating breakfast (from 8am to 9am) at Crumbs and Whiskers 7924 Melrose Avenue. I leave my house at 7am because I know traffic is heavy over Laurel Canyon.

But now, after coffee with cats, I have a sneezing attack. Crumbs and Whiskers was (surprise!) a cat café and I am highly allergic to felines.  No worries. I will take a Claritin.

Magictravel.ai does not suggest post-breakfast activities near this restaurant, such as walking around Melrose, visiting Farmers’ Market, exploring Hollywood, LACMA or the Petersen Automotive Museum.

Being LA it suggests more driving.

We will get back in the car and drive 15 miles, 35 minutes away, to Woodley Park and walk around The Japanese Garden. 9-10:30am.

Lunch will be at Mariscos Los Arcos at 14038 Victory Bl. Family-run Mexican seafood. This sounds really delicious. ….12:30-1:30pm

After eating I’m anxious to get going to arrive at my next destination which is the Van Nuys Airport Observation area on Waterman Avenue, just west of Woodley and south of Roscoe. Yet another activity which takes place on hot asphalt, this is a delightful suggestion in the 100-degree heat. 2-3:30pm

After the thrill of watching jets tax, land and takeoff, there is refreshment at The Great Wall of Los Angeles (12900 Oxnard) where a 2,754 foot mural painted on the concrete wall of the LA River near Valley College seduces you with its depictions of women and minorities who helped build our stunning state of California. From 4:00-5:30pm I will walk back and forth along the dry concrete river and enjoy the artwork from the other side of the sewage channel. It cannot be seen up close by pedestrians, only by high sewage waters.

Finally, from 7:30-9pm we are having dinner on Sepulveda Boulevard in a very charming section of Van Nuys near Saticoy at Mercado Buenos Aires. Speeding cars, police sirens, car washes, and nowhere to walk add to the feeling of an endless vacation in paradise.

Exhausted from driving back and forth all day, I retire to bed in my house in Van Nuys. I may ask Magictravel for a body wash suggestion.

Day Three: 

The last day of touring in Van Nuys. Visitors can leave after today.

Unluckily, for me, I have to live here full time.

Here is my itinerary: 

8am-9am: Breakfast at Sabor and Sazon 14540 Vanowen St. I arrive there to find it is no longer in business but is now a marijuana dispensary.

Still hungry from not eating breakfast, I rush over to the Woodley Park Archery Range where I will spend the next hour and a half wandering around an archery range without a bow and arrow. 9-10:30am.

But I’ve got lunch plans. Picnic lunch at the Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve. I will eat here (consuming the lunch I haven’t bought) surrounded by shopping carts, charred plants burned by hundreds of encampment fires, and try not to watch men having sex nearby. 12-1:30pm

Still in the park, I plan to play golf which seems nice enough since there are trees and irrigated lawns watered with recycled H20. 2-3:30pm.

Nearly my entire second day in Van Nuys has been spent inside the confines of Woodley Park.  Then I’m off to a more glamorous destination: Valley Glen.

Being a real foodie, I’m excited to eat authentic mid-century American “Italian” food at Barone’s Italian Restaurant at 13276 Oxnard St. with its retro vinyl booths and wood paneled rec room. I will probably order Fried Zucchini, Frank’s Special Pizza with Barone’s Famous Cheesecake and a few beers. 6-7:30pm.

After this great meal I will drive over, in the still hot, humid, smoggy night, to the Skyzone Trampoline Park 7741 Hazeltine 8-9:30pm where I plan to jump up and down with my stomach full of pizza, cheesecake, fried zucchini and three beers until I barf all over the trampoline.