I’m sure by now you’re probably tired of reading about our adventures during our recent trip to California. For those who aren’t, and haven’t read all our interviews and posts, here is a recap of our entire time in Los Angeles.

SATURDAY NIGHT
After landing in LAX around 10pm and being swarmed by paparazzi taking pictures of Twilight stars, Kellan Lutz and Peter Facinelli, we ended up checking in the Ramada Hotel on Santa Monica before heading out onto the town. By the time we ate, checked-in and got ready, we only had an hour and half left of clubbing. As we walked down the gay strip, we bumped into one of our friends Justin M from Toronto. That’s what I love about LA: you never know who’ll you’ll bump into. Since we only had a short time left, we danced like there was no tomorrow.

Celebrity Sighting: Kellan Lutz, Peter Facinelli

Click here to read a day-by-day account of our trip

So my eight days in Cali came and went faster than I ever could have imagined! I’m already back at work and suffering through the post-vacation depression due to the overcast/rainy weather here in Vancouver.

The trip had many highlights, and I was surprisingly happy to get the quality time in with my parents, sister and niece and nephew. Before I even got on board the airplane to take us to LAX I was paired up with my nephew as his ‘airplane buddy’. It was pretty hard to say no too. Our plan was to stay at the Embassy Suites in Anaheim the first three nights to tackle Disneyland and Universal Studios, and then switch over to San Diego for the rest of the stay at the Lawrence Welk Resort. Both hotels ended up being fantastic, minus the wasp infestation in our first room (and first night) in San Diego.

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On our last trip to LA (last summer), someone thought it’d be a good idea to play the game “lets be brutally honest with each other”. The game is simple. Everyone goes around the circle and says one or two things about each other that we probably didn’t see in ourselves (oh yeah, there was booze involved of course). What was my friend-assisted revelation?

I am cheap. I disagreed, which led to my 2nd offense – I am defensive. Screw it. I am cheap. And I’ll help you be cheap too.

I am not so much stringy as I am just a person who likes to find a good deal. Nothing wrong with that, right? Let’s start with possible the biggest travel fund offense – the hotel room.

Sample Task: Find the a good deal on a decent hotel room in San Francisco.

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Donovan, Patrick, Adam and I recently traveled to California. The exploits of our trip have been featured in a few articles already (Hills Wedding, Red Carpet, Reichen, Andrew Christian). I am one of the more silent of the Homorazzi cast largely because my counterparts are so expressive and eloquent in their delivery of the day to day stories; in addition, I work very hard at my, more than full time, job as a banker as well as my second full time job as Donovan’s partner. My days and weeks are very stressful, when the time comes that I get to escape the 9-5, I look forward to relaxation, pampering, and indulgence! As such, the trip to Cali was more a vacation than business trip for me

So, what could I possibly have to say that hasn’t already been said? What story can I tell that hasn’t already been told? My perspective on the trip to Hollywood varies slightly in its purpose; with that said, one of the highlights of my trip was our accommodation! A true pied-à-terre in the heart of West Hollywood.

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I’m not sure why the cosmos aligned this way, but last week was definitely Homorazzi’s week to be in California! In addition to Patrick, Adam, Brian and Donovan going to LA, Daniel went with his family on a Disneyland vacation and I spent Friday through Sunday in San Francisco!

Peter, a friend and colleague, is transferring to our offices in Switzerland (yes, I’m absolutely green with envy) and my girl Julie and I went down to surprise him at his going away party. It was a really quick trip, but we had a blast and I thought I’d share a couple of of the fun things we did that are outside of the usual “we went to this gay bar, and then that gay bar, and then dancing at this gay club…”:

• Waterbar

  Waterbar is a restaurant located right on the water at the base of the Bay Bridge in the Embarcadero area. The location is absolutely flawless and the restaurant space itself is brilliant. The water-facing side is all windows and the upper area of the restaurant has two large cylindrical fish tanks located in the center. In addition to the great ambiance, the food was equally impressive. For my meal I started with an Octopus Carpaccio- which I admit that at first I was a bit dubious of- and it was brilliant. The octopus was quickly blanched in salt water and then served with crispy artichoke hearts, lemon and other herbs. I absolutely loved it. For my main I had a fantastic Halibut fillet served with asparagus and other greens that were cooked to perfection. For dessert, my friend Kim and I split a chocolate pudding cake with mint chocolate chip ice cream. I definitely recommend it.Waterbar also has a very impressive wine bar and the Pinot Gris I was sipping was fresh and crisp- a perfect compliment to my meal.

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So let’s start from the beginning. Yes I met “S” in a personals site and we became good online friends for over 5 years. We would talk about our current relationships, life, career & everything else. Mind you…our online relationship was very platonic. Last year, we found ourselves both single and decided we would meet. I didn’t want to go all the way to Barcelona, just in case it didn’t work out. I didn’t want to be stuck in a foreign country, specially not really knowing how to speak Spanish. So we decided to meet up in LA (April of last year) where we both had mutual friends. We spent 5 days together in LA and got on really well. Towards the end of the visit, we started talking about me visting him in Barcelona. I was not opposed to the idea since I’d never been to Europe and actually really wanted to see Spain anyway. What a perfect way to see a new country than to have a native be your tour guide.

Check out the video slide show on the second part of the post.

I’m about to take one of the biggest plunges of my life this week: taking a family vacation to Disneyland with my parents, sister, and nephew and niece. The kids are aged seven and four respectively, and I have already been graciously delegated the seat between both children on the flight from Vancouver to LAX.

Granted, I love my family more than anything else, and my nephew and niece bring a lot of happiness into my life- but I didn’t fully think it through when I committed to 10 days south of the border. With two ‘travel days’, we’re there a total of eight Cali-filled days, seven of which have been delegated to theme park madness! Don’t get me wrong, I love The Mouse, and everything that Tinkerbell has to offer, but I’m struggling with the thought of having to stand in the queue that indicates, “You are [65] minutes away from meeting Ariel!”

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Beaches? Check. Boys? Check. Bars? Check. Booze? Check. And, don’t forget all of your favourite little swimsuits from AussieBum and Priape. Puerto Vallarta is a gay paradise.

In February, I made my way down to PV for the third winter in a row. I love it. I will go next year and every year after that if I can. I will be one of those old gays wintering down in my condo on the cliff looking over beautiful Banderas Bay.

Puerto Vallarta, on Mexico’s west coast, has been a gay mecca forever. Sure, there are tons of frat boys and sorority girls boozing it up at the all-inclusives near the airport, but dominating Old Town are flocks of homos.

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