Going to Carson CA, what to do?

[cameraman]

The offspring eats, sleeps and breathes Arsenal FC which is great if you live in London but we don't. So this summer Arsenal is doing a fly away in California so I went ahead and spent a small fortune on some tickets to see Arsenal FC play Chivas de Guadalajara at the StubHub Center which is on the campus of CSU-Dominguez Hills in Carson. Same place the Galaxy play.

So getting there is simple, I hop on I-15 and drive 10 hours and then take 91 from Corona to Carson. (I have no idea if that is a good idea or not)

The main question I have is where does one stay? I have no knowledge of the LA area beyond that I probably don't want to stay in Compton. So do we go south somewhere or what?

Advise greatly needed...

[indyfan31]

You might look into staying in Long Beach, lots of hotels and places to eat. The areas around Carson (Torrance, Willmington, Compton, Harbor City, Lomita, etc.) are not exactly 'tourist friendly". BTW, your navigation is about as direct as you're going to get, just be prepared to sit in traffic for no apparent reason. :flaming:

[Gnam]

Disneyland?

[dando]

The offspring eats, sleeps and breathes Arsenal FC which is great if you live in London but we don't. So this summer Arsenal is doing a fly away in California so I went ahead and spent a small fortune on some tickets to see Arsenal FC play Chivas de Guadalajara at the StubHub Center which is on the campus of CSU-Dominguez Hills in Carson. Same place the Galaxy play.

So getting there is simple, I hop on I-15 and drive 10 hours and then take 91 from Corona to Carson. (I have no idea if that is a good idea or not)

The main question I have is where does one stay? I have no knowledge of the LA area beyond that I probably don't want to stay in Compton. So do we go south somewhere or what?

Advise greatly needed...

Lots of great places in Anaheim around DL and the convention center. What they call 'Good Neighbor Hotels'. TG, can provide better 411 since the 'eats the dog food'. :)

[cameraman]

Disneyland?

Nopity, nope, nope, nope. Any mention of the D word will bring up the inevitable can we go there...

[dando]

Nopity, nope, nope, nope. Any mention of the D word will bring up the inevitable can we go there...

Are we there yet? :gomer: :p

EDIT: We don't any DI$ fans here, BTW. :gomer: ;)

[SteveH]

7 or 8 years ago I stayed at the Double Tree Inn in San Pedro when I attended the late, great Long Beach Grand Prix. Nice enough, out of the way. Rates were 'reasonable' all things considered. Might be a little less than staying in Long Beach. There was a seafood restaurant in the area that was very good, maybe on Terminal Island? There weren't any restaurants around the hotel other than the hotel's. But this was a while ago, so I can't give you an accurate comment on how safe the are is. It was then, very quiet. LA Yacht Club is close by. Very close to the ocean.

[cameraman]

I'm thinking a Long Beach focused trip. The aquarium. The beach itself. Some kind of harbor tour to see the container port. Maybe even out to Catalina.

[dando]

I'm thinking a Long Beach focused trip. The aquarium. The beach itself. Some kind of harbor tour to see the container port. Maybe even out to Catalina.

Catalina Island is very nice. Huntington Beach is also very nice, and has great eateries off the pier area. The ocean is flipping freezing cold, but the scenery on the beach is awesome. :) :D

[pfc_m_drake]

Carson, CA???
Fan of old TV shows?

Robert A Cinader Memorial Los Angeles County Fire Station 127 (http://www.emergencyfans.com/places/station_51/)

Just drop by - they'll be happy to give you a tour.
I was there 6 weeks after 9/11 (attending the CART race in Fontana). To say it was surreal would be an understatement :(

As far as where to stay...Carson and the surrounding areas are pretty industrial (there's a huge oil refinery right across the street from Station 127), so you might consider staying elsewhere and 'commuting in' for the game. I've stayed in Norwalk a couple of times which worked for me, but a 'concern' might be that you're right around the corner from both TheMouse and Knott's Berry Farm.

[dando]

Wouldn't be a proper thread without some proper music...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAQeZNjmJDA&nohtml5=False

:)

[Gnam]

The farthest thing from Disneyland. :D

Dare-U-Inn Auto Motel

Pros: near the stadium, meet new and interesting people
Cons: near the stadium, interesting people are pros and cons

http://s24.postimg.org/z8gmunogl/4791924001_a8a7b69850_b.jpg

[dirtyboy]

There is nothing immediately around the stadium, so the time you spend in carson will be the match and nothing more. People from LA are choosy about giving recommendations. I'm not sure what you'd do in Long Beach. Many don't even consider it LA. I'd stay somewhere in the Santa Monica (or cheaper Marina del Rey) area. You can get to enough interesting places easily from there. If you never go to LA, at least see the nice(r) things. The southern beach cities are nice if you love looking at guys in Tapout t-shirts.

[TravelGal]

Sorry to be late to the game. Just back from a foray into the Hill Country of Texas to see the bluebonnets, Indian paintbrush, and primrose. First of all, I think it's great that you're doing this. Next, I looked at a map to see see where this place is. It's about 70 miles from me but what jumped out is that, yes, Long Beach is good, and as SteveH said, over to San Pedro if it saves a little money.

There is a Holiday Inn right (and I mean "right) on the south side of the 405 overlooking Long Beach airport. It's actually a little further away but it could be fun to look at the planes. I don't know the room rates but it does have free parking. 2640 North Lakewood Boulevard, Long Beach, CA 90815. There are also hotels near 405 in Torrance because that is where Toyota is.

As for the harbor tour, it would have to be from the water on a tourist boat. Hornblower or the like. Nothing allowed in the container port for hyper-security reasons. I just checked on this for another friend so I know I've got the latest info. Nevertheless, you get an incredibly great panoramic view of it going from Long Beach to San Pedro over the Vincent Thomas bridge. Would be worth the ride to do that even if you're not interested in San Pedro. If you are, you can tour the USS Missouri Battleship or further down toward the end of San Pedro is the S.S. Lane Victory.

Thinking of Long Beach, you might check out the Hotel Maya, a DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel 700 Queensway Drive, Long Beach, CA 90802. Lots of CART fans (including me) stayed there for the race. Edit: Check on their parking charge. It used to be pretty high. There is a free bus that will take you to the Aquarium and around Long Beach. You can walk to the Queen Mary, which is not quite in the same league as an Arsenal game but I'm just throwing things out here. :)

[TravelGal]

Oopsie daisy. As a kind OC member pointed out in a PM to me, the battleship in San Pedro is the USS Iowa, not the Missouri. It's supposedly a nice tour but *obviously* I haven't taken it. :o

[dando]

Oopsie daisy. As a kind OC member pointed out in a PM to me, the battleship in San Pedro is the USS Iowa, not the Missouri. It's supposedly a nice tour but *obviously* I haven't taken it. :o

Yeah, the Mizzou is in Pearl Harbor. E$PN were doing shows from her deck on 7-December pimping the basketball tourney that night. I think (could be wrong) they have carrier their as well.

[TravelGal]

At the LBPG, the Port of Long Beach (not Port of LA) had a booth. They give tours. To wit: "How to apply www.polb.com/porttours" Sounds fairly difficult to get on their list but might be of interest because you might see some of the Port of LA. :)

[JohnHKart]

Just about next door in Carson is Go Kart World. Great oval slick track and even better road course. If you are around on a Wednesday we race organized racing at 7pm on the slick track. It's a blast.

http://www.gokartworld.com