I thought I'd throw this one out there to give everyone a chance to let us know what is BEST about where you live. Not the usual spots that tourists or visitors would go, but where and what YOU like about your place of residence. This can include restaurants, hikes, bars, parks, bookstores, or anything else you find cool or fun. For example, I'll start with my own neighborhood in Los Angeles:



Best Place to Have Breakfast - Maxwell's Cafe on the corner of Walgrove & Washington Blvd. Great neighborhood feel and crowd, good and simple dishes. Open from 7am-2pm and don't bother on weekends unless you either get there before 8:30am or are willing to wait 45 minutes to an hour for a seat.



Best Place to See Gorgeous Thai Waitresses and Have Great Thai food - Chan Darette, Marina Del Rey. Great food, moderate to low priced, and some of the FINEST Asian women on the planet are usually serving the food and greeting you at the entrance.



Best Park to Take Your Kids on a Hot Summer Day - Venice Beach Park, end of Windward Ave. in Venice. Fantastic little park right in front of the bike path offers easy entry to the beach (take your kids down to the Breakwater to see urchins, crabs, and starfish), a bird's eye view of Venice Beach in all its glory, and perfect weather when the rest of LA is baking under the summer sun.



Best Place to Hang Out, Have a Cup of Great Coffee, and Read Erotic Literature and Learn About Sex Toys - Freddy and Eddy, of course! Enough said and the adventure starts on April 1st.



Best Udon Noodle Bowl for Under 5 Bucks - Udon, located in the Mitsuwa food court, Centinela Ave. in Mar Vista. $3.65 buys you a huge bowl of steaming broth and Udon noodles, packed with beef, chicken, shrimp, or (my favorite) crispy fried chicken. For an extra buck, they'll throw in some seaweed salad and a California roll.



Best Place to Have Your Kids Play Baseball - North Venice Field, off Rose and Centinela. With a spectacular view of the Pacific Ocean, cool temps, and a beautifully kept field, this is THE place to let your child (from 4-14) learn about and play the national pastime.



More to come... and don't forget to put your city in the subject field when you post...

Wow, I can't imagine living somewhere that you can go out for breakfast!



G



So, G, tell us about some good places where you live. - Freddy

J & G It's a totally different way off life over on this side on the pond! I always have a few days culture shock when I go back to visit my parents! My mum finds it hard to adjust when she comes here!



So where do I live? I live on the prairies in the beautiful corner of Southeastern Alberta. We have it all here! Rivers and lakes for fishing and swimming it the summer and yes it does get hot here! In the winter we have skiing in the Cypress hills which are a geogolocially anomoly.

The best place for food in town: Well I'm baised because I'm a chef and work in a restaurant but apart from the place I work I like Boston Pizza (they do awesome pasta) and Argo's Family Restuarant. Argo's does an awesome breakfast and also have a good menu selection but best of all I love the decor and the fact you can go there to chat.

Best place to take the kids: We have tons of parks in town but I like to go down to echodale. In the summer they fill the lake and we go swimming and they have a small working farm that is also a heritage farm from the turn of the century. Kiddo loves to go see the animals down there.

Not sure what other heading to do....we have loads of bike trails which I love to roam and as soon as it gets warmer I'll be out on my bike with kiddo in the trailer seeing how many different animals we can see! Last year we got real close to a deer! Plus there is one that visits our back yard and eats the neighbours garden!

The other good thing about the city too is that you can get across town in 10 mins or less! It's great on a morning when I'm dropping the kids at school before work!

Well thats my 2cents worth!

Freddy remember another great place to watch the kids play baseball or soccer is on the cliffs in Malibu overlooking the water. It is across from the main campus of Pepperdine. The sun sets there as you play. Beautiful.

I personally play pickup games just off the boardwalk in Santa Monica, just where the grass touches the beach and the flat walkway and rollerbladers skate by as the setting sun warms your back.

Agreed on both counts, Bonk-dude, but I'm talking more within your immediate neighborhood (within blocks of where you live, even). We live in Mar Vista, so an example would be:

Best Surf Shop - Rocker Boards, on Venice Blvd. at Centinela Ave. Run by two female partners, this intimate shop provides great information for females from newbie to expert and has a great selection of custom boards and all the accessories (and some really cute clothing). And the owners are the coolest!

http://www.rockerboardshop.com

The best chip shop ~ the Anstruther Chippie, especially deep fried breaded local prawns!



For a relaxing, cosy meal ~ the Glen Isla Hotel. Great for taking kids to. J loves the beer.



Best place to go walking is definately anywhere in the Scottish Glens.



Favourite location for outdoor sex and associated activities, any secluded area in the Glens!



G



Best history - There's lots of it, but Aberlemno Pictish stones are surely world class dark age sculpture. (Stick it in Google and have a look)





Best Beer - The true love of my life after G. I could go on for a long time but I'll keep it to my top three.



1. Black Isle brewery ~ Scottish Ale ~ No hops, traditional recipe and very Scottish.



2. Orkney brewery ~ Dark Island ~ Dark botanical porter.



3. Arran Brewery ~ Dark Ale ~ Very distinct Arran flavour, you need to taste it.



J

Okay I'm putting my thinkng cap for this one...I'll be back. In the meantime here's a site with some nice pictures of Melbourne -- scroll down a tiny bit and click on the film strips for biggers pics.


http://www.travelvictoria.com.au/melbourne/photos/


http://www.travelvictoria.com.au/

For a good ahi tuna samwich, The Whaler, great for watching the sunset over the Venice Pier on Sunday before getting Margheritas at Baja Cantina

Best Margherita- Baja Cantina - Venice-Washington Blvd 2 blocks from beach. Great for hangin on a Sunday evening.

Once you are sloppy, go to Hinanos for cheap pitchers of beer, cheap pool, and a great popcorn on the floor-dive bar with great rock oand roll on the jukebox.

Great new hang for beer on Abbott Kinnee in Venice, Ca, "The Other Room"

Lots of great Beer selections and a great Wine bar.

Wow -- this is difficult because I live in the San Francisco Bay Area -- but I think I'll start with my own community - Livermore.

Best place to go wine tasting - Livermore, CA (the mini napa). There are over 22 wineries now in Livermore and much of the grapes come from the same napa valley areas as the Napa wineries. All the wineries are located off of Tesla Road so it is easy to stop, taste and shop all in one.

Best place to take the kids for education and entertainment - San Jose,- just 30 minutes south of my home has grown up. There parking is easy, but they have the Discover Museum for smaller kids and the Tech Museum for older kids and adults. You can get a package deal with the two museums and get education, art, entertainment all in one.

Best place to go to a concert - Nestled in the east hills of the San Francisco Bay Area - not far from California State University Hayward - Contra Costa Campus is the Concord Pavillion. Yes we have large venues such as the Cow Palace, the San Jose Arena, the Oakland Colusem, but the best place to go to a concert is the Concord Pavillion. Outdoor venue site, but great concert series all year long and small enough that from where ever you sit you can see the band etc on stage.

Best Library - - The City of Livermore has the best Library system in all of the San Francisco Bay Area. Why - it is city owned and run instead of county owned and run. There is one main libary with update check out scanning and a vast variety of books, videos, magazine, reference material, etc as well as 8 small libraries. The hours are Sun- Sat 10:00 - 6:00 daily. They have a wonderful summer reading program for kids as well

In looking at your avatar-or lack of- then seeing your location, I was like, I have good friends in Livermore. Then I went to your info, and realized YOU are my good friends in Livermore. WELCOME to the boards. People this is good people.

Welcome SCIFI

Bonk

I keep trying to load my avatar, but it dosent see to show up?

Best place to eat after a Laker game
The Pantry Open 24 hours with a 40's diner feel. The legend has it that there has been someone eating in the restaurant continuously since... well forever. When the Pope came by, the cook came out and sat down to eat so the streak wouldn't be broken.
Best Breakfast I vote for the Omelette Parlour on Main St. I love the waffle combo. (Maxwells is great too though) We are breakfast maniacs.
Best Movie Theater Culver City Stadium. They have good popcorn, nice theaters, good sound.

Best Hardware Store B&B Hardware. Kicks that crap out of Home Depot. (Close runner up is Dicks Hardware on Venice. Family run, with German Shephard and everything).

Best Local Burger Apple Pan on Pico. mmmm.

I know I ventured out of the neighborhood a bit, but hell it's LA.

Gosh, we used to eat at the Omelette Parlor when we lived on Sunset Ave. in Venice. It can get SOOOO crowded, though. I think I should mention the Sunday Santa Monica Farmer's Market on Main St. They have all the requisite produce, but also have a live band, great food stalls, and it's very kid-friendly. You can also catch celebs there most times (Uma and Ethan used to come there with their kids before they split). The weather is usually perfect, as well.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the "roach coach" on Glencoe, between Costco (Washington Blvd.) and Marina Del Rey (Maxella). 2 bucks for a big burrito and a buck for scrumptious tacos. There's always a line, but it's worth the wait.

Finally, Mao's Chinese Food on Pacific and Windward in Venice Beach rocks. The food is great and they stay "open" well after they officially close and party like crazy. Bonkmaster has been known to dance on the tables at 4am and it's totally fun for the late crowd.

Who uses Gosh in a sentance anymore. You dork.