Spending the day in Long Beach, CA

The aquarium is a nice one. The Latin American Art Museum (near the Convention Center) is cool. Don't really know restaurants down there.

As far as LA, it would be helpful if you could narrow it in terms of interests, types of food (and/or approximate price ranges), etc.

Depends on where in Long Beach you are but the aquarium is ok, the Queen Mary is over there if you can find a shuttle, and there are a couple of restaurants over by Shoreline Village. Honestly, I'd just ask your hotel for recommendations since they'd know how to help you better with transportation since you don't have a car. There are many threads on LA eating spots that you can search for on here. Same with museums I'm sure.

http://www.octa.net

I dunno, I've never really liked Long Beach....never did the acquarium but what I'd do is try to take a bus to huntington beach and hang at the beach most of the day, it should be a straight shot down PCH...maybe stop off in Sunset Beach on the way back, THEN go to the museums and acquariums, I just can't envision being there from morning until 11pm without getting extremely board.

there's a mall area but its mostly bar-restaurants and cell phone stores.

Well, if he got that desperate he could always take the Blue Line back up to Downtown and then hit Hollywood or Pasadena.

yeah, but then he's on the bus for 2 hours.

The Blue Line as in the light rail? Maybe 2 hrs round trip...

Wear sunscreen and a hat. Belmont Shore is a safer part of town and close to the beach.

I dont like LB either but if you're at all interested in looking at vintage clothes and antique furniture, the 4th Street Antique Row has some great stores. Problem is that like most of LA County, it's fairly spread out between the Aquarium/Queen Mary to Downtown to 4th St Antiques to Belmont Shore without a car I like WHo's idea of getting on the Metro train and going somewhere else. Only $5 for a full day pass. Our train system is weird in that it's an honor system. At no point is there a turnstyle to put your ticket in, but occasionally sheriff's will patrol and ask to see ticket. If you dont have it's $250 fine.

OCTA serves Orange County. If you want to use the bus system there, it is served by Long Beach Transit.

http://www.lbtransit.com/Services/

I don't go to Long Beach much, but if I were to spend a day there walking around, I'd check out the aquarium. At night, you can bar hop as the nighlife there is pretty nice. Sky Bar and Piano Bar are alright. Piano Bar is a cool experience if you haven't already been to a place like it.

Follow me, follow me, follow me, follow me, but don't lose your grip.

As far as LA, I consider the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Venice/Palms to be one of the more unique experiences LA has to offer. Maybe not at the top of the "absolutely do not miss" list, but a very cool place imho -- and as I said, certainly unique. It's also close to a great variety (Mexican, Indian, Burmese, Brazilian, Thai, you name it) of cheap, decent places to eat.

Given your interests, you could also spend an afternoon or day downtown, where you have the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Geffen Museum or whatever the Museum Formerly Known As The Temporary Contemporary is now known as, the Disney Concert Hall, as well as the Museum of Natural History and the California Science Center (the latter too are a bit too far south of downtwown proper to walk, but it's a short ride and may be on the DASH shuttle route.) While downtown, you could get good Japanese food in Little Tokyo. (Or you could go to Philippe's for a killer french dip.) If you're checking out downtown, the Central Library and the Bradbury building are also worth popping into for a few minutes.

If you'll be doing the Getty Villa (or even if you don't), I'd suggest cruising on up PCH and getting something to eat or some drinks someplace along the water in Malibu. Yes, it's obvious and touristy, and yes most of the places along the water rely more on location than quality food. But it's still worthwile, and the view of the ocean as you come over the little hill and cruise into the old Malibu/Point Dume area never gets old.

The Getty proper is hit-or-miss as a museum per se, although the physical space is really nice.

funny story about this shit.
i didn't know that i had to buy a one way ticket each time i transferred lines. i thought that i could just buy one ticket to the final destination, as long as you are not going bacl. basically, i got fucked over and got a ticket for not having two tickets, which there is no signs or any explanation explaining this. i obviously wasn't trying to cheat the system, otherwise i wouldn't have bought the first ticket in the first place. i still haven't shown up in court and this has been over a year

Dunno. Kill yourself?

I worked at McDonnell Douglas when I was a kid. Long Beach was a s**hole then and is a s**hole now.

The La Brea Tar Pits is the most interesting tourist site in the LA area. When I went there, some bosomy research assistant was on display digging though the layers with a toothbrush while monkeys fucked above her.