I've been in Los Angeles, California for about a week and the Pokemon are basically rock, ground, fighting, and fire types. Lots of Machop, Geodude, Sandshrew, Ponyta, and Growlithe. I've caught several Pokemon as a passenger (high traffic still makes cars move slow), but I had my first hunt since Halloween at the legendary Santa Monica Pier.
I was in that specific part of the city for different reasons, but I just had to check out the Pier based on the hype. The Pokemon spawns are indeed really good. For this migration, there was a particular concentration of Kabuto, Omanyte, Clefairy, and Magnemite, but basically anything is fair game there.
The absolute biggest mistake I made was not sticking around long enough for the Hitmonchan spawn. It was only after I left, that I found out he was a consistent spawn. My hunt was only a little under two hours, so I didn't truly see how crazy the spawns could have been. I do not care about the event ending, but I may consider going back before the migration change solely for that spawn. I may even finally get a Dratini worth using my 155 Candy on. I still haven't registered Dragonite.
I've heard about Aerodactyl and Dragonite spawning, but I just can't count on it. I still have to go through some more 10km egg hell.
I've been out of Coins ever since the event, and I'm not ready to buy any more yet. I was able to acquire 300 extra Coins from my territory before it was all taken down, so I used them on 2 Incubators. I was only able to hatch two out of my four 10kms, and I got Jynx and Magmar. Pretty disappointing, but at least this particular Magmar is very strong. I've put the other 2 10kms in Incubators, and I pray to God that Aerodactyl hatches.
I did some more evolutions just to re-roll some movesets. On my second Clefable, I got the excellent Pound/Moonblast combination. I also got Poison Jab/Earthquake on Nidoqueen and Ember/Fire Blast on Rapidash. Unfortunately, I received Bullet Punch/Stone Edge again on my second Machamp. Machamp is very easy to make in California, so I will have another shot soon. My first Machamp took me over four months to acquire, but the second one only took a week.
My trainer leveling has slowed down dramatically. I hit level 31 during the event, and I have 190K/500K EXP for the next level. I could end up not getting to 32 at all, but 32 will be my absolute wall if I somehow get there.
I will try going to Pier on Monday or Tuesday. It was amazing to see so many people playing Pokemon GO at this location. I talked with a couple of players, and it was just an amazing thing. The game is dead in so many parts of this country, but my experience here shows that PoGO has life in some areas.
