Los Angeles

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LA. Historical. Overdone. Over-promoted. Maybe the most well known city in the world.

I wasn't sure what to expect. At one end is the Hollywood-side perception (films, beauty, plastic surgery, fake). Another perception is of a crime-riddled, riot prone danger zone. Yet, one more, is the laid back beach scene -- surfing, volleyball, sunning, leisure.

And I could see those aspects in LA. But it seems like any mega-city -- it cannot be easily described or stereotyped.

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Around 6:30 AM I left cold Michigan for the 80 degree LA -- just missing a massive snowstorm that cancelled, I think, hundreds of flights at Chicago O'Hare (it dropped 10 inches around where I live). I landed in Santa Ana (John Wayne Airport). I quickly got my car, rolled the windows down, cranked up some Latin music, and immediately went into a traffic jam (one of many to come). The skis were blue, the air felt great, and the sun was lovingly beating down through the smog (still, compared to Guatemala City, it might be hard to say LA has serious air pollution).

I got to the hotel and rested for about an hour. Then I headed to Hollywood. Admittedly, this was a more curiosity/checklist thing to do before getting to the good stuff. I went to the Hollywood Highland mall, walked around a bit, got a bite to eat at a Johnny Rockets (and got my parking ticket validated... much cheaper to park at the mall, shop a little, and get your ticket validated than pay to park somewhere else), and then went to see "Drillbit Taylor" at Grauman's Chinese Theatre (very popular for Hollywood premieres).
http://www.manntheatres.com/chinese/

When I went to buy tickets it was close to showtime. Outside the theatre it was packed with tourists and people performing acts and dressed up like popular movie characters (Spiderman and Jack Sparrow come to mind). I thought I would be lucky to get a good seat (with this being the first day of Drillbit showing). I walked up to the ticket counter and asked if there were any seats left... and he kind of laughed and looked at me like I didn't get something. "Yeah, plenty". Um, cool.

The theatre was nearly empty. Why tourists go so far and see the *outside* of the theatre and then leave, who knows. It was only about $10.

The interior of the theatre was massive, comfortable, and beautiful. Drillbit Taylor was mediocre for a comedy but had its moments (plus I had a little bit of a headache and was exhausted from getting up at the equivalent of about 1:30 AM LA time).

After the movie I headed back to the hotel... enjoying one of the winding highway roads through LA.

I then hit the sack to get some sleep.

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The next day I started out with the goal of cruising from Dana Point to Malibu on Highway One and stopping somewhere to go surfing. It was a short drive to Dana Point and then I started up the coast. Most surprising was how upscale it was... especially Newport Beach, where beautiful condos/townhouses, luxury car dealerships, and nice restaurants and shops lined the street.

Just before Newport Beach was Crystal Cove State Park, where I got out and walked along a path on a bluff overlooking the ocean. The path was lined with yellow wildflowers. As I walked along, I talked to my sister and mom on the phone and enjoyed the stroll. It has great views of the ocean and nearby beach.

http://www.crystalcovestatepark.com/

I next stopped at Huntington Beach, though further south than the main (and busiest) area. I paid to park and then walked around for awhile. I thought about surfing but wanted to wait to make sure I could make it further up the coastline that day. So, I went on, drove by the main Huntington Beach area, and continued up the coastline.

Highway One detours away from the coast (missing Long Beach) until it gets to Redondo Beach. In between is cityscape. Lots of traffic and traffic lights. Crowded. Some is very industrialized. Other parts are communities.

I continued up Highway One, but skipped Venice Beach and Santa Monica. I was going to go to Venice Beach, but the traffic was very heavy.... and I didn't want to mess with it.

From there, I don't think I stopped again until Malibu. The houses were nice and the area was beautiful. I parked and walked along the beach barefoot and shirtless... taking in the breeze... listening to the ocean... enjoying the sunlight (I was missing it so much in Michigan).

After awhile, I headed back to the car and drove a little further up the coast to Oxnard (a lot of it looks recently built), got a bite to eat, and took Highway 101 to Highway 5 and back to the hotel.

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The next day I went straight to Huntington Beach to go surfing. This was an interesting day in my world. I'll start by saying that I didn't stand up once... not once. Very frustrating.

I went to one of the shops at the beach and rented a wetsuit and board; the board was in-between a short and long board. Actually, more toward the short board length. They had lockers there for my keys and wallet. I then headed out to the waves.

My main goal of the day was, probably, to stay away from other surfers (though, not far away). For one, my last experience surfing I got my foot sliced open on someone else's fin (see Sydney travel blog). And the second is that I'm learning.

What was good is that I had a lot of practice working on swimming out, especially doing the duck dive where I push the board down before a wave and I go through it instead of over it. This is much easier to do when the waves get bigger. And it was also good in that I learned that I want to get better at swimming.

After awhile I got cold. My feet and head were bare, so I think I was losing too much body heat (the water was pretty chilly). At one point I had caught a wave well and was going to push up -- but I couldn't push up enough to stand up. My arms were too cold and exhausted. It was very strange. Another thing that was strange is that, as the day wore on, I became fearful. I still swam out, but the waves were intimidating me a bit (these were probably the biggest waves I've tried to surf on). They were coming one after another in what felt like every 7 or 8 seconds.

Sometime during this building exhaustion, when I was out a little beyond where the waves were breaking, I was startled by a fin poking out of the water. About 10 feet away from me were dolphins! And there were a bunch of them slowly rolling the tops of their bodies up out of the water and then back down. Normally, I would feel thrilled about this. But I was scared. Partly for inexplicable and unknown reasons related to exhaustion, and partly because of concerns about sharks (dolphins and sharks often eat similar food). So I got out of the water. Still, quite a sight to see and to experience.

After resting and warming up, I went back out, still to no avail. But it was great to be in the sun and surf. I learned more and the next time I'll be more ready to go.

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Then it was a very busy week of work.

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😊

Friday I had the red-eye flight (I think around 10 or 11 PM). So after work I headed first to Huntington Beach to take photos and then drove north, past Los Angeles International airport, to Santa Monica.

I pulled in to the town off the highway and found a place to park. It was now night and the pier was lit up. The pier has a roller-coaster, ferris wheel, some other rides, games, and lots of shops. I toured around a little bit and bought a ticket for the ferris wheel and told the lady "for the ferris wheel". Of course, they are just tickets for anything there, but she *could* have told me at that time no singles were allowed on it. So when I handed my ticket to the guy at the ferris wheel I got (embarrassingly) turned back.

At any rate, I headed to the roller-coaster. It isn't a large one but it was a lot of fun. And that night (maybe every night) they took us around on it twice. This was good because I remembered roller-coasters are a lot of fun and now I'm inspired to go to a theme park. I've been to Six Flags, Disney World, Silver Dollar City, and other theme parks, but it has been awhile.

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I then zipped back to the airport, returned the car, checked in and flew back to Kalamazoo... getting back, I think around 9 AM (and very tired, at that).

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Photos

Aliso Beach Park
I think that is the place

Light - 3
Paseo Colorado

Industrial Complex
Along Highway One

Steven Spielberg Handprints/Footprints
In front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre

Comments

[Celeste in Missouri]

Awesome!
Great pictures! You are a busy guy, Henry!

[Augusta]

LA
Eh, not all that interested in visiting LA, either. I'm just glad your blog entry for this one didn't include a freak dolphin attack story. Man, this whole surfing thing could be dangerous! That's really cool that you went to the Chinese Theatre, though. I actually didn't know that the general public could go to movies there. Maybe all those tourists don't know that, either.