Los Angeles

We drove into LA in the afternoon and settled into our hotel in West Hollywood. Liam decided to stay in and have a nap and John, Miles and I took the metro downtown to visit the Museum of Contemporary Art. LA is such a driving town, we heard that nobody takes public transportation, or that there isn’t any. Maybe it doesn’t extend enough to be usable in most cases, but we found the LA metro to be really great. Our station was decorated with movie related stuff like film reels.

And drawings of Toto from the Wizard of Oz on ceramic tile.

Check out the grandeur. This is a metro station! Fancy! Our el stations are, well, rather modest by comparison (but very heavily used so go figure. Maybe they don’t have to be quite so fancy, LA.)

After the museum visit we went to eat tacos and walked up and down Hollywood Boulevard. OK, that is crazy! There are people dressed as movie characters everywhere and they want you to pay to have your photo taken with them. We saw a minion, Edward Scissorhands, Captain Jack Sparrow (several versions), Wonder Woman, Batman, and many more characters. Fun but pretty wild to walk through. Oh and there are stars on the ground for the stars…

We then made our way to the Upright Citizens’ Brigade in Franklin for their improv show, which was hilarious. Of course improv started in Chicago so it was nice to check on how they are keeping it up in the hinterlands 🙂

The following day we took a hike through Griffith Park up to the observatory. I should pause to thank Miles for all the heavy lifting on the LA portion of the trip planning. He listens to several podcasts by comedians based in LA and has picked up quite a few tips about fun things to do there. The trail to the observatory was steep, hot and dusty but the payoff was quite good! There were views of the famous Hollywood sign.

including this one through the arches at the observatory.

Miles had planned for us to visit the Tesla Coil in the observatory. This exhibit shows the wireless method of electricity delivery that Nicola Tesla had invented. A guide gives a talk every hour and demonstrates the loud zapping of electricity from the coil to the mesh cage (enclosed in very thick glass). It’s like watching a lightening storm in a glass box. Very cool! The electrical charge also lights up the neon sign seen in the bottom right of the picture.

Headed down from the Observatory. It was really hot!

After a cancelled attempt to get a famous LA “In and Out Burger” (the lines were long and it would have been more like a “Sit and Wait Burger” we drove to the Getty Museum. There’s a tram between the car park and the museum grounds, allowing for goof time.

The art is amazing but so are the grounds and views.

And the desert roof garden.

We decided it was most like a modern day California style Powerscourt.

After the Getty we drove to the Culver City area where Liam’s friend Sebi just moved so he can start school in Santa Monica in the fall.

We drove to Venice Beach and walked along the boardwalk to Santa Monica pier.

And went for dinner in Venice Beach. We ate at a delicious sandwich place.

this inspirational sign was posted along the street 🙂 We drove Sebi back to Culver City and then drove back to our hotel in Hollywood. It was great to see Sebi!