Driving into Los Angeles was like…

… a dream come true.

Not.  🙈👌

I’m not kidding. Los Angeles suffers from one of the worst rush hour periods in the world, according to an annual traffic index by navigation system maker, TomTom. LA drivers spend an additional 92 hours in traffic each year. During the peak rush hour, there is 80% congestion, according to the index.

7 lanes in one direction and yet it was a constant stop and go… And it wasn’t even rush hour. 🤪😵‍💫🥴

Griffith Observatory

We always intend to find a cheap/free place to look down on a city. We love to exercise. In the case of L.A. we killed two birds with one stone when we  hiked a lovely hidden path up to the Griffith Observatory.

We even passed the Hollywood sign on our way up, and we had a great time and good views of the wealthier neighborhoods and finally the city itself as well.

L.A. is actually extremely vast but flat, it has comparatively few skyscrapers. In fact, in comparison to other bigger cities like New York, high-rise buildings are not very common in Los Angeles. (L.A. is the second largest city in the states following NYC)

Inside the Observatory there were lots of interesting scientific simulations, exhibits as well as information panels explaining various phenomena.

Hollywood Walk of Fame

Of course we had to go and see what most people probably associate with Los Angeles. The Hollywood Walk of Fame was a bit disappointing, though. The streets are a lot less glamorous than you might expect and I found myself wondering who all those people are… But eventually we found some well known artists as well 😉

And who would have thought that we have our own stars there as well?! ⭐😁

Walt Disney Concert Hall 🎻

I don’t know much about architecture but this building is a masterpiece if you ask me. 👌

In 1987 Lillian Disney pledged $50 million towards constructing a new concert venue in honor of her late husband Walt Disney and his dedication to the arts. Designed by architect Frank Gehry, the Walt Disney Concert Hall opened in 2003.

Frank Gehry dedicated this fountain to Lilly Disney: He visited her in her home to talk about his plans for building that hall. On that visit, Gehry noticed a china cabinet that was full of imitation Delft vases that looked out of place in her beautiful home. When the architect asked about the knockoffs, Disney explained that she and her husband Walt had a tradition of buying the imitations from airport souvenir shops during their many travels, and she loved to show them to friends to see if they could spot the fakes.

The fountain is constructed from broken pieces of Delft China.

The acoustics of the concert hall were designed by Minoru Nagata, the final completion supervised by Nagata’s assistant and protege Yasuhisa Toyota.

Bradbury Building

This enchanting skylit atrium can be found inside the Bradbury Building. Built in 1893, it appears in many works of fiction and has been the site of many movie (E.g. Blade Runner) and television shoots as well as music videos.

Grand Central Market

Grand Central Market is a large arcade offering an abundance of food stalls and eateries of all kinds of countries and cuisines. We had amazing Ramen and probably the most famous American treat here:

California Science Center

Science centres / museums are always a good way to spend time but in this case, there was solely one aim: to see the Endeavour! 😊

Endeavour is a retired space shuttle from NASA’s Space Shuttle program and the fifth and final operational Shuttle built. It embarked on its first mission, in May 1992 and its 25th and final mission, in May 2011.

Endeavour successfully completed 25 missions into space, including the first service mission to the Hubble Space Telescope, as well as the first mission to add a U.S. component to the International Space Station.

When the space shuttle rocketed off the launch pad for the first time in 1981, it became the world’s first reusable spacecraft to carry humans into orbit. Over the thirty-year course of the space shuttle program, the shuttles and their crews assembled parts of the International Space Station, deployed and serviced the Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra X-Ray Observatory, repaired and re-launched satellites, sent probes to Venus and Jupiter, and more.

Five different orbiters flew into space as part of the program—Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour—for a total of 135 missions. Counted together, the space shuttles have carried 355 people, flown over 500 million miles, and spent over 1,300 days in orbit. Space shuttles docked with Russia’s Mir space station nine times, and with the International Space Station more than 35 times.

What you see is the original orbiter for the most part, only some tanks are missing and the Rocketdyne engines are only dummies because the actual engines were used when building  new space shuttles.

NASA chose, on cost grounds, to build much of Endeavour from spare parts rather than refitting the Space Shuttle Enterprise, and used structural spares built during the construction of Discovery and Atlantis in its assembly. ♻️👍

Outside, another retired aircraft waited for us: a Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, a long-range, high-altitude spy plane used by the United States Air Force and NASA between 1966-1989.

SR-71 operated at high speeds and altitudes allowing it to outrace or entirely avoid threats. If a surface-to-air missile launch was detected, the standard evasive action was simply to accelerate and outpace the missile. 😯

Nearby: a lovely rose garden! 🌹

University of Southern California

We accidentally walked through the campus of the University of Southern California and found ourselves admiring the brick buildings and old trees there.

Venice Beach ⛱️

Last but certainly not least you cannot leave L.A. if you haven’t been to one of the famous beaches. We chose Venice Beach and were not disappointed! 😎

Arnie definitely left some traces there 😂😂

We were also really curious about ‘Muscle Beach’, were Arnold Schwarzenegger allegedly trained his body after moving to the USA in the 60s:

Schwarzenegger realised his dream by moving to the United States in October 1968 at the age of 21, speaking little English. There he trained at Gold’s Gym in Venice, Los Angeles, California, under Joe Weider’s supervision.

And how else can you really comprehend the scene without plunging right into it? 😁

First, we worked out a little and then jogged to the Santa Monica Pier.

After a crisp shower we walked through an area called Venice canal. Very beautiful! 😍

Gaslamp Quarter

The Gaslamp Quarter is a national historic district that offers a variety of restaurants and shops, as well as Victorian architecture.

Una historia para Eva: At the Thai restaurant: Oliver orders a spicy dish. The waitress asks: “On a scale of one to ten, how spicy would you like your dish?” I almost burst into laughter 😂… 🤭

Balboa Park

Balboa Park is made up of more than 1,000 acres and offers 15 museums, various gardens, arts displays, shady groves of trees and meandering paths through rolling lawns.

We totally enjoyed spending a couple of hours there. 🙂

Old Town is the historic heart of San Diego and a must see if you are into historic sites. Created in 1769, Old Town San Diego was California’s first settlement with only a mission and a fort.

Here you can experience life from the early Mexican-American period of 1821-1872.

You can also browse the market and the many shops or dine in one of the many specialty restaurants.

Heritage Park

As we were already in the area, we also visited Heritage County Park. It is a park located near Old Town San Diego and measuring almost eight acres. Heritage park was developed to preserve examples of San Diego’s historic Victorian architecture including Italianate, Stick-Eastlake, Queen Anne and classic revival styles. The properties were all relocated from their original locations. 😯

Cabrillo

Before heading to our next destination we stopped in Cabrillo for a while to enjoy the views and learn about San Diego’s history.

Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo led the first European expedition that explored what is now the west coast of the United States. Cabrillo departed from the port of Navidad, Mexico on June 27, 1542. Three months later he arrived at “a very good enclosed port,” which is known today as San Diego Bay.

Historians believe he anchored his flagship, the San Salvador, on Point Loma’s east shore near the land that becomes Cabrillo National Monument. Cabrillo later died during the expedition, but his crew continued on, possibly as far north as Oregon, before thrashing winter storms forced them back to Mexico.

Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery is located on the Fort Rosecrans Military Reservation, 10 miles west of San Diego, California. It was one of seven national cemeteries created between world wars, 1934–1939. It was the Army’s first major expansion since the Civil War directed at serving a growing veteran population and the rapidly depleting burial space at existing national cemeteries. Unlike previous new cemeteries, locations were based on veterans’ places of residence, especially in or near large cities.

La Jolla Cove

La Jolla Cove is a small, ecologically protected cove with a beach that is surrounded by picturesque sandstone bluffs. Gulls, cormorants, sea lions, and native plants line these bluffs above the Pacific Ocean, making this one of the most pretty and photographed areas in Southern California. (La Jolla is referred to as “The Jewel” after all.)