March 21-23 - We decided to take a break in LA after our overnight flight from Chile before carrying on to Hawaii. I came to LA 25 years ago from New Zealand on the way home at the end of my gap year. At the time I was struck by the sprawling expanse of roads and the difficulty of taking public transport anywhere. As well, we were used to backpacker hostels which are everywhere in Australia and New Zealand but just not as much part of the culture hear in the States. This time we rented a car and an Airbnb so things looked a bit different. Although the car can sometimes separate you from the place you are in, and an Airbnb can be isolating from other travellers, the flip side is that you can sort of live the life of a local in some ways. No more so than in LA, where car is king and everyone spends a lot of time on the road.
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| I think we were staying in a suburb but I think the whole of LA may be a suburb |
We landed at 7am and with a 4pm check-in, we had time to kill. I love how everyday and efficient things like car rentals are in the USA. It feels like you are buying a loaf a bread. Credit card, license, sign here, go to the lot and pick a car, keys are in it. Off we go. First stop, a diner for brunch. We found Pann's, 7 minutes from the airport. I didn't know any of this but it has its own Wikipedia page, and really is a classic '50s diner, with its decor, furniture and curb appearance all preserved. The kids thought our booth was pretty cool but I think this was mainly because the promise of pancakes and syrup now seemed very real. Our waiter was from Mexico and he was chatty and very fast: menus, coffee and food landing at warp speed.
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| Pann's diner |
Refueled we headed to Venice beach for a workout at the Muscle Beach gym. Not really. But we did find all day parking for $7 on the beachfront and enjoyed splashing in the Pacific, watching the jets overhead, and strolling the eclectic, grungy mix of souvenir shops, food shacks and massage parlors that line the promenade. We watched skateboarders, pick-up basketball games and dudes shooting homemade music videos. There was even a car transporter from "Studio Picture Vehicles" unloading classic cars in our parking lot. There is a sense of this place being stuck in the '80s but I think it has more to do with the timelessness of offbeat thinking, independent people, and the search for money and meaning that LA attracts in way that few other places do. The tide of US capitalism seeps so fluidly through the streets of this most American of American cities, but for those not caught up in its compelling flow, this is still the wild west, the dusty, sea-salt faded frontier, albeit tattooed a sun-bleached red, white and blue.
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Venice beach
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Forever Baywatch
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Cars, truck, America
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Boulevard of broken dreams?
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| Boulevard of broken bones? |
Felicity has been struggling with that most inane question all too often posed to the world-weary traveller: what has been your favourite place? Testament to her fierce independence and genetically inherited stubbornness, she will not offer a canned response, or any response at all. But today she said that even though she can't find an answer to that (inane) question, she knows what the most amazing place is: LA. She's never seen so many roads, so wide, so ubiquitous, a city so sprawling. Perhaps there is not one?
This morning we cashed in our jet lag chips after waking up at 4am and drove up to the Griffith Observatory. Not sure whether we were aware of this majestic spot before catching an Adele performance on TV when we were staying with the Grandparents over Christmas, but we are now. At sun rise there are a few walkers and joggers enjoying the extensive trail network that zigzags around the hills up here, but otherwise it is quiet and calm, the air is still and the city is far enough below that the traffic of rush hour is absorbed into the near uniform flatness of this vast city, contained as it is only by the surrounding mountains and the western seaboard. The Observatory itself was closed but this is a great spot to get a sense of this place and also to see the Hollywood sign if you so please.
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The Griffith Observatory at sunrise. Majestic
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LA does have a high rise downtown core
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Early morning light
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Light and lines
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Science
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Art
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Science and Art
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Boy meets telescope
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| Science looking at Art |
Griffith Park is huge with the aforementioned trail network as well as a couple of great play structures nestled into shady wooded areas. The little coffee shop adjacent was closed on Tuesdays but one is never far from a Starbucks and thus a good morning was made whole! Crystal and I ditched the kids on the play structure and took a short loop on the trails. It feels very comfortable to back in North America. No doubt that has a lot to do with the language, but it is also where we are used to living. Probably when we get back to Ottawa it will feel even more familiar but since many things are relative, not absolute, right now LA feels a lot like home. Not sure my 19 year old self would ever have thought I would say that!
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Great play structure, great park, Griffith Park
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| Griffith Park trail |
After the park, we headed to the Walk of Fame, found Walt Disney and a bunch of other famous folks we had never heard of and then retreated back to Gardena for lunch and a rest. Tomorrow is an early start for our flight to Hawaii. We're trying to keep the jet lag advantage going so that getting up at 4.30am will feel just normal and natural! Oh, I hope so...
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No Walt, no Disney+ kids
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| One block back from the Walk of Fame, homelessness. Every city has it, not every city juxtaposes it with its riches so eloquently |
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