Our Road Trips

8/20/2016 8/14-20/2016

Sunday morning, a van picked us up at our site and we spent the day touring LA plus the ride to & from LA to Anaheim, which is about 30+ miles. They picked us up at a little after 9 am and dropped us off about 7 pm, so it was a full day of exploration, and someone else did the driving. We started out in Chinatown which is near downtown and ended up near Marina Del Rey at the beach, so we saw a lot of LA. Mulholland Drive, Hollywood Blvd, Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive, Santa Monica & the famous pier, Venice Beach which looks nothing like it did in 1964, and Marina Del Rey, which, according to our guide, is where John Wayne once kept his boat...really, nothing more recent than that? Our guide was not very informative, stuff like that all day. But we enjoyed touring the town and figuring out where things are and someone else was doing the driving and dealing with the traffic. We made several stops along the way and were allowed on our own to do 20-30 minutes of exploration, some of it warranted, some not (Venice Beach is not a tourist stop unless you have never seen the ghetto at a beach before, it is not a pretty place), but all in all, it was a nice day. A different guide took us back, and we talked about things the whole way...nice way to end the day. He was way more informative. We got home in time to see the fireworks for the 3rd time and then got some sleep.

Monday morning, time to move to the Big City, or a bigger part of it. The city starts at the Mexican border and never stops, they just put up signs telling you what police jurisdiction you are in as you move around. I have no idea how many cities there are south of Bakersfield, but it is a lot (several 100 for sure). We took our time, knowing 3 things, 'rush' hour was not going to stop, just let up about 1030, we couldn't check in to the next place until 1 pm and it was about an hour+ ride, depending on traffic. So, we left about noon and arrived at Dockweiler just after 1, good planning. We got in line & got checked in about 130 and drove to our site...jackpot! No one on our left, as far from the LAX flight paths as possible, and in the front row looking at Dockweiler State Beach and about 100 yards of sand to the Pacific Ocean...nice! We will be here for 11 nights and have a lot planned, including time like what is happening as I type, sitting outside, enjoying the weather (76 F and a light NW breeze, not a cloud in the sky. The Chamber of Commerce must have ordered this. We spent the rest of Sunday enjoying our spot and watching the So Californians enjoy their beach & its 12' wide bike path that passes 30' from our front door and all the fire pits on the beach...fun to watch them all come to life just after sunset. 100s of bikes an hour go by in either direction, some slow, some fast, fun to watch...and every type of bike imaginable. It is an interesting spot, glad we are pausing to see it.

Tuesday, we drove north on the Pacific Hwy, Marina Del Rey, Venice, Santa Barbara, and all the other little towns you buzz thru. We also followed the Pacific Hwy through Malibu and turned north
at Malibu Canyon and followed that all the way to the top of the hills that make Malibu such a valuable residential area. At the top, we connected with the Ronald Reagan Hwy and a stop at his library...holy cow, 100's of cars lining the approach road and filling the parking lots. It was amazing how many folks were at the Ronald Reagan Library, so we asked what was up. A security guard told us that they were all there to tour a display directly from the Vatican, which had filled the place fuller than what was expected, since Mar 6 when the special display opened. So we went back down the hill and found a place to do research, a parking lot, and looked it up on the internet. It ends just as we get ready to leave, so we bought a couple tickets for next Monday and will return a little earlier and try to see it all in one stop. We got some lunch and drove back to LA. We stopped at Dodger Stadium, walked around a bit, drove by the Science Center & the Greek Theater and then to Mulholland Dr, which we drove as far west as we could before it turned to dirt (our tour guide on Sunday told us it was paved all the way to the end...ooops) So we turned around and drove down the hill and back to the RV...been a fun day of exploring. When we got back, there were dozens of fires burning in the fire pits on the beach, kind of a pretty site. There was about 30 people around one right near the camper...all of them in sweatshirts & long pants...sort of different for August than what we are used to. Then, they were gone, must have burned up their little pile of wood...makes us long for our pit.

Wed., we lazed around until noon, waiting for the fog to melt off so we could see the end of the Santa Monica Pier. By the time we got there, the fog was gone but throngs of people were there. All the parking lots were full and one place we checked wanted $20 for 2 hours...yikes! So we headed into town, drove through Beverly Hills and went by an old firehouse (oldest in LA) and went to the Greek theater & up the hill to the Griffith Park Observatory, but it was swamped with cars, just like it was the Vatican or something, so we went back down the hill, found a parking spot & walked across the street for a lite dinner. Then it was back across the street and a cool spot in a park adjacent to the Greek Theater. Lots of folks were enjoying the afternoon, drinking wine, eating pasta and getting ready for the Jackson Browne concert. We struck up a conversation with a local couple and talked about all the concerts they have been too...we fit right into the conversation. At 7, we made our way into the theater, a beautiful outdoor venues. We had great seats and it was a beautiful night, great music, great crowd....fun time. 3+ hours later, we were on our way back, about 45 mins to the RV....last ones home once again. It has been another interesting day. Tomorrow night, we do it again.

Thursday, we enjoyed our beach location until it was time to return to the Greek Theater, this time way more prepared. Barb had packed a cooler and we stopped along the way and bought sub sandwiches. We got to the Greek Theater in plenty of time to get the same great parking spot we had the night before and set up on a nearby picnic table. We struck up a conversation with some locals again,,,what an enjoyable afternoon. About 630, we went & found our seats and spent the next 4.5 hours enjoying first a single performer on a guitar, Jack Broadbent, then 1 3/4 hours of Peter Frampton & his band, then Lynyrd Skynyrd for an hour & 1/2...fun night. 45 minutes later we were back at the RV, less traffic than on Wed night. LS played their usual 15 song set list, ending with Freebird, nothing changed. Peter Frampton is always playing different stuff to go with old favorites, he is a great performer.

Friday, we left about 1030 am and set our GPS once again to avoid 'highways', which takes us through less traveled areas and lets us see different scenery. We saw oil well pumps in areas adjacent to residential areas, and went thru the USC campus and right next to LA Coliseum where the LA Rams are again going to play football again after 21 years in St Louis. The SoCal folks are making a big deal out of getting the Rams back in town. Next to the coliseum is the California Science Center, now the home of the Space Shuttle Endeavor, so we had made this our destination for the day, locating & viewing the 4th & final Shuttle display. We have now seen all four displays, the others being in NYC (Enterprise, which was a trainer and never flew) at the Intrepid Museum in NYC Harbor. The Discovery is at the Udvar-Hazy Air & Space Museum at Dulles Airport outside of Washington, DC and the Atlantis is at the Kennedy Space Center Visitors Center near Titusville, Florida. While all are at neat places and all of the displays are very nice, the one at KSC is way better than the rest (we have seen it 3 times and is about 24 miles from our house) and is worth the price of admission to the KSC Visitors Center all by itself...it is a very cool display. We both heartedly recommend it. It is a lot of fun to see. We went by a grocery store in El Segundo on the way back and spent the rest of our Friday night watching the folks enjoy the beach and the sunset. As soon as the sun set, there were again fires in every fire pit provided by the county on the beach.

This morning, it was 63 degrees here at Dockweiler Beach, a far cry from the 122 degrees we got to experience in Texas, New Mexico & Arizona. We are going to enjoy the beach today, just hang out and spend the day doing very little. One year ago we were at Bristol, TN at the races and tonight is this year's version, so we will be watching that on TV. We are far removed from that event, but it is still very much in our minds, we have been there 18 times after all. Tomorrow is back to the Greek Theater for another concert...Pat Benatar, Neil Giraldo & Melissa Ethridge ...another fun night.

Steve & Barb Larson