Travel to Los Angeles, California 2022

Los Angeles and California make the news a lot and a lot of the news is not good now days. You see reports of rampant homelessness and extreme crime throughout the larger cities. You also see reports of very strict Covid restrictions and in the past one of the strictest lockdown in the US. Donna and I had not visited California for some of these reasons other than a brief stop at Donner Pass and Lake Tahoe. After a short weekend cruise was canceled due to Covid we decided to use our airline credits to head over to Burbank and spend some time in the Los Angeles area. We drove through most of the area from Burbank to Pasadena to Long Beach to Los Angeles itself. I’ll write here a little report on what all we saw and experienced while in Los Angeles. Some of it was good and some of it we saw was like the reports you see. While a quick visit does not give us a complete picture of what its like to live there it does give us a least a glimpse into things.

Burbank, Griffith Observatory and Santa Anita Park

We flew into the Bob Hope Hollywood-Burbank Airport on a Friday Morning as we left Houston on a very early flight with a quick stop in Phoenix. We had never flown into Burbank and we found it to be a very compact airport. There was zero taxi time as the runway was very close to the airport itself. The airport has no gates so you walk down a ramp and enter the airport at ground level. The baggage claim is outside in a covered area. Its extremely easy to get in an out of as the rental car is a quick walk on an elevated walkway to a garage. We were out of the airport around 20 to 30 minutes after landing. In general the Burbank area was mainly commercial with many office buildings and a nice shopping area. It really wasn’t much different than any other suburban city we have been to. We left the Burbank area and headed to a famous viewpoint and attraction that has been in many movies.

We headed over to Griffith Park and drove up to the Griffith Observatory. The area around the observatory was pretty fancy with many very large homes on the hills. We got up to the Observatory early so parking was free up at the top, otherwise is a very expensive $10 an hour to park there. Most likely due to Covid the Observatory building was closed for the weekend so we took the time to look at the Hollywood sign and look at the great views of Los Angeles from the observatory. We looked at the monument to James Dean who filmed “A Rebel Without a Cause” at the observatory. Many films were filmed there such as Transformers, and the Original Terminator. Looking out I could see the sprawling metropolis that is the second largest city in the US and could see the Pacific Ocean. The smog in the valley LA sits in is talked about fairly often and you could see it well that morning from the heights we were at. You could see downtown but only through a layer of smog. It was still beautiful but unfortunate to see the pollution in the area. The park around the observatory was very nice and it was a typical sunny and nice California day. It was still fairly crowded but for the most part most people were wearing masks and taking things seriously.

Our last stop of the day before heading to our hotel in Monrovia was to go to the horse races at the famous and old Santa Anita Race Track. The track has been in operation since the 1930s and has had famous horses such as Seabiscuit race there. We got there for the first race and stayed until the end. We were able to see many of the most talented jockey’s, and trainers such as Bob Baffert at the park up close. The park has a beautiful Art Decco style building and many plant sculptures, flowers and fountains throughout. We never felt unsafe as people where wearing masks and we spent most of the day outside in the great weather watching the horses run. To get into the track we were required to show our vaccination cards. If we had not been vaccinated we would have had to show a negative Covid test taken within 72 hours. We really enjoyed our time at the park and headed back in the late afternoon to try to miss some of the infamous California traffic back to our hotel.

Visit to the California Science Center, The Battleship Iowa and Long Beach, California

On our second day in Southern California we decided to head further into Los Angeles and visit some of the many museums in the area. We drove on some of the many freeways in Los Angeles and even on a Saturday morning there was a healthy amount of traffic. It was not bumper to bumper but especially towards downtown there was a good amount of traffic. The traffic reminded me of the traffic in Houston on I-45 or the 610 loop on a Saturday. As we drove through we saw many tents and homeless camps along the road. I can tell the stories of there being a lot of homeless in Los Angeles is very true. Donna and I have found that in many major US cities such as Denver, New York City, Austin, Dallas and my home town of Houston all have a lot of homeless in their communities. In Houston there are homeless in the suburbs as well. While the homeless situation is bad in Los Angeles and very well spread around the city its not overly different than other areas in the US. You might not see this kind of homelessness elsewhere in the developed world but its very bad in our major cities and even smaller cities. After our drive we arrived at the California Science Center is located in the Exposition Park that contains the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum which held the 1932 and 1984 Summer Olympics. It will also hold the 2028 Summer Olympics. The California Science Center is a spectacular museum and it was free other than a $3 reservation fee a ticket we paid to reserve our tickets in advance. They require you to reserve a time slot for entry and like other museums in California they checked our vaccination cards on entry and masks where required at all times in the museum. The museum had exhibits on the different environments in the world such as desert and the artic. It had interactive exhibits on the body and of the current Covid-19 pandemic. My favorite exhibit was the space and aviation exhibits. The space exhibit included a Mercury Capsule that carried a chimp into space, a authentic Gemini capsule and the Apollo-Soyuz mission capsule. The gem of the museum was the Space Shuttle Endeavour and the exhibit around it. Its one of only four Space Shuttles you can visit and it was the last one for us to visit in person. Outside of the wonderful Shuttle Display is a real Shuttle External Fuel Tank. Its the Orange tank you see on Shuttle Lift off used to house the fuel. Its the only one I have ever seen. In the future the museum plans a huge project that will mount Endeavour on the tank in a launch position. It will be a grand exhibit. We walked in the rose garden and saw other great museums at the Exposition Park such as the California African American Museum. Before we left we used a system to lift a Toyota Pick up truck using a rope and then we headed out.

We headed further South towards the Community of San Pedro to visit the Battleship Iowa Museum. The Battleship Iowa was built towards the end of WWII and was one of the four largest Battleships the US ever built. The Battleship fought in not only WWII but also in Korea, and served during the end of the Cold War in the 1980s. It was modernized with cruise missiles and anti aircraft guns for its last time in service. I had never been on an Iowa class Battleship so it was different seeing the mixture of WWII and modern technology on the ship. Like most Naval museums we were able to tour the many of the decks and see recreations of life aboard the ship. The Battleship Iowa is nicknamed “The Battleship of Presidents” as it had Presidents FDR, Reagan and George HW Bush on board. We enjoyed a tour through this large Battleship but if you are lucky you will see how today’s modern ships make the Battleship Iowa look very small. Next to the USS Iowa while we were there was a Princess Cruise ship getting ready for a voyage. The ship towered over the USS Iowa. We could hear the crew announcements to guests as it was getting ready to depart. Also within view of Battleship you can see the very busy Port of Los Angeles. Its been in the news a lot due to the supply chain issues. We could see thousands of shipping containers already unloaded and many large container ships being unloaded on the Saturday afternoon. Massive amounts of goods getting ready to head all over America from many different countries overseas. The area is very industrial due to the port and some of the surrounding city seemed a bit rough. At one point even though we can’t be 100% sure we thought we heard gunfire coming from the city area. We felt safe at the Battleship and cruise port area but I’m not so sure about the city area itself. Violence and crime continue to rise all over the country so we do our best to keep ourselves away from risky places even though something bad can happen anywhere. In the parking lot of the museum you can find another sign of the times with a small Covid-19 testing site with a long line of people. We took a look out to the sea as while we were there we heard about the Tsunami Advisory due to the Pacific Volcano eruption in Tonga. Thankfully the water at the port was very calm.

We headed to a quick stop on the way back to our hotel near Pasadena, California. Years ago with family we spent a day at the Majestic Queen Mary at Long Beach. The Queen Mary is an Ocean Liner that will take you back to the days of the Titanic. I remembered seeing the elegant wood carvings and stair cases inside. The multiple smoke stacks and the crows nest like the Titanic. We also went on a neat ghost tour on the ship. At the time you could spend the night at the hotel on the ship. Next door was a Russian Sub called “The Scorpion”. We toured one of the few Russian ships I have visited while there. Donna and I followed the signs and briefly parked by the ship to visit. Today we found the Queen Mary is closed due to the company operating it going under and the City of Long Beach taking over. The ticket booths all closed and shops empty. The Russian Sub is badly rusted and corroded and has broken windows. I read that the Russian Sub has been closed for years and infested with animals. Its sad to see a unique historic ship in such bad shape. The only action going on in the area was a Carnival Cruise ship getting ready to depart from the once Spruce Goose Dome that is now the Long Beach Cruise Port. The Spruce Goose was a huge seaplane built by Howard Hughes. We took a few pictures and heads back to the hotel. I hope to return someday to be able to visit the Queen Mary again when its back to a great attraction to visit.

Near our hotel in Monrovia in downtown Arcadia there were many great local restaurants to visit. There were some nice looking Japanese and other Asian style restaurants that reminded me of Asian Town near Katy in Houston. We stopped by Dashiwa Ramen to grab some great Spicy Miso Ramen and Edamame. Its not you Cup of Noodles Ramen but a great quality dish. There are not too many Ramen places in my area so it was a treat. At this place there were Bible versus on the chop sticks for an additional bonus.

The La Brea Tar Pits and Hollywood

On our last day of the very quick trip we decided to visit another unique landmark to the area at the La Brea Tar Pits and Museum. Located in the middle of Los Angeles is a rare Ice Age Archeological site. Large pits of water and tar would attract animals such as Giant Sloths, Mammoths to get water. They would become trapped in the tar and would eventually die. The dead animals would attract predators like Dire Wolves and Saber Tooth Tigers who would also be trapped. To this day they are still pulling fossils out of the pits. We viewed a site where they were pulling out several animals such as a Sabe Tooth Tiger out of the tar. When you walk by the pits you smell the strong smell of oil and natural gas and can see it bubbling up. There is a great museum that houses many of the fossils that have been found. We were able to watch archeologists going through fossils and cleaning them at the museum and we watched a 3D film about the site. Its a very different place compared to many we have visited. I can also remember the Tar Pits have been featured in films like the Disaster Film “Volcano” a few years back. Like the other museums they checked our vaccination cards and made sure we wore masks while inside.

On the way back to the airport before we stopped at an In-N-Out Burger we decided to take a drive through glamorous Hollywood. As we drove through the area we saw in some ways up until near Hollywood Blvd it was very industrial with a cement mixing plant, a many little shops. In general its not even close to the visions many people have. At one traffic light a man’s backpack came open and dropped things all over the street. He slowly picked them up to the irritation of the drivers on the busy street. As he walked away I noticed the half empty bottle of Jack Daniels he was carrying. I’ve seen the same thing too many times in my home town of Houston on the streets and on our light rail. Seeing these kinds of things makes donating to homeless shelters one of the priorities when I make donations. Once we turned onto Hollywood Blvd we could see the Hollywood Walk of Fame and we passed by the Chinese Theater. The area full of tourists and tourist trap businesses. It reminded me some of the area around The Alamo in San Antonio were sadly a historic area is not quite treated with the respect it should be. We quickly left the area as the driving and traffic was pretty bad and we had seen all we needed to see. From there we headed to eat and the airport where we made our way back home to Texas.

In Conclusion

We enjoyed our time in Los Angeles as there is a lot to do in this sprawling city. Getting around Los Angeles and its suburbs is not that much different than traveling in Houston. Its a very large area so going from the Northern suburbs to the coast will be abound 40 to 50 miles and could take a while depending on the traffic. The driving is generally aggressive similar to the driving I find in Houston. I can tell the reports are true about there being widespread homelessness and poverty around the city but its not the only city or state where this is happening in the US. The Covid restrictions are much more strict compared to states like Texas but if you are vaccinated they are a minor issue when getting around. I can tell if you are unvaccinated it would be a much larger issue having to get tested before doing much of anything. There are a lot of very unique places you can see in Los Angeles and I wouldn’t mind coming back to visit at some point in the future!