His View 

Los Angeles - Feliks' perspective

Whenever I think of LA I think traffic, pollution, and movie stars. While we avoided most of the traffic and we did see a movie star, the pollution was not as bad as I expected it to be. Our first stop, Venice Beach, was very similar to Coronado Beach - just not quite as clean. I’m not saying it was dirty, it’s just that if I give Coronado a 10 on the clean scale, I’d give Venice Beach a 9. The area itself was very compact, almost as if these people were living on top of each other. Some of the streets were very tight and narrow, while others felt like a mile wide. 

One of the main reasons we stopped in LA was to visit my half sister Rita who I hadn’t seen in quite some time. It took us an hour to drive the last 20 miles to her house, which I think wasn’t that bad for LA traffic. She was kind enough to give us a break from driving, and chauffeured us to a couple of the spots on our list. The Hollywood Sign, the most iconic thing in LA, brought on a surreal feeling of being in a place where the movie magic happens. Last time I was in LA I found out the taping of Die Hard 4 was nearby, and we actually saw some of the explosions from the set. Rita took us to a really cool spot just below the sign by a reservoir that didn’t seem to be a major tourist attraction. We got some great pictures with the sign behind us, and continued on to Griffith Park and the Observatory. There was a great view of the city, and the smog sitting on top of it. It definitely wasn’t as bad as I’ve seen in pictures before. The city was massive - buildings as far as the eye could see and skyscrapers scattered all about. Rita told us about the guy who the park was dedicated too, which was an interesting story in itself, while the exhibits inside were just as interesting. Lots of tourists, LOTS of tourists. So be prepared. 

Rita treated us to dinner at Vegas Seafood Buffet on Hollywood Blvd, where I got my fill of all kinds of seafood and deliciousness. Again, food coma set in and I was down for the count. The next day our plan was to do a tour guided bus ride through Los Angeles. We found a good deal on Groupon and signed up for the two-hour sightseeing ride. The tour included Hollywood Blvd, part of Sunset Blvd, and residential areas of the rich and famous. The places we went were all publicly accessible and you did not need a tour guide to see them. However, without the tour guide we would have missed out on a lot of information that I did not find in our initial research of LA, specifically some of the local hang outs of celebs that aren’t really on any stars map. After the tour we strolled down Hollywood Blvd with our faces towards the ground, reading all of the famous stars. We were both a little excited to see the Chinese Theater, and made a last minute decision to enjoy a movie there. Guardians of the Galaxy was pretty good, and I like how it tied in to all of the other Marvel flicks. 

After the movie, hunger set in so we drove down Sunset Blvd to a restaurant we passed on our tour. On the way there passing a parking lot, we saw none other than Denzel Washington. Like a typical tourist, I pulled out the phone and took a picture of him as he was trying to figure out who blocked his car. I offered to set off the car alarm in effort to help the owner come out faster. Mr. Washington thought it was a funny idea, and agreed that it might work. We did not bug him any longer, and continued on to our dinner destination. All along the way as we passed the restaurants, our eyes were on the people eating outside to see if we could spot another famous face. We came out empty handed. We did see a lot of nice cars that you only see in music videos. Our dinner was at Dough, where we enjoyed some refreshments and 99 cent slices of pizza. In fact, it was so good we both got a slice to go for lunch the next day. Getting out of LA at night was not as bad as I expected, and we were able to make it to Lancaster in about an hour and a half.

Overall, LA is busy. The roads were good, but the traffic and drivers were not of this planet. Even though we escaped the majority of the parking lots on the streets, it was still some of the heaviest traffic we’ve experienced on our journey. Parking was difficult, but again not as bad as you’d expect. I like LA for vacation, as I’m sure we didn’t see even a fraction of what it has to offer.