Los Angeles Adventures
Mann's Chinese Theatre, Sunset Strip, Santa Monica and More
Going to LA, especially from the East Coast, is a bit like going to a foreign city. At a journey of 3,000 miles, it's certainly far enough away. But it's not LA's multiculturalism that makes it seem foreign; it's the large, inviting beaches, it's the spectacle of a swanky restaurant next to a pier next to Palisades Park next to a parking lot , with the Santa Monica Mountains and ocean providing the backdrop. Somehow, this is not America. People came west from Dubuque and Detroit, followed their own quirky impulses, and created the hodgepodge that is southern California.
Pay a visit to Hollywood Boulevard for one reason: to see just how ordinary a city block it is. Hollywood is Mann's Chinese Theater surrounded by souvenier shops. Paramount is the only movie studio remaining in the neighborhood. Sunset Boulevard should not be missed, however. Start in Hollywood, and head west towards the Sunset Strip (suprisingly clean, at least during the daytime). Go along the Strip and into Beverly Hills. There you will find the Beverly Hills Hotel plus stately homes offering a view of the mountains and canyons. Continue past the UCLA campus ( where every building is orange), negotiate about 12 hairpin turns at about 50 mph, and soon you'll see the Pacific looming in front of you. You will have reached the famed Pacific Coast Highway (or PCH, as the locals call it.) Turn right and head to Malibu. Malibu is a few beachside bungalows, the PCH, and some hills with $30,000,000 homes on them. Beautiful, but spare.
Visit the beach in Santa Monica and see the images captured in a million TV shows and movies. There's the melange of humanity clustered around the Pier, there's the mountains providing the best seaside backdrop that this traveler has ever seen, there's the LA County lifeguards driving by in their familiar yellow trucks (the real-life Baywatch). The nearby Santa Monica Place mall is nothing special, just the home of several familiar chain branches (GMC, CVS Pharmacy, etc) that one would find in any shopping mall elsewhere. Seeing as California is practically the birthplace of malls, one would have expected al little more.
Though the temperatures, at least in late March, barely break the 60 degree mark, the sun is still fierce, so don't forget your block. There's something for everyone in LA......well, except cheap housing. And one more thing..........stay off the freeway.
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