10 December 2017
My previous impressions of Los Angeles, from a visit almost 25 years ago, weren’t great. This trip to LA hasn’t changed my perceptions. In my last post I mentioned that San Diego was the first larger USA city that I have been to that I could consider living in. I would place LA at the other end of that spectrum. Busy, crowded and lots and lots and lots of concrete.
Having said that, we did have a nice time exploring Santa Monica for around three hours on Friday afternoon. We had a great meal at a restaurant just across from Santa Monica Pier, where I ordered their Farmer’s Market Nachos. It consisted of corn chips, chipotle, an assortment of steamed vegetables, and covered in melted Jack Cheese. Delicious. I think Celeste from our tour group will still be raving about how that was the best meal she had yet had in the USA.
Then it was time to explore Santa Monica Pier.
We then spent some time exploring the shops along the Third Street Promenade. Shopping is getting more difficult now, as even the small number of small items we have bought are already taking up more space in our luggage than we would like.
Hollywood
After piling on to the bus for the penultimate time, we made the hard slog across LA through traffic to Hollywood. Our CEO parked one block off Sunset Boulevard, then led us along the Walk of Fame, past the Chinese Theatre (where the first Academy Awards were held), up the escalators beside the Dolby Theatre (where the Academy Awards are now held) and around the block so that we could get a glimpse of the famous Hollywood sign.
We spent most of the 30 minutes we were given to explore seeking out famous stars along the Walk of Fame. Katelyn was very excited when she found the Olsen Twins, as they are stars of Full House — one of her favourite TV shows. We also came across Donald Trump’s star. It was easy to find because it had had all sorts of drinks poured over it and food stamped into it, and had even been set alight. A very sad indictment on the political situation here unfortunately.
I also got very excited when I saw some billboards for the new Star Wars movie, The Last Jedi!
During the day I had been trying to find out how and when to get to the airport the following morning to make our 6:15am flight to Minneapolis. It soon became apparent that we had an early start ahead of us — a 2:30am pick up! So there we were, in the hotel car park, saying goodbye to the group we had spent the past 14 days seeing all sorts of amazing sights across this enigmatic country — and the end of the first chapter of Knights Around the World …
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