forward captain

Sept. 30, 2013

Today was a day for sightseeing and NOT for driving. Last night we had looked at a few websites for ideas of things to see in LA and put together a plan of attack. Because we were already in Long Beach, we headed down to the cruise ship terminal to see the Queen Mary. 

We got there shortly before 9am and the morning fog hadn’t quite burned off yet, but the ship was still very cool, plus there was a Russian submarine and a torpedo on display.

Next we headed towards Hollywood. Our first stop along the way was at the La Brea tar pits (see http://www.tarpits.org/ for more info). Ben wanted to go here because they were featured in the movie Volcano, which apparently he thought was a good movie at the time, I remember otherwise. 

Either way the tar pits were pretty cool. They are also right next to LACMA (museum) with a cool modern art piece that features a bunch of old lamp posts that I wanted to see.

Our next stop was Hollywood Blvd to check out the Dolby Theatre (formally the Kodak Theatre) and the walk of fame. Shortly after we found parking we were practically attacked by people selling tickets for a sightseeing tour. I didn’t give the guy the time of day, but of course Ben stopped to talk to him. He was hard selling us to fill his little bus and we ended up getting on for less that the price they were charging for children. It actually ended up being a pretty cool tour; it was 90 minutes and our driver/guide actually grew up in Hollywood. 

He gave us lots of cool info about the area and took us through Beverly Hills and pointed out stars homes, including Michael Jackson’s last house. We even went all the way up to Mulholland Drive and he pointed out Justin Bieber’s house (for some reason when we told them we were from Canada the tour people kept bring up Justin Bieber…honestly we are not of the demographic that cares where he lives, but for those who want to know, it’s a gated community you can’t get anywhere near, and it’s close to Tyler Perry’s house).

After the tour we headed back to the car and checked out the handprints in front of the Chinese Theatre along the way. Our tour guide told us that he had seen something on TV saying that the handprints are pretty much the dirtiest surface on earth because everyone and their filthy hands are touching them all; needless to say I didn’t put my hands anywhere near them.

Next on our list of things to see was the Space Shuttle Endeavour, which just a about a year ago travelled through the streets of LA to its new home at the California Science Centre.

 (For those of you who haven’t heard about this, here is a time-lapse video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdqZyACCYZc). It was amazing to see it in person; it flew 25 missions between 1992 and 2011. The science centre itself was pretty cool too, and the entrance fee was by donation (suggested $5), which I found very reasonable. They had fish tanks and one had a little octopus; it was so cool I could have watched it all day. One of the staff said they had just moved her out for public viewing that morning and she had been super active with all the new people to show off for.

By this point it was after 3pm and Ben cracked first and said he was hungry (win for me), so we hit up the Chipotle’s across the street from the science centre (I saved half for snacking later, Ben dominated his and finished the whole thing). 

While we were waiting in line, the 2 guys behind us were taking pictures of Ben. People down here are even more obvious with their staring and ask how tall he is than people at home. Once our hunger was satisfied, we headed back to the coast to check out the Santa Monica Pier. 

It was pretty cool I guess, but not really much to do unless you are a little kid, or I guess if you just want to spend the day at the beach. We didn’t stay for long because we still needed to make it down to San Diego tonight. We originally wanted to take the highway along the coast, but it was slow going, so we cut back up to the bigger interstate and made it to San Diego by 8:30pm. Our motel is right on the outskirts of Old Town, which we plan on exploring tomorrow. While we were relaxing this evening (Ben was relaxing, I was working on this blog…), I started to notice a funky smell. Ben had opened the bathroom window before his shower and shortly thereafter someone must have hit a skunk, because the stench was billowing into our room. What a welcome to San Diego….