Our final destination on our mega holiday was Los Angeles - the City of Angels. But leaving Hawaii was more of a wrench than we expected, since it had been a wonderful ten days of activities. And I know we will never be able to go again.
The contrast couldn't have been greater - from beautiful islands with a relatively laid-back way of life to the frantic pace of suburban Los Angeles - home to most of the movies and TV programmes with which we were familiar.
History
Los Angeles originally made its money, surprisingly, through oil - and there are currently 68 named oil fields in the greater LA area - 10 of which are deemed to be "giants" containing more than a billion gallons of oil. Residential areas sprang up around the oil fields to support the workers, but there is little tolerance now in the current climate for accidents, oil spills, and climate damage, so legal steps are being taken to ban re-working old mines. Having said that, 542 new permits have recently been issued to open new oil fields and 1500 permits to rework old sites.
The movie age brought new investment to LA. Inventor of the movie camera, Thomas Edison, had tried to create a monopoly for the production of movies back east, so many producers in the 1920s and 30s had moved west to escape the confines of the Trust he set up to control the industry. Film makers demanded good weather all year round, and California was the perfect playground for film sets with year-round sunshine and away from the confines of the trust.
The Movies
We arrived late at night, so had booked a relatively easy time for our first full day in LA. We discovered Lyft - which we don't have in the UK , and which operates just like Uber. We wanted a gluten free restaurant for brunch, and our friendly driver took us to iHop (for gluten-free pancakes!) close to the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, which would give us our first fix of the movie industry.
Academy Museum
We are huge movie fans in our house, so we immersed ourselves in some of our favourite films - right from the original Wizard of Oz - a childhood favourite of both of us - up to the modern day classics of Star Wars and Jaws.Every genre is catered for, and costumes were on display from such films as Edward Scissorhands and ET to the fabulous gowns worn by Oscar winners from a by-gone age.
Top of my list to see were Judy Garland's ruby slippers (I have a very cheap version of my own!) which were on display in a glass case. Artifacts and props from some of the earliest films to the latest blockbusters kept us entertained for the morning, before we headed off to explore LA.
Incidentally, there is a glass skywalk from the top floor to a viewing platform, but since we are terrified on heights, we gave that a wide berth!
The Grove and Farmers Market
Our walk took us directly to The Grove and the Farmers Market, where we discovered the fabulous Whole Foods store - which became our favourite go-to place to buy wonderfully fresh food, pre-packed snacks, fruits and salads. I wish we had something like this back home.
The Grove boasts restaurants, a tourist tram and designer shops, and has featured in many a celebrity movie, though Neiman Marcus was way out of our price range. We did, however, discover Ross -Dress for Less (a bit like our TK Maxx) which became our favourite store while we were there, and had much more affordable prices.
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Hollywood Boulevard
However, we had booked a table for dinner at Hard Rock Cafe (don't we always?) on Hollywood Boulevard - the latter of which was a complete shock to the system. Full of tourist shops selling all manner of tat to the street hawkers trying to push unwanted tickets, the sidewalk (pavements to us Brits) were dirty and those cherished stars were cracked and broken in some cases. It was not what I had expected to see - I thought these would be regularly cleaned and easy to find our favourite celebrities.
Of course the area is a must-see but was such a disappointment, with beggars, drunks and crazies vying for attention with the street performers. Gauman's (now TCL) Chinese Theatre , scene of many Hollywood blockbusters, was busy with tourists looking for those famous foot and hand prints, though there are various stories as to who stepped first into wet concrete and set off the custom.
I did find the star of my early teenage crush, musician Peter Frampton, who deserted our home shores for mega-stardom in the US. I have happy memories of seeing him perform live with his band "The Herd" in the late 60s.
All our tours for the three holiday destinations - with one exception - were booked before we left the UK, with Tripadvisor recommendations. On our second day we were picked up from our hotel for a full day's tour of LA. Despite good ratings, the tour seemed to lack some organisation. We were taken by minibus to Santa Monica where we were taken to a cafe (but the driver had not said a word to us until he told us to get off the bus!) and told to get a coffee while we were sorted into groups, then before the coffee arrived - we were put one another minibus. The tour took in most of the main sights but felt rushed as for the most part we had only 30 or 40 minutes to look around some of the most iconic scenery in the world.
Santa Monica Pier
First stop was Santa Monica Pier and beach, taking in the end of Route 66, the 2,448 mile road which starts in Chicago and was the main migration route to the West Coast during the "Dust Bowl Years" in the 1930s when dust storms and drought in the prairies devastated farming, and prospectors decided to try their luck out west.
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Santa Monica Pier
Venice Beach
It was then onto Venice Beach, which had originally been built in a stylised version of Venice, with waterways and amusements, and marshland transformed into beaches and amusements. Unfortunately the original owner went bust and gradually the waterways disappeared until there is just one canal left. Venice is now a playground for surfers and muscle men who strut their stuff on Muscle Beach - made famous by the most famous muscle man, Arnie Schwartzenegger. The original Muscle Beach, however, had been based in Santa Monica.
However, on doing research when we returned, it turns out it that with a history of gangland activity, Venice has been recorded as the most dangerous beach in America for crime, shark attacks and surfing fatalities. But during the day, it looked like a fairly bohemian community, and we didn't feel at all unsafe.
Griffith Park
In the afternoon we were taken to The Observatory at Griffith Park, with a very distant view of the iconic Hollywood sign. What they had failed to mention when we booked the trip was that the building is open only Thursday to Sunday. My daughter had previously visited LA and this was absolutely the one place she wanted to go. The views of course are magnificent of the city, but The Observatory is a one-off so we were very disappointed not to be able to visit inside. We were also disappointed to see the Hollywood sign was so far away, we could only see it through a zoom lens.
Bizarrely, there is a bronze head of film star James Dean, which had been commissioned by the man himself. The 1955 film "Rebel without a cause" featured the Observatory heavily in both internal and external scenes from the movie, and helped put it on the international map.
Famous Sites
We had a short stop on Rodeo Drive - but only just enough time to find a toilet and then get back on the bus, so no designer shopping for us!The rest of the tour was just riding on the bus which was not what we wanted to do. We drove down Melrose Avenue ( which looked a little down-at-heel), saw the hotel where Julia Roberts climbed down the fire escape in Pretty Woman, went by Angelina Jolie's home, and went past the Los Angeles sign until dropping off once again on Hollywood Boulevard - by which time we had had enough, and returned to the hotel. My daughter completed a less-than flattering TripAdvisor review, and we did get a partial refund for this tour. In reality, we should have taken two leisurely tours instead of trying to pack everything into one day.
We stayed at Mr C in Beverley Hills, which was also a disappointment. Although the public rooms were stylish and comfortable, our room was above a 12 lane crossroad and extremely noisy with sirens up and down all night. What was once an elegant room was starting to look tired with dirty, ill-fitting curtains, frayed leather furniture and only one chair on the balcony, so not a place I would recommend. They also debited my credit card a week after I arrived home - but this had already been paid by my travel agent, and my receipt on leaving confirmed there had been nothing to pay.
The city is a sprawling metropolis so difficult and expensive to get about easily if you don't have a car.
Being completely honest, LA was a disappointment from what I had expected - glitz, glamour and impeccable customer service were decidedly lacking. But maybe I had too high expectations after such an amazing time in Hawaii. After three weeks away from home, I think we were also a little jaded.
I'm glad I went and saw it for myself, but I won't be going back.
Wall art on Melrose
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