Los Angeles. The city of Angels. Welcome to Hollywood, what’s your dream?! I was very excited for this part of the trip. I had only been to LA once before, and that was 50 years ago when I was in college. There is a lot that I wanted to see and do, so I put together a very ambitious agenda. Let’s see how I did.
Even before the trip began, I had to deal with a detour. My original train plan was to get back on in the Bay Area and ride the Coast Starlight along the Pacific coast down to LA all day on my second Monday, arriving around 9:30 pm. That would give me all day Tuesday and most of Wednesday before heading off to New Orleans Wednesday night. But, I got an email 2 weeks out stating that my Coast Starlight leg would not be available that day. No explanation why, but I was left to find a different path to LA. Ok, no problem; I could catch a slightly earlier train inland down to Bakersfield, and then ride a connecting Amtrak bus for 2 hours into Los Angeles. It involved a little bus travel, but it came with a bonus; I would get into the city 5 hours early, at 4:30pm! That would give me an added evening of adventures in Tinseltown. This new plan was looking great.
Leaving Oakland, I had some morning views of San Pablo Bay. Things were great for the first couple of hours until we slowed to a complete stop. We were told there would be a slight delay; that there was a disabled train on the tracks in front of us. The slight delay turned into four hours, since we had to finally hook to them and slowly push them all the way to Bakersfield. The connecting buses were waiting for us and I got a lead footed driver who pushed 75mph most of the way to the city. At one point the I-5 took us right up and through the Tehachapi Mountains.
So, instead of being early, we were back to the original arrival time into LA. It cost me the first item on my agenda. I had dinner and show reservations at the Catalina Jazz Club in Hollywood which I missed. I knew I would spend a lot of my time based in the Hollywood area so I booked a Motel 6 right off Hollywood Boulevard. Since I missed my jazz show, I spent my first abbreviated evening enjoying a burger meal at world’s famous Mel’s Drive In, and walking the neon sidewalks of the Boulevard, snapping pictures.
Tuesday morning I started by taking a Lyft ride out to Warner Brothers Studios for a tour. My plan was to do that tour and then follow that up with the Universal Studios tour. I had heard good things about both so I decided to squeeze them both in. The WB tour is a cart ride around the backlot and sound stages area with a tour guide. They have a back lot area that looks like a town square where a lot of movies were made, and the Stars Hollow town was created for the Gilmore Girls TV show. Also got to see the famous couch and fountain used in the Friends opening sequence. WB pushed and heavily promoted all things DC superheroes, Harry Potter, Friends, Big Bang Theory, and Gilmore Girls. That was ok with me; I wasn’t a fan of BBT, but I loved all the others being emphasized. When we toured the sound stage area, they were actually filming (red light on) season 2 of The Pitt, the great HBO show starring Noah Wyle about a day in the life of an emergency room in a Pittsburgh hospital. I took soooo many pictures in LA; I’m posting a few in here to highlight the described activities, but I’m going to create a separate blog with just a dump of all the photos for those interested parties.
Between all the photo and video taking, Google Map usage, and Lyft ride taking, I found that my phone can’t hold a charge more than 3-4 hours. After just the WB tour, my battery was getting low already. I knew I wouldn’t be able to go right into the Universal tour and then get a Lyft back to Hollywood, so change of plans. I rode back to Hollywood, plugged in my phone, did a load of laundry, and walked to the UPS store. I was accumulating too many extra clothes and stuff and it would no longer fit in my suitcase, so I shipped a box of stuff to Michelle’s in St Louis and then a box of extra clothes that I could do without back to the lake. I also stopped at CVS to buy a portable phone charger.
With my phone charged and my chores done, let’s take another Lyft ride to the other major studio, Universal Studios. WB just has a tour, but Universal’s tour is imbedded in a colossal amusement park. So I did the tour, then walked around the park a bit to check out the sites. Universal’s tour is a tram ride with some choreographed adventures along the way. First a King Kong 3D adventure. Then a ride around a small lagoon where the shark from Jaws jumps up by the tram for a good scare. Then you stop to witness a fake flood that comes rushing at you, along with some references of what movies the flood maker was used for. The last tram adventure is in a cave decked out to looked like a train station. Then a simulated earthquake sends a disabled tanker truck sliding at you followed by another flood. There is definitely more going on in the Universal tour vs. the WB tour.
The theme park itself has a large sub area dedicated to Harry Potter. Even though the movies were created and distributed by WB, they’ve shared ownership with Harry’s stuff with Universal. The Potter world area has a large Hogwarts castle in the middle. I wandered in there to look around and found myself in line for a roller coaster. Sure, why not. It’s one of those where your car flies around inside the mountain, diving and dipping while following Harry on his broomstick projected in front of you. Dragons and other dangers lurk around every corner as you are being shaken and stirred on the ride.
I even managed to find a working Irish Pub on the studio grounds. I can smell them anywhere!
On to Dodgers Stadium for a wild card playoff game between the Dodgers and the Cincinnati Reds. Tried a world’s famous Dodger Dog; it’s nothing special, just a long thin hot dog. It left me underwhelmed so I tried a meal of which Monica would have approved; a helmet full of beefy nachos! And the world’s greatest baseball player Shohei Ohtani hit 2 monster home runs for my entertainment as the Dodgers won 10-5.
On Wednesday I loaded up on another day full of activities. I had an hour or so walking around early, where I captured a few pictures from sites used in the Bosch tv series, including Amoeba Music and Musso and Franks Grill. Then I spent from 10 til 6 riding around in an open air tour bus with many scheduled tourist stops. First, right on Hollywood Boulevard I had time do visit Madam Toussands famous wax museum. The wax figures were so lifelike, I was impressed. A few pictures are included here, with many more in the LA Picture Dump blog.
After Hollywood Boulevard, our bus took us through Beverly Hills and we stopped for a walking tour on Rodeo Drive. I got a picture of the Regency Beverly Hills hotel made famous by Julia Roberts and Richard Gere in Pretty Woman. We also drove by the towers that were used as The Nakatomi Towers in Die Hard
Next stop was Santa Monica Pier where we could enjoy the views at the Pacific Ocean and have a drink or snack.
Our bus next traveled to the Los Angeles Farmer’s Market with restaurants and shops as far as the eye could see. I had my lunch site already picked out, Dupar’s. Famous for pies it was also prominently featured in Monica’s second favorite tv show, Bosch. (West Wing was her all time favorite). It was at Dupar’s where Harry Bosch taught his daughter Maddie how to properly eat her short stack of pancakes, with the syrup on the bottom. In a different episode, after having lunch with Harry, Maddie’s mom Eleanor (spoiler alert) is gunned down in the parking lot outside Dupar’s. I ate my short stack at the same table Harry and Eleanor sat.
Our tour bus then climbed to LA’s highest point, the Griffith Observatory, where many movies including La La Land filmed some scenes. And the views from atop the observatory were spectacular.
We returned to the tour’s home base on Sunset Boulevard and I was determined to visit 2 more Bosch related places before I got on my 10pm train out of town. I asked the doorman at Musso and Frank’s if the bar was open to people with no reservations. He said yes, but I would have to remove my hat. Old school and upscale! But I enjoyed my drinks where the stars are often spotted, but alas I did not recognize anybody. And one final stop, I had the Lyft driver drop me off at the Angels Flight tramway so I could ride it up and back down. The entire season 4 of Bosch (can you tell I’m obsessed about that show?) surrounds a murder committed on the Angels Flight. But, sadly, it was out of commission for repairs so I did not get to take my ride. So I went across the street to have one last LA beer and watch a little baseball before train time.
I think I got my money’s worth out of my 48 hours in Los Angeles. Goodbye West Coast. Btw, everything and everywhere on the west coast smells like weed. Next stop on our blog tour, The Big Easy, New Orleans!
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