Los Angeles, California

2009-05-20

We followed interstate 15 North and then highway 91 east to Riverside. As we were hoping to see Lori’s friend, Amy, and her family as much as possible, we were staying about an hour east of Los Angeles close to where they live in Moreno Valley. We checked into the Riverside Marriot and made our lunch. We ran to Wally World after lunch to get some supplies, but the first one that we went to did not have a grocery store, so we drove to another one that did. We dropped everything off at the hotel and then drove out to Amy’s house. Ian got to meet all the kids when we arrived, Kaleb, Kailynn, and Kameron. Little Ricky, Amy’s step-son, was not there. Lori had last seen the kids in August 2005 when Amy and Ricky got married, so needless to say that all the kids had grown up quite a bit. We spent awhile visiting with Amy while she made dinner. We had yummy pork ribs with coleslaw, macaroni salad and potato salad. Amy made strawberry shortcake for dessert. As Ricky had to be up at 3 am to go to work, we did not see him that night as he was already asleep. Kailynn was also recovering after being sick the day before. We stayed until close to 9 am and then went back to our hotel.

We had a great time taking in all the houses, people and work out equipment areas.

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2009-05-21

We decided to make the most of having a hotel room and slept in. We got up, had breakfast, did some admin and given the time decided to have lunch in the room before heading out. We called Amy to see if she wanted to come into the city with us, but Ricky had caught what Kailynn had and was at home sick, so she could not come with us. LA’ human history began with the Gabrilelino and Chumash Indians who roamed the area as early as 6000 B.C. Their existence ended in the late 18th century with the arrival of Spanish missionaries and pioneers from Mexico. The first civilian settlement was a thriving farm community, but remained a far-flung outpost for decades. The collapse of the northern California gold rush in the 1850s and the arrival of the railroad in the 1870s lead to the growth of the citris industry. This along with the discovery of oil in 1892 lead to the construction of a harbor at San Pedro and a two million population expansion. World War II saw the establishment of Lockheed and Donald Douglas, which continues to fuel the economy today. The film industry took hold in 1908. Los Angeles has a city population of four million and county of 10 million people.  We started our sightseeing in the film land of Hollywood and walked along Hollywood Boulevard with all the stars, the Kodak Theatre where the Academy Awards are hosted and the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre which was built in 1927. The further we walked away from the main areas the more run down and seedy the area seemed. We had a constant barrage of people asking us to buy various things. After an hour we had seen enough and went to pay for our $8 parking. We drove through Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive on our way to the Santa Monica pier. While Rodeo Drive was a pretty street with all the high fashion brands, it was not anything that we could not see in London. We managed to find an available parking meter on the street near the pier, so we put .25 cents in and had 15 minutes to walk around the pier. We enjoyed seeing the ocean and the pier had a lot of activity on it with the carousel, Ferris wheel and other amusement rides. We managed to make it back to the meter just before our time expired, which was good timing as a meter cop was pulling alongside our car as we got in. We drove the short distance further south to Venice beach. We found a free parking spot on the road and walked to the beach. We had a great time taking in all the houses, people and work out equipment areas. Venice was founded in 1905 by tobacco heir Abbott Kinney as an amusement park called Venice of America where Italian gondolier poled visitors around canals. Most of the canals have been replaced by roads now. We really liked the feel of this area and enjoyed the beach for the first time in California. The sand was great to walk on even if the water was cold. We managed to leave Venice Beach to head back just in time for rush hour. It took us a whopping three hours to make it back. We called Amy in route and told her we would not be coming to her place for dinner as we were running so late. We were both relieved when Ian spotted an In and Out burger close to our hotel. As Ian had not sampled this Californian icon, we pulled in. We seemed to have our timing off again though as there were about ten cars in front of us. The waitress came to our car instead of waiting for us to get to the stand to order, which seemed to speed things up again. Thirty minutes later, we had our food and were back at the hotel enjoying our food. We both though In and Out burgers were better than the other standard fast food burgers.

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2009-05-22

As we had seen everything we wanted to see in LA and we needed to do some planning for the remainder of our USA road trip, we spent the day in. We managed to get the next two weeks planned. It does not sound like much, but we had to call a few places regarding our upcoming accommodation and look into options around camping versus staying in a hotel. Around 4 pm, we called it a day and went to Amy’s. Everyone had recovered from being sick. As Kameron had lost a tooth, Ricky took Kaleb and him to the movies, so when we arrived it was just Amy and Kailynn at home. Amy made barbeque chicken  that night for dinner. After dinner, we went and picked up her computer from Best Buy,  so Ian could take a look at it. Amy was having problems with it and they recommended that she get a new hard drive. Ian spent some time that night trying to restore it to work out if she really needed to do that.

2009-05-23

We met Amy and Kameron for breakfast at the IHOP near our hotel at 10 am. We were happy Amy got there before us and managed to secure a spot in line as the place was heaving. Everyone else was not ready when Amy left to meet us, so they were supposed to be coming in separate car, but as we sat down, Ricky called to say they would not be making it for breakfast. Lori got biscuits and gravy with scrambled eggs, hash browns and bacon. Ian had a split decision breakfast with pancakes, eggs, and sausages. Amy had a spinach omelet and Kameron had silver dollar pancakes. We were struggling to understand Kameron now with both his front teeth missing, but we had a good last visit. As we finished breakfast, Ricky arrived with the other kids, so we got to say goodbye to them as well.

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