I did not know I was going to Los Angeles and San Francisco (see this post) up until 2 weeks before the actual trip. My hubby's gift for our 5 year anniversary was a one week trip to a secret location and I did not know what this secret location was until it was time to pack. What an amazing gift!
Going to LA and SanFran was something that I always talked about so I was extremely excited to visit both cities. See this blog post about my San Francisco experiences.
I can see why so many people come to Los Angeles to pursue their dreams, this city seems to be so lively, bright and full of life. My first impression of Los Angeles was that this is a very huge place. I mean this city is huge and it feels that you can't get anywhere without a car.
Hollywood and Beverly Hills are about an hour away from downtown and Santa Monica Pier is another hour and a half away. Although LA has a subway system, it seems that everyone is driving. So traffic here is quite bad.
While some parts of the city are very lavish and vibrant, other parts of Los Angeles are very shady and rough. Hollywood is filled with tourists, which is quite understandable. Downtown Los Angeles has a totally different vibe - it seems that it is mostly occupied by business people and high rises. There were no tourists or even pedestrians on the streets, maybe because it was the weekend. The Santa Monica Pier feels like a total beach resort with vast beaches and tan people lazily walking on the sand eating ice cream and walking their tiny dogs.
Los Angeles consists of lavish Art Deco buildings and 50s style diners and burger joints that appear on every corner with their old school signage and tacky names.
All houses and structures have a very diverse feel, they are all different and very interesting. No house is the same, each one tries to outdo the other. I loved that.
My hotel was located in the heart of Hollywood right beside Dolby and Chinese Theatres. It turned out to be the perfect location for someone who is in the city for just a few days. A step outside and you are on the famous walk of fame. To explore the rest of this gigantic place we (my hubby and I) took one of those city tours on a double decker bus. It turned out to be very informative and interesting - a great way to get a quick overview of the city.
After two eventful and fun days in Los Angeles it was time to move on to our next destination - San Francisco.
To get to the next city we rented a car and drive along the west coast of California. What a spectacular drive!
The drive took about 10 hours. We stopped frequently to enjoy local beaches and observation points. This route reminded me of the Cabbot Trail in Nova Scotia (read this blog post about ns). As we drive north along the coast wineries slowly turned into cattle fields and palm trees gradually became pine trees. Before we knew it the temperature dropped and we were in San Francisco.
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