Last Thursday afternoon we headed into LA for a long weekend. We took an Uber the 7km or so to the Tustin train station, then caught a metrolink train for the 1 hour journey into LA Union Station. I was very excited by the novelty of a double-decker train!
I had booked us into an Airbnb apartment for 3 nights. It was brilliantly located, about a 10 minute walk from a metro red line station. Whilst walking to the apartment from the metro station we were very glad we weren't stuck on the freeway! I wouldn't want to live in LA. Partly because of the notorious traffic, but also the Downtown area where we were staying was a bit grimy and rundown. LA has a huge homeless problem, I recently read in the LA Times that the latest estimate is about 26 000. They are drawn to Southern California from all over the U.S. due to the climate: it's warm enough to sleep on the streets all year round and there is very little rain. Most park benches had people sleeping on them, and we also saw the odd tent erected on the sidewalk. The biggest concentration of homeless was around the metro stations.
The apartment was great. It was only a studio, but was plenty roomy enough. We had access to all the shared facilities in the building.
There was a lovely rooftop terrace with a jacuzzi, several seating areas, and best of all, a table-tennis table with all the equipment. Will and I enjoyed battling it out! On the second floor terrace was a swimming pool, recreation room with big-screen TV, pool table and kitchen, and also a high-tech 24 hour gym. The cost was far less than the price of a hotel room in the area.
That night we went out for dinner with Mark, one of Will's ex-colleagues from Reading Uni who now lives in LA, and his partner Mary. We went to Jitlada, a restaurant on Sunset Blvd that specialises in super spicy southern Thai food. The food was excellent and we had a really nice evening.
On Friday we had an epic day at Universal Studios, Hollywood. It is deserving of its own post which I'll do after this.
On Saturday we caught the metro to the Vermont and Sunset station, then took the weekend shuttle up to the
Griffith Observatory. Now this place was cool (not literally, obviously, it was a touch under 30 degrees!). There is a reason that Tripadvisor ranks it number 2 in things to do in LA (If you`re wondering, the Getty Center is number 1, and Universal Studios Hollywood is number 3...).
We started off with a quick look inside to suss out the times for the Planetarium show we wanted to see, then spent some time enjoying the sprawling views across the whole of the LA basin from the rooftop. It would be nice to go back in the evening at some stage to take advantage of the big telescopes in the roof which are free for the public to use.
We then headed off on a hike up to the top of Mt Hollywood, getting great views of the Hollywood sign as we went.
Here's the obligatory selfie in front of the sign!
It was hard work in the heat, but bearable. We made sure we drank plenty of water. There was a water station on the way which helped, these dogs are certainly making the most of it!
Our reward was stunning 360 degree views at the top of the mountain. The whole return trip took about an hour and a half.
Once back at the observatory we explored the inside exhibits, very much appreciating the air-conditioning! We then took in our chosen planetarium show '
Centered in the Universe' which was brilliant. It was my first time in a planetarium and I was really impressed. You literally got to lie back and be transported to another world (universe?). You weren't allowed to take photos during the show, but we took this one before the show started. We do look a bit freaky under the blue light...
We spent a good few hours at the observatory, so it was bit of a rush to then head back to the apartment and grab a quick bite to eat before heading out again for the second part of our day... Dodgers Baseball! We took the metro back to Union Station, then from there we caught the free Dodgers Express bus right to Dodger Stadium.
Now this was a fun night out! As I've said before, I've really been enjoying the baseball over here, so it was great to see a pro game live (which was a HUGE step up from the couple of Collegiate games which we saw previously). The stadium itself is pretty amazing. It is the third-oldest ballpark in the country, and the largest by seat capacity (it seats 56 000).
We managed to get in and seated for the first pitch at 7:10pm. The match ended up going for over 3 and a half hours! Neither of us felt the urge to try a 'World Famous Dodger Dog'. I'm glad we had just had dinner as food and drink was ridiculously expensive inside the stadium, although that didn't seem to stop a lot of the people sitting around us from fully partaking. Will made do with a couple of beers. He could have had a small craft beer for $17 (that's nearly NZD$24!) or a large bud light for $11. On this occasion he chose quantity over quality! In the heat, anything wet and cold was going to go down well...
The game itself was great. The Dodgers were playing the Milwaukee Brewers, and ended up winning 10-6, so it was full of action. This match was part of a 4-game series against the Brewers. The previous day the Dodgers won 3-2, and on Sunday they won 2-1, so I'm glad that we saw our game with all its runs instead of one of those. The MLB schedule is crazy, in June alone the Dodgers play 28 out of the possible 30 days!
I now have a favourite Dodgers player... Justin Turner (sitting on the left in the above pic) is very cool, and very distinctive with his flowing ginger locks and beard. He is also on a huge hitting streak for the Dodgers.
During our match, JT (yep, we're on nickname terms now!) hit a 3-run homer which was exciting. I managed to catch the sequence below. He gets 5 million USD a year to knock that little white ball out of the park... The Dodgers have the highest payroll in the whole of the league, they pay their star pitcher, Clayton Kershaw, over 31 million per year!
It's congratulations all round as the runs keep coming...
It was a gorgeous balmy evening and we both thoroughly enjoyed the game. I'm now quite keen to catch an LA Angels game at Angel Stadium in Anaheim. That is meant to be a brilliant experience as well, they set off fireworks every time a home run is scored!
On Sunday morning we packed up and checked out of the apartment. We then met up with Will's friends for a Yum Cha brunch. Jim, who had been in China on a work trip when we had dinner with Mark on Thursday night, was back in the country. After we were nicely stuffed we were dropped off back at Union Station and caught a train back home.
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