Tag Archives: Los Angeles

Along Route 66 to Las Vegas

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10.08.2017
Daumants writing:

Today we did the planned trip from San Bernardino (part of the LA aglomeration) to the biggest city in Nevada – Las Vegas. In complete we drove more than 300 miles. Traveling mostly took part on the historic route 66. Unfortunately in the middle of our trip the route 66 was closed due to road repair.
Day started with wonderfully refreshing morning swim in one of the motels pools. Already in morning hours we were heated up by the hot south Californian sun. The morning rush in this morning wasn’t so harsh, so we had some time to chill at the motel. At last our group got ready and we went to one of the local cheapest gasoline stations to fill car empty gas tanks.
After we filled our car “stomachs” we straightly hit the route 66, which has lost its main title as the main connector between two coasts of mainland USA already for decades.
On the way to Las Vegas the air slowly heated up from quite bearable 32 degrees Celsius to 45 degrees! The route 66 gave joy to our eyes with beautiful landscapes, and old lovely country side houses. Besides, locals try to keep the road surroundings as they were 50 years ago with old cars, fences and houses.
And then in the evening we came to Las Vegas! What a marvelous city. And the climate is crazy hot, but for us northerners, hot nights is our cup of coffee. We love it!
See ya tomorrow!

Universal Studios Park

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9.08.2017
Niks Tristans writing:

Part of the group left the motel at 4:30am to watch the sunrise over the Hollywood hills near the famous Hollywood sign. Part of the group, including myself, went straight to the Universal Studio Amusement Park.
At 8:00 we met at the park entrance and went in. Everyone started with the Harry Potter attractions, then we separated and everyone went where they wanted to go. We saw and went on rides from the movies: Transformers, Simpsons, Jurassic Park, Mummy, there were also other interesting things like a special effects show and a studio tour. My favourite ride was Mummy ride. There was also some thematic cafes at the park. I tried hot dog in Krasty’s burger and some huge doughnut in other cafe in Simpsons area.
There was a lot of people. It was a very hot day. The park is large and some of us spent the entire day there, some left at around 15:00, after the park we left for San Bernardino.

The joys of astronomy enthusiasts

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08.08.2018
Ausma writing:

It’s August 8th and the tenth day of our trip. Today – full science program: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena and Mt. Wilson Observatory.
We leave the motel at 7.30am and reach the Jet ter in already an hour. The visitor parking space is full, we place the cars quite far. Everyone quickly goes to the entrance, but it turns out that our time is only at 9.20am. In briefing the time, we are discussing the first health problems and the adventures of the previous night: someone has his feet swollen from heat, someone else slept for only two hours. The rest entertain themselves by giving clever tips, and judging the missed opportunity to sleep for at least half an hour more.
Everyone is having their documents checked and issued a promotional tour of NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory sign to put around our necks.

We are a group of about 80 people. First, we are lead to the big Professor Pickering Hall, where we get introduced to safety regulations, a tour plan, and shown a video about the creation and operation of the Jet Propulsion Lab called “The Journey to the Planets and the Universe.”
The US has 10 such NASA laboratories responsible for various flight related matters: Houston is the flight control center, Kennedy in Florida is manned flight center, JPL is unmanned flight center etc.
Then the big group is divided into two parts, and we learn both about the mission management center and the how the Mars 2020 mission is prepared. At the flight control center you can follow each mission in real time by pressing its icon. To view real-time flights online, you can open DSN.now.
The visitor center has a retrospective and informative view of the laboratory’s activities. Everyone has the opportunity to view and take a photo of oneself in the infra-red version.
Morning quote: You can not become rich by selling gold, but you can become rich by selling tools for gold digging.
We drive next to Mt. Wilson Observatory. It is hot outdoors – over 30 degrees Celsius. We have arrived too early need to wait for one hour. The cafe only works on Saturdays and Sundays, when there are official tourists. We entertain ourselves by looking for a shadow, filling bottles and reading posters at the Observatory Museum, not yet knowing that guide Bruce Padget will lead through them in a binding story.
Many members of our group filled their dream of visiting the 100-inch telescope with which several significant discoveries of the 20th century have been made – Hubble using the 100-inch telescope confirms that there are other galaxies and the universe is expanding (1924).
In 1931, Albert Einstein visited the observatory, as evidenced by photography on the bridge before the telescope building. We must also take a photo there, of course.
Of course a group photo at the telescope.
The founder of the Observatory is George Ellery Hale, who built four telescopes, each of which at one time were the largest in the world. Two of them are on Mt. Wilson in Los Angeles.
We were lucky because the telescope was being maintained and we could observe how the telescope mechanics works.
In the evening, a quote from the guide, Bruce Padget, “The work in radioastronomy is boring because they explore rainbows and listen to stars.
Evening at Budget Inn Motel in El Monte.

The 1st day in Los Angeles

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07.08.2017
Jānis writing:

Our first stop on the 7 th of August was El Matador State Beach. The weather was perfect for swimming, with overcast sky and chilly winds. However, for the couple of us that wanted to go for a swim it was not an obstacle. No, the obstacle should have been the rocky shores and underwater rocks, as Imants proved without a doubt by hurting his toe on one of these rocks quite badly. The time limit of half an hour prevented any further injuries to group. Here, I feel it appropriate to mention that both Imants and Salvis reported that their cars show that more than 1000 miles have been driven in the USA.

Next up was the Science Center. The center itself contained a lot of interesting rooms and experiments. For example, there were rooms showing the flora and fauna of deserts, rivers and arctics, as well as several experiments involving crash tests, wind turbines and structural integrities. It offered opportunities to see Gemini, Mercury and Apollo capsules.
But, all that aside, there was one exhibit that stood over the rest – Space Shuttle Endeavour. The majestic shuttle made for a truly breathtaking sight. To be fair, several artifacts were shown before the shuttle, for example, the tires, galley, nose cone, etc. and they were all fascinating as well, but nothing quite compares to seeing the shuttle. It was truly inspiring.

Next up, was Griffith observatory. Not much to say here, other than that it is a pretty building and provides an excellent view towards LA. Well, the main reason for the lackluster review is that it was closed. Still, we got a couple of pictures out of it, including our first in front of the “Hollywood” sign. After visiting the observatory we drove down the Santa Monica boulevard towards Santa Monica pier reaching the end route 66. The boulevard had a subtle change from run down houses in the beginning and the middle to the stunning heart of Los Angeles. At the end of the boulevard was the Santa Monica pier, end of route 66. The pier contained several shops, a couple of good ocean views and several attractions.

After visiting the pier the group decided to split up with some enjoying the Sunset boulevard in, well, sunset and others electing to stay in LA. As i was with the group that stayed, I will speak about that. We did two more things. Firstly, we checked out the pedestrian street with it’s shops and shops and dealerships and some cool hedges that were cut like dinosaurs and were part of a fountain. A rather uneventful trip, if you discount Laura finding a shoe shop with a sale going on and myself with Salvis visiting a Tesla dealership. Secondly, we went for a swim in the ocean. The water was warm, the air hot and the waves went over my head by just a fraction. In the end, our swim was rewarded by the sight of Santa Monica pier lighting up for the night and an sunset over the ocean.

At that point it was time to head home. We took a detour through Sunset boulevard as well although we didn’t see much as it was already dark outside. We did get pictures with the sign saying “Beverly Hills” though and did get to enjoy LA in the night with it’s neon signs, posters and all around colorful exterior.

Unbeknownst to us one more adventure awaited us – shopping. As we needed some food we went to nearest Walmart which was closed. There we received instructions (in Spanish/broken English) to the place with the nearest 24/7 Walmart which we mistook for a separate shop which in turn created a problem with navigation leading to us enjoying our night for two more hours before we finally got to our motel and could get to bed.