3.6. – 6.6.2024
At the beginning of our summer holiday, we set off on a road trip to the West Coast of the United States. There would have been a direct flight from Helsinki to Los Angeles, but since the flight via Amsterdam was about 800€ cheaper for the whole group, and only slightly longer, we chose it. The flight to Amsterdam only took a couple of hours, and the transfer to the next flight was quick, but then the waiting started. A couple of our fellow passengers had failed to board on the plane, so we had to wait a while for their luggage to be removed from the cargo. Because another cargo container got stuck during this operation, we finally took off about an hour behind the schedule. Risto was mainly happy about this, because it just gave him more time to use the plane’s entertainment system.
The 10,5h flight went smoothly and we landed in Los Angeles around 2pm. Immigration formalities were very quick. After that we picked up our rental car, and continued to our Park Plaza Hotel in West Hollywood. The car was a huge BMW X5, but everything is bigger here in America, right? We hope that the parking spaces are not too cramped here, because even with the parking radar, it’s quite a job to park a car this size!
The drive to the hotel took about 30min, during which both children fell asleep. At the hotel, Risto wouldn’t wake up at all, so we had to carry him to the hotel lobby sofa. There we finally managed to wake him up. Although we had woken up before 4am, we tried to stay awake for a few more hours to adjust to the time difference as quickly as possible. So we all went together to get some supplies for breakfast. The supermarket was located a 15-minute walk away, so the visit there kept us awake for a good while. After that we managed to keep the kids awake for a while longer with the help of hotel’s TV channels, and finally we all went to bed at 19:00 local time. By that time we had all stayed up for more than 24 hours in a row.
We had only been asleep for a few hours when Ronja threw up. Unfortunately, she didn’t quite make it to the toilet. Instead there was vomit on the bed, the wall, the floor and the carpet. Marko and I cleaned the room while Ronja waited in the toilet for the second round of vomiting. That fortunately didn’t happen. Risto was apparently somewhat tired, because he didn’t wake up at all, even though we were running around the room with the lights on for twenty minutes.
In the morning, Ronja was feeling ok again, so we had breakfast in bed and then headed to the Chinese Theatre. We parked the car in a nearby parking hall for $16 a day, and walked along the Walk of Fame to the theatre. We noticed that something important was going to happen there soon, as the place was swarming with reporters and photographers, and the front of the theatre was blocked off with fences. Jaana went to ask what it was all about, and we were told that in a moment Cyndi Lauper would be leaving her hand and footprints in the cement in front of the theatre. We were incredibly lucky, as we got the last four free tickets to the theatre’s courtyard behind the invited guests. To our surprise in addition to Cyndi Lauper, Cher was there too. As a friend of Cyndi Lauper, she had been invited to speak at the event. So we spotted two celebrities in one go. Risto however, had no idea who we were looking at. “So we’re just standing here now? Boring.” Risto said, as the rest of the audience cheered for Cher and Cindy Lauper.
When the event was over, we hopped on one of the many tour buses and toured the main sights of Beverly Hills and the Hollywood area. We only got off the bus once, when we stopped at the Farmer’s Market for a late lunch.
Today, the place is a popular dining and shopping area, but it dates back to the late 19th century, when there were two large dairy farms. Later, oil was accidentally discovered on the farms, and dairy cattle gave way to oil production. When the oil production stopped in the early 1900s, the area was turned into a place where farmers from the surrounding area could sell their products to local residents and Farmer’s Market was born.
After the bus ride, we returned to the hotel, and the kids took a dip in the hotel pool. We adults weren’t too keen on swimming, as the water in the pool was quite cool.
On Wednesday morning we drove to Venice Beach. We parked the car at the south end of the beach, and from there we started walking towards the Santa Monica Pier. The beach was still quiet in the morning, and it was nice and cool to walk along the boardwalk while the sun was still behind the clouds. By noon, the sky cleared, and we walked the 3 km back to the car in fairly warm weather.
Before we walked back to the car, we decided to have lunch at Bubba Gump Shrimp co. from the Forrest Gump movie. We adults ordered two different shrimp dishes. The kids settled for chicken and burgers.
On the way back, the kids wanted to stop at the original Muscle Beach. Ronja climbed up the rope to the heights, while Risto swung from one hoop to the next with Marko’s help. Risto’s hands were still too short for the job. Otherwise he would probably been able to complete the course without help.
From Venice Beach, we headed to Griffith Observatory. It should have taken us about an hour to get there, but we ended up driving for two hours in the local traffic. The long drive was worth it, though. At the observatory we got to see the sun through a telescope and peer at a star 78 light years away. In order to see the sun, 99% of its light had been filtered out. The distant star looked like a tiny flickering dot of light in the middle of the night sky.
The observatory had many interesting exhibits, with illustrative models explaining the seasons and the phases of the moon, among other things. From the observatory it was also possible to take a peek at what is surely the most famous landmark in Los Angeles, the Hollywood sign. However, it was very hazy, so taking photos of the sign was almost impossible.
On Thursday, it was time to continue from Los Angeles to San Diego. Before leaving, however, we visited the Petersen Automotive Museum to see old and new cars and motorcycles. Marko and Risto were very interested in the exhibition. Jaana and Ronja toured it a little faster than the boys. The museum had a wide variety of different vehicles on display. We started our tour of the museum on the third floor, where they explained the history of motored vehicles.
On the other floors, there were vehicles from various films, F1 racing cars, Ferraris and lowrider cars, which are particularly popular in Latin culture. These bling bling cars and motorbikes were also a favourite of Jaana and Ronja.
After the museum visit, we started to drive towards San Diego. We hoped that traffic would not be so congested in the middle of the day, but unfortunately we spent most of the time stuck in traffic jams. Although the distance between the cities is only a little over 200km, it took us 3h45min to get from LA to San Diego.
As we had only eaten breakfast, we were all very hungry by the time we finally arrived at Lamplighter Inn hotel. Luckily, there seemed to be a restaurant just across the road, so we headed straight there. It turned out to be a sports bar, where they were watching a basketball game. It was very noisy inside, so we decided to eat at the tables outside. The waiter came to bring us menus, and even glasses of water, but then he forgot us. So, after a loooong wait, we decided to go to the next place, which served shwarmas, gyros and other Middle Eastern food. There we got our food a bit faster, and the kids still had time to go to the hotel pool for an evening swim.
