Radisson Hotel Los Angeles Airport

Entry containing 1 photo titled: Joshua Tree Inn

We arrived in Long Beach on time. In fact we were a little early, so we had lunch at the airport then picked up our rental car. We were supposed to get a 4 door sedan, but we were "upgraded" to a mini-van. Driving a mini-van would ruin my image if I were at home, but I will never see these people again so I can live with it. At this point I would like to send a BIG THANK YOU, to Bonnie. I am a man and real men don't need directions. Unless they are driving in LA, in which case they need all t...

We ventured out into LA traffic again today. Once again we headed north toward Hollywood and Ventura County. I thought I would spend some time writing about LA traffic in comparison to DC traffic. There are some subtle differences between the two that I believe are worth exploring. So here we go: Pat observed that in LA people seem to drive two speeds, fast and faster. That is true in DC also with one very important difference. The traffic here keeps moving. In DC it stops in the middle of th...

We headed back to Hollywood this morning. This time we were going to visit the Griffith Observatory. This is where much of the movie, "Rebel Without a Cause" staring James Dean, was filmed. The Griffith Observatory is located some 1100 feet above sea level on top of Mt. Hollywood in Griffith Park. Griffith Park is huge. It is 5 times bigger than Central Park in NYC. It is mountainous and rural looking. Many TV shows have used it for filming rural and western scenes. Old westerns used many par...

Have you ever wondered where methane gas comes from - other than beans that is? You are not alone. I never wondered or cared either. We did learn that one place it comes from is the ground. It bubbles up through the tar in the La Brea Tar Pits. Here is a video Sarah made of the bubbling tar. The La Brea Tar Pits is a neat place as long as you are not an animal from 10,000+ years ago stuck in the muck. They would have a different take on it I am sure. This would not be my first choice to be a ...

Hoewel de vluchten goed verlopen zijn, heeft het toch heel lang geduurd. Er leek geen eind aan te komen. Gelukkig is alles vlot gegaan bij de grenscontrole om de Verenigde Staten binnen te komen. Nadat we onze bagage opgepikt hadden, hebben we de shuttle naar het hotel genomen en hebben we onze bagage in de kamer gezet. Daarna zijn we naar de receptie gegaan om te vragen hoe we in de stad of ergens anders konden komen om iets te eten. De receptioniste raadt ons aan om een speciaal busje te n...

Door het uurverschil zijn we erg vroeg wakker, hoewel het nog deftig is: 05u30. We proberen eerst nog terug in slaap te geraken maar wanneer dat niet lukt, belsluiten we onze bagage te reorganiseren. Om het risico op verlies te beperken, hadden we nl. 3 zakken gepakt en al onze spullen over de 3 zakken verdeeld zodat wanneer 1 zak verloren zou gaan, we elk toch nog van alles iets zouden hebben (ondergoed verdeeld, broeken verdeeld, t-shirts verdeeld, ...) Nu brengen we wat logica in de zakken...

Vandaag gaan we naar Universal Studios. We nemen bus en metro tot de andere kant van de stad (bus 439 tot Wilshire/7th en daar de red line metro tot Hollywood Universal City) en van aan het metro station is het een paar meter wandelen tot een shuttle die ons naar de ingang voert (het is niet ver maar wel heel erg bergop en de shuttle is gratis) Aan de ingang moeten we een klein half uurtje aanschuiven om tickets te kopen. We dachten eerst een gewoon dagticket te nemen maar omdat het al bijna...