USA Trip (12th Sep - 8th Oct) - Day 3 - Los Angeles

We were up early on the Monday and left our accommodation, heading back into LA. We had booked the Holiday Inn Los Angeles - LAX Airport (the hotel were Tara was staying) for the night as we had an early start the next day.

Since it was way too early to check into our room met Tara and the boys in the carpark and took our bags up to their room. Kris and I then headed to drop the rental car off at the airport and Tara and the kids caught the hotel shuttle to meet us at the airport.

We then caught the Airport bus out to Union Station for a walk around LA.

We got off at Union Station and headed toward the Grand Central Markets, passing the LA City Hall:

LA City Hall was built in 1928 and houses the Mayor's Office, meeting chambers and council offices. The concrete used was mixed with sand from each of California's 58 counties and water from the 21 missions (Spanish Missions that became part of LA). It was modelled after the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus (one of the seven wonders).

At 138m tall it was the first exception to the law that buildings needed to be below 46m tall (which was repealed in 1957). At the top of the building is a pyramid to honor Charles Lindbergh.

Next we passed the LA Times building, built in 1935:

Next was the Million Dollar Theatre, built in the Spanish Baroque Revival (Churrigueresque) in 1917. It was one of the first movie palaces built in the US. It featured in Blade Runner as well as GTA V (as Ten Cent Theatre):

We then stopped at the Grand Central Market for lunch. The market is housed in the Homer Laughlin Building and has been running continuously since 1917. It is visited by over 2 million people a year:

Directly across from the markets was the Angels Flight Funicular railway. Angel's Flight is a 2'6" (762mm) gauge railway that runs up Bunker Hill. It has two cars, Olivet and Sinai. The railway is only 91m long and rises a height of 29m

The Angels Flight is an iconic part of LA, but has a checkered history. It first opened in 1901, named the Los Angeles Incline Railway and was located on Third Street to connect Hill and Olive Street. It ws renamed to Angels Flight in 1912. 

In 1969 the site was cleared for redevelopment and the railway was dismantled and stored for 27 years. In 1996 it was reconstructed in its current location, using the same cars but with some upgrades.

The railway suffered a serious accident in 2001 where improper design of the brakes and drive allowed Sinai to roll back into Olivet killing 1 and injuring 7. The railway was repaired and reopened in 2010, closing in 2011 for a wheel replacement and in 2013 after a minor derailment. It was reopened in 2017 after significant safety upgrades. 

It is a famous landmark, appearing in over 100 films since 1914.

We then walked into downtown LA through the skyscrapers and took a quick stop at the US Bank Tower. Also known as the Library Tower and First Interstate Bank World Tower, it is 310.3m tall (3rd tallest in California, 2nd tallest in LA, 24th in the USA and 129th in the world). It has 73 storeys above ground and 2 below, a rooftop helipad (required by town codes) and is built to withstand an 8.3 Richter scale earthquake. It was built in 1987 at a cost of $350,000 and has featured in movies like Independence Day, Day After Tomorrow and San Andreas, as well as being the Maze Bank Tower in Grand Theft Auto V.

The Central Library

Two California Plaza (2Cal) building

Wedge-Shaped Wells Fargo North Tower

US Bank Tower

 Bell Communications Around the Globe  - Built 1961 to celebrate Alexander Graham Bell

City National Plaza Twin Towers

 KPMG Building (Figueroa at Wilshire)

Our next stop was Pershing Square. It is a city block created in 1866 as La Plaza Abaja, it was renamed several times before settling on Pershing Square, named after General John J Pershing, who was a General in the WWI Expedition Forces and a mentor to Generals in WWII.

The square was initially used as a camp for settlers from outside the Pueblo de Los Angeles, it was the site of multiple rallies in WWII. It was originally planted with palm trees, but these were moved to the new Disneyland site for the Jungle Cruise. The square was demolished in 1952 to build an underground parking garage. It was deemed an eyesore for the 1984 Olympics and was redesigned and redeveloped. It served as Legion Square in GTA V.

We also came across a food delivery robot:

We then walked down the road coming across some more interesting places:

Our next stop was The Last Bookshop, California's largest new & used bookshop. In was opened in 2005 and moved to this location in 2011. The new building was a former bank, complete with a vault:

We then started the walk back toward Town Hall and a few other stops, but the temperature was in the mid 30s (high 90s Fahrenheit) and humid, so we opted to catch a bus. We got off just by our next stop - Bob's Market, which featured as the Toretto's Market in The Fast and the Furious:

Toretto's Market - in the movie

Continuing with our theme, the next stop was 722–724 East Kensington Road, which served as the Toretto House:

Toretto House - in the movie

The house was built in 1906 in the Echo Park district. The garage from the movie was built as part of the set and the driveway for the house belongs to the neighbor. In the movie the house was exploded but this was done digitally.

Just around the corner from the house was a street with a number of famous houses.

The first was the Innes House, which served as the house in the Charmed TV series:

The house was built in the late 1880s in the Victorian style for Daniel Innes, a councilman and real-estate developer.

Across from the Innes house was the Sessions House, built in 1889 by Joseph Carter Newsom for dairy owner Charles Sessions:

A few houses down was the Sanders House, which is famous for featuring in the video clip for the Michael Jackson song, Thriller:

Thriller (1983)

There were a few other interesting houses along the street:

By now we were all pretty tired and hot, but we pushed on to our final stop, Dodger Stadium. Kris, Tom and Alana waited at the bottom of the hill and Tara, Brett, Cam and I hiked up the hill to see the stadium and the gift shop. Dodger Stadium is the home of the LA Dodgers Major League Baseball team. It was opened in 1962, took 3 years to build at a cost of $23 million.

Unfortunately the stadium wasn't open for sightseeing, but the views from the top of the hill over LA were pretty cool and worth the hike.

After this, I had originally planned an hour long walk back to Union Station but the heat had gotten to us, so we looked at how we could get back to the hotel and the boys suggested a Waymo, a self-driving taxi.  We ordered two (as there were 7 of us) and caught them back to the hotel. It was pretty cool, but a bit nerve-wracking watching the car navigate the LA traffic:

After we got back to the hotel we checked in - all of us were spending the night in the Holiday Inn - LAX Airport. We had 2 adjoining rooms on the 8th floor and Tara and Brett kept their 2nd floor room.  We collected our bags from her room and Tara, Brett, Alana and I went for a swim in the hotel pool while Kris rested. The boys caught an uber back into Anaheim to attend a Major League Baseball game between the LA Angels and the Seattle Mariners (Angels won 6-4) at Angel Stadium:

While most of us went to bed early, knowing we had a very early start the next day, the boys got back around 10:30pm, ready for the alarms to go off at 3:30am.