USA Trip (12th Sep - 8th Oct) - Day 12 - A Day In LA

 We were up early today to head to Santa Monica and our "A Day in LA" tour. We'd decided this was the best way to start the main Los Angeles part of the trip as it would let us see most of the major sites in LA without Kristine needing to drive. It also meant that we would have a good idea of what was around and if there was anywhere we would like to spend more time at over the next few weeks.

Our tour guide was John G, and our first stop was Santa Monica Pier, which was only a few minutes drive from where we boarded the bus.

Santa Monica started out as Rancho San Vicente y Santa Monica, a Mexican land grant in 1839, prior to California becoming part of America. In 1848, California was ceded to America after the Mexican-American war and the signed treaty honoured the existing land grants. Francisco Sepulveda, who was initially granted the land, held it until his death in 1853 and the American courts granted the land to his heirs after a lengthy court battle. The property was sold in 1872 to Robert S Baker, who founded Santa Monica. The town was incorporated as a city in 1886 and become a seaside resort after the creation of the Santa Monica Pier and the Ocean Park.

Santa Monica has a large focus on environmental sustainability and a sustainable city plan was put in place in 1992, making it one of the first cities in the USA to do so. Over 80% of the cities public vehicles run on alternative fuel and in 2019 the city switched entirely to renewable energy and subscribed to an action plan for carbon neutrality by 2050.

Some famous parts of Santa Monica are Christine Emerson Reed Park (originally named Lincoln Park from which the bank Linkin Park took its name) and the Santa Monica Pier. The Pier was our first stop.

The Santa Monica Pier was opened in September 1909 and houses an amusement park called Pacific Park, which has a solar powered Ferris Wheel and a roller coaster. 

The Pier is made of two adjoining piers, one which was the Municipal Pier, originally designed to carry sewerage beyond the breakers so it could be dumped, and the other, Newcomb Pier, was built as an amusement park.

The Pier is near to Hollywood and the filming areas so has featured in a number of movies and TV shows as well as featuring as Del Perro Pier in GTA V.

A huge Christmas Beetle we found at the end of the Pier.

The Malibu Mountains - site of some recent bushfires

Bronze Dolphin on the Pier

Lifeguard Tower

Santa Monica

Petrel

End of the pier

Ferris Wheel

Free sunscreen station - handy when it's 37 degrees

The Pier also serves as the end of the Famous Route 66

Bubba Gump Shrimp - Created after the Forrest Gump movie

While Venice Beach is famous for its Muscle Beach - Santa Monica started the tradition

After we finished up at Santa Monica, we returned to the bus and took a drive to Venice Beach.

Venice Beach was founded in 1905 by Abbot Kinney, a developer, who created it as a beach resort, digging deep canals to mimic Venice and to drain the marshes. Kinney and his partner, Francis Ryan, purchased the land in 1891 and ran it as an independent city, building an amusement pier and other attractions such as a miniature railroad. In 1925 the treasurer of Venice Beach was convicted of embezzlement and the city was in desperate need of repair and expansion. After a brief vote, the town was annexed into Los Angeles in 1926.

Los Angeles did not put much money or focus into Venice and most of the canals were filled in, the pier fell to ruin and the town became known as "The Slum by the Sea".

In 1930 the muscle beach concept started at Santa Monica, where the city built an outdoor public playground which included gymnastic and acrobatic equipment. At the same time the concept of gyms and bodybuilding was taking off and the local fitness clubs and groups, particularly Joe Gold, turned the area into an outdoor training space. Spectators gathered to watch and many of the bodybuilders and weightlifters would put on shows and were seen as celebrities. Santa Monica shut down the muscle beach in 1959 after safety concerns and complaints. Many locals saw the area as immoral due to the scantily clad athletes and this, coupled with an accident which injured a local boy and molestation accusations against several of the regulars, saw the beach shut down.

Around this time, Venice Beach was being seen as a more tolerant and hippy area and a large number of the Muscle Beach group relocated there, forming the now famous Venice Muscle Beach. 

The beach is also know for its subcultures, including hippies and eccentrics, its basketball courts and streetball games and its skatepark.

When we arrived there was a Logitech G Play 2026 event being set up, involving samples of Logitech equipment and some impressive cars. There was also filming underway in some parts of Muscle Beach, limiting our access.

Venice Beach Mural, showing how the beach once looked

The Logitech Show:

McLaren MLC40 Formula 1 Car - Oscar Piastri's vehicle

Logitech G Toyota Camry XSE NASCAR - Bubba Wallace's vehicle (blue)

Polaris Slingshot R

After the Logitech show we headed down to Muscle Beach:

Muscle Beach

Skatepark

CBD Oil infused milkshakes

Streetball Courts

Venice High - Famous as Rydell High in Grease

One of the remaining canals

When we finished up at Venice Beach we had a trip out to Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive.

Beverly Hills is one of the most affluent suburbs in Los Angeles, located near Hollywood with the famous postcode of 90210. It was incorporated into LA in 1914 after the owners failed to strike oil in the area.

Rodeo Drive is one of the most expensive streets in the world, starting as a potential expansion of LA and eventually becoming a retail street in 1961 when Fred Hayman opened Giorgio Beverly Hills, the first high-end boutique. That was followed by Gucci, Van Cleef & Arpals and Vidal Sassoon. In 1977 there was a big push to make Rodeo Drive known as the shopping area for the rich and famous.

Cyber Truck

Beverly Hills has 'platinum' coloured fire hydrants

This car had an interesting passenger

Petersen Automotive Museum

Ferrari 488 GTB

Lamborghini Revuelto

Beverly Wiltshire Four Seasons Hotel

As we headed out of Beverly Hills, we passed through Century City, the base of 20th Century Fox as well as Paramount and Netflix Buildings.

Fairmont Century Plaza

Fox Studios

Fox Plaza - Famous as Nakatomi Plaza in Die Hard

Paramount Studios

Paramount Studios - Melrose Gate

One of the Netflix Studios

Sound of Music Mural - Fox Studios

Star Wars Mural - Fox Studios

Our next stop was the farmers market for lunch. Originally I had thought we were stopping at the same market we had stopped at when we did the walking tour of LA, but this was a new one.

The market opened in 1934 and houses over 100 vendors and shops from food to groceries to souvenirs. In 1880 Arthur Fremont Gilmore and his partner bought the area and two dairy farms. They rented the area out to farmers to sell their wares at 50c per day. This grew into the Farmers Market, which was declared a historic monument in 1991.

We had kebob followed by ice-cream for lunch, before meeting back with our bus.

A massive feijoa that Kris bought at the fruit shop

When we regrouped after lunch, our next stop was the Griffiths Observatory. The land that the observatory is situated on (12.2km2) was donated to the city by Griffith J. Griffith in 1896. Griffith also left provisions in his will for the constructions of the observatory, halls and planetarium. His aim was to make astronomy available to everyone. 

Griffith was a mining syndicate mogul who donated the land in order to provide an area for the citizens of LA to relax. He was later arrested and served time in jail  after shooting and injuring his wife while drunk, so his proposed donation of the observatory was initially turned down, but it was later accepted as part of his will when he died in 1919 of liver disease. The construction was started in 1933 and completed in 1935. 

We didn't have enough time to fully explore the inside and the exhibits, but we got to enjoy the views over Los Angeles and the Hollywood sign.

Astronomers Monument

Los Angeles

"Alas de México" (Wings of Mexico)

Viewing the sign through the telescope

Ground markings showing relative orbits

Doors

The famous Hollywood sign sits on Mount Lee and originally read "HOLLYWOODLAND". It was installed in 1923 as a temporary advertisement for real estate in the area and each letter is 15.2m tall.

The "LAND" was removed in 1949 and in 1978 the entire sign was replaced with steel letters and concrete footings, slightly smaller this time at 13.7m high. The reason for the replacement was damage and deterioration. The 'H' was destroyed in 1944 either due to high winds or vandalism and in 1949 it was deemed an eyesore and the local communities petitioned to have it removed. The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce wanted it to remain and offered to repair it - one of the conditions was that the LAND be removed so the sign represented the Hollywood district not the land release.

Further windstorms damaged to remaining wooden letters, with the O's breaking down. Donors were sought to pay for replacement - nine donors were found, each of which sponsored a letter.

The tower visible behind the sign is the City of Los Angeles Central Communication Facility, which manages the mobile phone, microwave and radio towers for government departments such as Fire, Police and the School districts.

Red-Tailed Hawk

Mule Deer in the park

Our final stop was the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the TCL Chinese Theatre (Grauman's Chinese Theatre).

When movies and cinema first began to take off, they were seen as pastimes for the lower class and not a serious business. Initially movies were short and looped throughout the day as it was deemed that viewers would not be able to sit through a longer feature. This changed in the early 1900s, starting with "The Story of the Kelly Gang" which was over an hour long, this then led to further multi-reel movies. But movies were still mostly shown in nickelodeons (cheap cinema spaces) or stores. In order to make movies a higher end experience and increase profits, the concept of a Cinema Palace began to gain in prominence in 1920. These were lavish buildings with air-conditioning, plush carpets and an opulent feel. This changes movies from a novelty to a luxury and raised the profile of motion pictures.

Sid Grauman opened a number of Cinema Palaces, including the Million Dollar Theatre (that we had seen on our walk through LA) and the Egyptian Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard.  Following the success of the Egyptian, Grauman floated plans for the Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. The Theatre was built in 1926 and opened in 1927. A famous part of the Theatre was the Footprint Ceremonies, where famous actors left imprints of their footprints in the concrete surrounding the theatre. There are currently over 200 sets of celebrity handprints, footprints and signatures outside the theatre.

The Chinese Theatre originally hosted the Academy Awards until they were moved to the Dolby theatre (which was formally named the Kodiak).

Outside and along the street were the famous Hollywood Stars:

Muhammad Ali's star is on a wall to avoid having the name "Muhammad" being on the ground

A few other sights of Hollywood:

Sculptures in the La-La Land Gift Shop

1959 Cadillac El Dorado Biarritz Convertible

The Graumans Egyptian Theatres

Capitol Records Buildings

The Knickerbocker Hotel

Hollywood Tower - the building that the Disney Hollywood Tower of Terror is based on

The Dolby Theatre

We finished off back at Santa Monica with a drive down Sunset Boulevard:

Food Delivery Robot

El Royale Apartments

We also passed the Viper Room - which is a nightclub that was established in 1993 and initially co-owned by Johnny Depp and Sal Jenco. The building was known as the place to hangout for young Hollywood stars and was the club where River Phoenix, Jason Donovan and Courtney Love overdosed - River Phoenix passed away but Donovan and Love survived. It was also the site of the last public performance by Michael Hutchence.

In 2018 the site was purchased by Silver Creek Development who planned to tear down the Viper Room and those buildings surrounding it and build a 15 story mixed-use building with apartments, a gym , cinema and mall. The project has been delayed due to criticism from the public and the City of West Hollywood.

We also passed the Whisky a Go-Go nightclub which is part of a franchise started in 1958. The Hollywood building was opened in 1964 and is known as being the starting place of many famous bands such as The Doors, The Byrds and many others.

When we arrived back at Santa Monica we initially planned to spend some time at the Pier, but we were all pretty tired so after checking out the main shopping area and a few of the shops we headed home to rest up for another big day.