Another investment conference was held at the Ritz in Marina Del Ray and I had never been to California. I wanted to do ten trips for our tenth anniversary, so this seemed like a great decision. While it was my first trip to California, Jordan was an old hat. He refused to go to LAX. We compromised and flew from RDU straight to LAX and agreed to fly-out of Orange County's John Wayne airport. For the conference, we were able to stay at the Ritz literally at the marina. It was a very nice place and the neighborhood was amazing.
We used electronic scooters to visit Venice Beach, Muscle Beach and Santa Monica including the pier. I got to put my feet in the Pacific Ocean for the first time and enjoy the beach.
As LA is so large and public transit is terrible, we decided to move to downtown LA next. We stayed beside the Staples Center and its megaplex. On the way into downtown, we went to Getty, by Mulholland Drive, and saw the Hollywood Sign at the Griffith Observatory. The Getty was nice for its holdings and the US, but the venue / buildings was impressive to say the least. The Griffith Observatory took me back in time to all those old Hollywood.
The next few days we enjoyed downtown at the Staples Center area. We got to see Walt Disney concert hall, the downtown museums, City Hall and Grand Central Market. Jordan drove me to see the touristy LA sites like Chinese Theatre, Walk of Fame, Hollywood Bowl, Hollywood Boulevard & Sunset Strip, SUR (yes it counts) and Rodeo Drive. I had to get out to visit the Hollywood Stars of the two stars I am named after: Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. Also, I made Jordan visit the Tar Pits. He refused to explore the LA County Museum of Art and instead went to the Petersen Automotive museum. Both are impressive.
As we were flying out of the Orange County airport, we decide to do a short road trip down the coast. We drove out to the docks to the USS Iowan and the Queen Mary. Jordan drove around Long Beach like an Indy Car driver. We stopped at Seal Beach and enjoyed the beachfront area.
Due to my long running reality tv show love, I had to visit Orange County and Laguna Beach. We got to see some of sites and the Top of the World park with the best views of the coast.
Before our flight, we visited a less known site in this area. We spent a couple of hours in the Lyon Air Museum to see things from WWII. Interestingly it had bikes and planes from every side of the War (Japanese, Russian, German and American) as well some amazing cars.
It was great to be a tourist in California. However, I did not love LA and do not see the hype.
