Los Angeles... First Impressions

The glamorous west coast... I step off the plane in the middle of the night, expecting all of the stories of winters in shorts and New Years in t-shirts to describe the weather I would be stepping into. Upon stepping out of LAX I came to the less than charming realization that it gets pretty chilly at night in the City of Angels... After shelling out more than my first nights hotel stay on the taxi en route... I quickly retired and prepared for the first day...

Thankfully I no longer trusted the stories of perpetual warm weather and elected to wear a sweater... it is still only April after all.

The journey began in Hollywood. The glitz, the stars, the lights, the never-ending excitement must have ended the night before and picked up the night after... or perhaps we come to find out Hollywood is just a chunk of residential and commercial property just like any other place.

The truth is it seemed that aside from a few tourist attractions (Chinese theater, Hollywood Sign, walk of fame) you can quickly run out of things to do in Hollywood, unless of course you wish to spy on celebrities from the safety of a tour bus.

So, we opted for an afternoon in Venice beach. Being meticulous and wanting to catch as much detail as possible, we took to the beach on foot. 12.8 miles we would hoof to the pacific. We knew it would be a long walk, but we were in Santa Monica, and Hollywood; surely there would be sites along the way to keep us captivated...

Sadly, as the walk progressed; the impression that Los Angeles is a city simply became more and more pronounced.

So, first impression of Los Angeles... it is a city, no matter where you go. And go ahead and rent a car; taxis are expensive; the sign showing bus routes is written in Sanskrit, and the only memory you'll take from walking is sore feet and smelly socks.

'I discovered North America and all I got was this lousy t-shirt'

-Christopher Columbus