Our Trip: Los Angeles, California

We arrived in Los Angeles in the early morning hours.  We walked around Union Station for a while, trying to figure out what we were going to do until we could check in to our hotel.

 

Union Station...

From another viewpoint...

 



An interesting-looking flower outside Union Station

We decided to get breakfast.  We caught the Subway to the stop nearest to our hotel.  We got something to eat, and then contacted our hotel.  We were able to store our bags there until we were able to check in.  So, we walked to the hotel, left our bags, and went out to explore! 

 

We decided to go to Hollywood.  We wanted to see the Walk of Fame.  We caught the subway over, and as soon as we came up out of the subway station, we could see stars on the sidewalks for miles and miles!  We took some pictures of certain stars and pictures of the children standing or squatting near some of the stars.

 

As we walked further, we came across a large crowd of people on the sidewalk.  We really had no idea what was going on, but we did notice a person dressed up as Bumblebee from Transformers!  My boys LOVE the Transformers movies, cartoons, and toys…and my younger son’s favorite Transformer is Bumblebee!  The kids became very excited.  The person dressed up like Bumblebee motioned them over to stand with him so that we could take some pictures.  After pictures were made, he came over to us, and said, “Parents, I do this for tips.”  It would have been nice to know that ahead of time because we had absolutely NO cash on us!  So, we had to tell him that we didn’t have any cash and apologize…  We felt bad…but told the children not to get their picture made with anyone else because we didn’t know that it was for tips! 

The children and "Bumblebee" and many, many people in the background...

Later on, Mickey Mouse wanted them to come over for a picture, and I stepped in front of them, told the person in the costume that we couldn’t pay him anything because we did not have any cash.  He said, “Don’t worry about it.  Bring them on over.”

This was near the Graumans Theater.  Here we were able to see all of the foot prints, hand prints, and signatures of the stars in the sidewalk.  My daughter especially enjoyed the Shirley Temple one!  My boys loved seeing the “boot print” of “Iron Man.”  It was fun to walk around looking at all of the people who had been there. 

 

Grauman's Theater

Kodak Theatre near Grauman's Theatre...

The biggest argument in our family after the trip was about who saw the Hollywood sign first! 

I say that I did.  My children and husband were all standing around looking at something off to the right of where we were standing.  As they were standing there together, I began looking around.  It was then that I saw the “Hollywood” sign and told the others.  My husband said that it was the opposite way around…that he saw it when the children and I were not looking, and he pointed it out to all of us.  My 9 year old son said that he saw it first but did not say anything to anyone because he didn’t know it was that big of a deal!  Anyway, we did see the Hollywood sign.  To me, this was the most exciting thing in Hollywood.  It wasn’t at all what I was expecting.  It wasn’t as “nice” as I pictured…and there were a lot of bums with signs…some of the signs had “bad” words on them…and there were just so many people that it was invading to personal space. 

 

Across from Union Station (where the Amtrak is located) is an “old” area of Los Angeles.  The street name is “Olvera.”  We weren’t really planning on visiting that area because we didn’t even know about it.  However, it was like night and day compared to Hollywood.  There were a lot of venders on the street (it seems that it hasn’t been a street that people actually drive on for quite some time).  There were lots of shops up and down the street on each side selling anything and everything that you can imagine.  It was a beautiful area though, and not as crowded as other areas.  The people working in the shops and the street venders were friendly.  The oldest existing house in Los Angeles is located there.  You are welcome to walk through and learn about the rooms and how the people were able to do the things that we take for granted today.  It was beautiful there as well. 

As we walked to the end of Olvera Street, we saw some museums.  We decided to go into a couple of them.  The family favorite is the old Fire Station Museum.  We were able to learn about how fireman used horse-drawn carts to put out fires…how the horses and carts were stored when not in use…and many more interesting things that we would have never even thought about if we hadn’t “happened” upon this museum.

For future travel, my husband and I have agreed that we have no desire to return to Los Angeles.  There just didn’t seem to be a lot to “do” there for families…and the people really made me uneasy.  Strangers didn’t mind coming RIGHT up to you and talking to you, or asking you questions, or whatever.  I felt like my personal space was invaded many times.  I was very concerned about the children with the amount of people around as well…so much so that it made it hard to enjoy myself.  My husband agreed that it was hard to enjoy ourselves there...

Our Trip: Segment Three

Finally!  For anyone who has been following this series...I am so sorry that it has been so long since my last post.  Hopefully, things will get back to normal now...  :)

Our third segment was from San Antonio, Texas to Los Angeles, California. 

We boarded our West Bound train…destination, Los Angeles, California!  It was 24+ hours on the train, but the scenery was amazing.  No one in our family had been further than San Antonio, so this was new to everyone.  The scenery was like something from a movie!  Although, after a while, it all began to look the same.  Seeing the mesas for the first time…the desert areas for the first time, miles and miles of basically “nothingness.”  It was a sight that we will not soon forget.  There isn’t much to say about the travel.  We basically just rode along…reading, sleeping, sleeping some more, eating here and there, but we were mainly enjoying the scenery.  (All of these pictures were taken from inside the train looking out of the windows…a few have reflections on them…but not so much that you can’t see the beauty of the area.)

 

 

San Antonio: Day Two

Our second day in San Antonio began with the continental breakfast in the hotel lobby.  We decided that after that, we would go to the zoo!  We had read that the San Antonio zoo is America’s third largest zoo.  The reviews were great, and we knew that it would be something that the kids would really enjoy.  (I have always liked zoos as well!)

Leaving the hotel...

 Everyone must have had the same idea!  There were a lot of people at the zoo!!

 These hippos underwater with the fish eating off of them was one of the best exhibits there!



 Caleb looking at the hippos...

 What's in there?! 

Mark and Sarah looking through a hole in the wall to see some alligators!

This elephant was swaying back and forth...  It looked like he was dancing!  Sooo cute!!!

 My husband had read about the Japanese Tea Gardens.  He had mentioned it to me, but I wasn’t very interested.  As we were leaving the zoo, we saw the signs for the Tea Gardens.  Since we would be waiting a while for the bus to take us back into town, we decided to use our time to visit the Tea Garden.  I am so glad that we did.  It was absolutely beautiful there!  It was something that I was NOT interested in visiting at all, but am now thinking about what it would be like to go back in different seasons to see the difference in plants and foliage and such.

 When we arrived back at our hotel room that evening, we did a “Skype” call with my mother-in-law and father-in-law.  We had decided to let them tell the children where we were going next.  We recorded it on video, and are so glad that we did…because it was absolutely hilarious.  My father-in-law told the children that we had gone west on the train to go to Texas, and that if we headed east, we would head back home…but instead, we were going to go further WEST!  He said, “You are going to travel through New Mexico, through Arizona, and into CALIFORNIA!”  The children were in shock.  They sat there with their mouths open, speechless!  They asked me and my husband if it were true!  Then, my father-in-law told them that they were going to Los Angeles, California!  He and my mother-in-law made the children more excited when they told them that this was where CHiPs was made!  My children LOVE that television show from the 70’s!  The children began to cheer!  Needless to say, it was difficult to get them in bed that night, but sleep was a MUST because our departure time was VERY early in the morning!!!

San Antonio: Day One

Our first day in San Antonio began EARLY!  The sun wasn’t even up…but we went “exploring” anyway.  I am glad that we did.  The River Walk had beautiful lighting and was very quiet because we were the only ones there!  It was nice to stroll around and not have to worry about bumping into people or to make sure that all of our family was still together.

First sight of the River Walk!

We also walked over to see the Alamo.  That was a spectacular sight in the “dark.”  They have lighting there, of course, lighting up the front of the Alamo…so it looked quite different (and much less crowded) in the EARLY morning hours!  While there, we saw a “ranger” who kept the grounds “secure.”  We talked to him a bit about when to come back to go inside.

 First sight of the Alamo!

Even though we had just left Denny’s a while ago, we stopped into a McDonald’s for a little “snack.”  This was the first time our children had seen a two-story McDonald’s!  We ended up eating here a few times while we were in town.  It was always open, and it was CHEAP! 

 

As the day progressed, we decided that we would just see the sights that day. We were all relatively tired, so we didn’t really do much.  We re-walked the River Walk during the day…

A duck family that we watched for quite a while!

 

We also went back to the Alamo during their “normal” hours. 

Awesome cactus on the grounds of the Alamo!

 

As we walked around, we spotted a “What-A-Burger.”  Every person that I have known that lived in or visited Texas had talked about “What-A-Burger,” so much so that I knew that I did not want to miss it if I ever got the opportunity to eat there.  So, lunch was a “no-brainer.”  We had “What-A-Burger.”  And what a burger it was!!!!  Mmmmmm!  I vote for a “What-A-Burger” in every city across America!!!!

We were all pretty tired by this time, so we returned to the hotel for a little rest.

My husband and I both got shots of this building with the cool clouds in the background!

 

After we had rested for a while, we decided to visit the River Walk for dinner!  We had a wonderful, entertaining, delicious authentic-Mexican meal!  It was a great way to end a great day!

 Waiting for our food...

 The view...

This mariachi band was going around to sing and play at different tables.  My husband got them to play at our table.  In honor of our children, we got to hear "La Coocaracha."