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| MUSAP on Santa Monica beach |
February 2014 and MUSAP’s 10th state ~ California! This was my first trip traveling with another person ~ Susie, my sister in law, joined me for this adventure. This was also the first adventure where we had lots of family that we planned to visit.
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| California family |
We started with 5 days in Santa Monica where we got to spend time with Katie (Susie’s daughter) and Mike, along with their cute little dog Bodie. They moved to California almost 2 years ago, so it was nice to spend some time with them.
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| Bodie |
While we were in the LA area we also had lunch with Claire ~ she is related to Susie’s daughter in law Sarah. We met her at Tony & Sarah’s wedding in the British Virgin Islands in 2012. When we got up to the San Francisco area we saw our nephew Mike and his family, our niece Jen and her family, Susie’s brother in law Rico, and my cousin Mary. Sadly I didn’t get to see my mom’s cousin who lives in Berkeley - a good excuse to return to California sooner than later.
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| California Grand Nieces and Nephew |
Day One was a travel day. We spent the night in Boston to make our early departure a little easier - we are not morning people. Everything went smoothly and we arrived in Los Angeles on time. Our rental car was a huge SUV and after seeing our parking space in Santa Monica our next stop was back to Hertz to trade it in for a smaller car. Big cars and Los Angeles are just not a good combination!
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| giant SUV and reasonably sized rental cars |
Susie’s daughter Katie and her husband Mike live in Santa Monica. We stayed in an AirBNB unit near their place called Santa Monica Beach Tree House. First time I have used AirBNB - great experience and it worked well because there were two of us and it gave us plenty of space. The location was amazing - one block from the beach and a quick walk to the pier.
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| sunset at the beach |
On our first full day we decided to take a bus tour of Los Angeles. What a wonderful way to see the sights! From the minute we met our tour driver, Kevin, we could tell it was going to be a fun day.
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| Olvera Street in LA |
The 5 ½ hour tour started at Starline’s Santa Monica terminal where there is free parking available on site. We were all over the city driving from Santa Monica to Downtown LA, Hollywood, Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, and Hollywood Blvd. Kevin’s commentary was informative and entertaining. He shared fun facts about the Los Angeles area all along the route. He pulled over and slowed down for photo ops when possible which everyone appreciated.
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| Chinatown entrance gate |
There were many stops during the tour where he parked the bus and we had 15-30 minutes to get off the bus and see the attraction and take lots of photos ~ Staples Center, Olvera Street, Walt Disney Hall, La Brea Tar Pits, Rodeo Drive, Walk of Fame. We found there was enough time to see things and we never felt rushed. Our lunch stop was over an hour at the Farmers Market/Grove.
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| 77 Sunset Strip |
Kevin made sure we knew what to look for whenever we got off the bus, for example walking us over to Olvera Street or getting us maps of the Farmers Market to make it easier for us to find our way around.
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| at The Grove - a shopping plaza |
Taking a city tour gives you ideas for places that you would like to return to and spend some more time. Great way to see the sights without having to drive in LA traffic! My photos don’t really show the classic LA tourist sites, but I had fun creating them.
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| Bugatti on Rodeo Drive |
We took a few walks on the beach in Santa Monica and a walk over to the famous pier with Katie. It was nice to be on a beach in February. The beach was wide and sandy, didn't see many shells.
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| feet in the Pacific Ocean |
Toes in the water, watching surfers, enjoying some sunshine. The famous gymnastics rings on the original Muscle Beach and lots of nets set up for beach volleyball.
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| surfers |
Cirque du Soleil’s Totem was performing in their tents set up right next to the pier. I didn’t really pick the dates for this adventure around seeing Totem… but I was happy to discover that they would be there at the same time. So the 4 of us went to see the show and loved it. It was the 5th time I saw Totem - the trapeze duo are amazing!
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| Cirque du Soleil tents |
The Santa Monica Pier has a history over 100 years old. It’s like an amusement park over the water - ferris wheel, carousel, arcade. There are also fisherman along the sides. Did you know that the end of Historic Route 66 is on the Santa Monica Pier? I hope to drive a lot of Route 66 with MUSAP in the coming years.
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| Historic Route 66 |
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| Santa Monica ~ beach, pier, and mountains in the distance |
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