Los Angeles

Our first stop on our cross country move was to visit my uncle Gary in Los Angeles. We arrived in LA at almost midnight and as soon as we stepped outside the airport baggage claim area to wait for Gary to pick us up; we heard horns honking. People here are such impatient drivers or maybe we are used to Hawaii drivers who almost never honk their horns. Welcome to LA!!
The first day we were here, we went to Venice Beach and walked the boardwalk all the way to the Santa Monica Pier (about 3 miles one way). It is a really great setup. There is one part of the sidewalk for walkers and and other side for roller bladers and bikers. It was a cool day, lower 60's, and there were tons of people out. One side of the boardwalk had the typical souvenir shops and the beach was on the other side. Venice Beach is also where the popular Muscle Beach is and of course Santa Monica Pier has the famous ferris wheel.
We then drove to Pepperdine University, Malibu. My uncle works for Pepperdine so he wanted to gives us the tour. It was a really nice school that overlooks the ocean.
The second day we went to the Griffith Observatory. We got a view of the Hollywood sign on the walk up to the observatory. The grounds were nice and overlooked downtown LA. Then we went to the Gene Autry Museum. It was interesting to see all of the costumes and hand written letters from the actual people who wore and wrote them. We had a nice time visiting with Gary and seeing some of LA. Thanks to Gary for putting us up and putting up with us!! We'll return the favor when you visit us in Maine.