Winter adventure: Los Angeles prelude
- Andrea
- Oct 7, 2024
- 7 min read
Updated: Jan 6
A little bit of background📝
We live in the southern hemisphere, in a part of Australia where it never snows. Christmas is summer for us, hot and humid, like it is for a good portion of the year. I'd had a long-held dream to have a proper winter experience, complete with heavy snow and a white Christmas. I’d also always wanted to visit Chicago as the lake and the city architecture fascinated me, and, like a lot of travellers, NYC was on my bucket list.
This post is the first in a series of four that documents our 2016 winter adventure. I wrote this post in 2024, but I still have very clear memories of the trip, partly because of our winter snow experience in Chicago and the iconic places we visited in NYC and on a day trip to Washington DC.
My winter adventure companions were my husband and our daughter who was aged 16 at the time. I’ll refer to them as W [husband] and E [daughter] or collectively as WE throughout this post series.
LA warm up to proper winter🌞
Our winter adventure began with a warm up to the main event in the form of a full day stopover in LA. We left Brisbane at 11.30am on Sunday December 18, flying with Virgin Australia to LAX, arriving at 6.30am the same day. The opportunity for the LA stopover was really just about flight schedules, but it was a nice bonus, even just to break the journey. Our flight to Chicago was due to depart at 11pm that evening so we opted to hire a car to make the most of our time.
The below map charts our entire winter adventure, including a diversion to Denver on the way from LA to Chicago. We also took a day trip on the train to Milwaukee from Chicago.
This was our fourth visit to LA but E’s first. I've written in previous posts that LA isn't really my kind of place, and multiple visits haven't changed my impression. That said, we had a fab day!
My other LA sojourns are documented on this blog. My first visit was way back in 1996, on our way to London, and our first ever international experience. The second experience was a stopover flying back to Australia from Orlando in 2008, and the third time was in 2012, for a few days of downtime after a baseball tournament in Colorado.
Sunday morning Santa Monica pier🎡
Even though W and I had been to Santa Monica Pier before, we headed down there again, hoping to also see a bit of Malibu. Our first visit to the Pier had been on a busy Saturday evening, so it was lovely to walk around sans people. As our photos show, the light at that time of the morning was stunning.
My previous visits to LA had been in summer. Our experience of December in LA was a cool and crisp start to the day with stunning warm weather as the day wore on. As mentioned, the pier was quiet early on Sunday morning and we had a lovely time wandering around in the beautiful sunshine. It was so nice to be there sans crowds to appreciate the iconic structure and its significance to the city.
Sure, it's a bit kitsch at the pier, but there is some history to the place. The pier first opened in 1909. Its carousel was built in 1922. The pier is an iconic part of the LA landscape and Googling filming locations at the pier will throw up a long list of film and television appearances, dating right back to the 1930s.
The beach was also quiet and again, looked stunning in the early morning sunlight. The little bit seen in my photos is part of a 5.6km stretch of beach along the Pacific Coast Highway that is dotted with parks and picnic areas. It's super flat near the pier and there's a significant expanse of sand, with boardwalks in places. I like this part of LA as it feels more authentic and less grimy than some of the other parts.
Thinking back to that morning, I know we attempted a drive north along the Malibu coast, hoping to see something of the famous beaches and fancy homes that feature in films and television shows set in LA. We were somewhat disappointed by our jaunt, but perhaps we weren’t looking in the right places. We gave up after a bit and headed to the Hollywood sign, our main activity for the day.
Iconic experience: The Hollywood sign🎬
I'd seen the Hollywood sign from a distance previously, but had always wanted to walk up to it. As noted above, I'd been to LA three times before and had done a lot of the "main attractions". We were looking for something new and bit unique to do with the hours we had on our stopover that was something we could spend as much time on as we wanted to and not feel rushed or stressed about making the evening flight. I thought it would be a cool thing to do, to hike up to the sign.
There are three hiking trails to the sign but we began our trek at the Griffith Park Observatory, parking on the road nearby. Having a car makes the LA experience a lot simpler, despite the traffic, as the city is not designed for walking or taking public transport easily. That said, W is an expert driver and can handle the right-side of the road!
Travel tip 🌍
It's not possible to touch the sign itself and the up-close view is from above and behind the sign. It's easy enough to walk up independently, but there are some guided walks and horse rides up there. Public bus is also an option to get to the trailheads
The views of LA as we made our way up to the Sign were spectacular. We were lucky to have a smog-free-ish day, so visibility was good. As noted above, the winter weather felt much like it does in our part of Australia – cool in the morning but beautifully warm during the day.
My research tells me that the round trip is around 10km and a 335-metre climb to 520 metres elevation. I'd suggest allowing a few hours to make it to the top and back, depending on walking speed. I would describe the hike as moderately challenging, as feels like quite a distance although not too steep other than the bit of climbing at the end. It's easy enough to follow the paths.
The hike cuts a path around and above the sign. It's still super cool to be able to be to get close to such an iconic structure, despite not being able to touch it, without breaking the law, that is.
Travel tip 🌍
I imagine the hike is quite difficult in summer as the trail is quite dusty and exposed. It might be different now, but when we went there in 2016, there was only a small store between the Observatory and the start of the hike. My tip is to take plenty of water for the hike and snacks, if needed. We got caught out without snacks and we were so hungry by the time we made it back to the car!
Oh, and I didn't buy anything this time in Los Angeles as I already have a pretty sketch of the Hollywood Sign from my previous trip. I love the water-colour vibe. Here it is...
Braving the pre-Christmas crowds🛍️
We drove straight to the Orange Outlet Mall after the hike, where I’d been shopping with our son during our 2012 stay in LA. This being the weekend before Christmas, the Mall was completely mad, with police officers managing the traffic in the car park. I’m surprised we even found a park! We fuelled up at the Subway, although our sandwiches were a tad disappointing, as there were not as many salad options as we were used to. We battled the crowds in the pre-Christmas sales and I know we bought a bit of stuff, but I can't for the life of me remember what it was! I just know that the AU dollar fared well against the US, and there were stores in the States that we didn’t yet have in Australia.
There wasn’t much left of the day after our shopping trip, so we headed back to LAX and dropped the hire car back. We had a long wait for our 11pm flight to Chicago but we were all in much need of some chill time. What an awesome experience we'd had, hiking up to the Hollywood Sign, a trek we'd managed after coming off a 13- hour flight from Australia, no less!
Our LA stopover was the first leg of our 2016 winter adventure. The trip had a special meaning for me as I had been through a major ordeal that year that resulted in permanent hearing loss in my right ear. I have posted my reflections on what the trip overall meant to me at the end of my NYC post, but here are some thoughts on the LA part of the trip.
Hiking up to the Hollywood Sign was a bucket list experience ticked off.
I was only 6 month post-recovery from brain surgery, so making it to the Hollywood Sign took on special significance for me and renewed my faith in my body's ability to thrive, not just survive. I'm also proud of us for taking on the hike after having just come off an international flight.
I'm reasonably fit but woefully lacking in sporting abilities, so any kind of hiking builds my confidence and gives me a huge sense of achievement.
Santa Monica Pier in the early morning winter light was gorgeous.
I'm a sucker for a beautiful view and experiencing iconic places "for real". Hiking up to and standing behind the Hollywood Sign was a "pinch me" moment.
The crazy crowds and shopping rush at the outlet mall were completely overwhelming.
Malibu was underwhelming, but perhaps we were in the wrong bits.
LA traffic! We mastered it!
My fourth visit to LA did not change my perspective on the city. WE agree that there’s something about the vibe that doesn’t gel with us, even there are a lot of fun things to do there. The nice places are nice, but the rest of it is kind of…well…not nice...and quite dirty, actually. For all the glamour, LA isn't very glamorous, and there's a sense of decay and poverty that seems at odds with the wealth at the other end of the spectrum and the whole Hollywood schtick. There’s not really much interesting architecture although the palm trees and Spanish-style houses are pretty. The city is a huge sprawl that is hard to navigate without a car, and the traffic is terrible. There's no central city area as such, so the whole place feels quite disconnected. I feel like LA is more for the iconic experiences than the place itself.
Right-o, enough about LA! Next stop on our winter adventure...Chicago!
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