Day 12

 Day's Traveling
    Start: NA

    End: NA

Total Travel Hours

    Joanna: 57 hours 3mins

             4 hours 8mins 7 (train) 48 hours  50mins (car)4 hours 5min (plane)

     Alex: 55 hours 53mins

              4 hours 8mins (train) 47 hours 45mins (car) 4 hours 5min (plane)

States Driven through:

New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland*, Virginia, Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada and California (12/12)

*only 14 miles were traveled in this state 

No Driving today! Well no driving into another state or for an extended period of time. To get around LA you do need to drive a bit.

For once the person we were staying with didn’t need to work at the crack of dawn and Jo and I didn’t need to wake up early to drive anywhere. But, the past few days of driving and changing time zones meant that Jo and I woke up on our own before 8AM. Sweet.

It worked out in the end, we started to get ready and Katie woke up while we were getting ready for the day. Katie did have to work at 3PM so we planned to go to complete a quick driving tour of Culver City, walk around Venice and have lunch in Santa Monica before we dropped Katie off for work at 3PM.

I got to drive for the first part of the morning- driving through LA is much different than anything we had been in yet with our rental car. Lots more people, lights but still pretty fast paced. The changing environments are always keeping us on our toes. Side note- I was not honked at or yelled at any point while driving (nor was Jo) so I think we did a good job driving with California drivers.

The tour through Culver City started with a visit to Katie’s studio while she had been at school in LA. It is right across from one of the places The Hills T.V show frequents when filming. Katie said she would see the film crews and cast members stop by all the time while she was working in the studio. Once she graduated she had acquire her own studio- we drove by her first studio (surrounded by painters who didn’t always appreciate the noise associated with her sculpting) and then told us about her new studio. The art scene in Culver City is amazing and the fact that Katie is a part is even more so (plus we got to see some of her artwork, she does pretty cool things with wax).

We stopped at a coffee house right by Sony Studios. We walked over after grabbing some coffee and peaked in to the gates. There was some sort of filming going on. As Jo and I took pictures I think Katie finally realized how much Jo and I were going to look and act like tourists for the rest of the day- haha. That’s not a bad thing, right?

I wonder what they are filming?! I bet if I saw it on TV i wouldn't recognize it

The church across the street from the studio

 

From the studio it was time to head over to Venice Beach (and my first look at the Pacific Ocean!)!

Venice beach is just like the Baywatch, 90210 and all those shows portray it, well with an updated wardrobe. After kicking off our shoes we walked along the beach (in the sand!) near the skate park for a bit. While we walked towards the water’s edge Jo got a request to run through the hundred of seagulls chilling on the sand from a nearby photographer.  She did a pretty good job, until she realized they might retaliate, then she stopped and slinked away hoping to remain unnoticed. I think the photographer got his picture, he didn’t ask again.

Once we distanced ourselves from the birds we were pretty close to the ocean- the pacific ocean in case you need reminding- so of course Jo and I began to jog towards it! Me, after I had given my camera to Katie so she could take pictures of our first feet in the ocean, proof me made it to the opposite coast! We on the edge of the water and the water brushed over our feet, it was freezing. Obvious, but it still made me jump. Jo, used to the chilly Atlantic waters in northern Jersey was a little more used to the temperature and was just amused how it was similar in temperature to the Atlantic Ocean in the late spring.

about to make our first steps in the Pacific Ocean!

 I still thought it was cold, so I walked a bit further from the tide as we walked along the beach. We stumbled across a memorial made of rocks which provided homes for a lot of barnacles, mussels and star fish! Barnacles have always freaked me out a bit… it has to do with how I feel unsettled about bubbles in mass quantities… but Jo and Katie were having fun looking at all the life within the rocks while I took pictures (from a distance) of the waves crashing into the rocks and the other activities taking place on the beach.

While everyone was looking at barnacles I was catching some waves

A starfish! I could stand the barnacles to get this picture

 

From Venice beach we headed over to Santa Monica. Usually you can walk from Venice to Santa Monica, but because we needed to make sure Katie got to work on time we drove in the car down to Santa Monica on the Sanata Monica Blvd. (not really but at this point we had driven on it a few times… I just didn’t know how to bring it up).

After driving a few laps around the mall we finally realized that two of the parking lots we had been passing had free parking for the first two hours. Perfect! In 2 hours we needed to be on the road to drop Katie off. We parked and headed out to beach to get some lunch. 

Where we had lunch outside- the factors that won us over $4 24oz Buds and "world famous burgers" (which we later found out every one and their mom claims to have)

 

Jo and I enjoying the sun at Big Dean's

 We didn’t walk along the shore of Santa Monica as much, but I could still it’s a bit different then Venice. There are less people running around and the roadway is much closer to the actual beach.

roadway next to the beach- taken from the bridge connecting the boardwalk to downtown

We got back to the car and dropped Katie off so she could go to work then Jo and I were back on the road. First stop, the Hollywood stars!! Good news- the star walk was included in the Garmin so we didn’t have to look up directions. Bad news- the Garmin gets limited reception in LA and it takes forever for it to come up with a route to follow. But we managed in the long run.

Although only a mile or so away it took quite a bit of time to make it to the Star Walk traffic and lights slowed us down quite a bit. Luckily, parking on the side of the road was ample. We grabbed a sport about a block away from Hollywood and Vine (right outside this booth to, “get an agent and make it!” where people were completing auditions- amusing).

Then we began walking the stars, which go on forever. It was a slow start, the first block and a half Jo and I didn’t recognize any of the names. So I got a little excited when we saw and recognized our first star Mark Wahlberg.  We continued walking and realized we had jumped the gun- as in the next few blocks we started recognizing and wanted pictures with every other star. Here are just a few of the good ones!

We both wanted to be with Frankie!