On 14-10-2017, my daughter, son in law & I planned a trip to Los Angeles. Our aim was to meet Pranav their son & my grandson & have a look at University of California Los Angles. It wasn't my first visit to L.A. Previously I had visited & seen shows, rides at Disney & Universal Studios. I had passed through it while visiting sea world at San Diego too. There is much to see & much to understand in every city & in L. A. too.Los Angeles is a large & beautiful City. It is not a city that could be seen in a day. It is a city one would like to see again & again. It is the center of U.S. film & television industry.
University of California Los Angles is a public research university in the West wood district of Los Angeles.It's campus spreads over 419 acres. It enrolls about 31,000 undergraduate & 13,000 graduate students & had 119,000 applicants for Fall 2016, including transfer applicants,the most applicants for any American university. As soon as we reached Los Angles we engaged an Uber & reached Enterprise Car rental at Santa Monica Blvd & rented a Ford car for 3 days. We drove the car from there to a place near Veteran Ave, where Pranav joined us. The place was nearer to UCLA.
It was Saturday classes weren't running at UCLA.Thus the campus wasn't much buzzing with activities. Only some group studies were going on here & there. It's a huge campus. Together, there are nearly 150 departments & programs.It has its stadium of ownership. Number of libraries, canteens, etc. couldn't be counted easily at all.
UCLA is the birthplace of the Internet. The place where it was invented is maintained majestically.My grandson completed his masters in computer science here. We were proud to visit Computer engineering block, his study room,lecture hall etc. We had glimpses of other buildings & their surroundings upkeep & were wonder struck. We felt that undoubtedly UCLA is one of the biggest U.S. universities.In U.S.A. it isn't merely an arms race.There afterwards, we had dinner at Maharaja Cuisine of India. The food was delicious.
In the afternoon, we wanted to visit Griffith Observatory, that's nearer to Hollywood .It being Saturday, there was heavy traffic.With all stress, strain & hectic efforts for over 1 & 1/2 hours, we could reach Griffith Observatory but failed to get parking. Vehicles were parked from the top of the hill to bottom in miles.We returned to our suite at Crowne Plaza ,Los Angles highly disappointed. There also we could secure parking only on the 7th floor. So much was floating population at L.A. Yet, we didn't want to waste our time we planned a visit to Santa Monica Pier. We left the hotel at about 7. 30 p.m. after having supper.
Santa Monica is an adjacent city to Los Angles. It is located on the Pacific Ocean. It's known for its sunshine, beaches, & plenty of celebrity sightings. It has spectacular views of its vast white sand beaches from Palisades Park, unparalled shopping on Third Street Promenade,Main Street and Montana Avenue, and the region's most renowned restaurant scene. Santa Monica stretches for about two miles along the coast before joining up with Venice Beach. It's bordered on three sides by the city of Los Angles. With the beach on one side & mountains on another, Santa Monica feels like a salt-air sanctuary carved into the LA coastline. Sarah Kay rightly says "There 's nothing more beautiful than the way ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline, no matter how many times it's sent away"
Even though it was nighttime we had to combat terrific traffic. It was a sea of humans. It was carnival like sight. Be happy, enjoy your life seems to be slogan of Americans.We inched our way to reach Santa Monica. It was bustling .It attracts people from all walk of life, mostly the younger people. Here also we could secure parking on 7th floor only at about a distance of a mile from the pier.
Santa Monica seemed to me like a city by night like Las Vegas.
A display
" Santa Monica Pier
Yacht harbor
Sports, Boating Fishing"
welcomed us.
Santa Monica is one of the top ten beach cities in the World. What a beautiful view we would have from Pier. We see an ocean of colorful lights all around .
In the vicinity of Pier, there's amusement park & rides.It's the West Coast’s only amusement park on a pier.It has more than 12 rides including the Pacific Wheel,the world's only solar -powered Ferris wheel & also play 21 boardwalk games. The area was too crowded . We bought ticket for Pacific Wheel. After waiting for quite sometime we had fantastic ride too. It gives us a panoramic view of the Southern California coastline from more than 130 feet (39.6 meters) high. The wheel moves at 2.5 revolutions per minute with intermittent stops to pick up passengers. This ride features more than 160,000 energy efficient LED lights that display dynamic, eye-popping lighting entertainment in the evenings. After ride we returned to parking place . It was late in the night. Yet there was mad rush. There were jams. We could take out car & reach the hotel at 1 a.m only.
Next morning by 9 a.m. we embarked to Griffith Observatory. There was much rush on Sunday too. Because, I am a senior citizen security obliged us to proceed to parking.
Griffith Observatory is a facility in Los Angeles,California, sitting on the south facing slope of Mount Hollywood in Los Angeles' Griffith Park. It commands a panoramic view of the Los Angeles Basin,including Downtown Los Angeles to the southeast,Hollywood to the south, & the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. The observatory has some great exhibits & is a
popular tourist attraction with an excellent view of the Hollywood Sign & an extensive array of space & science related displays. It is one of L.A.'s greatest cultural attractions. Admission has been free since the observatory's opening in 1935, as per the will of Griffith J J Griffith in whose name the observatory stands. Some are worth to be seen at least once in one's lifetime & Griffith Observatory is one among them. It's open 6 days a week. Admission to it is free. Its open from Tuesday - Friday 12-00 noon - 10-00 p.m. & Saturday- Sunday 10.00 a.m. to 10.00 p.m. It has a gift shop & cafe attached also.
Tickets are to be purchased for shows in Samuel Oschin planetarium .The shows are presented with a live narrator who has a great storytelling voice . It isn't so different from other planetarium shows, but nice, almost totally reclined seating. Shows are presented every 60 to 90 minutes.
Griffith Observatory acquaints man with skies & stars.It covers every aspect.Every hall,every room there is astronomy. Its very purpose is to make astronomy accessible to the public. It's as good as going through a book on astronomy.
Each wing in the classic building focuses on observation from an Earth-based perspective. The Wilder Hall of the Eye illustrates how our understanding of the nature of the universe continually evolves as our ability to observe with more accuracy and precision improves. The Ahmanson Hall of the Sky demonstrates how the most fundamental celestial phenomena we encounter – like moon phases, seasons, eclipses, and tides – result from the motions of the Earth, Moon, & Sun.
In the Richard & Lois Gunther Depths of Space, visitor perspective shifts from earthbound to an experience of cosmic scale & galactic landscapes leveraged by space exploration. Here visitors encounter both spectacular models of the solar system & opportunities to explore the farthest reaches of the universe. The Big Picture, an unprecedented 152-foot-long by 20-foot-high installation, magnifies real research imagery to reveal that a small swath of the night sky actually contains millions of stars & galaxies.
After perusing Griffith Observatory, our car took a deviation to Malibu Canyon Road. The distance between Griffith Observatory & Malibu is about 26 miles. It is the southern section in particular that is the most scenic. It runs through a deep canyon with steep cliffs on both sides. Large sandstone outcrops can be seen on both sides with waterfalls in wetter years.
After Malibu Canyon Road when we enter Pacific Coast Highway we come across Pepperdine University. It's a private, coeducational university.This 830 acre university is located in Malibu. It was first founded in 1937 by George Pepperdine . It's beautiful & is worthy of a glimpse.
Malibu area is known for being the home of Hollywood movie stars & other affluent.Much of its coastline is blocked by million-dollar mansions & private beach clubs. Most of its residents live within a few hundred yards of beach.Pacific Coast Highway traverses through it,with some residents living up to a mile away from the beach up narrow canyons.It has a reputation for being one of the best places to relax in the warm. It's famous for its scenic beaches, active surf, & imposing mountains whose rocky soil gives rise to enough grapes for an entire wine industry to spring forth. It has Mediterranean climate. The beach is 21-mile strip . They are private & public beaches.
We parked our car near Point Dume State Beach. It features headlands, cliffs, rocky coves & vast beach access. The beach is presently operated by Los Angeles County. It provides facilities for swimming, surfing, scuba diving & fishing. Point Dume is a perfect place to watch for California gray whales during the December to mid April migration period.
After going around that part of Malibu, we visited EI Matador State Beach. It's without question one of California’s most photogenic beaches. Set along the Pacific Coast Highway near Malibu, this stretch of coastline is dotted with sea stacks & small caves that glow at sunset. A steep dirt trail goes down to some stairs, which makes this location inaccessible for the handicapped. The views from the upper cliffs are incredible, looking down on large boulders & deep blue water filled with kelp forests.The beach is long & there's plenty of sand for sunbathers.Body boarders & body surfers come to it year-round because it picks up summer & winter swells. The beach & rock s reminded me of Durdle Door natural limestone arch in England. It has paid parking.
It was evening we drove back to L A through Pacific Coast Highway. The lights of Santa Monica especially that of Pacific Park Wheel was welcoming & piercing our eyes.