Location: Los Angeles, California, USA
Summary: The tour began in Los Angeles, where we explored Hollywood, revisited familiar places, and discovered how much Long Beach had changed since my last visit. Sharing the experience with my Uncle Dave, who was seeing it all for the first time, gave the start of the trip a fresh sense of excitement.
In 2012, I decided it was finally time to show my Uncle Dave a bit of the America I’d been talking about for years. He’d never visited most of the places on our itinerary, so watching him take it all in for the first time gave the whole trip a fresh energy. We based ourselves at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles, a grand old building that still carries a hint of Hollywood’s past. Dave walked into the lobby like he’d stepped onto a film set.
Exploring Los Angeles
On our first morning, we joined a guided coach tour of Los Angeles. It was the usual mix of neighbourhoods, landmarks, and well‑rehearsed commentary, but it gave Dave a good feel for the city. Once the tour ended, we were dropped off and left to explore on our own. Naturally, we headed straight for Hollywood.
I’d been to Hollywood several times before, but this was all new to Dave. We wandered around Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, comparing our hands to the stars’ prints in the concrete. Dave took his time with each one, as if he might bump into the actors themselves if he stared long enough. It was a blisteringly hot day, so we ducked into the nearest restaurant, a Hooters, for a cold beer before we melted into the pavement.
It was Daves first Hooters and he left a big fan.
Fun Fact
Los Angeles was home to the first movie studio in the world, built in 1909 when the area was still full of orange groves. Within a few years, more than 80 percent of the world’s films were being made in and around the city thanks to the sunshine, cheap land, and the fact that Thomas Edison’s patent agents were too far away to chase filmmakers out of town.
A Train Ride to Long Beach
The next day, I joined a couple of people from our tour group and took a train down to Long Beach. I’d only ever driven through Los Angeles before, so seeing it from a train window felt strangely unfamiliar. We passed through areas I hadn’t seen in years, and it was odd noticing what had changed and what hadn’t.
Long Beach itself had grown into something quite different from the version I remembered, new restaurant districts, new buildings, and a more polished feel. I wandered through the newer parts of town, stopped for lunch, and then walked down to the port. It was a calmer, slower day compared to the chaos of Hollywood.
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