The Great Journey Part 2: Road Trip-LA, Las Vegas, Hoover Dam & Pacific Coast Highway
Mar 6, 2006, 3:00 am
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The Great Journey Part 2: Road Trip-LA, Las Vegas, Hoover Dam & Pacific Coast Highway
The Great Journey – Part Two
Below is a road trip I took in 2002 over the course of two and a half weeks, as part of a six month RTW, which may assist others planning a similar trip:
LA, Las Vegas, Hoover Dam and The Pacific Coast Highway
American Airlines to LA
It was getting autumnal in the City and time to move on from New York to the hopefully warmer climes of the East Coast. I enjoyed soaring out over the city on a bright sunny morning with a view of the still dramatic skyline as we pulled away over Manhattan.
It was an excellent flight, and half empty, although as had been the case with the flight into Washington we were still not allowed to walk between cabins at all, or move around half an hour after take off and before landing. The irony of being served champagne from a glass bottle into an easily broken glass, yet still having to manage to eat with plastic knives and forks was obviously lost on the cabin staff. Over the desert I had an excellent view of Las Vegas – which really is in the middle of nowhere – and then the mountains before coming into land at LAX.
Autumnal LA
Having left a crisp autumnal morning I arrived in LA to a disappointingly crisp and autumnal morning – the cooler weather had come early and my sweater was unexpectedly pressed into service. I maneuvered past the space age terminal at LAX and collected the rental car – a silver 4WD SUV which would be my home for over 2500 miles of driving over the next fortnight.
I set out to find my hotel among the palm trees, journeying past the huge Beverly Hills Police station, which resembles (and is probably used more) as a country club than a place of law enforcement .
Sunset Boulevard
Located on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, a short walk from the infamous Viper Room, is the excellent Standard Hotel www.standardhotel.com. Featured in Sex in the City, the hotel has a live model lying in a glass case behind the check in desk. She spends most of the day reading magazines, chatting on her mobile and sleeping. At night the reception desk is used for the decks of the resident DJ and the place becomes a very hip fully fledged poolside nightclub. You would expect Austin Powers to walk in at any moment!
Up the road, an excellent Comedy Store and plenty of restaurants on the sidewalk. The best hotel I popped into was the Mondrian, another Ian Shrager design (http://www.ianschragerhotels.com/home.html), with the most spectacular poolside restaurant (Asia de Cuba) and bar overlooking the shimmering nightlights of LA, and well worth a visit.
My fellow traveller, who would be travelling with me for the next two weeks, flew out the next day and we started our sightseeing around LA, him scouring his guidebook to ensure we missed nothing of cultural significance, and me in charge of finding decent hotels.
Driving round Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive the place really does have a surreal feeling to it. Because you have seen all these places so many times before in movies, there is a strange feeling of déjà vu wherever you go. The huge amount of Rollers, Porsches and Mercedes has to be seen to be believed.
We drove up Sunset to see Mann’s Chinese Theatre (now renamed something unmemorable in response to political correctness) and saw the sidewalk paved with stars, most of whom you have never heard of. This was actually quite disappointing as for all the glitz and glamour of the Hollywood, the actuality is one of a rather scummy part of town and a profusion of homeless people.
Universal Studios was good, although the weather was by now closing in and rain meant we were not up to doing the Jurassic Park water ride which is meant to be the highlight of the Park. I left thinking the one in Orlando was much superior, if a little busier.
Long Beach and the Queen Mary
Venturing further afield, we drove an hour south to Long Beach, where the Queen Mary is permanently moored (www.queenmary.com). It is now a tourist attraction and hotel, and well worth a tour. The internal fittings are largely preserved and there are a couple of reasonable restaurants on board. It is interesting to see what first class travel used to be like in the 1950s, and there is also a Russian sub moored next door which you can look at with the same ticket. Howard Hughes’ “Spruce Goose” – still the largest aircraft ever built in the world (www.sprucegoose.com) was stored in a hangar nearby, but was moved to Oregon a decade or so ago and the hangar is now used as a film set.
Before we moved on we decided to have a look at the “Ghost Ship” attraction at the side of the ship. It really was one of the best experience rides I have ever done. It is an interactive tour of the bowels of the ship – right down to the bottom plate. The tour centers on an incident which was hushed up during the war when the ship was used across the Atlantic.
Several Navy sailors died when the Queen Mary plowed through the midship of a naval escort vessel in poor weather, sinking the ship and drowning several seamen, as well as causing a great deal of since repaired damage to the QM. You go right into the murky depths of the ship, where the boilers used to be, and there is a simulated flood, an eerie “supernatural” encounter, and the chance to see the magnificent second class indoor pool complex. All in all the ship is well worth a visit!
We also managed time to take in the awesome mountaintop architecture and gardens of the Getty Museum (http://www.getty.edu/museum), with some amazing collections of furniture and paintings, and also a trip to the pier at Santa Monica, rather like Brighton but obviously very much out of season when we visited.
Las Vegas and the Desert
The Florida tan was now fading slightly, so urgent measures were called for. Having been inspired by my view of Las Vegas from the air we booked a spontaneous trip to Nevada. Seeking escape from the decidedly drab weather we resolved to head East in search of the desert heat – just a six hour drive from LA through some real frontier country, with Jericho Trees and cactus growing alongside the road.
We stayed at the Luxor (www.luxor.com) having managed to get our rooms at the bargain rate of $39 each per night on their website. The hotel is a huge black glass pyramid with a replica of the sphinx outside and a million candle power beam emanating from its roof which had to be turned lower as it was interfering with stellar observations due to light pollution in the desert. Both the place and the majority of visitors were decidedly naff, and that is exactly the fun of Las Vegas – a great place to spend a couple of days of neon escapism, and guaranteed sunshine.
We started out with a walk down the strip, and then saw the obligatory show, the Blue Man Group, in our hotel. It was like nothing I had seen before; a kind of comedy drum show with three performers painted entirely in blue bashing drums full of fluorescent paint. Weird, and frankly not my cup of tea, but apparently sold out most nights at the scandalous price of $90 per ticket. Avoid.
Having been disappointed by our initial foray into the famous Vegas shows, we were reluctant to spend much more, so opted for a trip over to the other end of the strip. Those of you who know me well will know my quiet interest in Star Trek and therefore I dragged my traveling companion reluctantly to the Hilton where the Star Trek exhibition is located. Expecting the usual sci-fi museum, I was seriously impressed by the detail of the displays, and having left him to the slot machines proceeded to the ride.
In a mock up of the Enterprise I was beaming from ear to ear – there was a really great simulator ride (better even than the Back to the Future ride at Universal Studios). But the best bit was when I was “transported” from one room to another without even moving. The illusion was so convincing I was quite disoriented afterwards. Brilliant!
With a few hours to kill before supper at the revolving restaurant (no naffness here you understand!) we decided to see Sheena Easton, the past it singer of Bond theme For Your Eyes Only and 1981’s Morning Train fame. With just 150 people in the small auditorium the show was actually rather good, with her being disarmingly honest about her one hit wonder status – she managed a standing ovation at the end of the evening, and having gone in not expecting much I had a good time.
Of all the free exhibits, it was actually the Bellagio’s huge 100 foot fountains which dance to the undulating jazz music of Pink Panther which impressed most, although the Pirate Show was also worth a look. It is also easy to take a plane to see the Grand Canyon as my traveling companion did, and despite the early start it was a great way to see the Canyon.
Should you be visiting anytime soon, I would strongly recommend booking tickets for Cirque du Soleil and Celine Dion and Elton John in advance – both shows are sold out for three months, but are/will be the best shows in town. Also unmissable are the shops at the Venetian, with an incredibly believable blue sky tromp l’oieil ceiling (spell check was unhelpful here, sorry) which really makes you think you are outdoors.
Sadly we had no Elvis sightings, the received opinion is that he is no more!
The Hoover Dam
After a few days of neon and lights, it was time to move on to some of the awesome surrounding sites near Vegas, and we took the short drive over to the Hoover Dam (www.hooverdam.com) on the Nevada/Arizona border. A vast edifice, very good and informative newly revamped visitor center, and you are able to go down into the electricity generating plant and see the massive original generators which still generate power now, mainly to pump water into LA and surrounding communities.
Security was tight as this is one of the most important strategic installations in the US. It is believed the dam was so heavily over-engineered it could withstand almost any conventional attack. However, taking the facility offline for even a few weeks would severely hamper the economics of California and impact water distribution for surrounding states.
Back through LA in the car overnight, and starting on our journey north along the Pacific Coast Highway, weather had recovered and spent the night in Ventura, waking up we walked along the seashore watching the surfers catching the waves along the various bays.
Santa Barbara of eponymous soap fame had a splendid wooden pier, and would have been even better if it had been warm, but we slunk back into the car and did a quick trip around the key sites and the monastery ending up in the pier in the company of some similarly chilly pelicans.
Eerie Morro Bay
Morro Bay (www.morrobay.org) was another hidden gem culled from the pages of Robin’s assiduous guide book reading. It is an eerie dormant 200m high volcano reminding you of how close you are to the most active faultline in the world. The day we visited the place was shrouded in mist and the screech of the local gulls and fishing boats bobbing in the bay leant the place a strange feeling of other worldness.
Hearst Castle
San Simeone was an unexpected treat in the form of Hearst Castle (www.hearstcastle.org/). By 1947, Hearst and his architect Julia Morgan had created an estate of 165 rooms and 127 acres of gardens, terraces, pools and walkways. The incredible pool was featured in the film Spartacus and given the remoteness of the location and the incredible wealth of fine European ceilings and other features, this place is more like a sampler of the finest stately homes in Europe. Despite the six 20 minute trips up and down the mountain in a bus along a twisting switchback, I would recommend doing all three tours and making a day of it as we did.
After that we journeyed through the night to Big Sur, where we rested in a log cabin at the Big Sur River Inn (http://www.bigsurriverinn.com/), a great little hideaway log cabin style B&B. We stayed there on Halloween, and walked in to find all the staff with green make up dressed in cloaks, although I think we were so tired and used to that sort of thing in America that we were not conscious of their strange garb until a while later!
Monterey
Monterey was the next stop – a great little seaside town and possibly the best clam chowder I have ever tasted. The rocks at the entrance to the Harbour are littered with the fattest seals I have ever seen, and thanks to a fence at the end of the breakwater you can walk right up and see them up close which is great fun.
Along the way we saw the most unusual sight – A six foot high bison with horns two meters wide strapped atop a white truck. No-one would believe this existed had I not managed to snap a photo of this bizarre creation!
However, time was pressing, and it was that day’s goal to reach our destination at the end of the Pacific Coast Highway.
We decided to enter San Francisco over the Golden Gate Bridge and could not have timed our entrance better, going over the bridge just as the sun was setting and it was at its best, with the orange sun accentuating the gargantuan structure, the gateway to the Pacific.
Well, that’s probably enough for one day. Thanks for sticking with me through part two – the final (part three) of the USA trip will include the rest of San Francisco, Napa Valley, Calistoga Volcanic Spa, San Diego and Palm Springs.
Below is a road trip I took in 2002 over the course of two and a half weeks, as part of a six month RTW, which may assist others planning a similar trip:
LA, Las Vegas, Hoover Dam and The Pacific Coast Highway
American Airlines to LA
It was getting autumnal in the City and time to move on from New York to the hopefully warmer climes of the East Coast. I enjoyed soaring out over the city on a bright sunny morning with a view of the still dramatic skyline as we pulled away over Manhattan.
It was an excellent flight, and half empty, although as had been the case with the flight into Washington we were still not allowed to walk between cabins at all, or move around half an hour after take off and before landing. The irony of being served champagne from a glass bottle into an easily broken glass, yet still having to manage to eat with plastic knives and forks was obviously lost on the cabin staff. Over the desert I had an excellent view of Las Vegas – which really is in the middle of nowhere – and then the mountains before coming into land at LAX.
Autumnal LA
Having left a crisp autumnal morning I arrived in LA to a disappointingly crisp and autumnal morning – the cooler weather had come early and my sweater was unexpectedly pressed into service. I maneuvered past the space age terminal at LAX and collected the rental car – a silver 4WD SUV which would be my home for over 2500 miles of driving over the next fortnight.
I set out to find my hotel among the palm trees, journeying past the huge Beverly Hills Police station, which resembles (and is probably used more) as a country club than a place of law enforcement .
Sunset Boulevard
Located on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, a short walk from the infamous Viper Room, is the excellent Standard Hotel www.standardhotel.com. Featured in Sex in the City, the hotel has a live model lying in a glass case behind the check in desk. She spends most of the day reading magazines, chatting on her mobile and sleeping. At night the reception desk is used for the decks of the resident DJ and the place becomes a very hip fully fledged poolside nightclub. You would expect Austin Powers to walk in at any moment!
Up the road, an excellent Comedy Store and plenty of restaurants on the sidewalk. The best hotel I popped into was the Mondrian, another Ian Shrager design (http://www.ianschragerhotels.com/home.html), with the most spectacular poolside restaurant (Asia de Cuba) and bar overlooking the shimmering nightlights of LA, and well worth a visit.
My fellow traveller, who would be travelling with me for the next two weeks, flew out the next day and we started our sightseeing around LA, him scouring his guidebook to ensure we missed nothing of cultural significance, and me in charge of finding decent hotels.
Driving round Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive the place really does have a surreal feeling to it. Because you have seen all these places so many times before in movies, there is a strange feeling of déjà vu wherever you go. The huge amount of Rollers, Porsches and Mercedes has to be seen to be believed.
We drove up Sunset to see Mann’s Chinese Theatre (now renamed something unmemorable in response to political correctness) and saw the sidewalk paved with stars, most of whom you have never heard of. This was actually quite disappointing as for all the glitz and glamour of the Hollywood, the actuality is one of a rather scummy part of town and a profusion of homeless people.
Universal Studios was good, although the weather was by now closing in and rain meant we were not up to doing the Jurassic Park water ride which is meant to be the highlight of the Park. I left thinking the one in Orlando was much superior, if a little busier.
Long Beach and the Queen Mary
Venturing further afield, we drove an hour south to Long Beach, where the Queen Mary is permanently moored (www.queenmary.com). It is now a tourist attraction and hotel, and well worth a tour. The internal fittings are largely preserved and there are a couple of reasonable restaurants on board. It is interesting to see what first class travel used to be like in the 1950s, and there is also a Russian sub moored next door which you can look at with the same ticket. Howard Hughes’ “Spruce Goose” – still the largest aircraft ever built in the world (www.sprucegoose.com) was stored in a hangar nearby, but was moved to Oregon a decade or so ago and the hangar is now used as a film set.
Before we moved on we decided to have a look at the “Ghost Ship” attraction at the side of the ship. It really was one of the best experience rides I have ever done. It is an interactive tour of the bowels of the ship – right down to the bottom plate. The tour centers on an incident which was hushed up during the war when the ship was used across the Atlantic.
Several Navy sailors died when the Queen Mary plowed through the midship of a naval escort vessel in poor weather, sinking the ship and drowning several seamen, as well as causing a great deal of since repaired damage to the QM. You go right into the murky depths of the ship, where the boilers used to be, and there is a simulated flood, an eerie “supernatural” encounter, and the chance to see the magnificent second class indoor pool complex. All in all the ship is well worth a visit!
We also managed time to take in the awesome mountaintop architecture and gardens of the Getty Museum (http://www.getty.edu/museum), with some amazing collections of furniture and paintings, and also a trip to the pier at Santa Monica, rather like Brighton but obviously very much out of season when we visited.
Las Vegas and the Desert
The Florida tan was now fading slightly, so urgent measures were called for. Having been inspired by my view of Las Vegas from the air we booked a spontaneous trip to Nevada. Seeking escape from the decidedly drab weather we resolved to head East in search of the desert heat – just a six hour drive from LA through some real frontier country, with Jericho Trees and cactus growing alongside the road.
We stayed at the Luxor (www.luxor.com) having managed to get our rooms at the bargain rate of $39 each per night on their website. The hotel is a huge black glass pyramid with a replica of the sphinx outside and a million candle power beam emanating from its roof which had to be turned lower as it was interfering with stellar observations due to light pollution in the desert. Both the place and the majority of visitors were decidedly naff, and that is exactly the fun of Las Vegas – a great place to spend a couple of days of neon escapism, and guaranteed sunshine.
We started out with a walk down the strip, and then saw the obligatory show, the Blue Man Group, in our hotel. It was like nothing I had seen before; a kind of comedy drum show with three performers painted entirely in blue bashing drums full of fluorescent paint. Weird, and frankly not my cup of tea, but apparently sold out most nights at the scandalous price of $90 per ticket. Avoid.
Having been disappointed by our initial foray into the famous Vegas shows, we were reluctant to spend much more, so opted for a trip over to the other end of the strip. Those of you who know me well will know my quiet interest in Star Trek and therefore I dragged my traveling companion reluctantly to the Hilton where the Star Trek exhibition is located. Expecting the usual sci-fi museum, I was seriously impressed by the detail of the displays, and having left him to the slot machines proceeded to the ride.
In a mock up of the Enterprise I was beaming from ear to ear – there was a really great simulator ride (better even than the Back to the Future ride at Universal Studios). But the best bit was when I was “transported” from one room to another without even moving. The illusion was so convincing I was quite disoriented afterwards. Brilliant!
With a few hours to kill before supper at the revolving restaurant (no naffness here you understand!) we decided to see Sheena Easton, the past it singer of Bond theme For Your Eyes Only and 1981’s Morning Train fame. With just 150 people in the small auditorium the show was actually rather good, with her being disarmingly honest about her one hit wonder status – she managed a standing ovation at the end of the evening, and having gone in not expecting much I had a good time.
Of all the free exhibits, it was actually the Bellagio’s huge 100 foot fountains which dance to the undulating jazz music of Pink Panther which impressed most, although the Pirate Show was also worth a look. It is also easy to take a plane to see the Grand Canyon as my traveling companion did, and despite the early start it was a great way to see the Canyon.
Should you be visiting anytime soon, I would strongly recommend booking tickets for Cirque du Soleil and Celine Dion and Elton John in advance – both shows are sold out for three months, but are/will be the best shows in town. Also unmissable are the shops at the Venetian, with an incredibly believable blue sky tromp l’oieil ceiling (spell check was unhelpful here, sorry) which really makes you think you are outdoors.
Sadly we had no Elvis sightings, the received opinion is that he is no more!
The Hoover Dam
After a few days of neon and lights, it was time to move on to some of the awesome surrounding sites near Vegas, and we took the short drive over to the Hoover Dam (www.hooverdam.com) on the Nevada/Arizona border. A vast edifice, very good and informative newly revamped visitor center, and you are able to go down into the electricity generating plant and see the massive original generators which still generate power now, mainly to pump water into LA and surrounding communities.
Security was tight as this is one of the most important strategic installations in the US. It is believed the dam was so heavily over-engineered it could withstand almost any conventional attack. However, taking the facility offline for even a few weeks would severely hamper the economics of California and impact water distribution for surrounding states.
Back through LA in the car overnight, and starting on our journey north along the Pacific Coast Highway, weather had recovered and spent the night in Ventura, waking up we walked along the seashore watching the surfers catching the waves along the various bays.
Santa Barbara of eponymous soap fame had a splendid wooden pier, and would have been even better if it had been warm, but we slunk back into the car and did a quick trip around the key sites and the monastery ending up in the pier in the company of some similarly chilly pelicans.
Eerie Morro Bay
Morro Bay (www.morrobay.org) was another hidden gem culled from the pages of Robin’s assiduous guide book reading. It is an eerie dormant 200m high volcano reminding you of how close you are to the most active faultline in the world. The day we visited the place was shrouded in mist and the screech of the local gulls and fishing boats bobbing in the bay leant the place a strange feeling of other worldness.
Hearst Castle
San Simeone was an unexpected treat in the form of Hearst Castle (www.hearstcastle.org/). By 1947, Hearst and his architect Julia Morgan had created an estate of 165 rooms and 127 acres of gardens, terraces, pools and walkways. The incredible pool was featured in the film Spartacus and given the remoteness of the location and the incredible wealth of fine European ceilings and other features, this place is more like a sampler of the finest stately homes in Europe. Despite the six 20 minute trips up and down the mountain in a bus along a twisting switchback, I would recommend doing all three tours and making a day of it as we did.
After that we journeyed through the night to Big Sur, where we rested in a log cabin at the Big Sur River Inn (http://www.bigsurriverinn.com/), a great little hideaway log cabin style B&B. We stayed there on Halloween, and walked in to find all the staff with green make up dressed in cloaks, although I think we were so tired and used to that sort of thing in America that we were not conscious of their strange garb until a while later!
Monterey
Monterey was the next stop – a great little seaside town and possibly the best clam chowder I have ever tasted. The rocks at the entrance to the Harbour are littered with the fattest seals I have ever seen, and thanks to a fence at the end of the breakwater you can walk right up and see them up close which is great fun.
Along the way we saw the most unusual sight – A six foot high bison with horns two meters wide strapped atop a white truck. No-one would believe this existed had I not managed to snap a photo of this bizarre creation!
However, time was pressing, and it was that day’s goal to reach our destination at the end of the Pacific Coast Highway.
We decided to enter San Francisco over the Golden Gate Bridge and could not have timed our entrance better, going over the bridge just as the sun was setting and it was at its best, with the orange sun accentuating the gargantuan structure, the gateway to the Pacific.
Well, that’s probably enough for one day. Thanks for sticking with me through part two – the final (part three) of the USA trip will include the rest of San Francisco, Napa Valley, Calistoga Volcanic Spa, San Diego and Palm Springs.
Mar 6, 2006, 1:29 pm
#2
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: London, UK
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Posts: 6,221
Krug sounds like a great road trip. I look forward to hearing about the next section. I am off to SFO in April and hoping to visit the Napa region.
Err you mean warmer climes of the West Coast don't you?
Originally Posted by krug
It was getting autumnal in the City and time to move on from New York to the hopefully warmer climes of the East Coast.
Last edited by Moomba; Mar 6, 2006 at 1:36 pm
Nov 14, 2006, 7:03 pm
#3
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Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2003
Posts: 5,735
Originally Posted by Moomba
Krug sounds like a great road trip. I look forward to hearing about the next section. I am off to SFO in April and hoping to visit the Napa region.
Err you mean warmer climes of the West Coast don't you?
Err you mean warmer climes of the West Coast don't you?
Here is part three:
San Francisco, Napa and Calistoga