Weeks 31-32: The City of Angels (and Traffic)

May 4, 2016 In Road Trip, Travelogues

Weeks 31-32: The City of Angels (and Traffic)

After seeing the sights at Joshua Tree and smelling the smells at the Salton Sea, it was finally time to head to fabled Los Angeles. We were there for two weeks, and we found that Southern California has great tourist attractions, excellent museums, incredible weather, and way too much traffic to handle.

Traffic Snarls

Warning: Long Rant Ahead

We should be clear before we start: we stayed in the “Los Angeles area,” but we definitely didn’t stay in Los Angeles. The city of LA, proper, is definitely not conducive to #RVlife. We stayed in Riverside, a suburb that would be about 45 minutes to the east with no traffic.

Unfortunately, there is never “no traffic” in the Los Angeles area. In fact, the LA area is routinely cited as having the worst traffic in the country, a fact exacerbated by the extreme distance between locations and the general lack of public transport. Aside from some buses and limited light rail, you’re on your own, which means everyone drives from place to place.

Everywhere. Always.

Combine overwhelming usage with no real alternatives, and the result is daily clusterfucks of traffic, just unholy congestion that has no analogue in the rest of the United States. (World-wide, the only thing we’ve seen that compares is Jakarta, Indonesia.) Leave during rush hour or just at the wrong time, and 45 minutes of travel becomes 90 minutes, which becomes two hours, and then three.

Rant intermission: OH MY GOD HE’S SMASHING THE CITY!!

There’s just no way around it: traffic rules life in LA. Our friend Jeremy’s job moved to a different part of the LA area, and he was stuck with a 3.5 hour commute – each way – until the lease ended on his apartment. For us, even with significant flexibility as to our schedule, we still routinely found ourselves stuck in gridlock on the freeway.

Predictably, the constant traffic also means that bad/angry driving habits are endemic in Southern California. Drivers are fairly good about staying in lane during gridlock, but they are, umm, “discourteous,” tailgating aggressively at all times and refusing to help out by changing lanes. Having been most of the way around the country, we are confident saying the LA area is probably the most unpleasant place to drive in the United States. We didn’t think anyone could top the Boston Massholes and NYC craziness, but Southern California proved us wrong.

via GIPHY

Living in an RV Down By The River(side)

All of the traffic talk is a long lead-up to the fact that Riverside was about as close to LA as we could get in the RV without going insane. The final fifteen minutes of freeway driving were some of the most stressful we have encountered – despite being far from rush hour. That said, we were happy with our choice, as the regional park we stayed at in Riverside had a lot of charm. (Plus, it was dirt cheap!)

Our campsite was next to a duck pond, and for the next two weeks, we enjoyed watching an incredible number of birds in and around the water. Notable were the two “zombie” ducks – weird-looking birds that wandered around near the RVs, making loud, panting noises like zombies hunting for brains (according to a 5-year old we met). Unfortunately, we somehow forgot to get pictures of them! D’oh. The park also offered mini-golf and disc golf, and the sunsets were great.

In Riverside itself, we visited Graffiti Falls, a “waterfall” hidden deep in the suburbs which has been covered with (mostly) artistic graffiti. It was tough but rewarding to find, and super-cool in person. Graffiti Falls is also definitely a local hang-out spot for teenagers – as we were leaving, two youths were apparently preparing for a pizza party (!), hiking along the semi-dangerous trail with boxes of pizza and bottles of ginger ale.

We also hiked up Mt. Rubidoux, a local landmark. We went on a Monday morning, expecting it to be empty, but the trail was still packed full of people, of every age and demographic. The top features a giant cross, and has been a popular spot for Easter morning hikes for more than 100 years. We scored some great views from the easy-to-reach peak.

The Tourists’ Tour

Despite the content specter of traffic, we had a blast visiting some of the many sights in LA. We did the really cheesy stuff, like seeing the Walk of Fame (conveniently located next to many seedy shops) and Grauman’s Chinese Theater. Predictably, these were overrun with the types of tourists we hate to be identified with – loud, oblivious, and committed to blocking the sidewalk – but that’s par for the course at these types of places. We did a little better by hiking Mt. Hollywood in Griffith Park, which gave great views of the Hollywood sign and the Los Angeles Area.

We also checked out a few cool museums and attractions, including the beautiful new Broad Museum (pronounced like “brode”), next door to the iconic Disney Concert Hall. It features some amazing contemporary art by a lot of well-known artists, the building is gorgeous, and it’s all totally free. Thanks, rich people!

We also stopped at the La Brea Tar Pits, which was pretty unique. There are real, bubbling tar pits in LA, full of millions of fossils from animals that wandered into the tar pits and became trapped. There was an entire display case full of dire wolf skulls! (Sorry, House Stark.) The tar pits also touch on the real reason LA became huge: not because of Hollywood, but because huge quantities of oil were found there. By 1930, California produced about 1/4 of the world’s oil! In fact, they still pump oil in the area today, and we actually spotted a few derricks ourselves.

Next door to the Tar Pits was the highly-regarded Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Unfortunately, we were running out of time (and museum-ed out) at this point, so we just enjoyed some of the excellent sculptures surrounding the museum.

The Locals Tour

After checking out some of the sights ourselves, we met up with Jake’s college friend Jeremy (referenced above), an LA native, who graciously offered to take us and his transplant girlfriend Katie on a “locals’ tour” of Los Angeles. This is a rare deal, since LA types usually avoid the tourist traps; it’s like a New Yorker agreeing to go with you to Guy Fieri’s restaurant in Times Square. [Ed. note: we physically shuddered just writing that]

To minimize traffic, we went on a Sunday, and specifically Super Bowl Sunday. None of us had a rooting interest in the game, so we figured, why not miss the crowds that do? It was a pretty awesome day, as Jeremy showed us a variety of cool LA landmarks with an efficiency that can only come from growing up in the area. The weather was perfect, and we saw the Venice canals and strolled along Venice Beach, walked out to the Santa Monica pier, and got some In-N-Out for lunch (Heather’s first time!).

We drove north of the city up into the hills, getting some nice views of LA. We then headed up Mount Wilson for an even more panoramic view of the city, before heading back to catch the second half of the Super Bowl (a blowout). It was all over by about 7 o’clock – that’s the magic of the West Coast. Thanks again, Jeremy and Katie!

The Getty Museum

Our final stop in the LA area was the J. Paul Getty Museum. Friends, we don’t say this lightly, but: the Getty might be the most beautiful museum in the world. Certainly, the collection can’t compete with, say, the Louvre (artworks of people sneezing/yawning excepted), but the architecture is incredible. Perfectly landscaped with gleaming white marble everywhere, it feels opulent, like a billionaire’s mansion, and the view is extraordinary. Even the monorail that takes you from the parking garage to the hilltop is fancy!

We could go on and on, but really, just check out the pictures below. We can’t even imagine how beautiful it would look with the trees and flowers in bloom.

After seeing the Getty, we stopped by Jake’s aunt and uncle’s house for a great home-cooked dinner (and leftovers!). We have to say, there are a lot of great things about this road trip, but visiting people all around the country has been one of our favorites. Thanks for having us, Fran and Bob!

Previous Post: Week 30.1: Joshua Tree National Park

Next Post: Weeks 33-34: Swooning Over San Diego