We made a little trip to Los Angeles. It was one of the things we wanted to do while beeing here. So we booked quiete spontanenously a flight.We decided to have a hotel near the airport since it is quite central. Well …. which brings me to my first general sum up. Los Angeles, I must say, will definitely not be part of my list of favorite cities. You need to drive EVERYWHERE and there is ALWAYS traffic. But lets not be so (German) negative. We had a good time and I will write a little bit about what we did.
1. Bike tour along the beach. We rented bikes and a kid cart in Santa Monica and drove towards Marina del Ray. With severl stops it took us abot 2,5 hours and was a very easy tour. Especially with a toddler there are some nice things to see and many playgrounds. There are some strange people in Venice Beach…. always intersting to watch. I especially liked our stop at the skaterpark.
Here is the littkle kid card we rented.
At the Playground in Venice Beach
Beeing unipressed by the skater boys (very good, lets see how long that lasts)
2. Walk of Fame
We have been told that the Walk of Fame is really not as “sparkling” as one might think…. We wanted to go anyway. It is true but I would go again if it is my first time.
Whohoooo. There are two (or three?) restaurants. Not sure if one should call it restaurant. It is a very “stylisch” Imbiss. Especially the one at Cahuenga Boulevard that also has a beergarden. In order to get a qualifiable view we went to both ;-). We really liked it Currywurst , although we thought that the sauce was a little thin and the Bratwurst tasted like a Rindswurst. Not sure what was going on there…. Next time we are in Germany I need to remember to bring a currywurst in the glass from our local butcher.
4. Getty Villa
Most people go to the Getty Museum which hosts an very big art selection in a very nice center including a garden. Unfortunately it was closed when we were there. We werent that sure about a musemu trip with a toddler anyway. So we went to the Getty Villa. If one is interested you should read about either of them. J. Paul Getty originally made money with (suprise) oil and spend a lot of money on art. Today it is a trust that is obliged to spend a certain amount of money each year to optain more art. 
Anyway, part of the Getty Villa is a reproduction or replica of the Villa of the Papyry in Italy (Yes, only in America). Entrance is free, parking is 15$) It hosts a ancient greece, Rome and Entruria collection (which we did not pay a lot of attention) and has very nice garden. There are regular tours. They are limited in space. We were lucky to sneak in.
A statue that just did not seem to be ticklish 
Checking out the herbs
5. Hollywood Sign
Our plan was to get as close as possible to the Hollywood Sign. It turns out, that it is not as easy to get to. This is how close we got. If one is interested you can search the internet, there are “How tos” available. 
6. L.A. Fashion District
We were short in time and very short in Luggage space (no checked bags). But I did manage a stop in the L.A. Fashion District. Well only in one store. I had read about it in the Dana made it blog that I follow. The store supports fashion scholarships and sells next to cloth and accessories textiles for often 1$/yard ( Yes, 1$) plus it has many jerseys, which I had trouble finding good selections so far in San Francisco. The selection is not big. But if you have 20 minutes and are in the neighborhood, it is defenitely worth a stop.
At the end we watched a very pretty sunset. 🙂 
smuemi 