Friday, January 3, 2020, Los Angeles, California
San Gabriel Mountains northeast of downtown Los Angeles
Los Angeles, officially the City of Los Angeles and often known by its initials L.A., is the most populous city in California; the second most populous city in the United States, after New York City; and the third-most populous city in North America, after Mexico City and New York City. With an estimated population of nearly four million people, Los Angeles is the cultural, financial, and commercial center of Southern California. The city is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic diversity, Hollywood, the entertainment industry, and its sprawling metropolis.
Los Angeles lies in a basin in Southern California, adjacent to the Pacific Ocean, with mountains as high as 10,000 feet, and deserts. The city, which covers about 469 square miles, is the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populous county in the United States. The Los Angeles metropolitan area (MSA) is the second-largest metropolitan area in the nation with a population of 13.1 million people. The Greater Los Angeles metropolitan area (CSA) is the second-most populous CSA metropolitan area with a 2015 estimate of 18.7 million people.
Historically home to the Chumash and Tongva, Los Angeles was claimed by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo for Spain in 1542. The city was officially founded on September 4, 1781, by Spanish governor Felipe de Neve. It became a part of Mexico in 1821 following the Mexican War of Independence. In 1848, at the end of the Mexican–American War, Los Angeles and the rest of California were purchased as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and thus became part of the United States. Los Angeles was incorporated as a municipality on April 4, 1850, five months before California achieved statehood. The discovery of oil in the 1890s brought rapid growth to the city. The city was further expanded with the completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913, which delivers water from Eastern California.
Los Angeles has a diverse economy and hosts businesses in a broad range of professional and cultural fields. It also has the busiest container port in the entire Americas. A global city, it has been ranked 6th in the Global Cities Index and 9th in the Global Economic Power Index. The Los Angeles metropolitan area also has a gross metropolitan product of $1.0 trillion (as of 2017), making it the third-largest city by GDP in the world, after the Tokyo and New York City metropolitan areas. Los Angeles hosted the 1932 and 1984 Summer Olympics and will host the 2028 Summer Olympics.
Renowned as the world’s leading center of film and
television, Los Angeles is also home to an endless array of museums, concert
venues, and offers some of the best dining in the world. Along the palm lined streets of Beverly
Hills, grand celebrity mansions hide behind iron gates. The chic shops of Rodeo Drive invite endless
browsing. The Roosevelt Hotel, an icon
built in the 1920s that once served as the residence of Clark Gable and Carol
Lumbard, oversees the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the historic Grauman’s Chinese
Theater. At mealtime, even the
entertainment titans head to the bustling Farmers’ Market in the Fairfax
District, the city’s open air dining emporium.
Postcards of Los Angeles
We viewed historic treasures and cultural gems of the “City of Stars” on an
entertaining, informative panoramic drive. We met our guide and embarked on a
narrated panoramic ride past famous landmarks such as the Los Angeles Coliseum,
the University of Southern California (an alma mater of Larry's), and the Museum of Natural History en
route to the downtown area. We saw the Music Center and Olvera Street; nicknamed
the “birthplace of Los Angeles,” it is the oldest street in the city. We stopped for
a guided walk in the iconic district of Hollywood, where stars are born and
dreams are made. We saw the world-famous Walk of Fame, where the names of
celebrities are emblazoned on stars embedded in the sidewalk; the Dolby
Theater, home to the annual Oscars ceremony; and the historic Grauman’s Chinese
Theater. Afterward, we boarded our motor coach for a drive past the renowned
Hollywood sign and through Beverly Hills.
The Walt Disney Concert Hall at 111 South Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles, California, is the fourth hall of the Los Angeles Music Center and was designed by Frank Gehry. It opened on October 24, 2003. Bounded by Hope Street, Grand Avenue, and 1st and 2nd Streets, it seats 2,265 people and serves, among other purposes, as the home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestra and the Los Angeles Master Chorale. The hall is a compromise between an arena seating configuration, like the Berliner Philharmonie by Hans Scharoun, and a classical shoebox design like the Vienna Musikverein or the Boston Symphony Hall.
Lillian Disney made an initial gift of $50 million in 1987 to build a performance venue as a gift to the people of Los Angeles and a tribute to Walt Disney's devotion to the arts and to the city. The Frank Gehry–designed building opened on October 24, 2003. Both Gehry's architecture and the acoustics of the concert hall, designed by Minoru Nagata, the final completion supervised by Nagata's assistant and protege Yasuhisa Toyota, have been praised, in contrast to its predecessor, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.
New modern Catholic church a few blocks from LA city hall.
OJ Simpson trial fame.
Homeless shelters on the side of freeway.
Quaint Catholic church.
LA Union Train Station.
Murals on the side of freeway.
New modern Catholic church from freeway side.
Downtown LA buildings from freeway.
The Beverly Hills City Hall, built in 1931
Beverly Hills is a city in Los Angeles County, California. Located within 5.7 square miles and surrounded by the cities of Los Angeles and West Hollywood, it had a population of 34,109 at the 2010 census[ and an estimated population of 34,183 in 2018. The city is home to many celebrities, luxury hotels, and the Rodeo Drive shopping district. Originally a Spanish ranch where lima beans were grown, Beverly Hills was incorporated in 1914 by a group of investors who had failed to find oil, but found water instead and eventually decided to develop it into a town.
Hollywood is a neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California, notable as the home of the U.S. film industry, including several of its historic studios. Its name has come to be a shorthand reference for the industry and the people associated with it. Hollywood was incorporated as a municipality in 1903. It was consolidated with the city of Los Angeles in 1910 and soon thereafter, a prominent film industry emerged, eventually becoming the most recognizable film industry in the world.
In the early morning we will be off our cruise ship to be taken to the airport to catch our flight to Kansas City. This will close our informative, interesting, and fun four-month cruise. We hope you have enjoyed the ride along with us.
Happy 2020, Larry and Diane
I enjoyed meeting you and I've enjoyed following along on your extended cruise. Four months would drive me nuts though! Thanks for sharing it though; you've given me lots of ideas of places I can fly. Take care. (And where is your next cruise taking you?)
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