Exploring Los Angeles

By Ramon

Ramon is the creator of Traveling Companion. He focuses on flight review, hotel reviews, and helping stretch your travel dollars, miles, and points further. ​​

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View of Los Angeles from Dodger's Stadium

Exploring Los Angeles Overview
​Los Angeles is the second largest city in the United States and the metro area is home to major film/television studios and a center of culture, particularly Chicano culture. With all of this in mind I planned a two -night stay in Los Angeles to give my dad a small taste of what the largest city on the west coast of the United States has to offer. I previously visited Los Angeles briefly for work but this is the most time I had spent consecutively in the city. While I had fun on my visit, I came away from my visit unimpressed with the city. The city has a host of problems which took away from my enjoyment including major homeless encampments, terrible public transportation which further drives its horrendous traffic and smog, boring architecture with massive sprawl, and insufficient density.

​Attractions
Dodgers Stadium
My dad is a huge baseball fan and Christina and her family are big Dodger's fan's so the first major stop in Los Angeles was a tour at Dodger's Stadium. Dodger's stadium is located in Chavez Ravine and its construction was controversial since the city utilized eminent domain to evict primarily Latino homeowners from the site to construct the stadium. The stadium is the third oldest in baseball behind only Fenway Park and Wrigley Field. I was impressed by the sweeping, though smog filled, view of Los Angeles from the stadium. 

View of Los Angeles from Dodger's Stadium

The tour was very informative and started in the outfield with an opportunity to look out over the stadium. The tour guide informed us that the stadium capacity is 56,000, the second largest in baseball behind the Oakland Coliseum, and the seats are color coded by level. Yellow representing sunshine, orange the beach, and blue for the ocean and sky. ​

Dodger's Stadium

As the tour continued, we were shown the suites and the press box. We were told that the suites at the time in 2020 ranged from $5,000-$15,000 and did not include food or drink. One cool fact is that Dodgers Stadium allows fans to bring outside food and drink. 

Dodger's Stadium Press Box

Other interesting information that was shared with us is that the Dodger's at the time had only retired 10 jerseys and to retire a Jersey you were required to be in the Hall of Fame. One of the retired jerseys was #42 for Jackie Robinson who played for the Dodgers who were the first team to integrate baseball with the inclusion of the first Black player on a Major League Baseball roster. The tour of Dodgers Stadium was cool and I would recommend it to any sports fan visiting Los Angeles.

Queen Mary
As we continued our exploration of the Los Angeles area, we decided to take a trip to the Queen Mary. The Queen Mary is a British ocean liner which served at various time as trans-Atlantic civilian transportation and a during World War II as a ferry for Allied troops across the Atlantic. One of the servicemen included Christina grandpa who served in World War II. The ocean liner was retired in 1967 and purchased by the city of Long Beach to serve as a tourist attraction and now is on the National Register of Historic Places. It was a cool experience for my dad to visit the ship since he remembered this large vessel entering the harbor in Nassau, The Bahamas as a child.
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Also,  during the tour of ship we learned several interesting facts. Even though it served as a troop transport the Queen Mary was never fired upon during World War II. As a passenger transport it hosted several celebrities including Bob Hope and Bing Crosby and made an appearance in the movie The Aviator. For 10 years the ship held the transatlantic speed record with a 3-day crossing. The tour guide said this trip normally takes about six days for an ocean liner today. When it served as a civilian ocean liner it, was divided into three classes and was often compared to another ocean liner the Titanic, even though it was larger and faster than the Titanic. Its First Class round trip tickets costs about $5,000 in 1936 which would be about $111,000 in 2023 dollars. 

The ship seemed in need of a refresh and after our visit in February 2020 the company that operated the ship went into bankruptcy due to the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the subsequent year the attraction underwent millions of dollars of repairs and reopened in April 2023. Overall, I found the tour interesting as a history lover and was happy to have a chance to have my dad aboard the ship he saw as a child. I would recommend it if you are a tourist interested in history. 

Sony Pictures Studio Tour
​Our next stop on our visit to Los Angeles was Sony Pictures Studio. Christina didn't join us since she had to go back to Washington D.C. for work. The Sony Pictures Studio is located on the same lot as the old famous MGM Studios. Sony purchased the land and items located on the lot from MGM when MGM shifted its focus to hotels. 

Sony Pictures Studio's Entrance Sign

Mom and Dad at Sony Pictures Studio

The first stop on our tour was a room chock full of memorabilia from various Sony Pictures television shows and movies. This included the set from the classic television show Seinfeld and items the various Men in Black movies. In this room we also got a chance to have a picture with a few Oscars, which sure looked real.

As we continued the tour the tour guide talked with us about some of the famous movies filmed on the lot including Air Force One, Star Trek, and The Wizard of Oz. At the time of our tour filming had just wrapped for the television show Shark Tank which the tour guide said was filmed in 20 days. We also got a chance to take pictures with some items from sets that were around the lot including one of the cars from Ghostbusters. 

Car from Ghostbusters

The iconic game shows Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! also are filmed on the Sony Pictures lot and as part of the tour we got to visit the Wheel of Fortune set. As a regular watcher of these shows when I was a kid this was really cool. My mom also was very impressed since she is still a big fan of Wheel of Fortune. The tour guide told us that typically six episodes of the show are filmed in one day. 

Sean Giambrone from The Goldbergs

During our tour the biggest highlight was getting to actually meet a celebrity. While we were walking around the lot, we ran into  Sean Giambrone who stars on The Goldbergs, one of my mom's favorite shows. He came over to talk and take pictures with our tour group and I was impressed by how down to earth he was. Our tour guide also explained that child actors, like Sean at the time of our tour, have an on-site school. He said that in old Hollywood it wasn't a required for kids to receive education. In response, Congress passed legislation requiring that entertainment companies provide education for child actors. 

Stage 30 at Sony Studios

This was my parents and I first visit ever to a movie studio and there were a few things I found interesting. First, there were trailers everywhere not just for the actors but for all of the support staff including hair and makeup. Second, it is amazing how small some of the television sets are and how good camera work can make a set look a lot bigger on television. Third, at Sony Pictures Studios other media companies were using the lot to film entertainment that wasn't being distributed by Sony Pictures. For example, while we were on the lot Apple TV+ was filming The Morning Show season 2. Finally, I came away with the impression that Sony Pictures was a little behind the times. Most of the television shows and movie released by the studio were not big hits during the time of our tour. 

Hollywood Walk of Fame
Our next stop was the Hollywood Walk of Fame. We walked around the streets looking for the stars of actors whom we knew. My dad was very happy to take a picture with the star, of perhaps the most famous Bahamian ever, Sidney Poitier. As we walked around the Hollywood Walk of Fame, I was surprised by just how many celebrities have a star. I wouldn't consider some of these celebrities to be legendary celebrities and I wondered if it just took the right amount of money to get star. As we walked around it also seemed that some stars got more prominent placements for those who were more famous. 

Sidney Poitier's Star

While we were walking around, we stopped in front of the Chinese Theatre and the El Capitan Theatre. I was really disappointed by the Chinese Theater which wasn't architecturally impressive and was surrounded by vendors hawking cheap tourist souvenirs. I thought that the nearby El Captain theater was much more impressive. 

Hollywood Museum
Our final stop was the Hollywood Museum located a block from the Chinese Theatre and El Capitan Theatre. This museum claims it has the largest collection of Hollywood memorabilia in the world. It is located in the former Max Factor building, which housed makeup artists to celebrities. I was impressed by the enormous number of items housed at this building. At the time of our visit the basement housed items for horror films, Star Wars, Hunger Games, and Planet of the Apes items were on the first floor, and an exhibit dedicated to the Pointer Sisters was on the second floor. I thought the most impressive floor was the third floor. This floor housed some original DeLoreans from the Back to the Future movies and the original Batmobile from the Batman television series. While the sheer number of memorabilia items at this museum was impressive, I thought the museum was dated and could have done a better job updating both the items on display and the way in which the items were displayed. 

Take Away
​It was great being able to show my dad a slice of Los Angeles. The most frustrating parts of Los Angeles were the poor air quality, poor public transportation, homelessness, and traffic. However, I really liked the weather, seeing Dodgers Stadium, and doing the Sony Pictures Studio tour. I really felt on this trip that I was getting to see slice of Tinsel Town. Overall, I think it was a great trip and I think my dad was left impressed and overwhelmed by the size of Los Angeles. Even though I couldn't picture myself living in Los Angeles because of the problems I mentioned, there is so much to see in Los Angeles that if I had the chance I would come back for another visit and recommend that others visit the city. One place I look forward to visiting on my next trip is The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures which wasn't open during our visit in February 2020.