First Day in Cali & the Tehachapi Loop

The day after I arrived in California, Tyler took me on a little adventure of the area near the camper.  Our first stop was the little town of Tehachapi.  He took me on the scenic route through the job site.  Tehachapi is a very quaint little mountain, railroad town.  They have a few antique stores & shops that I can't wait to visit.  Also, I found a paint your own pottery place.  I am super excited about that. 

From there we headed to Bakersfield.  The drive from Tehachapi to Bakersfield is one of the most beautiful highway views I have ever seen.  Green rolling mountains for as far as you can see.  On the way we drove through the Tejon Ranch.  At nearly 270,000 acres, Tejon Ranch is the largest continuous expanse of private land in California.  As we dropped down into the valley, I was in awe of the orchards.  There were so many and went for as far as the eye could see. 

There really wasn't much to see in Bakersfield.  We went to the mall and a few other shops & then headed home.  On our way home we passed a train that was headed for the Tehachapi Loop.  We got off the interstate and made our way to the over look.  Below is the picture I took of the train in the loop.  The second picture is of the plaque at the over look.  I copied what the plaque said so it is easier to read. 



Train in the World Famous Tehachapi Loop

Below I copied what is written here:

NATIONAL HISTORIC CIVIL
ENGINEERING LANDMARK

TEHACHAPI PASS RAILROAD LINE

Constructed 1874 - 1876 Commemorated October 1998

In front of you is the world famous Tehachapi Loop which is about halfway upgrade to the Tehachapi Pass. This steep line averages 2.2% in gradient in its 28 miles of length. This feat of civil engineering genius was the crowning achievement of civil engineer William Hood of the Southern Pacific Railway Company. It is one of the seven wonders of the railroad world.

The Tehachapi Pass Railroad Line was cut through solid and decomposed granite by up to 3000 Chinese laborers from Canton China. They used picks, shovels, horse drawn carts and blasting powder. This line, which climbs out of the San Joaquin Valley and through the Tehachapi Mountains had 18 tunnels, 10 bridges and numerous water towers for the old steam locomotives. It was completed in less than 2 years time under the leadership of civil engineer J. B. Harris, Chief of Construction, a remarkable feat.

This line was part of the last and final link of the first railroad line connecting San Francisco to Los Angeles. It was a primary factor in the early growth of the City of Los Angeles and the State of California.

This single track line, essentially unchanged, is still in constant use today, 122 years after its completion. It passes an average of 36 freight trains each day. This attests to the superior job of both engineering and construction done by the two civil engineers and the Chinese laborers. This plaque is dedicated to them.

History & Heritage Committee
Los Angeles Section and Southern San Joaquin Branch
American Society of Civil Engineers

Here is video I found on YouTube of a train entering the loop.  The video is about 7 minutes long.  The video is slow (it is a train) but it is really neat to watch how the loop works.  The train will enter the screen on the left side. 

Hollywood Part 2

While we were in Hollywood we went on a StarLine Hop-On Hop-Off Double Decker Bus Tour.  The route we took had about 16 stops including, Rodeo Drive, Paramount Studios,  Shopping on Melrose Ave., Sunset Strip, Pink's Hot Dogs, La Brea Tar Pits, Peterson Automotive Museum and Hollywood Forever Cemetery.  It was such a beautiful day for the ride also!      

StarLine Hop-On Hop-Off Sightseeing Tour Bus



The both of us on the bus.

 

View of Hollywood Blvd. from the top of the bus.

The beginning of the the tour took us past the Chateau Marmont Hotel on Sunset Blvd.  The Cateau Marmont made headlines in 1982 when comedian John Belushi died from a drug overdose.  It also occasionally finds itself in the tabloids for a variety of scandalous activity, from underage drinking to secret romances.  Sandra Bullock is quoted in the LA Times as saying "No wonder people come here to have affairs, its got that air of history, where you know a lot of people did things they weren't supposed to do."  

  

Chateau Marmont Hotel

From there the tour took us back to Beverly Hills & back down Rodeo Drive.  It was fun having a "birds eye" view of what we had seen earlier in the day.  At the end of Rodeo Drive sits the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel.  Home to the characters Richard Gere & Julia Roberts played in the movie "Pretty Woman".   

Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel

The tour continued on & we passed landmarks such at the Four Seasons Hotel, The Ivy and The La Brea Tar Pits. 

Four Seasons Hotel

We got off the bus at Petersen Automotive Museum.  Tyler was super excited about this stop!  Petersen Automotive Museum is a 300,000 square feet building that has a revolving inventory of cars.  The day we went they had just opened a new exhibit, Super Cars.  I didn't take many pictures while we were there.  I did take some pictures of some of the more famous cars though.     

The Love Bug

The Batmobile

Speedracer Car

General Lee (2005 movie)

The Museum also played a small role in a celebrity murder. Rapper Notorious B.I.G. had attended a Soul Train awards party at the Petersen on March 9, 1997; when the controversial rapper left the party in his car, he was gunned down nearby in a drive-by shooting.

By the time we were finished with the museum tour it was starting to get dark and we wanted to get back to Hollywood Blvd.  We waited a few minutes on the bus to return, but got impatient.  Sooo, we took a cab.  And a good thing we did.  We drove right by Kat Von D's tattoo shop!! High Voltage & home to the TV show LA Ink.  We wanted to stop, but like I said before it was getting dark and the shop was not in the best part of town.  Hopefully before we leave California we can make it back. 

High Voltage Tattoo

Home of LA Ink

This is the view we had when we pulled back up to Hollywood Blvd:

It isn't a great picture and it doesn't show how breath taking it was, but it will do. 

A little bonus to the day....on our way home Tyler we missed our turn & wound up the Bel-Air.  We got lucky on that wrong turn, we always use the GPS now! 

Ok, I have one last picture to share with you.  This was the real LA!  I am glad we were on top of a bus!!

The Flu Strikes Back!

I just want to let everyone know we are still here.  I am working on a new post and hopefully will have it for you soon. 

The last 2 weeks have been a little crazy around here.  Unfortunately Tyler ended up with the flu 2 weeks ago and this past week he didn't work due to weather.  So we used the week off as a mini vacation.  We headed to Vegas early in the week and ended it in Long Beach.

I will have posts about those adventures soon! 

Sarah

Hollywood Blvd. (Hollywood Part 1)

(I am very sorry for the picture quality. I took them with my iPhone)

The same day that Tyler & I went to Beverly Hills, we also went to Hollywood Blvd.

Hollywood's Walk of Fame

The Walk of Fame was amazing. There were so many stars, lining both sides of the street, with some of them doubled up. I was only able to get a few picture's. There were so many people on the sidewalk that you would get run over if you stopped.

Notice that each star has a round emblem below the stars name. This shows the celebrity's category. There are 5 different category's:

• Motion Picture Camera - Movie Stars & Director's
• Television Set - People in Television industry
• Phonograph Record - Singers & Songwriters
• Radio Microphone - Radio Personalities
• Comedy & Tragedy Masks - Live Stage Performers

Singing-cowboy, Gene Autry is the celebrity with the most stars. He earned 5 different stars, one in each category. After doing a little research on the Walk of Fame, I learned that major stars, Robert Redford, Mel Gibson, Jane Fonda & Clint Eastwood still haven't been awarded stars, but Big Bird, Lassie and Pee Wee Herman have!

Kodak Theatre!

I am sure most of you know that the Kodak Theatre is the permanent home of the Academy Awards. It was so surreal walking the red carpet route. Sadly, I forgot to take a picture of the stairs that are usually red carpet lined. We did walk up them and what a walk! I can't image doing it in formal wear and heels!

The Roosevelt Hotel was home to the first Academy Awards



Jimmy Kimmel Live!!
(Before we leave SoCal I WILL see Jimmy Kimmel!!! Mark my word!)

Tyler & I did Hop-On, Hop-Off Double Decker City Tour. My next post will be all about our bus tour. The picture below is from the top of the bus. This picture does not show the amount of people that were there that day.

Street view from top of bus

Everywhere were people dressed up as movie characters. These characters are out everyday, making a living posing for pictures & tips. I didn't take any pictures of the characters other than this one with Tyler's phone. Some of them were very pushy, so you had to act like you didn't see them to walk down the sidewalk.

All of the kids loved Woody! We could hear them yelling from across the street!

Grauman's Chinese Theatre

Grauman's Chinese Theatre was a fun place to visit! Tyler & I had a great time searching the forecourt for celebrity's hand and foot prints. While the theatre was being built, owner Sid Grauman had accidentally stepped into wet concrete. After seeing his own footprints, he got the idea to have movie stars do the same*. The theatre was opened in 1927 & is still home to most of Hollywood's premieres.

Like I said before, we had a great time searching for foot prints! Here are a few of our finds:

Judy Garland


Tom Hanks


Adam Sandler


Marilyn Monroe
(notice how dark her hand prints are....she by far has had more people touch her hand prints than anyone else. Of course this is my assumption.)


Harry Potter Cast
(I loved seeing this one. Anyone that knows me, knows how much I love Harry!!!)

Johnny Depp

(We took this one special for Tyler's Aunt Jo. (HI Aunt Jo!!))

Will Smith

John Wayne

(He did his fist print instead of hand prints)

Tyler's fist fits John Wayne's!!

Clark Gable

(LOVE)

Cher

This is only half of what we did in Hollywood. I had to break this post into 2 posts or it would have lasted forever! My next post will be about our open topped double decker bus tour! But for now I will leave you with one last picture:

Hollywood

(I took this with my iPhone so don't hold it against me! Also, the Hollywood sign is a whole lot further away than you would think. This was even zoomed in. Hopefully before we leave we can get a better shot with my camera. )

*there are many different stories on how & why Grauman's started the hand & foot prints. This is the information we were told by our tour bus driver.

Beverly Hillbillies

On our first day of sightseeing, Tyler & I headed to Beverly. Hills, that is. Swimmin pools, movie stars.

The infamous Beverly Hills sign

Beverly Hills. Wow. What more can I say. It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. All of the yards, bushes, trees, and flower beds were perfect! We learned that all of the streets in the neighborhood of Beverly Hills were lined with a different species of tree. Also, we found out that if you don't pick up after your pet, you could be sentenced to a year in jail. In 1989, Zsa Zsa Gabor slapped a Beverly Hills police officer and was only sentenced to 3 days in jail. Obviously, slapping a police officer is better than letting your dog poo in the grass.

I am sure you can guess the first place we headed in Beverly Hills:

That's right. We went to Rodeo Drive!

What a beautiful place! I had made a post on Facebook about where we were and a friend made the comment that "you can eat off the sidewalks." And, yes you could. Tyler & I enjoyed walking up & down the street window shopping. We did venture into a few of the shops & we were not surprised at how rude the staff was. I guess that is one thing I learned from Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. Every shop we went into had a vast number of men dressed in black suits. Security. Lewis Vuitton had more security than they did staff members.

One store that we passed had a Bugatti Veyron parked outside. Tyler was super excited to see it. He informed me that this car sells for $3,000,000.00!!! That blew my mind.

We saw more expensive, exotic cars than either of us had ever seen in our entire lives. Range Rover's are like Ford Taurus's in Arkansas. We ate lunch outside at a restaurant just off Rodeo Drive. Every few minutes we would hear what sounded like a street bike but it would be some wild Ferrari. And the Rolls-Royce's were everywhere.

This is the store that the Bugatti was parked in front of.

This store, bijan, is considered the world's most expensive store. We learned on our bus tour of Hollywood that you can only shop at this store by appointment and that the cheapest suit sells for $15,000. When I got back to the camper I did some research on the bijan line and found that President Obama wears his suits.

Beverly Hills was amazing!