Ray's Rabbit Hutch: Santa Monica, UCLA, Beverly Hills, Holleywood--9th Day in the States

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Santa Monica, UCLA, Beverly Hills, Holleywood--9th Day in the States

On the 9th day in the States, we got up early, put the key in a key drop box at the hotel, jumped in the car and drove to Los Angeles; it's 450 km away from Las Vegas.The strip (main street) in the morning was quiet in contrast with it at night. You can see only hotel workers, construction workers or delivery workers. No tourists were walking on the streets.During five hours' driving, at first we grabbed a bite of sandwiches we had bought them for breakfast. Secondly, two daughters and my wife fell into sound a sleep as usual and I silently drove the car.

Clear crisp sky, bright light and vast ocean welcomed us in Santa Monica beach. The scene was just same as I had imagined in Japan.I had been wondering if I reserved the Hotel California that I wanted to stay, but I chose the hotel closer to LA downtown for easy access to a shopping area, so I only took a couple of pictures.

-----UCLA------------------------------------------------------------------

We went to UCLA and looked around the campus. Unfortunately, all classes and shops were closed on the day because it was Easter holidays during March 30th and April 1st.
I wished I could have bought some souvenirs at the shop in UCLA.
But, luckily, only one restaurant was opened, so we had a lunch there.

Prices of dishes in college restaurants in Japan are set lower than those of restaurants on the streets for the sake of students. But prices in a restaurant in UCLA were almost same as prices on the streets. Moreover, I don't know about Japanese college restaurants but UCLA accepted credit cards.

UCLA campus and its school buildings were beautiful and huge.

We happened to see a couple wearing formal wedding dress and suit come out of a limousine. I heard that it's possible to have a wedding ceremony in some Japanese colleges. They walked toward us and entered a schoolhouse.While passing us, my wife whispered, "Co...Congratulations." They didn't reply and just kept walking.