The City of Angels

Ahhh my favourite hang out. I love Los Angeles because it’s a little bit crazy. So much cool stuff is there – Hollywood, Disneyland, major league basketball and baseball, seriously good shopping, everything! I am never bored there. Since I started going there as crew I’ve done it all (although I’m yet to go to an NBA game, but it’s on the list!). But I’ve also taken some sweet side trips during my time there too…

A little bit of home at the Chinese Theatre on
Hollywood Boulevard



One time I caught an Amtrak train to San Diego. The time we get to spend in LA on our layover (or ‘slip’, as crew call it) is only about 35 hours, which isn’t very long when you factor in getting to and from the airport, sleeping, eating etc, so when I caught the train from LA to San Diego I only got to spend an afternoon and a night there. I could’ve stayed overnight in San Diego and gone back to LA the following day, but I was paranoid about missing call time to go back to the airport (train strikes! Forces of nature! Any possible thing that could go wrong and prevent me from getting back to LA in time to sign on to work, I’d thought of, because I’m super paranoid and weird like that). So I didn’t stay over night. But I still saw a fair bit of San Diego, which only took about 2 hours to get to from LA on the train.

Killer views of the Pacific Coast on the
way to San Diego

And Amtrak is lovely – I’ve ridden it many times in the US. I’ve done almost the entire east coast of America that way, and loved it, so I stick my hand up and say I am very pro Amtrak, definitely. I should do their advertising for them! It’s safe, clean, fast and cheap – AND they have power points and free wifi at every seat! How could you get any better!?

Anyway, San Diego was sick! Kind of a smaller, scaled down version of LA. But not so scary. LA can be a bit grimy and eye popping, a real land of extremes, but San Diego was its quieter cousin. I had a great time wandering around the Gas Lamp District, which was buzzing with gorgeous outdoor restaurants and bars and souvenir shops. I also wondered down to the water front and did some shopping downtown. I’d love to go back and see the San Diego Zoo, and Balboa Park, and have some real Mexican food – as I’ve been told it is top notch in San Diego! Hopefully one day I can go back and do all this!



Inside Pauley Pavilion

Another time I hopped on Amtrak I went to Westwood, which is where the University of California, Los Angeles is. Now I follow NCAA gymnastics, and the UCLA Bruins are one of my fave teams. Never did I think I’d ever get a chance to go and see a meet in person, but the stars aligned and in January of this year I had an LA trip over the weekend of the Bruins first meet of the season. Even better, they were competing against the University of Florida Gators, undoubtedly my favourite team in the NCAA. I could not believe my luck!

The trek to Westwood was pretty long – Amtrak is great, but sometimes I do wish I had the guts to drive a car in America, because it would be so much quicker sometimes! – but totally worth it. It took a taxi ride, two trains, a bus, a lot of walking and a stop over between trains in a veryyyyyy sketchy neighbourhood called Van Nuys, but when I walked onto the UCLA campus it was all worth it. I had my ticket, was wearing my Florida hoodie, and I was ready to cheer on the Gators (and the Bruins a little bit too!) inside historic Pauley Pavilion. Anyone who knows their NCAA basketball or gymnastics knows that Pauley is something pretty spesh. And it WAS.

 

The Gators won that night, and later went on to win the NCAA championship in April for the second year in a row. I felt so lucky I’d gotten to see an NCAA gym meet in the flesh – the atmosphere was incredible inside Pauley, and the gymnastics on display so impressive – and even luckier that I could go simply because my job took me to LA on many occasions. I was getting paid to go to LA and watch my favourite sport and wonder around the beautiful UCLA campus in a happy daze! How lucky is that?

Jorgs

Florida's Bridget Sloan - one of my favourite gymnasts of
all time and a 2008 Olympian - on floor exercise



UCLA's Sam Peszek - also a 2008 Olympian - on beam