Los Angeles - QUICK

 About right in the middle of the Covid strangeness, I saw airfare to LA for $30 each way.....how could I pass that up?!?!?!?!   So we decided to go for a quick weekend over Shelley's bday!

We flew out early Saturday morning and returned home late Monday night.  Our rental car was brand new - 2021 Rogue with 121 miles on it when we got it.  When we returned it, it had almost 600 miles.  We drove quite a bit.

We were staying near the coast by Irvine (South LA) and saw a special tide pool tour was being offered by a state park at 1 pm Saturday.  We landed at 11 and still had to get the car, and drive the 1+ hour to the coast.  I didn't think we'd make it..... We did!  And we were the only ones that showed up for the tour!  

Our tour guide "Tim" was very nice and showed us things we'd never had seen on our own.  He asked us where we were from locally, and I said, "well, this morning we were in Salt Lake City and here we are now.  We literally got off the plane and drove down here to see you"  At first he didn't believe me....but soon he did.  We didn't check in to our hotel or anything - just drove straight there.  Tim felt special.

We flew right over Eagle Mountain and Jacob got this pic of our house.....it's where the blue arrow is

The meeting spot for the tour - nobody else was there

Tim leading the way

We even got to see Geico ads at the beach

This is a good jumping one

There were so many crabs!  Everywhere

We then made it to our hotel

The next morning we were up early to head to the Temple.  The Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha Mandir or BAPS Mandir.  This is a very special place in the Hindu religion.  They have five temples like this in North America.  We weren't really sure what to expect, but it was beautiful and peaceful and we were very glad we went.

The visitor center was made of all teakwood inside and out and it was the most ornate handiwork we've seen.  Meticulous work that would have taken years to do.

The temple itself is all done in Italian marble and hand carved. The marble was shipped to India where it was carved in pieces. Each piece was then numbered and shipped to Los Angeles where it was put back together like a lego puzzle.  

We couldn't take photos inside the temple itself, but I found some on the internet to show how intricate it was.  It was all around you.  Pillars inside - each was carved different and told a story.  Each wall.  The ceiling.  The shrines to the Hindu leaders.

The place was amazing.

Had to get the jumping pics in too

Good one!!!!

We then headed back to the coast - to Point Vicente to walk along the coast

Jumping pic time

This is a good one

So is this one

We found this 'hidden in plain site' geocache

It fits quite nicely into this fence post along the trail

And looks like this......how many people walk by it every day not knowing it's there!!!

We went to Subway for lunch, and were sitting outside in the sun.  I had enough sun already and my face was feeling very hot so I found a really good use for the mask and it actually did help a lot!

We then headed to a "must do" hike that was highly rated and one that the locals take their out of town visitors on it's so great!  It did have great ocean views.....about 25% of the time. The rest of the time it was very steep, sandy and hot - no shade.  We were not impressed and we wouldn't take any out of towners on this hike

On the way back to the hotel, we tried to find a lookout spot to watch the sunset

Our last day already?  We checked out of the hotel and went to the Observatory in Griffith Park.  We knew the observatory was closed, but we wanted to see the Hollywood sign.  We were going to do a hike under it, and found a secret park to start the hike from, but the sign was covered in clouds so no use doing the hike if we couldn't see the sign.  So we stopped at the Observatory to see if we could see the sign from there.

There was about a 3 minute window when the clouds moved enough to see the sign.

Time for jumps

Can you see the Hollywood sign?  Look closer

Now the handstands

Then we headed to our last stop before the airport- the LA Zoo. We'd never been there so it was time to go.

The jumping and handstands weren't quite coming together just yet

This peacock was in full bloom.  A kid about 4 years old was standing front of it while his mom was taking a pic...she kept telling him to get closer...get closer..and the peacock kept charging him about to peck him in the legs and butt.....and mom kept saying get closer!!!!  

After the zoo we still had about an hour..so we stopped by the train museum next to the zoo. All the cars were closed though and we could only go in one engine

Let's drive the train!

On the way back, this was as full as the flight got.  There were only 40 of us out of 150 seats.  They wouldn't let anyone sit past the emergency rows to "balance out the plane"

Back in Salt Lake!  Walking the 1 mile (yes, it really is that far) from the gate to the airport exit