Outer Space #3, Prompt 3
This past summer I was lucky enough to be able to go on a three week vacation out west; part of it with a friend and the rest of it with my aunt, uncle and two younger cousins who are 13 and 17. With my family, we went to LA and drove all the way up the coast of California on the Pacific Coast Highway to San Francisco. We made a bunch of stops on the way in incredible places like Big Sur, Santa Barbara, Monterey, the Redwoods Forest and Santa Cruz.
While it wasn’t my favorite stop on the trip, LA was certainly one of the most interesting places I’ve ever been. Between downtown, Hollywood/Beverly Hills, Venice Beach and Santa Monica, there were a whole lot of differences between just a couple of miles. Those differences were only more evident after watching the ‘On the Streets’ documentary, so I decided to use LA to ask my uncle and cousin about a ‘place’ we had all been.
I asked the younger cousin (13) and my uncle (60) the same 5 questions about LA, and there were definitely some differences in their responses.
1. What was your first impression of LA when we flew into LAX and drove towards where we were staying?
-Uncle: The traffic. I’ve heard of it being a problem, but it was seriously like nothing I’d ever been in. And it wasn’t even quite rush hour. That and just the sheer amount of people, it wasn’t as glamorous as I anticipated on the first go-through.
-Cousin: It was really different! Coming in on the airplane, it was cool to see the mountains and the coastline. But trying to get to the hotel was so crowded and took forever. When we got over the bridge and closer to the beach it was so awesome, there was a skate park on the beach and people everywhere doing or selling cool things.
2. Out of the many places we went while we were in LA, which was your favorite and why?
-Uncle: I thought the Griffith Observatory and the hiking trails up there were awesome. Still really crowded with people, but the terrain is so different than in Florida. When you finally got up to the top, you saw the cliche view of downtown and the Hollywood sign that everyone talks about, but it was genuinely breathtaking. It was cool to be so close to the inner city but still have the nature aspect right there, and you felt like you could see for hundreds of miles.
-Cousin: I thought that the Santa Monica Pier was so cool. All of the rides, the food, the art and people were awesome, and it was all right there on the beach. We rode bikes down to the pier and watched the sunset and it was so pretty. The Beverly Hills area was amazing too. All of the designer stores and crazy cars and houses made me realize why people would want to live there and why people dream of going there and being a star.
3. Which was your least favorite and why?
-Uncle: My least favorite was probably the inner part of Hollywood and the star walk of fame. You hear so much about it, and it was just bleh. It was so run down, such a sketchy area, and just so touristy and obnoxious. It’s something you go to for a few minutes to see once and grab a picture, then never come back again. I appreciated the other areas we went to way more than that.
-Cousin: My least favorite was probably the downtown Hollywood area too. It was really cool to see the names of some of my favorite celebrities on a star, and it’s something you hear so much about and see all the time in movies. That part was cool. But when you were actually there it was really dirty and kind of scary. A lot of homeless and a lot of people on drugs asking for handouts and selling things. It was disappointing because the cool part only took like five minutes!
4. How did LA as a place have a different feel than our beach hometown in Florida?
Uncle: The feel, to me, was completely different. As we got closer to the Venice Beach area and rode bikes on the beach, it was a similar vibe, but it was still different. It all felt more modern, more hectic, and not as laid back as our home. It was crowded everywhere, and the clothing stores and restaurants all seemed very artsy and ‘hip’. It felt like a place where you could either be at the very top or the very bottom, and there was a clear divide between which was which. I guess that’s what LA is all about though. Overall it just felt very “showy.”
-Cousin: To me the feeling of LA was similar to our hometown. A lot of active, beachy people. But it definitely was different in some ways because of how big it was and how fast moving it was. I wouldn’t want to wait in that traffic every day, but everyone we talked to seemed nice and cool, and most people are like that at home, too.
5. What was the most surprising thing about LA after having experienced it now?
-Uncle: I think I mentioned it before, but it was definitely how not-glamorous it was. The only part that had that “famous star” feel was Beverly Hills, because of all the luxury cars and homes and shops. But the rest of it was really just run down, not clean, and not what I had anticipated. That, and everything was very expensive. I knew it was California and it would be more expensive, but wow that was a big difference, even in the areas that it didn’t seem like it would be.
-Cousin: The amount of homeless people and not nice areas. You always hear of how LA is the city of dreams, where all the celebrities live, and where all the exciting things happen. After going there, it was still awesome, but it wasn’t just some glamorous bubble of nice things. There are more people who are on the streets than anywhere I’ve seen in Florida, and that was a shock.
As a whole, and as expected, my younger cousin’s answers were typically more surface based, naive/innocent, or based on the materialistic culture and theory of Los Angeles. My uncle’s tended to consist of more critical thinking and more thought about the feelings/abstract experiences of visiting LA. It was interesting to see the similarities and differences two people of different generations had about the same place. The appeal of the LA stereotype is much stronger within the younger kids than it is the adults, but that wasn’t a surprise.