We don’t see this very often in Alabama.

We were driving somewhere around in Beverly Hills and came upon an outlook looking over what I assume is Bel Air. The haze had mostly cleared out from what it was earlier in the day, but you can see some remnants of the smog.

One night we ended up going to Hollywood and walk down the walk of fame. We of course drove by famous landmarks such as the Roosevelt Hotel, and the Capital Records building. The picture above is of the Chinese Mann Theater at night.

The above photos are some of my favorite of the trip, and are of Pacific Park on the Santa Monica Pier. The pier offered a few larger rides, such as a roller coaster and ferris wheel in addition to an arcade. There were also various street venders alongside people fishing right off the dock.

This is the end; the end of Route 66.

You can see more photos of my trip in my flickr photo stream.

I had a great time in LA, as the weather did not go above 80°F and was much lower in humidity. I also got to drive along the coast to Malibu and San Diego, which is a very different experience than I’m used to on the Gulf coast. There’s not hotels lining the shore every 20 feet, and towns have a much smaller, less flashy sort of feel. There’s not that much appeal to LA, but outside of LA southern California is definitely somewhere I would like to visit again.

We got to go to the beach for a little bit, but the surf was very rough with two red flags being posted. We ended up spending most of our free day crabbing and shrimping right off the bay in Gulf Shores. Didn’t catch any shrimp, and the crabbing wasn’t that great either with only 3 crabs for the whole day. About the only thing Clint and I brought back of substance would probably be sunburn.

Unfortunately for me, this may be my only beach trip this year. In previous years, my dad’s company would have a week long conference down in Panama City and allow for families to come down as well. They apparently have cut this out this year, so no more family beach trip. I might consider going down to Pensacola and camping sometime, but I’ll have to wait and see what happens with other things this summer.