Santa Monica

On November 23, 2015, we went to Santa Monica, after visiting Solvang, a small Danish town. Santa Monica is a beachfront city in western Los Angeles County, California, United States. The city is named after the Christian saint, Monica. Situated on Santa Monica Bay, it is bordered on three sides by the city of Los Angeles – Pacific Palisades to the north, Brentwood on the northeast, Sawtelle on the east, Mar Vista on the southeast, and Venice on the south. Santa Monica is home to many Hollywood celebrities and executives and is a mixture of affluent single-family neighborhoods, renters, surfers, professionals, and students. The Census Bureau population for Santa Monica in 2010 was 89,736.Santa Monica has three main shopping districts, Montana Avenue on the north side of the city, the Downtown District in the city's core, and Main Street on the south end of the city. Each of these districts has its own unique feel and personality. Montana Avenue is a stretch of luxury boutique stores, restaurants, and small offices that generally features more upscale shopping. The Main Street district offers an eclectic mix of clothing, restaurants, and other specialty retail.The Downtown District is the home of the Third Street Promenade, a major outdoor pedestrian-only shopping district that stretches for three blocks between Wilshire Blvd.and Broadway (not the same Broadway in downtown and south Los Angeles). Third Street is closed to vehicles for those three blocks to allow people to stroll, congregate, shop and enjoy street performers. Santa Monica Place, featuring Bloomingdale's and Nordstrom in a three-level outdoor environment, is located at the south end of the Promenade. After a period of redevelopment, the mall reopened in the fall of 2010 as a modern shopping, entertainment and dining complex with more outdoor space.The Santa Monica Pier is shown in many films, including They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969), The Sting (1973), Ruthless People (1986), Beverly Hills Cop III (1994), Clean Slate (1994), Forrest Gump (1994), The Net (1995), Love Stinks (1999), Cellular (2004), The Cutting Edge: Going for the Gold. A number of television series have been set in Santa Monica, including Baywatch, Three's Company, Pacific Blue, and Private Practice. The Santa Monica pier is shown in the main theme of CBS series NCIS: Los Angeles. In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the main exterior set of the town of Sunnydale, including the infamous "sun sign", was located in Santa Monica in a lot on Olympic Boulevard.^[87] All in all, we had a great time in Santa Monica.We shopped around downtown, and then we ate some food, and then decided to go back to our car, so we could head to our next destination, Anaheim.

Danish- Styled SOLVANG Town Nickname(s): Danish Capital of America:-----

रAfter we visited Hearst Castle on Nov. 22nd 2015, we headed to a nearby hotel close to 

San Luis Obispo in a city called Lompoc. We headed from Hearst Castle at about 5 p.m.We 

stayed at a hotel, and then we drove "SOLVANG" city Danish- styled Capital of America, located in Santa Babara County CA. It is also located in the Santa Ynez Valley. The city is home to a number of bakeries, restaurants and merchants.The architecture of many of the facades and buildings reflects a traditional Danish style. In the centre of the town, a statue of a famous Danish fable writer Hans Christian Andersen is located. Thanks to its beautiful Danish style architecture, Solvang has become a Californian tourist attraction, with over one million visitors. Solvang is a popular destination for bicyclists ...It is a home to museums devoted to Danish culture. In SOLVANG, we parked our car, and then stopped at the information desk, and shortly afterward,we hired a double Surrey which is a 4 seater bike, which resembles a miniature car. It has a steering wheel as well. After visiting and touring the small Danish town on the Surrey, we parked it and ate lunch at a restaurant called Tower Pizza. Clearly, this was a very exciting and interesting trip. 

Drive to San Luis Obispo

On the same day that we visited the Sankat Mochan Hanuman Temple, we also visited San Luis Obispo, directly from the temple. The drive was about 191 miles, and we reached by evening. When we reached San Luis Obispo,we stayed in a hotel called Embassy Suites. The next day, in the morning, we shopped around in downtown San Luis Obispo. The population of San Luis Obispo County was 269,637 in 2010. San Luis Obispo  (/sæn ˈluːɪs ɵˈbɪspoʊ/; Spanish for St. Louis, the Bishop [of Toulouse]) is a city in the U.S. state of California, located roughly midway between Los Angeles and San Francisco on the Central Coast. It is also the home to California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly), a public university enrolling nearly 20,000 students. The school is located just outside city limits and provides on-campus housing for nearly 6,000 freshmen and sophomores. The community is also served by Cuesta College, a community college a short driving distance away. Clearly, this was a very fun and enjoyable drive to San Luis Obispo. 

Hearst Castle Visit

On November 23, 2015 we visited the Hearst Castle. Hearst Castle is a national California historical landmark mansion located on the central coast of California. It was designed by architect Julia Morgan between 1919 and 1947 for newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst who died in 1951. It is a Spanish style guesthouse. Since it's been opened, it has been maintained within the Hearst San Simeon state park where the estate, And it's considerable collection of art and antiques, is open for public tours. Despite its location far from any urban center, the site attracts millions of travelers each year. The Hollywood and political elite often visited, usually flying into the estate's airfield or taking a private Hearst owned train car from Los Angeles. Among Hearsts A-list guests were Charlie Chaplin, Cary Grant, The Marx brothers, Charles Lindbergh, Greto Garbo, Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, James Stewart, Bob Hope, Calvin Coolidge, Franklin Roosevelt, Dolores Del Rio, and Winston Churchill. Hearst castle is located near the unincorporated community San Simeon, California, approximately 250 miles from both Los Angeles and San Francisco and 43 miles from San Louis Obispo  and at the northern end of San Luis Obispo. The castle is located at the top of the mountain, so we had to go buy a bus, which took us up to the castle, approximately half an hour. The hill is 1,600 ft. Overall this was a very beautiful castle, and we enjoyed the trip very much. 

A Joyful and amazing journey of Southern California, mainly the cities of Greater Los Angeles Area:-----

           In this adventurous journey with my daughter and her family, we traveled by car from her house in Cupertino, on Nov. 22nd, 2015, at 3:30 PM. Our first stop was at the Sankat Mochan Temple in the Mountain Madonna Center for Creative Arts and Sciences. This temple was established in 2001 by the students of Baba Haridass.This community was designed to nature the creative art and health sciences within a context of personal and spiritual growth. A group of talents & interests were unified by the common practice of yoga and meditation.The temple is located on the grounds of the Mount Madonna on Highway 101. It was a 50 mile journey from my daughter's house in Cupertino, and an total journey of 90 mins. Clearly, this was a very wonderful and blessed journey to the Sankat Mochan Hanuman Temple.

An adventure trip to San Francisco!

 I enjoyed the journey to San Francisco, which is the biggest town of Northern California ,with my grandson Vardhan,who loves to ride in trains, metros & buses just like me. This was a scenic journey by Cal Train, from Mountain View railway station to SF, on Saturday ,Oct.17th 2015. After reaching the SF Railway Station,we ate a delicious vegetarian breakfast at a restaurant, called Panera and then we took the Muni Metro near Panera, to the underground metro station named as EMBARCADERO. The EMBARCADERO consists of Bart and Muni metro station in the financial district of San Francisco. EMBARCADERO acts as a major hub for passengers moving throughout the San fransico Bay Area, with 45,460 exits. It is the busiest station in the Bart system, it vies with its western neighbor Montgomery Street. The station is truly an wonderous sight and inspires awe amongst the onlookers.   I was astonished to see that there were 3 metro trains running underground on top of each other! We came out by escalator from the underground metro station, that faces the HYATT REGENCY Hotel, and finally began our adventure ,we then walked on the long street, and there was a very good Exhibition of Hand Made Art & Manufactures of Jewellery ,toys etc. l saw one musician playing the guitar and singing and the people were enjoying the songs & music and giving one or two dollars to him. My grandson wanted a drawing of both of us, so we got one made by an artist ,who was making portraits of the visitors and so my grandson and I decided to get our portrait drawn.After that we walked to the Ferry Building Tower, which was constructed in the year 1915,and had a huge watch point on top of it. Inside this building, there is a market, and the Dock Yard of San Francisco. We also saw a ship that was boarding passengers. From there, we caught a bus to Fisherman's Wharf , where we saw many restaurants, shops, and a big dock yard, with ferries. Fisherman's Wharf is a neighborhood and popular tourist attraction in San Francisco. It roughly encompasses the northern waterfront area of San Francisco from Ghirardelli square east to Pier 35 or Kearny. Ghirardelli Square is a landmark public square with many shops and restaurants. On this square is located the famous Ghirardelli Chocolate Company which is a manufacturer and marketer of premium chocolate products. Incorporated in 1852 and the country’s longest continuously operating chocolate manufacturer, Ghirardelli has established its position as America’s Premium Chocolate Company. We then walked a while, and caught yet another bus! Then the bus dropped us off, and we walked 1 kilometer to catch our final bus headed to the Golden Gate Bridge. We stopped at the Visitor Center, then bought some books from there, and gathered some information on the wonderful Golden Gate Bridge! I learnt about Joseph Strauss, and how he made the Golden Gate Bridge. He started building in 1933 and opened the bridge to the public in 1937.  The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden gate strait, between San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean.  The bridge is made of steel and measures 2.7 km in total length, 90 ft in width and 746 ft in height. The bridge is one of the most internationally recognized symbols of San Francisco, California, and the United States. It has been declared one of the wonders of the modern world. Overall, this was a very unique and memorable journey for both me and my grandson.