Caleb overlooking the LA skyline at the observatory
At the moment, I’m chilling at the McDonald’s just outside of the Grand Canyon. I’m about to leave, but before I talk about the experience here, I will describe my stay in LA.
On Thursday I hung out with my brother and he took me around the city. We first went and grabbed a bite at El Pollo Loco, where the burrito and churros I had were pretty good. We then took a stroll through Beverly Hills where I took liberty to snap pictures of the houses that I liked. No one seemed to mind.
After Beverly Hills we went through the UCLA campus to see what it’s like to live as a Bruin. The campus is beautiful, but in my opinion not quite as nice as the University of Washington. There were some students floating around, but I don’t think the main Fall session had started yet. We also drove through South Central to see a different kind of neighborhood. South Central of course has a reputation of being a less desirable place to live. From what I hear there is a valid reason for the rep. But I was able to see Crenshaw which is a pretty famous street in South Central. We could have went through Compton or Watts during the day, but we didn’t have time. You wouldn’t want to drive through either of those places at night. And there are some areas where I as a younger black male would never want to drive through. My brother said there’s a really good mexican restaurant in the midst of an area controlled by latino gangs that really don’t get along with blacks. He’d like to eat there, but it’s just not worth the risk. “Would you like a bullet with your burrito homes?” No thanks!
After driving through South Central, we made a brief trip through the USC campus before heading to Venice Beach as things were winding down. Venice Beach was okay, but I thought the real treat was going up to the Observatory at night and viewing the large glowing expanse of LA. It was a truly spectacular view and I would highly recommend taking trip there if you’re in LA.
And that was my one day whirlwind tour of LA. But as interesting as LA was, it cannot compare to the experience of the Grand Canyon. Little did I know what awaited me on Friday evening. I will post about that experience either tonight or tomorrow morning.