Your turn to help me –
You may think only Angelenos read my blog, but I’ll have you know I have a following in Finland. A following of one, perhaps, but a following nonetheless –
Antti from Finland’s a fair trade advocate in a land that, amazingly, has no Starbucks. And he’ll be in LA — car-free in Hollywood — for one day on a stopover from a conference in Las Vegas to Heathrow.
Antti wants suggestions: What green activities would you recommend for a Finnish person with a Sunday night and Monday morning to spare in LA? Preferably, this’d be something v. LA — something he couldn’t ever do in Finland.
Put in your two cents, and I’ll compile the suggestions in order of my preference and put them in a post, as I get “what should I do in LA?” type questions relatively often. My fave suggestion gets an as of yet undetermined cool eco-freebie from me –
Photo by R.Duran
August 5th, 2008 at 8:56 am
Let’s pretend our visitor is staying in Hollywood.
For a Sunday evening, I’d take either the Metro Rapid 704 bus or Metro 4 bus down Santa Monica Boulevard all the way to the beach and get off at the final stop. Then I’d walk the palisades, walk down to the beach, say hello to the ocean, go back up, walk down 3rd Street Promenade and downtown Santa Monica.
For Monday morning, I’d get an all-day pass, and take the Red line subway to Union Station, get off and tour the station. Then I’d walk across the street, walk through Olvera Street and look at the zanja madre ditch/fountain right in front of the Avila Adobe and walk through the Avila Adobe. Then I’d walk across the street and walk around La Placita Church, Los Angele’s oldest church. Then walk south to La Placita, the little plaza and hub of the city. There’s a fine Chinese-American museum just south of the plaza telling Chinese history of Los Angeles as this area was the city’s first Chinatown.
If there’s time, walk about 4 blocks south to Little Tokyo and walk through the plaza there between the Japanese-American museum and the Democracy museum.
Of course, there are many fine restaurants along the way in Santa Monica, Union Station, Olvera Street, and Little Tokyo. But at least the visitor gets to see both the city’s historical beginnings in Olvera Street as well as the mighty Pacific and one beach city.