14/04/2026
Days 358-362 - Thursday-Monday, 09-13 April 2026
Staying: Los Angeles Airport (LAX), CA, USA
Pictures: https://photos.app.goo.gl/Rpzv3xiDksJ5WxZD6
After runs/walks from our motel on Thursday morning, we took care of some chores and, in the afternoon, drove half an hour north to the Petersen Automotive Museum near Hollywood. The museum hosts a vast collection of interesting cars and motorbikes. There were some of the first motor cars along with more recent racing and sports cars, as well as cars that had featured in well-known movies, all in pristine condition. It was easy to spend a couple of hours there, as we did.
In the evening, we had an enjoyable visit with Dave’s step-nephew, Nick, and his family, residents of West Hollywood, including a convivial dinner at a local Italian restaurant. Nick ordered a driverless Waymo taxi to take us back to our car parked a mile or so away, and we had the surreal experience of sitting in the back seat of the vehicle with nobody at the wheel, as it navigated the busy evening traffic.
On Friday, we braved an hour of peak-hour Los Angeles traffic to drive to the Hollywood Reservoir where we each went for runs - two laps of the Reservoir (11km) for Dave and a 12km loop from the Reservoir for Julie that involved climbing high onto the Hollywood Hills near the famous Hollywood sign on some challenging trails. After our runs, we drove another 45 minutes to the architecturally impressive Getty Center which sits spectacularly atop a hill overlooking Los Angeles, and spent three hours wandering through the fascinating exhibits and gardens there. Neither of us would remotely claim to be art connoisseurs, but we enjoyed looking at the mostly historic artwork, photography, sculptures, furniture, pottery and silverware and enviously admired the skills of the artists.
We had a very early start on Saturday to get to the Brea Reservoir Parkrun scheduled for 7:30am. We were there an hour early and ten minutes before the start there seemed to be more volunteers than runners but, suddenly, runners materialised from everywhere and there were 37 starters. The course was the hilliest and roughest we have seen for a parkrun, but not too bad and quite enjoyable. Julie was second female in a reasonable time, while Dave finished near the rear, nursing a sore hip and keen not to make it worse. Apparently about half the field were tourists from out of town, including three other Australians, which is common for this parkrun which is organised by a South African. Everybody was very friendly and we spent a long time chatting to the other Australians after the run.
After the run we returned to our motel and much of the rest of the day was spent sorting and packing our belongings for the flight home.
We woke to rain on Sunday morning and both got wet on our morning runs from the motel. Dave also encountered a large and aggressive dog roaming the streets ownerless and had a short stand-off witnessed by several motorists who stopped but didn’t do anything (maybe they planned to call 911 if he was savaged). Fortunately, the rain cleared in the afternoon when we journeyed to Dodgers Stadium to watch them play the Texas Rangers. Our seats were eye-wateringly high behind home plate, but we had a good view of the action, including watching the best player in baseball, Shohei Ohtani, hit the first ball of the Dodgers first innings out of the park. Sadly for the Dodgers, it was all downhill from there and they were easily beaten, but we enjoyed the play and hype.
Monday was to be our last day in North America, but our flight to Sydney wasn’t scheduled until 10:40pm, so we had some time to kill, though our rental car had to be returned near the airport by 4pm. Firstly, Julie ran and Dave walked from our motel before we showered and completed our final packing and checked out of the motel at 10:30am. We didn’t go far, just to a nearby diner where we had a final American breakfast to celebrate the end of our year in the US and Canada.
After breakfast, we drove to Hollywood and spent more than an hour and 6km walking along the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It was very touristy, and a bit seedy in parts, but we enjoyed picking out the names of stars we knew along the walk. We then decided we had time to quickly visit the nearby La Brea Tarpits, which proved to be very interesting. The tarpits, boggy areas where oil has seeped to the surface, have yielded the skeletons of many ice age mammals including mammoths, sabre-tooth tigers, etc. Palaeontologists are still excavating skeletons to this day.
Then it was off to the airport to return the rental car and check in for our flight. Even though we had paid for an extra bag, mostly full of loot and bling from the running races we had run, our three bags were all overweight. After being informed the additional charge would be $600, we went to Plan B, and divided our luggage into four bags, all within the weight limit, and just paid an extra $100 for an additional bag.
We have had a great trip. It exceeded our expectations in almost every respect - the van we bought proved to be ideal, Julie ran some fabulous races and completed her trek along the Pacific Crest Trail in near record time, Dave managed to do more running and races than he ever thought likely, we caught up with valued friends, and we saw some wonderful sights and country. Also, despite the politics, we have been welcomed and treated well by all of the Americans we have met, regardless of their likely political affiliations.
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