Domestic Travel?

I don’t need to belabor the obvious by saying how weird this year has been. It’s been difficult to start traveling again, and now certainly isn’t the time to be picky about the when and where. If you’re in a position to travel safely, your options are limited. For me, that certainly put some domestic travel on the agenda that I wouldn’t otherwise have considered. Which is a shame, frankly. I’m approaching 100 countries and… confession time… I’ve never visited Los Angeles. When I saw that round-trip tickets there are less than $200 on United, I decided to use an extended weekend to fix that omission. One odd thing about this year… I feel like I haven’t had hardly any ability to travel, and yet, along with an upcoming trip, I’m on track to reach the highest tier of status with United, something I wouldn’t have dreamed of in prior years. I’m consoling myself that that will be amazing when things get back to “normal”. They will, right? Right??? Anyhow.

I treated the trip to Los Angeles like I would any trip to a foreign country. I packed the same, planned the same, etc. Stayed in Santa Monica, did some hiking in the Hollywood hills, a bit of photography. Despite fires burning on the horizon, the air quality and visibility wasn’t too bad. The beaches were lovely, the food was great, and the sunsets were just ethereal. Cheap, direct flights to LAX could become an easy habit.

LAX - Be prepared for massive crowds at the airports

Santa Monica Pier

Bikes taking over Santa Monica

MacArthur Park - "Best places to fly a drone in Los Angeles" ...they neglect to mention the homeless encampments there. It's a pretty damn shady park.