Off I Go! Part 1

My cary on bag and my "personal bag are packed with room to spare!

And Hubs dropped me at the airport and I breezed through the TSA check and boarded the plane without a hitch!

It's a full plane going from CID-PHX then PHX-LAX! I used Uber to get from the airport to our hotel in Torrance and met with MCR (My Cousin Robin) let the vacation Begin!

First day in LA! It's New Years EVE! Our Tour group with Diamond Travel arranged several options for us to choose from. We chose the city tour to get the lay of the land.

First stop is the Walt Disney Concert Hall, home of the LA Philharmonic. It's a famous building and designed by Frank Gehry, and we were told it has spectacular acoustics.

Here we are!

We walked down the block to see the view from this part of Los Angeles.

Lots of tall buildings.

And the Concert Hall is beautiful!

On we go to Hollywood Boulevard!

There are these food/drink vendors all over the place!

We took the escalator up to the top of the Mall at the Chinese Theater aka The Dolby Theater to see the Hollywood sign.

Here we are again!

There are a lot of tourist things to do on Hollywood Blvd. 

And lots of thigs to see-If you're a people watcher-there are PEOPLE!

And there's even a Target!

On we go to the Farmers Market!

We had lunch at this stop. The first farmers market in LA started out in  1934 as farmland then a gathering place that soon was covered by a roof for year round markets. 

There are grocery stall, restaurants, food shops, candy stores, just about anything you could want is here! It's HUGE!

Here's a look inside one of the larger World Market Stores.

Pretty plants growing all over the place!

Back on the bus we are headed for Venice Beach!!!!

It was described to us a a Hippy Place. 

And it's kinda true I guess, it seemed to me more like a lot of folks who wanted to be outside at the beach. 

It had been stormy recently in the area so the waves were kind of rough.

Such a beautiful day!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/qKDuNVoFEpLQ2hSXA  Here's a little video. I love the ocean! I couldn't wait to get my toes in the water! Very COLD water!

And then the bus took us back to the Hotel. I could have stayed at the beach for HOURS! Oh well, some is better than none! We decided to take an uber to a nearby steak place for supper. There had been a disturbance in the area near our hotel the night before, so walking around in the dark did not seem like a good idea. 

A nice ribeye and a nice sirloin sure hit the spot! 

Now we had to get an uber back to the hotel, but there were none available, hmmm, well we'd try to get a taxi! Thankfully that worked out just fine using the yellow cab app! One thing we are finding is that, for short ride, Taxis are much less expensive than Uber. SO now we know!