World Trip 2002 - Los Angeles
Day 1
It
was a thirteen hour flight from Melbourne to Los Angeles. About the longest
non stop flight I have ever taken. There had been delays on departure due
to a baggage handler's strike and a nervous traveler before take off, so I
made it into LA two hours late. I was of course worried that Alex might not
be there to greet me. At first he wasn't so I paced around but presently saw
him standing in the back, with a sign saying "Jason Panic". I greeted
him and we walked out to his car.
Alex said that at first he had considered writing a sign just saying "Panic" but since this was the airport that had seen the shooting of a gunman just weeks before he thought that wasn't a good idea. I laughed at the idea of seeing a guy standing there with a sign saying Panic. Maybe I should have just given out my full name before the trip.
I was eager for a shower, so we pulled up to Alex's work where I washed off. We then drove around Los Angeles., past a giant stadium I had spotted as I flew into LA Airport. Bruce Springsteen was due to play there. I love his music. We drive down through Inglewood, a rough neighborhood. Then we drove down Hawthorn Boulevard, heading south. Past the Mall, that Mall, Hawthorn Plaza. The world's largest abandoned shopping mall. It was big. At least a kilometer long. That was a big place and I was keen to explore it.
We
ended up driving north through LA and then west towards Rotondo Beach. I'm
sure Alex was surprised by my request to see the beach. To me it wasn't just
any beach. I had washed my hands in the other side of this ocean. The mighty
Pacific. It was daunting to realized that I had now stood on two sides of
this big drop of water.
We drove around LA, Alex showing me some neat places, like Pacific Palisades, as mentioned in a Beach Boys song. Apparently the guys used to hand out on the LA Beaches all the time when they were younger. We drove north into Santa Monica where we drove up to UCLA.
UCLA is well known in the Urban Exploration and Exploration scene as having college tunnels. I wanted to scout them out. We wandered around campus, looking for possible entrances and asking the occasional person if they knew anything about them. No one did of course. I was surprised that even the book shop had no idea. No books on them either. We finally found a free Internet terminal and looked up a map from this site. In short order w were off across campus, past friendly squirrels, to a likely entrance. It was wide open. I was in like a flash to confirm it was indeed a tunnel. I snapped off a few pictures then returned to the surface. Both Alex and I decided that could do with some further scouting later on. We looked for other entrances, but did not find any suitable ones. We crossed the famous bridge, but could not get in.
I
can't recall if we ended up driving past O.J Simpson's house before we went
to the UCLA steam tunnels or after. Because of the controversy surrounding
him, O.J's old house was sold and torn down. A new one is under construction
on the site. We also drove up along the beach past some massive old power
stations that would be great to explore when they became abandoned.
We met up with the Urban Explorer and booked into a motel for the night. We made for the abandoned shopping mall that evening. After contemplating several ways to get in, and being eyed off by locals as we attempted to climb a rail signal to get in we found a very easy way in that we had completely missed.
Both Alex and the Urban Explorer don't plan to visit the disused mall again so the don't mind if I tell a bit about how we got in. It was via a loading bay in the basement. Easy entrance. We rested while we prepared our gear. I got my video camera ready and handed the digital to Alex. I think the guys both already had their own pictures because they didn't bring cameras with them. We climbed some stairs up to the ground floor, into one of the major cornerstone stores. I began to realise how big the place was. But I still hadn't got a real idea of that yet. I began to grasp that when we were up on the next floor.
We walked around the store, pulling ninja poses for the camera, poking into rooms and looking behind closed doors. The guys led me over to the western side of the mall, out of the major store. Into the main section of the Hawthorn Mall itself. It was then that I realized it was big. In a few moments I began to realise how big. Big isn't the right word, Huge begins to describe it. Massive fits the bill. This place was easily the largest building I had ever explored. I kicked myself that I was only in town for two nights. You could spend days exploring this place and never see it all.
We walked around for hours, exploring store after store. We snuck into an abandoned pizza restaurant. a jewelry store was left abandoned with display cases remaining. We walked past a hotdog on a stick store. I contemplated a Sprint console in the middle of the lower level. I was surprised to learn the mall closed only a few years before. Perhaps though it was a prop from the movie Minority Report, part of which was filmed in the mall. You know, the scene towards the end with the balloons. The place was so big it was hard to take photos of it but the video came out good.
We walked through the administration area, past a public address console. Now I wish that thing had power. I could imagine the security guards pissing themselves as we yelled something at them. There were security guards on the premises. Only hours before we had also observed cars driving into a yard in the Mall. They were doing work renovating a section of it. We left the PA system alone before continuing on to the roof. The roof of the mall was a crazy place. All sorts of aircon gear up there. Nice views over LA, seeing planes flying into LA airport and Jack Northrop Field, a block away from the Mall. The roof was tarred over, with all sorts of crazy angles to take care of water disposal. In some places it leaked into the abandoned mall below. We looked into the mall itself through big glass skylights. This place would be doubly impressive during the day, I could imagine you would really be able to get a true idea of the size of the place.
Eventually I began to get tiered, I think while we were walking through an abandoned Radio Shack store. We made our way out of the mall, to drove to the motel. I slept solidly, with no complaints of snoring. When I woke the next morning I was more or less adjusted to the time.
Day 2
The
next day The Urban Explorer drove me around LA. I was amazed to see streets
like Santa Monica Boulevard. We drove north once again, heading for UCLA and
it's college tunnels again. We arrived, parked and headed for the entrance
I had found earlier. It took a lot of patience to get in. Friendly groundsmen
were busy watering the grounds near the entrance. On top of that, there were
people around the door of the building nearby smoking cigarettes. It seemed
that when one would go, another would come out. It was an age till we got
in. The UCLA tunnels were a bit disappointing as we only managed to see a
short bit of them. Sure it was exciting, but the tunnel soon grew low and
was so crammed with pipes that it was impossible to get through. I never did
get to see the interior of the Bridge but at least I had been inside the UCLA
college tunnels.
It turned out the youth hostel at Santa Monica was booked out. No beds left. I ended up staying at this very dodgy hostel down on Venice Beach. The place was really dirty. The baths needed a serious wash. Also the floors were all tilted, the whole building was on a slight angle. I observed a tenant roll a ball bearing across our room floor. At least the people staying there were interesting. It included an inspiring actor, one of many in LA I am sure. This guy insisted he had played a bit part in the movie Abyss. Despite the dodgy hostel, I had a good night's rest before Alex came pick me up to take me to the airport.
I really have to thank both Alex and The Urban Explorer for their kind reception, for showing me around and explaining things to me. It made for a great welcome to the US. I never would have been able to see nearly as much stuff if I had not been met by people. These two guys made the visit to LA a lot of fun, and a lot more interesting than if I had been exploring on my own.
Day 3
From Los Angeles I flew on to Chicago, flying over the Grand Canyon on the way.
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