Our plan for the morning was a visit to Exposition Park located just four miles south west of Downtown, Los Angeles and accessible by bus. The first venue we visited was the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum which is free to visit and was home to the summer Olympic Games of both 1932 and 1984.
It was the first stadium to hold the Olympic Games twice, serving as the main track and field venue and site of the opening and closing ceremonies. It is now used by the University American football team (USC Trojans) amongst other concerts and events.
Situated close to the Coliseum stands the California Science Centre, the main reason for our visit to the park. The museum offers free admission and contains air and space exhibits on permanent loan from NASA and the Smithsonian Institute.
The highlight of our visit was viewing the Space Shuttle Endeavour, located in the Samuel Oschin Pavilion. Endeavour successfully completed 25 missions into space including the first service mission to the Hubble Space Telescope and the first mission to add a U.S. component to the International Space Station.
I was surprised at the size of the space shuttle which we were able to view from all sides and even walk beneath it. The pavilion also featured SPACEHAB, a workshop for astronauts whilst in space and a space shuttle main engine which helped push the shuttle into orbit.
A further gallery in this impressive museum focusses on Ecosystems featuring more than 200 live plants and animal species with numerous hands on activities. Since our visit, the Space Shuttle is being repositioned into a new launch position along with its two solid fuel rocket boosters and orange external fuel tank.
Leaving the museum we continued along to the California African American Museum which also offers free admission. Only the museum’s entrance lobby was open when we visited due to a refurbishment programme taking place resulting in little to see apart from some art work.
After a shorter than expected visit there we continued on foot to the University of Southern California, (USC). The campus with its historic buildings and manicured lawns was a lovely place to explore and to enjoy our morning cups of coffee in the beautifully re-purposed United University Church building.
USC is a leading private research university which first opened its doors in 1880 with 53 students and now has more than 48,000 studying on campus.
From there we travelled by bus taking approximately 45 minutes to Long Beach, which is located on the border of Orange County and Los Angeles County. The bus terminated in Downtown and from there it was a 15 minute walk to the beach passing a large convention centre and the Pike Outlets on our way. The outlet mall is a mix of outlet stores, restaurants and a cinema complex linked by a pedestrian bridge from Rainbow Harbour.
There’s a large marina filled with small craft, yachts and pleasure boats and it was pleasant strolling along the quayside in the sunshine pausing to admire the boats.
The boardwalk leads onto Shoreline Village where we came across a row of attractive pastel coloured wooden buildings containing gift shops, beach apparel, and cafes. We called into one of them for our afternoon refreshments which we sipped out on the terrace from where we had good views back to Downtown.
Continuing on our way we admired the Long Beach harbour lighthouse which is a decorative lighthouse funded by the Long Beach Lions Club International to advertise its services to blind people. The lighthouse was first illuminated in 2000.
Moving on further RMS Queen Mary came into view. This historic luxury passenger liner was launched in 1934 and made 1,001 Atlantic crossings and supported the war efforts during the Second World War as a military transport ship before retiring in 1967.
Since then the liner has been a tourist attraction and hotel at Long Beach. The Queen Mary closed in March 2020 due to the COVID pandemic and maintenance issues with its leaking and corroded steel hull, but after lengthy repairs finally re-opened for hotel stays from May 2023.
We then retraced our steps back to Downtown taking a walk along a section of the beach. I found Long Beach to be a very appealing place with its laid back seaside charm and attractive Downtown.
The resort’s main hotels line Ocean Avenue and from near there we boarded Bus 121 to Naples, taking 20 minutes. We’d strolled along the canals of Venice the previous day and we spent the next hour doing the same in the affluent suburb of Naples.
Naples is built on three islands located in Alamitos Bay that are divided by canals which open up into the bay. Originally constructed to replicate an Italian village many of the streets have Italian names.
It felt very tranquil strolling along the canal-lined boardwalks admiring the beautiful waterside homes with their well tendered small gardens.
Back in Long Beach we took the metro back to Downtown LA and after a short rest at our hotel we enjoyed fish and chips at the Karl Strauss Brewery a short distance away.
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