Because I blog about educational travel, I was given admission tickets, media rates, discounts, and other benefits for some of the places we visited during our trip. A few places we went are free for everyone, while we paid full price for the rest. This has no bearing on my reviews. Everything I am sharing is something that I recommend without hesitation. If you notice any gaps in my narrative, it is because I didn't love that particular attraction, restaurant, or hotel enough to recommend it to you, regardless of how much I paid or didn't pay.
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Before talking about our trip, I want to say that my heart goes out to everyone who suffered any sort of loss due to the wildfires that devastated parts of Southern California in January. I can't begin to imagine the challenges that so many people have faced. The scope of the destruction and the impact on so many lives is beyond my comprehension.
Three weeks before we were set to visit, the Bunny Museum burned to the ground. We'd been really excited to visit this mecca for bunny lovers, as it had been on our to-do list for 9 years and we would finally be able to see it for ourselves. I followed their Facebook posts closely as soon as the fire broke out, hoping it would be spared. It was heartbreaking to hear that it was gone.
The Bunny Museum will be rebuilt on the same spot. If you want to donate money, there is a GoFundMe page. They are also accepting donations of physical bunny-themed items. If you would like to donate for general wildfire relief, Lutheran World Relief delivers critical emergency aid to people in need.
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On Monday, January 27, Steve and I got up early, planning to make the 383 mile drive from our home to UCLA via I-5. We'd obviously been watching the news carefully; as the fires continued to rage and new ones broke out, I had to make a lot of last-minute adjustments to our planned itinerary. I-5 had been closed due to the Hughes Fire just five days earlier. I was quite surprised on the morning we were set to leave home that I-5 was closed due to snow in the same location.
We hedged our bets, opting to drive as far as we could on I-5, hoping the road would open by the time we got there so that we wouldn't have to take a 2+ hour detour. We also moved our things from the car we'd planned to take to the one with 4-wheel drive and chains, just in case the road was open but with chain restrictions. Fortunately, by the time we got there around 2:00 pm, I-5 over the Grapevine was open and clear.
Our destination: the University of California at Los Angeles. Ronan is a senior at UCLA and we didn't want to miss the opportunity to visit him before he graduates. Steve had never been to the UCLA campus and I was there very briefly 35 years ago, so we appreciated having Ronan as a tour guide.
UCLA is, obviously, an outstanding school. It is ranked #1 of the nearly 2000 public universities in the United States. (That pains me a little bit to say, as my own beloved alma mater is ranked #9. UC Davis does have an edge over UCLA in at least one metric: the campus is much, much larger. At 5300 acres, UCD is the largest of the UC campuses. UCLA is the smallest. It is 12 times smaller than Davis, at 419 acres.)
The UCLA campus is very pretty, with a lot of impressive-looking buildings and beautiful landscaping.
We'd hoped to visit the Fowler Museum, but unfortunately they are closed on Mondays.
We'd also hoped to visit the Mathias Botanical Garden on campus, but it too was closed by the time we got there. Darn. We were able to see a bit of it through the fence. Very nice!
We did get to see the Murphy Sculpture Garden. Ronan said that it's a really popular place for students to hang out and study when the grass isn't wet.
There's a vending machine stocked with free COVID tests and a station with masks and wipes. Smart.
This is Cafe 451. Ronan brought us here because it is located in Young Research Library, where Ray Bradbury wrote his famous novel, Fahrenheit 451 (affiliate link).
This is the Inverted Fountain. During orientation, incoming freshmen touch the water in the fountain and become a "True Bruin." Legend says that they can't touch the water again until graduation, lest they risk failing a class and having to stay for an extra, unexpected term.
We had dinner at the outstanding Plateia Restaurant at the Luskin Conference Center on campus.
Steve and I split an absolutely delicious cacio e pepe pizza. It was the first time I can remember eating a pizza with lemon zest, but now that I have, I'm a fan.
Plateia is a gratuity-free restaurant. It prides itself on providing their staff with a fair wage that is not dependent on tips. I wish all restaurants did that.
After a very nice visit, we said goodbye to Ronan and drove 5.9 miles to our hotel in Culver City. That translated to 41 minutes of incredibly stressful driving (for Steve) and navigating (for me). Los Angeles drivers are absolutely insane, weaving in and out of traffic, inches from other cars. We live near San Francisco and drive in Bay Area traffic all the time, so it's not that we're not used to crowded roadways. LA drivers are on a whole different level.
And parking! Yikes. Not only is parking difficult to find, but when you do find it, expect to pay a lot. Whatever your budget is for a trip to LA, take 10% off the top to pay for parking, then plan on what's left when you make your plans for hotels and attractions.
I wish I could recommend the hotel we stayed in that night, because it was in a great location. But between the paper-thin walls, tiny room, and inexplicably stupid bathroom design, I will not be recommending it. This is what the bathroom looked like from the bed.
Not only is there no privacy for the person using the toilet, but there was no way to use the bathroom light without lighting the bedroom too, since there is a PANE OF GLASS instead of a wall. And no - there was no curtain to pull or any other way to provide bathroom privacy. I can't fathom what the designer was thinking.
Fortunately, we were only there for one night. And as I said, it was in a great location for our next day's main activity. I'll tell you all about that tomorrow.
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