The ride from New Orleans to Los Angeles was our longest ride and we are happy to have gotten that out of the way. The trains on the western side of the country are double decker’s, most of which consist of a viewing/lounge car. The lounge cars are nice with windows all around allowing for endless views. The environment along the ride changed from the bayous of Louisiana to the New Mexico desert. We enjoyed our first time eating in the dining car. Rich and I were seated at a table with two very kind and thoughtful men they taught us about the ins and the outs of some of the cities we would be visiting and encouraged us to keep traveling and furthering our education. One of the men told us how proud he was of us and even bought us dinner.
The following morning we arrived in Los Angeles around five, we started out by visiting the Clatran District 7 building by architect Thom Mayne which is a very sustainable building with a smart skin that opens and closes according to the temperature and sun light. The next building we visited was the Walt Disney Concert Hall by architect Frank Gehry. The building is acoustically designed with an undulating exterior to symbolize the flow of music. Although, it was far too early for anything to be open so we only got to explore the exterior. Right beside the concert hall was the Broad Museum by Diller Scofidio and Renfro with a sponge like exoskeleton that provides filtered light. Our next architecture stop in Los Angeles was the Central High School 9 with a dramatic spiral around the tower designed to symbolize the development of our society. The high school was by architect Coop Himmelblau. On our way back to the station we walked through China town. We still had plenty of time before our train to Santa Barbara so we decided to take an Uber up to see the Hollywood sign. Once we got back into the city we made another trip to the Walt Disney Concert Hall to tour the inside. The interior spaces are very open with minimal partitions that hardly reference the exterior layers.
We made a second stop in California, riding right along the Pacific Ocean, to Santa Barbara. The city originates from Spanish heritage with Mediterranean style architecture. We were lucky enough to arrive there during the Old Spanish Days Fiesta and were able to experience some of the traditions. Santa Barbara is a nice coastal town that was surprising colder than I had imagined.
After two days of exploring two different cities we are back on the train.