Los Angeles: Little Known Facts

LA as in Los Angeles

This is the fourth in this ongoing and hopefully entertaining (ha) series that we call ManiLA (or moving from Manila to LA).

In the preceding article we found out a few non-sensical facts about Manila, my hometown. Now we will get to know a few more useless facts, this time about LA, which I now call home.

LA the Board City

First off, it does not snow in Los Angeles.

Okay let me correct that because some people might argue that it does snow in LA and swear by it and would tell you that it did like snow in LA some 50 or more years ago. And that’s probably the average, like once every fifty years, if it ever did.

You see the City of Los Angeles is near the Pacific Ocean and it is normally warm the entire year. It is bordered by mountains and it sits like in a catch basin, mountains in the back and a beach front.

There are also a mountainous part at one point and it cliffs over to the Pacific Ocean below (you can see them at the bottom art of the aerial photo below).

Now in many parts of the mountains to the rear of LA, there are indeed snow at certain elevations. And indeed driving in and around LA you would definitely see those snow-capped mountains normally at the early months of the year.

And this is what makes the LA Basin unique, for you can work your back off or study your brains out the whole week at Downtown LA, take a trip up a nearby mountain on Saturday and bring your snow board and have some fun in the snow and then you can head to the beach Sunday for a barbeque and lots of sand and take out your surf board. And then Monday comes around and you’re back downtown with your tan and aches and pains. And if the traffic snarls get to you, you can take your skate board to work or school.

You can’t beat that.

No Rain

Now rain is another matter for it hardly rains in LA. And with all the television and movies scenes of water, water everywhere, it is probably among the driest and the warmest places to go to. And yes, it hardly rains. I miss the rain, it rains almost daily, all year round in Metro Manila. The resulting inevitable floods are a bonus.

Now, the bad part, it floods in certain LA areas after only a few inches of rain, which is all it gets the whole year, literally inches of rainfall. But still the floodings, I don't get that sometimes.

The Port of Los Angeles

Now that weird part at the southern end of the aerial map of the LA Basin, is the Port of LA.

And it is the busiest container port in the United States. Now right beside it (to the right) is the Port of Long Beach, which is the second businest container port in the US.

Wow, right?

And we can’t probably imagine how many tons of cargo go past those two ports every single year.

Beaches Everywhere

So if there are ports, there are beaches.

And yes the beachfront are just a few minutes drive away from LA as you can see from the LA Basin photo.

And so if you are familiar with and have watched even a few episodes of the original Baywatch television show (1980s-90s), which if you watch TV at all wouldn’t be that hard as it is still the most watched TV show of all time, then you would have seen those LA beachfronts and backs.

Yes, here’s a familiar sight from those Baywatch episodes. And these would still be the same things you would see at those LA Beaches. And yes, you can look around and try to see if you can see David Hasselhoff, Parker Stevenson, Ericka Eleniak or Pamela Anderson. But no, you won’t be see them there. Just enjoy the sea breeze, the sand, the surf and the sunsets, like it were meant to be enjoyed.

Okay one LA Myth though, which I might have propagated again when I said it was warm at the LA beachfronts. No it isn’t. And normally and all-year-round the waters are not warm at all and there are lots of days which are described as foggy, cloudy, overcast and otherwise gloomy. But surprisingly little or no rain.

Beautiful People

And there is one another LA Myth that I wanted to share.

Sure there are lots and lots of Pamelas and Erickas and Hasselhoffs and Lindsays and Britneys in and around LA. But no, not everyone in LA or in Hollywood or even in the upscale LA neighborhoods are buffed, and tanned, and trim and beautiful.

No for it might just be the opposite. Los Angeles is home to very ordinary people, like what you see everywhere else. And no not everyone are blonde bombshells or blonde or blue-eyed for that matter.

Now if there is one thing that I would want you to know about LA, this is it—Los Angeles is home to more museums than any other US City, among them:

California Science Center

Part of a larger Los Angeles museum complex near the USC campus in Exposition Park, the CSC is 245,000-square-feet of interactive fun for the whole family.

There is the 50-foot kinetic sculpture in the main lobby, the scary high-wire bicycle ride, the chick hatchery, IMAX theaters and a lot more.

Getty (Museum) Center

One phrase describes this museum, it's about the art, and lots of people swear that a tour of the spacious place will make for a breathtaking SoCal (Southern Califronia) afternoon. And the sunset view could be something to die for.

Los Angeles County Museum of Art

This is Los Angeles' primary art museum, added features at LACMA are free Friday night jazz concerts in the courtyard and Friday and Saturday night screenings of great classic-films.

Museum of Contemporary Art

This is a major force in contemporary art in entire United States, pieces include those of de Kooning, Hockney, Lichtenstein, Pollock, and Rauschenberg.

Museum of Tolerance

With more than 100,000 children visiting every year, its mission of focusing on the dynamics of racism in our modern times is surely making a difference in the city’s youth.

Natural History Museum of Los Angeles

This is normally one of the largely ignored parts of the Exposition Park. But anyone’s trip to the place would make one to come back for more. There is the Megamouth shark encased in glass in one of the lobbies that was captured off the coast decades ago and Sue, the largest T-Rex ever found.

Page Museum (La Brea Tar Pits)

The La Brea Tar Pits stand as a sticky reminder of Los Angeles's extensive prehistory as well its role as a large producer of petroleum products. The Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits is home to the most extensive collection of ice-age fossils in the world. Visitors to the site can watch both their excavation and classification through observation windows. A film about the site and the Los Angeles basin as a whole can be seen every 15 minutes inside the Page Museum's theatre.

Petersen Automotive Museum

This popular attraction features the best things found on four wheels, two of which are the Caped Crusader's Batmobile and Austin Powers' "Shaguar." This is SoCal history of the automobile right before your eyes and fingertips.

If you are still up to it, there are still whole lot more: Click here to find them all.

Ten Things You Probably Didn't Know About LA. Click here.