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Art, culture, entertainment, Food, L.A. Life, lifestyle, New Experience, Sight Seeing, student life, Travel, USC

LA’s Top 5 Touristy Spots

By Connor Brown

Edited by Natalie Grace Sipula

[3.5 minute read]

Popularity is an interesting concept. Some people see popular things as good, assuming that if many people enjoy something, it must have value. Others see popular things as bad, assuming that if a ton of people like something, it must be “basic” or overhyped. Los Angeles is home to both opinions, and as a capital of both trends and hipsters, the nuance between these two stances emerges. Many of the most popular, touristy things to do in Los Angeles are fun, others not as much. From my experience as an Angeleno, here are the five best touristy things to do in Los Angeles — all popular, pleasant, and picturesque!

Photo by Joseph Ngabo on Unsplash

1. Santa Monica

First on our list is arguably LA’s most famous beach, the iconic Santa Monica, brimming with sight seers, seagulls, and sunshine. Santa Monica is a fairly large city within LA, and offers more than just an endless, wide beach. The boardwalk is a popular tourist attraction, and while it’s not my personal favorite, many enjoy it. The Promenade along Third Street is a great shopping center, and the surrounding area is full of intriguing stores and sights. Ocean Avenue offers a great walking path, and leads right into the iconic Pacific Palisades. Best of all, Santa Monica is easily accessible via public transit, as the Metro Expo Line ends in the heart of downtown Santa Monica, blocks from both the beach and the Promenade.

2. Griffith Park

My personal favorite on this list, Griffith Park is a must-visit destination for anyone who’s been to LA. The park itself is massive, covering a large swath of the LA hills, and includes a number of great hiking paths. It is also home to one of LA’s most famous landmarks, the Griffith Observatory. If you go to the Observatory on a clear night, you can see the most spectacular views of the city. While the view is the main attraction, the Observatory is a destination in and of itself, offering fun astronomical and scientific displays, planetarium shows, and telescope viewing opportunities!

Photo by Lydia Koh on Unsplash

3. Downtown Art Museums

One of the best aspects of USC, in my opinion, is its proximity to downtown Los Angeles. Downtown LA is an enigma — there are times when it is bustling, with restaurants overflowing, rooftops full, and clubs thumping, and times when it is so empty you expect to see a tumbleweed roll across the street (Sunday afternoons). The one constant is the tranquility of the art museums. I find few things to be more relaxing than wandering around a quiet, curated space dedicated to the great artists of our time, being able to just pause and stare at some often-unintelligible expression of the human spirit. The Broad and The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) are two of the best modern art museums in the country, and are barely two miles from campus. Hop in a bus, Lyft, Metro, or Bird scooter, head up Figueroa and unwind in the sterile vibrance of a modern art museum.

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New Experience, Sight Seeing, Travel

Summer at Sea

By Greg Lennon

Edited by Natalie Grace Sipula

[4 minute read]

Each summer, members of the US Navy ROTC program are required to participate in summer training.  The nature of this training depends on the class standing of the student, or “midshipman” as we’re ranked in the Navy.  Last summer, I spent a month in San Diego with my peers learning the ins and outs of the Navy as an ROTC member.  This summer, I would get a more hands on experience: living on a ship for over six weeks.

I was assigned to be living and working on the USS Shoup, a Destroyer that would be operating out of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii for the summer.  Our orders were to first embark on a week-long period at sea called PACDRAGON where we would be doing joint Naval exercises with the Japanese and Korean Navies.  Then, we would enjoy two weeks in port at Pearl Harbor before returning to sea for 24 days for the international exercise known as Rim of the Pacific, or RIMPAC.

Photo by NOAA on Unsplash

Joining me on the ship were five other midshipmen from universities across the country, including one of my classmates from USC.  While on the ship, we were assigned “running mates,” crewmembers who we would shadow to get an immersive experience in regard to ship life.  My running mate was a technician for the ship’s radar systems, an unbelievably demanding job.  Because my running mate had such a technical job, I was free to roam the ship for much of the day (usually after finishing a morning’s hard work).  Every day on the ship starts at 6:00 AM, with a morning wake up call song played over the ship’s intercom.  After an early breakfast, each division on board the ship holds its daily meeting, followed by mandated cleaning.  Since I had no real responsibilities onboard, I was released after cleaning to work out, unless my running mate had other plans for me.  Afterward, the ship’s crew convenes for lunch, and then back to work.  Every day at sea holds something different; each day we would partake in a different exercise, whether it be testing weapons systems, meeting up with members of foreign navies, or refueling at sea.  After dinner, we were released to our living spaces to relax for the evening.  Most of our nights on board were spent rewatching movies, playing cards, or getting extra sleep before the next day’s early start.

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Art, culture, New Experience, Sight Seeing, Travel

Valparaiso: A City of Art

By Jamie Schlegel

Edited by Natalie Grace Sipula

[3.5 minute read]

The coastline of Chile is composed of many turns and rocky edges. My fellow travelers and I kept ourselves entertained watching them as our van turned those corners for several hours on the drive from Santiago to Valparaiso. Gradually, the tell-tale signs of a city began to make themselves apparent: less ocean and more buildings. Finally, the van came to a stop. As we unpacked our bags and headed into the hostel, we already felt the chilly weather of the southern hemisphere.

Photo by arpa sarian on Unsplash

The place we were going to stay at turned out to be on the top floor of the building. Fairly early in the morning, we were woken up by the sunlight streaming in through the skylights. As we crawled sheepishly out of bed, the realization that we were in a new city truly woke us up. After a quick breakfast of bread, cheese, and jam, we rushed out into the winter air. The neighborhoods in Valparaiso are called Cerros, and our Cerro was one of the most colorful places I had ever seen. The streets were made of cobblestone and were reminiscent of Europe. The buildings were lined with small shops, each one different from the last. The apartments that sprawled above them were colored in magnificent yellows, pinks and blues.

The buildings of Valparaiso were beautiful, but I would say the most magnificent sight in the city was the murals. Every inch of the city, from the steps to the lampposts to the 50-foot-long walls, were covered with art more amazing than those found in any museum I had ever visited. There were renditions of Van Gogh’s Starry Night with 20-foot sunflowers, a powerful indigenous woman, and many more that I couldn’t even begin to understand. The city encouraged art, and the people there seemed to look at life differently because of that. 

Photo by Loïc Mermilliod on Unsplash
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