Los Angeles Highlights:

31-mile eBike tour through WeHo, Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Bellaire, Santa Monica, Venice Beach, and Culver City – In & Out Burger! – Hollywood Sign – Santa Monica Pier & Beach – Warner Bros. Studio Tour

We left Paso Robles in the morning to complete our trip down the PCH. We enjoyed beautiful coastline views and stopped in Santa Barbara to walk the pier, check out the beaches and to find some dinner in their quaint downtown district.

Santa Barbara is a beautiful coastal town and seems to be a popular launching point for exploring the many winemaking regions throughout the surrounding hills. Gina and I instantly shared the thought that we would love to come back here for a long weekend to enjoy wine country.

We arrived in L.A. later in the evening, exhausted and ready for a good night’s sleep. Our accommodations for L.A. were two rooms and a bathroom in a woman’s home in the North Hollywood neighborhood. She was a sweet woman that was caring for her 94 year old mother and AirBnB’d her home in order to meet people and stay social. The location of the home turned out to be great for the activities we had planned avoiding the legendary traffic L.A. is known for.

We decided a fun way to explore L.A. for the first time would be a bike tour that had us buzzing through the streets. We opted for a tour with Bikes and Hikes and rode eBikes that assisted our pedaling as we cruised up and down the hills of Beverly Hills and Bellaire admiring the mansions of the famous from past and present.

Popular stops included homes owned by Lucille Ball, the decaying estate of Johnny Weissmuller, the original Tarzan actor, and our favorite, a glimpse of Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s current residence/palace!

We rode on the streets, taking up entire car lanes in busy traffic and heard stories of legendary rock n roll acts (the Doors and Led Zeppelin) while standing outside the famous clubs that launched their careers including the Viper Room and the Whiskey a Go-Go.

Our guide pointed out office buildings that currently house the production companies of Leo DiCaprio and Will Smith as well as an apartment building in Hollywood that has housed superstars like Elton John, Oprah Winfrey and Lindsay Lohan.

We stopped to walk the grounds of the Greystone Mansion and learned the story of Edward Doheny, an oil tycoon that came to Los Angeles without any money. He observed the natural tar that was sticking to the wagon wheels of city laborers and speculated that oil was lurking below. He purchased rights to the tar lands and drilled down striking oil and thus becoming a very rich man.

Next, we took a 6-mile bike ride west to Santa Monica Beach and rode The Strand. This was my favorite part of the ride as we cruised the bike bath that winds along the coast that eventually led us to Venice Beach. I have long wanted to hang out of the famed Venice Beach boardwalk and have to say that it quite a disappointment. It offers a more run-down version of the beach front full of head shops and souvenir stands. Muscle Beach was fun to finally see but really nothing special. The Venice Canals were slightly drained making them look slightly beat up and not photo worthy. The best part of the Venice Beach area was the skate park where we witnessed some incredibly brave skaters showing off their talents in an incredibly designed park of flowing bowls.

The ride after lunch on the beach was a less scenic but quite fun race along the bike path winding up to Marina Del Ray and Culver City and then back into West Hollywood.

31-miles and 6 hours of biking. We were exhilarated and exhausted after covering so much ground. The weather was sunny and breezy and I could believe that I had biked all day and never broke a sweat. What an amazing first look at this sprawling city.

I had heard so many mixed reviews of L.A. and was so glad we opted for this tour to get our first taste of the City of Angels.

We concluded the day by picking up dinner at the iconic In & Out Burger drive-thru and all agreed that the burgers lived up to the hype. We are officially fans!