Of course, everyone knows today that L.A. was originally called "El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río de Porciúncula", meaning "The Village of Our Lady, Queen of the Angels of the Portiuncula River". And how do we know Portiuncula? Right, in the neighboring village Dornach (about 5 minutes away from us) takes place every year the "Portiunkula market". And both names go back to the Portiunkula Chapel in Assisi, where Francis of Assisi died. One can also say that L.A. is practically the same as Dornach.

That's why we did not want to do anything special there (we already know Dornach well enough, and L.A. is just a bit bigger ....). With one exception: we wanted a photo of the famous Hollywood sign. Our Google research brought us to Lake Hollywood State Park as an ideal destination. Although this is not directly at the sign itself, but you have the best view of it. So we fed the GPS with the address, and off we went.

The journey went surprisingly well. We were also spared major traffic jams and soon we were driving through the streets of Los Angeles. When we reached our goal, we also had great luck: Directly at the park was a large parking space where I could park my 30 feet vehicle. So we went out and took the first pictures. But it was not 10 seconds untill a security guy stood in front of us and made us aware that we were in a "red zone" in which parking was prohibited. So we got back in and drove on. It would have been too nice. Unfortunately, it didn't look good for other parking spots. It was a very popular destination after all.

But it got even worse. The road became ever narrower and curvy. So we took our giant vehicle through the Hollywood Hills and panicked what we would do if we did not get around a bend. To back up all the way would have been an impossibility.

In the end, we had quite a bit of luck and came reasonably easy back down to the city and were soon back on the highway. Sweaty wet, but happy, because we had our photos :)

The rest of the ride was then in comparison a picnic. So we arrived around 2:00 pm in Santa Barbara, at the only RV resort in the area. The place was small, but well maintained and the hosts VERY friendly. Since we still had time, we hiked to the beach and got lost promptly. We really could not have guessed that part of the foot track would go above a bike path under a bridge. So we ended up at a completely different beach in the neighboring town of Montecito. But at least we had made it to the Pacific. Started on the Atlantic, this was (next to the Gulf of Mexico) the 3rd and also the largest ocean of our trip.

While the kids were playing we met Trev, a dog owner with a super friendly Golden Retriever. Over an hour we talked while the kids enjoyed the beach. A great start! And tomorrow we would really visit the city of Santa Barbara.