At first we want to apologize for not updating our blog as often as before. It has been a struggle to cope with only one phone since Emmi's phone broke in Jamaica. The camera on Henkka's phone isn't that good so we don't have many pictures about our trip in California. The few photos we have you can see in this post and find out how we spent 1,5 weeks in California.
We booked a room through Airbnb in Torrance which is near LA and Santa Monica. We didn't have any big plans for California since we knew 1,5 weeks won't be enough time to see and do a fraction of all interesting things we would like. We even tried to re-schedule our flights to Hawaii so we would have more time in California but it would have cost $200/person so didn't make any sense. We booked the flights to Hawaii six months ago and that time we didn't have any plans for the weeks after visiting Jamaica. Sometimes it's hard to estimate how much time you are willing to spend in each destination if your trip has many of them.
View in Santa Monica, California
Because we love working out and especially Les Mills group fitness classes we wanted to try their new immersive THE TRIP class which is available only in a few cities around the world. Santa Monica, CA is one of those so we paid our asses of for week passes to 24 Hour Fitness center.We miss Les Mills classes in Finland because the quality of instructors is superb because of the high standards of Les Mills Nordic.
"THE TRIP is a fully immersive workout experience that combines a 40-minute multi-peak cycling workout with a journey through digitally-created worlds. With its cinema-scale screen and sound system, THE TRIP takes motivation and energy output to the next level, burning serious calories." -LesMills.com
In our opinion THE TRIP was a great experience and a hard workout although we both expected more from the graphics. Instructor has to be clear about the instructions because the room is dark and the he is facing the same way with the customers. In our first class the instructor was a rookie and she kept repeating same phrases through the whole workout. In the second class we took the instructor was more experienced, inspiring, funny and kept challenging the team.
With the expensive week passes we got 6 Les Mills classes (would have gone to 8, but 2 were cancelled without notice). Bodypump classes were held in a dusty and dirty class room and the overall quality of the instructors was quite low except John who was a great THE TRIP coach. Week passes are only valid in the fitness center where you purchase them even though 24 Hour Fitness is a chain company. That fact we figured out by ourselves when we tried to go to another facility to train. No-one had mentioned anything about that when we were discussing the prices.
The service and a steam room was nice and the fitness center in Santa Monica has a free towel service and parking for 2 hours which is practical.
All in all it was great to go to Les Mills classes after two months not attending any but we wouldn't recommend 24 Hour Fitness for that rip off price.
We rented a car for the whole time we spent in California because the distances are quite long and using Uber everyday would cost a lot more so a rental car is a must have.
The rush hours in LA roads are terrible so prepare to double your estimated driving if you want to be somewhere on time. We recommend asking for a car that has Sirius Satellite radio in it or you'll be hearing the same 10 songs from all channels all over again.
The rush hours in LA roads are terrible so prepare to double your estimated driving if you want to be somewhere on time. We recommend asking for a car that has Sirius Satellite radio in it or you'll be hearing the same 10 songs from all channels all over again.
We drove to Phoenix to get Emmi's new phone which she ordered to our friend's place. It took 6,5 hours to get there from our Airbnb place in Torrance. We were lucky to stay over night at our friend's house and took on the second 6,5 hours the next day.
Sunset in Arizona.
In California we worked out daily, played poker, walked at Santa Monica beach and went to explore Hollywood and Beverly Hills. It feels the time flew way too fast and we didn't want to hoard every possible attraction so we will definitely go California again for at least a few weeks. Our Airbnb host was so lovely that we wanted to stay the whole period at her place in Torrance and not even look for another options.
More sessions like these please!
Henkka at the Walk of Fame.
View from Beverly Hills, California
Santa Monica, California
Thanks for reading, see you soon!
Emmi & Henkka
