Hello, Bubble World Los Angeles in Montebello, California

by   •   Face, Tourism
 

On the same day that I went to Dinos Alive, I also went to Bubble World Los Angeles, which is in the same building—the Los Angeles Exhibition Hub in Montebello, California. Bubble World was actually the main reason we went to the Exhibition Hub at all, but I had such a positive experience here that I figured I would save the best for last on my blog so it would have the most prime real estate at the top before I go on my next chain of adventures.

Bubble World is an interesting place. It’s difficult to describe succinctly apart from just calling it an interactive art experience.

I’m not sure if you even noticed because I am so good at blending in with the arches, but believe it or not, I am actually in this next photograph:

Down the hall and to the right was the balloon room. This was a dimly lit room with extra large white balloons that looked like they were color-shifting because of the lighting. There were fans on one side keeping the balloons contained, and they would regularly pile as tall as the average person’s chest at the highest points. This was deceptively difficult to navigate through without popping the balloons (and we did come across a kid who was a bit too rough and caused one to burst).

After escaping the balloons, we were led to a mirror room with a light show.

The next major interactive area was a huge ball pit.

Partway through the experience was a wall with the “Bubble World” logo printed on it, and I figured it would make sense to take a photo in front of the sign that shows where I am.

On the way to the next area was a small bridge with a net full of balloons and a 360° screen on all four walls and the floor.

Next up were the sets. There were various little rooms set up and decorated in unique ways so people could take photos.

One of the final areas of Bubble World was a light show room. There were thousands upon thousands of light-up orbs hanging in columns from the ceil­ing, and a tiny path was left vacant so people could walk through and get a 360° light show experience.

The photo below was captured at the perfect moment when most of the bulbs were illuminated white, but these would all turn on and off in a pattern and change colors in a way that was not only mesmerizing but also created a kind of depth-warping optical illusion.

Right before the exit and gift shop, there was a station where you could stand on a platform and pull a string to raise what is the equivalent of just the circular part of a bubble wand a­round your body to encase yourself in a huge bubble. Unfortunately, it was a lot trickier than it seemed, and instead of wrapping myself in a huge bubble, I just got soap all over my hands and pants.

There isn’t actually anything to truly do while in Bubble World except for just look at things, but the things to look at are very unique, interesting, and visually appealing. If you consider this to be comparable to an art museum, Bubble World is actually great—instead of just staring at art pieces hung up on walls that are externally deemed to be expensive and arbitrarily assigned value, Bubble World lets you immerse yourself and be a part of the art.

I also enjoyed the fact that this functionally ended up like a selfie museum, but didn’t feel like it. Selfie museums tend to cater specifically towards people who want interesting photos to post on Instagram, and their sets are designed solely for photo op­por­tu­ni­ties. On the contrary, I liked that Bubble World focused more on creating in­ter­est­ing exhibits and con­forming to a theme, but still achieved that same objective—i.e., peo­ple take photos here be­cause they think “this is cool,” not necessarily be­cause “I am sup­posed to take a photo here.”

We paid $36.90 per person for general admission without any premium add-ons, and it took a little bit over an hour to get through everything. That is a little bit pricey compared to other places I’ve been, but probably not too bad considering that it’s in Los Angeles.

On that note, it might be useful to point out that it’s in Los Angeles County and not the City of Los Angeles. The Exhibition Hub is set up at the site of an old Costco, and it’s about ten miles east of downtown Los Angeles. In my opinion, that makes it better—there’s plenty of parking, there’s much less con­gestion getting there, and the ticket prices aren’t hyperinflated to account for downtown city expenses. With that being said, if you’re visiting LA and pri­ma­ri­ly staying downtown, you’ll need some form of vehicular transportation if you want to visit the Exhibition Hub.

Although I probably wouldn’t personally visit again, I did enjoy my experience and would recommend checking out if your circumstances align with what Bubble World offers. I also like the fact that I now have a lot of photos for the people who ask me why I only ever post pictures of stuff around me, and not of myself.

 

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Hello, The Last Bookstore in Downtown Los Angeles, California

by   •   Tourism
 

I’m not exactly a fan of Los Angeles (or California in general), but I do have to admit that it has some interesting places to visit. One of those is The Last Book­store in downtown, a block and a half east of Pershing Square.

I’m not sure why they called it the Last Bookstore because it is definitely not the last bookstore in Los Angeles, but it was definitely the most interesting book­store I’ve been to. There were a lot of different sections, all of which were designed in accordance with a relevant theme. There were also some nice, vis­u­ally appealing exhibits spread throughout the store that made it seem like a tourist attraction as much as a bookstore.

I didn’t end up buying anything, but I enjoyed walking through the building and checking everything out on both floors. Below are some of my photos that came out the best.

 

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Hello, Dinos Alive Los Angeles in Montebello, California

by   •   Face, Tourism
 

I’m in Southern California again for another quick week-long trip to visit a friend from out-of-state while she’s in town. Earlier today, we went to the Los Angeles Exhibition Hub and explored some of the attractions, one of which was Dinos Alive.

The premise of the exhibit was to show animated models of various different dinosaurs, some of which were built life-sized. Each animatronic had a little placard in front of it explaining its specie and other background information about the dinosaur. This place is definitely geared towards children, but it was still neat to walk around and check it out. There was some wild lighting so a lot of my photos look a bit strange; below are some of the pictures that came out the best.

 

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Hello again, Seattle Aquarium

by   •   Tourism
 

Exactly three years and one day prior, on September 1, 2020, I visited the Seattle Aquarium with my friend Monica. This was during the pandemic, shortly after the government-mandated lockdowns were expiring. I was out actively stimulating the economy, but most other people were reasonably still concerned about the spread of COVID-19, so there weren’t many tourists there and we got to experience everything at a fairly leisurely pace.

A few days ago, on September 2, 2023, a different friend and I made another trip to the Seattle Aquarium while we were in town for PAX West. It was obviously a lot busier this time, but I also accrued three years’ worth of photography experience, so even though it was still dim indoors, I managed to get a lot more nice photographs.

Below are the best ones I captured.

 

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Hello, Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California

by   •   Tourism
 

If you remember from last year, I generally only spend the winters at the Tempo headquarters in Long Beach, California while I wait out the inclement weather in other areas of the country. It’s nearing spring already, so it’s about time for me to set off; while I’m still in town, my friend David (who you might remember from previous blog posts as the greyhound rescue owner) wanted to take me to the Aquarium of the Pacific.

It was a nice aquarium, though I think they let way too many people in, because it was completely crammed shoulder-to-shoulder with visitors. Many of them were children, so there was the occasional ear-piercing shriek as well. Because of this, we spent a lot more time there than we originally expected—I still wanted to get my money’s worth, so I was patient and waited for the slow-moving lines so I could take a look at everything.

Here are some photos from my visit—not necessarily my favorite ones, but the ones that turned out the best:

 

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Hello, Red Butte Garden at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City

by   •   Tourism
 

While browsing through tourist activities to do while in Salt Lake City, I came across the Red Butte Garden, a botanical garden. I found it earlier on dur­ing my stay, but I noticed that there is a 50% discount on admissions starting from December 1, so I waited until the first of the month to visit. Ad­mis­sion ended up being only US$7.00.

I’m glad I got the discount, because this was less of a botanical garden and more of just a leisurely walk in a premium park. That’s completely reasonable and understandable, though, because my visit happened not very long after a series of snowstorms, so it makes sense that the flowers won’t be in bloom.

There were a lot of winding paths, so I sort of just wandered around without truly knowing where I was going. Starting from the visitor center, I believe I went through the Courtyard Garden, possibly the Four Seasons Garden, towards the Children’s Garden, and ended up in the Water Conservation Gar­den.

As I went up the switchbacks northeast of the Water Conservation Garden, I climbed in elevation and made it up to the Prospect Point Terrace. From here, I was able to get some nice views of the Salt Lake City metropolitan area.

From the top, I looked towards the southeast towards the natural area access points and Seepy Hollow for a nice view of snow-covered mountains.

After making my way down, I meandered around the Fragrance Garde, Medicinal Garden, and Herb Garden. As you can probably tell from the photos, it was a little bit difficult to tell them apart.

I saw from the map that there was a body of water nearby, so I started walking towards the Red Butte Creek and passed a few waysides.

On the way there, I also saw a statue of a moose.

The stream had a light trickle, but the pond was completely frozen over. On one triangularly opposite side of the pond was the Water Pavilion and the Wa­ter Pavilion Garden; on the other triangularly opposite side of the pond was a small waterfall that also only had a light trickle, and fed into another different frozen pond.

I continued on the walking path on the northwestern side along Red Butte Canyon Road and approached the terrace, amphitheater, and stage.

After going around the loop and past the concert and special event entrances, I walked through a relatively dead Rose Garden and Floral Walk. I did end up finding one bright and blossomed flower, but I think this might have just been a special thing by the Orangerie and not actually part of the Floral Walk.

It appeared like I was one of the only people weird enough to go to a botanical garden days after a snowstorm, so the parking lot was pretty empty and made for a good photo opportunity for my trusty truck with a nice backdrop.

If I had known that the Red Butte Skyline Nature Trail was nearby, I would’ve arrived earlier, worn snakers, and gone for a longer hike, but I ended up just exploring the main Red Butte Garden area and returning to my hotel so I could make it back in time to attend a conference call.

Overall, my stroll around the property was a little shy of 2 miles (almost exactly 3 kilometers).

I obviously can’t make a proper recommendation on whether or not I think you should visit the Red Butte Garden based solely on my own experience, considering that I clearly missed out on a big part of the “garden” aspect of the garden due to my off-season visit, but it was a still decent reason for me to go out into nature and get some fresh air, and I don’t regret going.

 

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