On the Road to Southern California
On the Road to Southern California
By Gerrye Wong November 2, 2026
A fast 3 day trip to Southern California is always a challenge for sightseeing but my group of four senior ladies packed in some interesting adventure sights I want to share with you for your next vacation southward. We were blessed with wonderful fall California weather so would recommend the fall months to visit the bustling southern California cities, away from the Disneyland crowds of youngsters. Always enjoying the many varieties of ethnic cuisine in the Gardena/Torrance area, we escaped the busy large hotels in the glamour cities for this area to have our base.
YACULT FACTORY TOUR
First experience was to learn about probiotics and how it helps prepare us for healthy guts in the abdominal area at the Yakult Factory in Fountain Valley. On a pre-arranged tour offering , the Yakult tour guide in the beginning sat us down school class style to explain the importance of probiotics in our daily lives and spoke of the background history of the Yakult drink from Japan. We had always seen these small bottles on Asian food store shelves or even given free following Korean meals, with its distinctive small bottle size which was about enough for a teen ager’s two gulps but never guessed its health benefits of the product being enjoyed by all ages besides its snack bottle size.
Our free tour had about 20 attending and we were led to the product’s assembly line, as seen from a floor above through large windows of the action below with the all mechanized processes from mixing ingredients, to bottle making to bottle filling to large stacks where robots placed packages of 10 or more all cellophaned wrap to delivery to grocery stores. The popularity of this company’s unique tiny Yakult bottle is worldwide and besides its tasteful flavor, it is easy to hold and carry in purse for emergency hunger pains for even small toddlers. Check website for hours and days open for visitors and make that reservation if you’d like to see how a product comes from lab research to production for this health product to the satisfied consumer like myself. Tours are popular so check website for tour reservations.
HOLLYWOOD MUSEUM
Another fun stop when in the Hollywood vicinity is visiting the Hollywood Museum located in the old make-up master Max Factor building near Hollywood and Vine. First floor was devoted to telling about Max Factor and all of the make-up tricks he used on the stars being the only well known make-up business in Hollywood at that time. Throughout the first floor are hundreds of glossy 8x10s of the star form the 1920s up to the present. For many a movie goer in the latter half of the 20th century, there were photos of every star imaginable to remember them by. One traveled by an old freight elevator to the next three floors to find out actual clothing worn by the most popular stars like Lucille Ball, Anna May Wong, Lana Turner and up to movies and tv stars in the early 2000s.
Being a teenage avid movie fan, I ogled at Marilyn Monroes famous windy day dress, Roy Rogers shirts and his photos from the many westerns he and Dale Evans appeared in, to even the Luci and Desi costume from their TV show. Four floors were packed with memorabilia of the Hollywood glamour days where stars were idolized by movie fans nationwide, including yours truly. I was reminded of my own teen days presiding over a 300 member Alan Ladd Fan Club, and publishing a quarterly 10 page magazine for the members printed on an archaic mimeograph machine by hand. As amateur as I was, this 14 year old won the Fan Club Periodical award by the then popular Modern Screen Magazine, the prize being a trip to Hollywood to meet my idol Alan Ladd at his ranch, and being awarded a trophy at a gala reception held for all fan Club presidents with many stars in attendance.
Mixed with a group of movie struck housewives and maybe wannabe actors, I was out of my element as a mere star-struck teenager, but this museum brought back a lot of my old memories, I have to admit. Even if you had no personal experience with Hollywood glamour, this Hollywood Museum is a nice remembrance if you ever were a fan of movies in the 1930s-2000s and I saw people of all ages enjoying the sights of this museum..
THE GRAMMY MUSEUM
A next stop towards the glamour of the musical scene was the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles which honored those noted musicians who had won the Grammy Awards for the past 50 years. One had a chance to put on earphones and play instruments oneself, or go into small sound proof booths with surround sound to watch and listen to favorites in the music industry. Of course seeing some of the glittery costumes worn by Whitney Houston, Dolly Parton, Michael Jackson, Prince and of course, Elvis were highlights of the exhibits. For contemporary artists, one saw the actual set of the Olivia Rodriguez album The Cure and one large wall projected videos of famous musicians of today like Korean BTS singers, Lady Gaga and Beyonce. A 30 minute film showed a good summary of the many artists as they received their Grammy Awards through the past few decades.
The three story Grammy Museum had you humming upbeat music as you walked around to see and hear from everyone’s favorite musicians of today. If the music world is your passion, this is the place to enjoy a visit down memory lane of music produced by everyone’s favorite artists of yesteryear and today. Locally centrally near many of the Los Angeles Museums and city government buildings, we also ventured down to Los Angeles’ historic Japantown, one of only three last remaining Japantowns in the US – along with San Francisco and San Jose. The majestic Japanese Historical Museum is located on First Avenue old town street, but was under reconstruction so unable to visit until next year. However, there is a very nice somewhat touristy little plaza area nearby with many offerings of different Japanese cuisine and of course, souvenirs.
This was only what could be experienced in three days in Southern California scene, but for movie star gazers and music lovers these were new experiences we would highly recommend of these two museums, both located in the middle of their respective industries for much else to see surrounding the museums too.
