Earlier this week, I went with my 3 sons on a trip to Southern California. We were primarily going to attend the Southern California Retro Gaming Expo, which was a blast. We stayed 1 night at the Hyatt Place Pasadena before taking the train from Pasadena over to near LAX, where we stayed at the Hyatt House LAX / Century Boulevard. I’ll have a separate post with my thoughts on whether the LA Metro is safe to ride at night (I think probably?), but I wanted to share some thoughts on a rather “interesting” bus ride we took back from Santa Monica Pier
Riding the “Big Blue Bus” to Santa Monica
Greater LA actually has a number of different bus systems, and while you can use the TAP card on most (probably all?) of them, they are actually different systems. We chose not to rent a car while we were in LA, which meant we were dependent on Uber/Lyft or public transportation to get around. Here were a few of our trips
- Lyft from LAX to Pasadena – $60
- LA Metro from Pasadena back near LAX – $1.75 per person
- Lyft from the Hyatt House LAX to Manhattan Beach – $29
- Bus / Metro / Bus from Manhattan Beach – $1.50 per person (we mostly did this to avoid getting someone’s Uber car wet and/or sandy)
- Big Blue Bus #3 from LAX to Santa Monica Pier – $1.50 per person
- Big Blue Bus #3 back to the Hyatt House LAX – $1.50 per person
Uber and Lyft were estimating about $45 to get from near LAX to Santa Monica
Big Blue Bus #3 from Santa Monica to LAX
Santa Monica runs the “Big Blue Bus” system, and Bus #3 runs from the LAX Transit Center to Downtown Santa Monica (including the Santa Monica Pier). It was about a 15 minute walk from our hotel to where we picked up the bus, and then about a 40 minute ride to Santa Monica. We left our hotel around 5pm and the bus ride to Santa Monica was uneventful.
We stayed at the pier for a few hours, and it was about 9pm when we headed back to the main drag to catch the bus back to our hotel.
Halfway through an old homeless lady got on and sat next to me (we were all up in the front). This was fine – I actually made one of my sons get up and sit further back so she could sit down up front since we were in the elderly / disabled section.
This was fine, and then she left but then another old and possibly homeless and possibly drunk guy got on and sat down next to me. A little while in he started talking to me complaining about people in the back playing music out loud (which is against the rules). There was a group of maybe 6 to 8 Hispanic guys playing music in the back of the bus. I nodded and smiled and tried not to engage. When he didn’t get a good audience from me, he started talking to the driver asking him why he wasn’t saying anything about them breaking the rules by playing music. He’s like “what are you scared?”. Then the driver yelled back – “I’m not scared.. I just don’t care”. Then the guy really started yelling at the driver. The best was the driver’s response to the old guy talking about “the rules” was “Well, YOU didn’t pay a fare to get on the bus so what about YOU following the rules!?!?”
It wasn’t scary or dangerous or anything – just weird. I followed my general big city rule of keeping my head down and not engaging much with anyone.
This was all along the backdrop of 2 other guys on the bus having a loud / weird conversation the entire ride including talks about how therapists will now prescribe LSD for you.
Then right before we were getting off the bus, a person of indeterminate gender (TM Lemony Snicket) and probably some mental illness / neurodivergence got on holding, and this is no joke, 2 lifelike dildos. Even better, he/she/they sit down 2 seats behind me, and out of the corner of my eye, I see them playing with the dildos like they are 2 people and having a conversation with the dildos.
The Bottom Line – An interesting bus ride through Los Angeles
I didn’t feel particularly nervous or scared during the bus ride – one of the reasons I felt okay riding public transit, even at night, is that we were 4 pretty big dudes so I doubted anyone was really going to try to mess with us. Maybe I’d have felt differently if I were a single woman.
This site is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as thepointsguy.com. This may impact how and where links appear on this site. Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers and that compensation may impact on how and where card products appear on the site. Any opinions expressed in this post are my own, and have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by my advertising partners and I do not include all card companies, or all available card offers. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers and other offers and benefits listed on this page. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more. Other links on this page may also pay me a commission - as always, thanks for your support if you use them
User Generated Content Disclosure: Points With a Crew encourages constructive discussions, comments, and questions. Responses are not provided by or commissioned by any bank advertisers. These responses have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the responsibility of the bank advertiser to respond to comments.
Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at
Recent Comments