Old Los Angeles

I became a member of Los Angeles Conservancy last November when I registered for my Art Deco walking tour.  This Sunday, the Conservancy offered a complimentary tour of Union Station to welcome new members, and I used the opportunity for another exploration of downtown L.A.  Union Station is situated on Alameda Street near El Pueblo de Los Angeles State Historic Park (the district considered to be the birthplace of L.A.), so I decided to focus on acquainting myself with this particular area.

I began the day with the Union Station tour which began at 10:00am.  Our appointed guide is a well-informed gentleman who spoke in great depth about Union Station's history as well as its architectural significance.

The Conservancy website describes the tour as an examination of the "architecture, art, culture, and social history...[of] one of the great landmarks of Los Angeles."  The guide covered all of these aspects of the terminal, and it was interesting to learn about Union Station's context within the timeline of L.A. and its impact in the city's growth as a major metropolitan and cultural hub.

Fred Harvey Room

our tour guide

The tour's duration was an hour and a half.  When it ended, I turned my thoughts to lunch and headed up Alameda Street toward Philippe the Original restaurant where I planned to get a french dip sandwich.  I had never been to Philippe's so I was looking forward to their signature roast beef sammy dipped in gravy.  The eatery is also only a few blocks from Union Station so it was a super convenient choice as well.

When I arrived at Philippe's, it was peak lunch period, so the queues were like this:

The ordering process at Philippe's is also very inefficient since it's not set up in a single queue system.  As such, it's a very unpredictable and potentially frustrating wait if one gets stuck in a queue with a slow server and/or an indecisive customer.  After a half hour wait, I finally had my order and hunted down an empty seat at one of the cafeteria-style tables.

double-dipped beef, cole slaw, potato salad, and a pickle

My lunch was good, though anticlimactic.  Based on all the hype I'd heard over the years, I'd expected the sandwich to be mind-blowingly fantastic.  It was not.  It was tasty but not exceptional.  The sides were pretty good, particularly the potato salad.  Overall, I rate my meal 7 stars out of 10.  Still, despite the less than stellar meal, I'm glad that I finally got to try Philippe's since it seems a culinary rite of passage for Angelenos.

After lunch, I walked back down Alameda to famous Olvera Street which is located between Union Station and Philippe's.  Olvera Street is short and bustling, very mired in the tourist trade with stalls lining the entire length of the street and selling food or cheap souvenirs to visitors.

Olvera Street

About midway down Olvera, I found the Avila Adobe house, reportedly the oldest standing house in L.A.  It's free admission to the public and was a welcome interlude to the kitsch of the marketplace.  Avila Adobe is very tiny so I was able to view the entire house in a few minutes.

Avila Adobe courtyard

I continued to the end of Olvera Street to the Plaza (the center of El Pueblo de Los Angeles State Historic Park) where there was a festival of sorts going on.  A group of dancers in beautiful costumes were dancing to a rhythmic drum beat.

performance in Plaza park

I watched the dancing for a while and then made my way over to Old Plaza Firehouse, the oldest firehouse in Los Angeles, which faces the Plaza.  The firehouse is likewise small, and my time inside was brief.

Old Plaza Firehouse

To the Batpole!

Upon emerging from the fire station, I spotted a sign for the Chinese-American Museum, which turned out to be just around the corner from the Plaza.  I decided to check it out and viewed an interesting exhibition called Breaking Ground: Chinese American Architects in Los Angeles (1945-1980) which featured several architects who contributed some recognizable architectural L.A. landmarks.  Photography wasn't allowed in the museum so I have no photos to post.

When I left the Chinese-American museum, I walked back toward Plaza park.  As I did so, I heard flamenco music which I followed until I found myself at La Plaza de Cultura Y Artes, a cultural center consisting of a museum housed in a three-storey building on Main Street and a 30,000 square feet garden.  Located adjacent to Plaza park, the mission statement of La Plaza de Cultura Y Artes is to "celebrate and cultivate an appreciation for the enduring and evolving influence of Mexican and Mexican-American culture."

La Plaza de Cultura Y Artes

On this Sunday, there was an event going on with live musicians and dancers performing in the garden as well as educational workshops and free entry into the museum.

performers at La Plaza de Cultura Y Artes

I took advantage of the latter and went on a self-guided tour of the museum's inaugural exhibit called LA Starts Here!, an engaging, interactive experience that examines and celebrates Mexican and Mexican-American history and identity in L.A.

 

 

My visit to the Mexican-American museum capped my day's exploration.  It was a long but very thorough and satisfying day during which I was able to explore about a square mile of downtown L.A. along and around Alameda Street.  In conclusion, I never thought of downtown L.A. as a walkable district, but this excursion (along with my first one) is convincing me otherwise, much to my excitement.  I can't wait for my next downtown adventure!

Hugh Pickett's Frontier 101 Invitational Rodeo

Howdy, pardner!  I was a busy girl last weekend.  Besides OC Great Park, I also went to my first rodeo!  I got the quirky whim last year that I just had to attend a live rodeo at least once in my life.  Web searches at the time yielded nothing in SoCal, but as it always happens, I found out about this one unexpectedly when I stumbled across this list, and #53 took me to the Los Angeles Equestrian Center's calendar of events which resulted in my sitting in a front row arena seat at Hugh Pickett's Frontier 101 Invitational Rodeo!

On the day of the rodeo, I arrived at Los Angeles Equestrian Center a couple hours before it was scheduled to begin to purchase my ticket at the box office.  (I could have ordered it from Ticketmaster, but I refused out of principle to pay the outrageous $8 service fee the rip-off artists were asking for.  Anyway.)

After I purchased my ticket, I drove around Burbank to find lunch.  I didn't have a destination in mind, but I stuck to Riverside Drive which is the street where the equestrian center is situated.  Along the way, I passed several production studios, including Disney's, from which I concluded that I was headed towards the touristy areas.  I eventually hit the part of town where eateries are plenty, and a burst of nostalgia made me stop at Bob's Big Boy.  I hadn't been to a Bob's since I was a kid nor had I ever eaten at this particular location.  Unsurprisingly, it was bustling with tourists, but there was no wait for counter seating.  I ordered a pulled pork sandwich and a chocolate milkshake.  The latter came out first so I had my dessert as an appetizer.  Yum!

When I was done with lunch, I still had an hour before the rodeo.  I had purposely planned it so that I would have some time before the show since I wanted a chance to explore the equestrian center and maybe visit some horses.  Prior to my visit, I had a romantic preconception that the center would be verdant and park-like and that I could walk around and poke my head into stables and see a steady traffic of riders on horses.  Boy, was I wrong.

First of all, I encountered more dirt than lawn.  It felt almost industrial, with all the tractors and trucks parked everywhere.  No doubt I was only seeing a small portion of the equestrian center, but what I saw didn't beckon sightseeing.  Also, stable areas are not really open for random visits, to my disappointment, and I got shooed away by an employee.  Nor did I see many people on horses.  In short, I couldn't discern much to see or to do at the center if one isn't there for an event or for riding lessons.  I found a cafe and a couple of small gift and supply shops next to the box office but that was it.

horse riding supply store

Thus, I ended up being very early to the rodeo (which also happened to start a half hour late).  While I waited, I walked around the arena, watching rodeo participants warming up and staff herding cattle into pens.

getting livestock ready for the show

When the show started at last, I was figuratively chomping at the bit for some entertainment and eagerly awaited cowboys and cowgirls to demonstrate their horse-riding, cattle-wrestling, and bull-riding prowess!

opening ceremony

The rodeo was great.  It was exciting and exhilarating, and there were super funny moments, too.  Cowboys ranged from 5 years old (too cute) to senior citizens.  The horses were diverse and beautiful, and I admired the riders' ease in the saddle.

opening parade

I especially enjoyed the barrel-racing and relay race events where the horses are pushed to go their fastest, and the most adept competitors flash their horsemanship.

barrel-racing!

Pony Express relay race!

Oh, and bulls are GINORMOUS.

bull-rider

I also liked the camaraderie among the spectators.  My seatmates and I exchanged opinions about who competed well and who wasn't up to snuff.  And we agreed that the sheep-riding contest was the most hilarious part of the rodeo.

It was all super fun. The rodeo was scheduled to last 3.5 to 4 hours, and I tried to stick around for the whole thing, but I left at the 3-hour mark because the temperature had become so unbearably cold.  I doubt that I missed much more, though, since things were winding down by then.

"Howdy, cowboy."

I'm glad I was able to attend this event.  There aren't any other rodeos scheduled for 2012 on Los Angeles Equestrian Center's calendar so I was lucky that I found this one, and at the last minute, too!  Otherwise, I'd have had to wait another year for Hugh Pickett's Rodeo to come around again.

All I care about the Superbowl is how much I will win in the pools.

It's my conclusion that the best day to go somewhere in SoCal is on Superbowl Sunday.  With the exception of Disneyland (I'm told), most attractions, parks, and shopping centers are eerily devoid of crowds.  Traffic is gloriously light, and no one has to queue for anything.

Thus, I set off for the Orange Country Great Park, the as yet unfinished park in Irvine, CA that resides where decommissioned Marine Corps Air Station El Toro used to be.  When Great Park is completed, it will the be the largest municipal park in Orange County and will be larger than New York's Central Park, San Francisco's Golden Gate Park and San Diego's Balboa Park.

Though unfinished, Great Park drew me because of the free tethered hot air balloon ride that it offers.  Let me repeat that--Great Park offers FREE hot air balloon rides. 

hot air balloon in distance

One just needs to register and sign a waiver for a balloon ride at the Great Park visitor center and then wait for one's assigned flight appointment.  Because they are free, the rides are first come, first served basis so my thought was that Superbowl Sunday, of all days, would be ideally suited for guaranteeing a berth in the balloon basket.

However, when I arrived at 1:00pm, I was sad to learn that the day flights were all booked up.  The hours for balloon rides are 9:00am-3:00pm and 7:00pm-10:00pm.  For day flights, I was told that that I should register no later than 11:00am because the rides book up that quickly.  And one cannot book a ride the day before, either.  Nor can one register in the morning for a ride in the evening--registration for evening rides starts at 6:00pm.

Alas, I was very disappointed.  I should have called the visitor center prior to my visit to find out how early I needed to be there to ensure a ride, so it was my fault that I drove all the way to Irvine just to be thwarted.

I should have been up there.

Besides the hot air balloon, Great Park has a free carousel ride that is likewise on a first come, first served basis.  There is also an arts complex that consists of a few art galleries and studios.  Furthermore, Great Park hosts a farmers market every Sunday as well as an antiques flea market on the first Sunday of every month.

Neither the carousel nor the galleries interested me on this day, so I eventually wandered over to the markets to check them out.  I quickly grew bored with the antiques but the farmers market perked me up when I saw that there was a bunch of gourmet food trucks stationed there.  The temperature was very hot and dry so I especially zeroed in on the shaved ice truck.  This hit the spot big time:

coconut & melona flavor with snow cap, ice cream, and red beans!

The shaved ice was in fact my dessert.  Before that, I enjoyed lunch from Rancho A Go Go truck.  There is no photo of my pulled pork grilled cheese sandwich because I forgot to snap a pic prior to my wolfing it down, but take my word for it that it was VERY GOOD.

Rancho A Go Go menu

I left Great Park after lunch.  I spent about an hour there, including the time spent eating.  Despite my disappointment on this trip, I definitely want to return for the balloon ride, and I can't wait to check out Great Park when it is finally completed.

P.S.  I didn't win anything on any of my Superbowl pools.

Long Beach via Greystone

I had another one of those days where I began by intending to do one thing and ended up doing something else.  This time, I had it in mind to spend some time at the Greystone Mansion estate, a city park in Beverly Hills.  A former residence of the Doheny family, the city of Beverly Hills purchased the property in 1965, and it eventually became a city park.  Like the Getty Villa adventure, I thought it would be nice to wander around the grounds of another posh estate, especially since it's free.  I also wanted to be outdoors where I could take advantage of this ideal climate we've been having.

However, when I arrived at Greystone Mansion, I found the mansion covered in scaffolding and much of the grounds cordoned off due to some event or possibly filming going on.  (I read that the property is super popular as a movie/tv set.) 

There's scaffolding on the lower part of the mansion.

I had high hopes for Greystone, plus I had driven far to visit it, so I was pretty disappointed that I couldn't see most of the estate, especially since what little I saw was lovely.

Greystone Mansion

Greystone Mansion

Needless to say, I didn't stay at the park for long.  I soon left and headed towards the Golden Triangle--the swanky section of Beverly Hills which has Rodeo Drive at its center--to hunt down some lunch.  However, I grew more and more annoyed as I was stuck in traffic around Little Santa Monica Blvd.  Then the thought of finding parking and hunting for a worthy eatery likewise annoyed me.  All this vexation led me to abruptly change my mind and to decide to drive over to the Long Beach Museum of Art.

In fact, the Long Beach Museum of Art had been a contender for this week's excursion but had lost out over the fact that I hadn't wanted to do another indoor activity after the Museum of the Holocaust visit last week.  However, since Greystone Mansion was a bust, I settled on the sole runner-up, especially since its onsite restaurant, Claire's Cafe, had a reputation for tasty cuisine in a beautiful setting. 

view of ocean from Claire's Cafe patio

Forty-five minutes later, I was sitting at a table on the patio of Claire's Cafe, indulging in a glass of pinot grigio and marveling at the gorgeous view of the beach.  The weather was perfect--sunny but not hot at all.  I was so pleased that I decided to have lunch by the beach instead of in Beverly Hills.

After a leisurely meal, I walked over to the adjacent building where the museum proper is housed.  Their current exhibition is Exchange and Evolution: Worldwide Video Long Beach 1974-1999, "a retrospective selection of the significant international video works and artists who were part of the historic video art program at the Long Beach Museum of Art."

Exchange and Evolution video exhibition

The exhibition was interesting.  I didn't understand a lot of what I saw, but some pieces were viscerally evocative.  My favorite video was called Kiyoko's Dilemma, a short film about a Japanese woman's struggle to balance her artistic drive with familial obligations.

I have no idea what this installation is about.

Long Beach Museum of Art is not large so the exhibition was likewise not particularly extensive.  Other than the short film, I didn't linger much at each video installation so my time at the museum was relatively short.  I should mention that besides the video exhibition, the museum has a children's art section downstairs which the docents didn't mention but which I discovered en route to the restroom.

artwork from Mary McLeod Bethune Transitional Center for Homeless Students

From the museum, I walked towards the beach.  I didn't make it down to the beach itself but was content to sit on the embankment and people-watch.  I can't describe how nice it was just relaxing there, gazing at the water and at the people milling about enjoying the spring-like temperature.  I probably sat there for a solid forty-five minutes to an hour.  It was great.

view from my perch

a lovely day

Overall, I had a very good day.  It didn't start off well, but I am ultimately glad that Greystone Mansion didn't work out because Long Beach turned out to be a stellar alternative.  I couldn't ask for better weather, and I enjoyed chillaxing by the beach and just watching the lively goings-on of people (and of dogs) who were likewise reveling in the great SoCal climate.

The Dark and the Light

This week, I visited Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust.  Not to be confused with Museum of Tolerance (the educational unit of the Simon Wiesenthal Center located in West L.A.), Museum of the Holocaust is situated within Pan Pacific Park in the mid-city area of L.A.  It is reportedly the oldest Holocaust museum in the United States, yet I was clueless to the museum's existence, as well as that of Pan Pacific Park, prior to a couple weeks ago.

I arranged to meet my friend, RHS, at the museum, and we arrived as it opened.  The staff are courteous and offered us (without charge) the use of iPod Touch audio guides with accompanying headsets, necessary since all recorded presentations throughout the museum--including at the pc stations where one can listen to personal accounts from Holocaust survivors--are only audible via headsets.

The iPod guide also has a layout of the museum, which is planned to methodically guide the visitor through the historical timelines detailed in the exhibition. 

As we made our way through the hall, we were presented with historical excerpts, photos, and many authentic artifacts from Holocaust victims.  There are also Nazi artifacts on display.

Among the more interesting fixtures are the American newspaper imprints from the 1930s and 1940s which highlight reports hinting at the growing Nazi movement in Europe and the ever increasing social injustices towards certain classes of German citizens.  They are chilling portents of the greater atrocities to come.

 

The museum is not large, but it's very informative.  We took our time examining each informational panel, listening to different voices narrate passages and provide background to the images.  The photographs are moving and evocative and in many cases, frank and raw in their uncensored testimony.

The museum exterior is also impressive.  At the rear of the building, tall stone pillars commemorate the Holocaust.  Each pillar is marked by a key year and a short synopsis of that date's significance. 

 

Additionally, there are inscriptions etched into concrete walls, walkways, plaques, and benches which commemorate people and places of significance from the Holocaust.  Most noteworthy are inscriptions remembering and honoring victims on the exterior museum walls.

wall of remembrance

In total, we spent close to two hours at the museum.  We both found the museum's message to be very well presented.  The entire museum complex is a thoughtful, evocative monument to the Holocaust, and the exhibition and the museum layout create an unhurried, private experience for the visitor.

When we finally departed the museum, we drove over to West Hollywood for lunch.  My guidebook directed us to a couple of prospects on Melrose Avenue, and we finally settled for M Cafe de Chaya, an eatery that specializes in "contemporary macrobiotic cuisine."  The food was exceptionally good, fresh and flavorful and much better than I expected.  The cafe is a great find.

hummus&falafel wrap w/ side of kickass kale salad, sweet potato fries, and chopped salad

After lunch, I commented to RHS that we needed to end our day with something frivolous to counter the seriousness of the morning's excursion, so without telling her where we were headed, I made my way over to Whimsic Alley, the shop for all your wizardly needs.

RHS was surprised and delighted when she saw the theme of the store.  It was also my first time visiting Whimsic Alley, though I'd heard about it years ago and always meant to check it out.  I'm tickled I did--it's a pretty awesome place. 

RHS w/ quidditch player & Hermione

I banged my muggle head a few times trying to run thru the wall.

RHS and I are Harry Potter fans so it was fun to walk through the store and check out the cool merchandise.  The entire store is modeled after Diagon Alley, and the interior is sectioned off to mimic the shops in the fictional neighborhood, e.g. a broomstick store, a witch's accessory store, a wand store, etc.

potion store

Every witch must accessorize!

Which wand will choose me?

There is also a party room at the back of the store which one can rent.  There was a birthday party in full swing when we visited so we heard shrieking kids, and I spotted a Harry Potter lookalike roaming the place.  The atmosphere was very festive.  I was very amused.

butterbeer!

We hung out at Whimsic Alley for about a half hour and then left to get back to Pan Pacific Park where RHS had parked her car.  Thankfully, I am not a hoarder of memorabilia so I was able to leave the store without purchasing anything.  RHS likewise didn't purchase anything, but no doubt she was planning out future birthday and Christmas presents for certain relatives.

It was an interesting day.  I'm glad to have discovered and visited Museum of the Holocaust.  I am curious to know how it differs or compares to Museum of Tolerance which I visited as a young student but about which I have no clear memory beyond that of the Holocaust survivor my class and I met that day who spoke hauntingly about her experience.  I'll be sure to visit Museum of Tolerance in the near future so that I can find out.