Day 16: LA

We crammed a lot of sightseeing into today—once we actually got going. Since it was Sunday, I was a bit nervous that nothing would be open, but what’s wrong with me? This is LA! Things are open on Sundays!

We headed first to the La Brea tar pits.


Super cool. It was really stinky and a bit confusing. The sign said that the pits are actually abandoned asphalt mines from the 1800s. Over the years, they filled with a disgusting soup of rainwater and asphalt that has come up through the earth. Then, every few seconds, you’ll see this disgusting burp in the “water” indicating methane that has escaped through fissures in the earth’s surface.


On one end of the pit was a family of fiberglass mammoths indicating a mother stuck in the tar and her partner and child on the banks calling to her



I found it extremely depressing and more than a little sick.

As we left, we could see places where the tar was coming up through the street and the lawn and leaving little pools of black blech behind.


Walker then took us on another tour around the area. We went to Beverly Hills first (or “ BH9er” as Susan N. calls it)


...and drove done Rodeo Drive. Lots of empty-handed tourists were walking around down there.


We again saw many lovely homes and tree-lined streets.





On the recommendation of MANY people, we decided to go to the Museum of Jurassic Technology.


First of all, nothing about it has anything to do with the Jurassic era or its technology. No one really informed us that this was going to be perfect for us in particular having spent a LOT of time at museums and exhibits in the past two weeks. The MJT, as I shall call it, is really an anti-museum. It’s a spoof on museums.

First, it’s in a tiny sliver of a building in the middle of nothing. Then, when you walk in, there’s a little emo kid working the desk. Something is definitely amiss here. I saw that they wanted me to fill out a “photo pass” if I wanted to take pictures, and flash photography was not permitted. I now understand that “photo pass” is code for “mailing list.” There was no way a person could take non-flash photos in this place because the lights were so incredibly dim. There were several places where the lights were so low that I couldn’t even see what the pictures in the frames were supposed to be. This was precisely the same experience I had at the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit in Raleigh.

Then, there were a few places where we would pick up a telephone receiver, push a button, and listen to a recording. Well, I picked up the receiver, pushed the button, and nothing happened. OR I would push the button and it would take like 20 seconds for the recording to begin.

THEN, they did that thing that the BBC does a lot where they will have, for example, a German woman speaking German for a good 15 seconds before the translator comes on—just long enough for you to wonder if you’re having a stroke. Then, there are places in the recording where the German is so loud that I couldn’t hear the English. The BBC does this every once in a while and it drives me nuts.

We also found several places where there would be a picture or item on the wall with no explanation of who was in the picture, or the descriptions would be in the wrong place, or they would describe things that weren’t there. I thought it was hilarious.

Finally, at the top of the building is a tea room where we could sit and eat duplex cream cookies and drink tea for free. It was delightful. What a strange place.

After the MJT, we headed next door to the Center for Land Use Interpretation.


This was pretty much a place for artists to gripe about oil companies and other corporate entities and what they do to the earth. I was pretty bored by the whole thing until I saw…yes,…TWO kitties! I failed to get their pictures, but one of them jumped up in my lap while I was watching a slide show of heliports in Los Angeles. I kid you not; I can’t make that up.

We continued that venture with a trip to Fatburger. Yeah, it was just what it sounds like.



We headed to Venice Beach to finish off the day. It was VERY cool. There were tons of people out. It wasn’t like any beach I’ve been to. First off, the water was freezing cold. I could barely stand it. The only people really out in the water were surfers in wet suits. This is the man-made canal that I assume gives the place its name.


There was a sidewalk that curved through the beach that was reminiscent of the one featured in the opening sequence of Three’s Company in which Janet, Jack, and Terri are roller skating at the beach and Jack falls down. We saw lots of roller-bladers out there as well as cyclists. You'll see that life is a ball again, laughter is calling for yoooouuuuuuuuuu...


We also happened upon a free throw contest between these three guys, one of whom was a white kid alternately referred to by the MC as “Texas” (because of his origins) or “WB” (for “white boy”). It was quite hilarious. The boys each had some fancy method for getting the ball in the hoop that failed as often as not.


We saw some pretty funny products being sold on the boardwalk, like these kitten figures.


Or these scented oils. How do they know what Obama smells like?


Is this before or AFTER a game?


We also happened upon some kids who would just walk along the boardwalk with a giant boombox with blown speakers looking for a place to stop and start dancing. It was quite humorous. We watched for a little while before moving on.


We needed to have enough time to see all of these weird things.




This guy called himself the Venice Beach Pot Head.



Not only did Venice Beach have a formal park for kids to skateboard,


but it also had a formal location for kids to do graffiti.


We caught a bit of the sunset…


…and saw a gigantic barnacle on an oyster shell…


…and a few other crazy things on the way out.


Isn't that Sigmund Freud in that mural?


This was on the front of a Rite Aid pharmacy.


In Santa Monica, I think, we had awesome cream puffs at a place called Beard Papa Sweets Café.



The shells for the cream puffs are a delicious doughy doughy on the inside and a pie crust dough on the outside. Then, they fill the puffs with your cream choice right there on the spot. So delicious. Dave also ordered an éclair, which was just a cream puff with chocolate on top.

After that tasty treat we went back to Walker’s and just hung out for a few hours. I was getting a bit peckish around 10:30, but, since it was Sunday, all of the delivery places were closed. Instead, Walker busted out a frying pan and cooked us some Gyoza and made his own dipping sauce with soy sauce, fresh ginger, green onions, and God knows what else. It was way better than the Domino’s Pizza I was willing to suffer through. I was able to go to bed exhausted and filled with yummy food! What a great treat for our last night in LA!

Day 15: LA

I can’t believe we’ve been at this now for TWO WEEKS. Hell, we’re not even halfway through our trip yet. That is crazy. This has been an incredible trip for us so far. I sometimes forget that there’s a world outside Durham that’s worth anything. Some would say that’s debatable. I’ll entertain those claims.

I had a tragic realization today while talking to Walker that there really is little reason for me to talk to anyone about our trip once I get home because some of you have already read about our adventures. That’s a little sad, really. Oh, well. You can trust that a lot more is going on than what I write about here. I forgot how taxing blogging can be. However, I think it’s really helpful for me to recap the days’ events, so I’m definitely going to keep it up. Forgive me if we sometimes can’t get to a good Internet connection in order to post this stuff.

Dave offered to write a few entries as well, so I might let him have his two cents here, too. He might find it difficult to wrest control out of my sweaty hands. Yipes.

For the record, we are having a great time in LA. The weather is fabulous: warm in the afternoon, cool at night. Mornings? Who’s awake in the morning?

Last night, we got a good night’s sleep after staying up late talking with Walker. I got up at ten and read the news on my phone for almost an hour. Technology is so weird. Once Dave got up, we got going and went to Clifton’s Cafeteria based on the suggestions of our tour books and Betsy Fred-well.


This place is nuts. The first two floors were a dining room designed to look like a forest, complete with trees and little animal scenes, not to mention that forest wallpaper you remember seeing in certain rumpus rooms in the 1970s. I know somebody we knew growing up had that. Was it the Halls? I forget.







Then, the third floor was completely legit. It was decked out like a fancy, tacky dining room. What the hell is going on here? I don’t know, but I know I love it.





The food was also quite good. It was completely cafeteria fare, but it hit the spot. I had the turkey stew with mac n’ cheese, Dave had the pepper steak (which looked more like Salisbury steak to me), and Walker had the roast beef.




After stuffing ourselves on comfort food, we headed down the street to buy shoes. I wasn’t pleased with my choice of footwear for the day, and the shoes I have worn for the last two weeks have gotten pretty—no, unbearably—stinky. So I bought a new pair of cute little Airwalks, but within the first 300 steps outside the store, they were rubbing on my heal something terrible. I was going to need a Band-Aid soon. We saw a pharmacy down the street, but I knew our next stop on the sightseeing trail was closer, so I put it off.

We saw this marquis expressing grief for MJ.


And here’s a little something for Rossi.


We’ve noticed that urban areas in the 20th and 21st centuries love their murals. We’ve seen some really great ones in the Southwest. Here are a few we saw today.



Our next stop was the Bradbury Building. Ross Grady cryptically reminded us that it played a part in the movie Blade Runner. I don’t really remember that, but I’m glad we went anyhow. This building is fabulous. It was built in 1893 by some tycoon or other. Look it up on Wikipedia; the story of its design is bizarre.








Unfortunately for us, the Bradbury is now an apartment building, so visitors are not permitted to go any higher than the landing of the first floor staircase, but I could still see plenty from there.

We were a bit disappointed to see that part of the first floor was assigned thusly:


Ugh!

After looking at the Bradbury, we headed down the street so that I could buy some Band-Aids. We marched into the most bizarre pharmacy I’d ever seen. As soon as we got in there, I remembered that Betsy F-R had recommended that we spend some time in this place…La Farmacia Y Botanica Million Dollar.


This place is craaaaaaaazy. It is only at its barest minimum a legitimate pharmacy. The majority of the store is dedicated to witchcraft and a bizarre brand of Catholicism that employs things like prayers to the Spirit of Death and herbs burned to ensure hasty income.






It was fascinating, to say the least. I was trying to take photos discretely, but an older gent who worked there saw my camera and, in broken English, said, “Is ok. You take pictures here.” All right, buddy. You asked for it.

I felt like I was about to get struck by lightning, so I bought Band-Aids and that’s all.

We then walked through the Grand Central Market, which has been in operation since 1917.


It was very cool. There were vendors of all kinds selling everything from pastries to veggies to jewelry. It was cool.

At this point, I noted aloud that I had yet to see a single celebrity. Not a one. Sad.



The Walt Disney Concert Hall:


The Walt Disney Concert Hall again:



Our next stop was Hollyhock House, which is one of several Frank Lloyd Wright-designed houses in LA. Unfortunately, we were not able to go in because the last tour was at 3:30. So we just walked around it and took some pictures.








It was quite nifty. As we were finishing up, we discovered that the makeshift gift shop out on the lawn was closing, so we all bought FLW tumblers with awesome art deco designs on them.

Our next stop was the Griffith Planetarium and Observatory.






The facility is high up on a hill overlooking the city. Its view was spectacular.





Bizarre sign of the day:


From here, we had an awesome view of the Hollywood sign.


After letting Albert Einstein pick my nose, we sat down for a chat about our fingerprints.



Since the Griffith Planetarium was the sight of some scenes from "Rebel Without a Cause" in 1955, there is a monument to James Dean on the front lawn.



A little something for Evan:


After this sightseeing tour, we came home to relax (and blog). For dinner, we headed to Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles, which is yet another entry in the guide book.


We’re going to need to call the authors, Jane and Michael Stern, and let them know how many of their suggestions we have entertained. This place was awesome! We got there at 9 for dinner, and it was packed. We waited for about 20 minutes to get a table, but it was worth it. Our server was a little older lady who had “Mama Ella” embroidered on her apron. She was terrific. We each had chicken (in some form—fried, topped with grave, or made into sausage) and waffles.




It was delish! Those waffles were the JAM! They had a ton of whipped butter on them and just a wonderful flavor. So good.

From there, we headed to Albertson’s to get wine to make sangria for tomorrow, and then back home we came for an evening in (blogging).

I can’t believe we are entering into Week Three. We’re having a great time. I have no idea what we’re going to do tomorrow. Stay tuned!