Tuesday, June 30, 2009

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!

2 comments:

  1. I walked on that Three's Company sidewalk at Venice Beach the night before John Ritter died. That was weird.

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  2. if you have time in sf, at 10pm go to bob's donuts on Polk St. they make them fresh around 10/10:30. YUM!!

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