Entertaining Sites Around LOS ANGELES

Too much fun!

Driving home we got…

'15 March, The Los Angeles River /

Driving home we got off the Glendale Freeway at Fletcher Driver and found some great gates leading to very cool LA River walks. This one is called Water With Rocks.

Here’s one. Note the gate is locked but the side door is open.

And here’s a majorly…

'15 March, The Los Angeles River /

And here’s a majorly fancy one called Great Heron Gates leading into Rattlesnake Park. Unfortunately the walls are getting tagged, not artistic efforts for decoration either but just unpleasant spray-can tags.

This section of the…

'15 March, The Los Angeles River /

This section of the LA River is one of the places where the city broke up the cement bed to let the plants grow in which is so nice to look at.

It’s great for birds but also homeless people are camping out in the overgrowth. What to do what to do. The homeless encampments and the tagging made me think of Singapore, clean and safe as it is, but then we don’t want to live in Singapore.

Lill and I walked…

'15 March, The Los Angeles River /

March 8

Lill and I walked to a yummy breakfast and came back on the path along Ballona Creek, a tributary of the LA River and here we have another one of these cool gates you can often find at the river bike and walking paths.

You know that funky…

The (Magnificent!) Getty Center /

You know that funky sculpture prominently featured as you get off the tram? The one that everyone hates?

I like it. Because it seems somehow brave, standing there all huge and a-kimbo and the object of such scorn. It makes nice shapes, and the engineering is cool, and it’s been there from the beginning and we’d miss it if it was gone.

Martin Puryear “That Profile,” commissioned for the site in 1999. You can see it this way if you are walking up instead of taking the tram.

Sharon and I went…

'14 December, The Los Angeles River /

December 4

Sharon and I went to a new walking spot today – Hansen Dam. It was great, a long, flat, wide, paved sweeping path and beautiful views. Nice!

There’s a very little water from the Tujunga Wash, a tributary of the LA River. (Click here for more of The LA River.)

…

The ZOO /

When The Grandgirls Were Young

We got off fairly…

'14 February, The Griffith Observatory /

We got off fairly early for the Griffith Observatory where we planned to take some pictures. You’ll notice the out-in-the-country feeling in other photos. From this view it’s all LA.

You can click here for a longer story with a larger collection of photos and some history of the: Griffith Observatory.

In winter you can…

The (Magnificent!) Getty Center /

In winter you can see the garden path through the bare trees.

Go early, before they open even. Then as you stand between the rebar trees and the entrance to the garden path, close your eyes and just listen and breathe and do some zen-ish mind calming exercise and then you are ready to walk down the garden path.

The walk is really I think more about listening than about looking and that’s why crowds are so disruptive to the experience. You’ll want to hear your footsteps sound on the various surfaces and how the sound of the water reflects the changing shape of the rocks and hear the plants shimmering in relation to each other. Even the difference in sound as you move in and out of the trees is quite purposeful.

I went up to…

J Paul Getty Villa in Malibu, '13 December /

December 1

I went up to the Getty Villa today with Gina. We were sitting outside the café, catching up on our lives and I allowed as how I take pictures almost every day, just travelogue/diary stuff, and how I never tire of it, and that I’m never not intrigued by some view .. like those very shadows ‘right there’.

With Susie, we bemoaned…

The Grand Park /

With Susie, we bemoaned our losses of the bygone Olden Days .. and cheered our gain of the Grand Park. (Not an entirely fair trade but we take what we can get.)

The park is three…

The Grand Park /

The Grand Park

The park is three terraced blocks long from the DWP building to the north-west down to City Hall and bordered on each side by government buildings.

From the DWP looking south-east we find the Fountain Plaza, the Performance Lawn, the Community Terrace, the Event Lawn right in front of City Hall crying out to be occupied, lots of great landscaping, picnic setups, and more.

Formerly known as the…

The Grand Park /

Formerly known as the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power Building, later named after the late Los Angeles City Councilman John Ferraro (1924—2001).

The older fountain in…

The Grand Park /

The older fountain in front of the DWP building and between the Dorothy Chandler and the Mark Taper.

The inscription reads:

“Peace On Earth by Jacques Lipchitz Given as a symbol of peace, to the people of the world. By Lloyd E. Rigler Lawrence E. Duetsch 1969″

Here’s what we looked…

'13 April, Camping! /

Here’s what we looked like when we set-up. The picnic table and fire pit were on the other side of the van.

And then, just as was predicted by the weather report but which I thought must be the computer reporting the wrong location, Gale Force Winds. Our tent was unable to protect us in the face of Gale Force Winds.

But we hung in there until morning, threw everything in the back of Lona and Hartley’s mini-van and headed out to a restaurant for a warm, clean, and wind-free breakfast.

It was nature. It was fun. It’s a story.

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