La Brea Tar Pits and Venice Beach

On our last day in LA we went to two more iconic spots – the La Brea Tar Pits and Venice Beach.

I was dinosaur crazy as a little girl. I read all about Roy Chapman Andrews in a set of children’s books we had and bought little plastic dinosaurs with my own money. Naturally, I just had to go see the tar pits when we were in LA in spite of Ken (and others) saying they weren’t very impressive. And I suppose they aren’t. They’re located in a small park in west central LA and aren’t much to visually look at. Ah, but the imagination… There is also a very good museum showing some of the bones found and tracing the history of the site.

A mammoth entrapped in the tar.
Asphalt was quarried here in the 1800’s and rainwater filled the resulting basin

Flagged bones in Pit 91	Lump of tar with embedded bones in Observation Pit
Stored tar lumps from the expansion of the art museum next door	Columbian Mammoth from the pits

 

Then it was on to Venice Beach. We were a little confused about where Venice Beach was, but finally found a (pricey) parking lot and there we were. First stop was lunch (I never go far without it). After briefly looking around, we chose the Sidewalk Café and it was very good.

Ken perusing the menu at the Sidewalk Café

Ocean Front walk	Skate board park
Ocean Front Walk	Sand artist on the walk

From Venice Beach, we took CA-1 north to Topanga and drove through Topanga Canyon again, northbound this time, and back to the hotel.

I no longer remember where we ate supper that night but lunch was relatively late and large so we may have skipped it.

[written 12/30/13]

The Getty Museum

This morning we toured the Getty Museum. It’s quite an impressive complex – especially when you consider that this is the result of the wealth of one man. There is no public funding involved. The pictures are outside only; I only took a few inside ones and they didn’t turn out.

Museum Courtyard looking toward the entrance building

Other end of the courtyard looking at the Research Institute

Ken with the Getty Research Institute in the background

Looking down and west from the top of one of the buildings

Maze in the Central Garden

We got back to our hotel mid-afternoon, took a bit of a break, and headed for a drive through Topanga Canyon and on the CA-1 along the coast through Malibu. This is the first section of CA-1 I’ve been on (that I know of) and my first impressions are “a little tacky”. The beach front properties are not at all what’s implied in “Two and a Half Men” (an extremely sleazy TV show Ken likes). Although I’m sure they’re pretty pricey, they look like most waterfront property I’ve seen – run down and small. I bet the real pricey stuff is up on the hills overlooking the ocean.

No pictures, nothing really caught my eye and we didn’t stop much anyway.

 

[written 12/28/13]

Another Madonna

We got an early start to the day, stopped for a late breakfast at MickyD’s in Banning, and collected our last Western Madonna in Upland by mid-morning. This just leaves us the three easternmost ones left to collect – Bethesda MD, Beallsville PA, and Wheeling WV. It might be a while before we get to those.

Madonna of the Trail – Upland CA. Our 8th Madonna

 

Not too far from the Madonna statue was the Lazy Daze factory. When I was fulltiming, I started out in a 5th wheel but then sold it and bought a used 24’ Lazy Daze Twin/King.

My 1996 Lazy Daze at the Windsor Ruins in Alcorn MS

I’m still partial to the brand and am seriously considering the next size up for Ken & I. Just have to watch the marketplace for a good used one to pop up. Since the factory was so close to our route, I really wanted to stop by and look at the floor models. I was curious about the changes since my 1996 model. More importantly, I was eager to get Ken’s body in one and see what his reactions were. I’m afraid I was disappointed there – he was very non-committal. I’m afraid he can’t get past the cost/benefit ratio. And he’s correct there, it’s *much* cheaper to go the car/hotel route. And I’m having trouble getting past I could be on the road and still be in my own place. And we could comfortably stop for a day and do nothing. Two different viewpoints.

It was fun looking at the new models. But I really hated the kitchen revamp they did in the 24’ model. That told me right there that I would have to have a pre-2010 if we went for the small size. Ah well, I’m still wobbling on the fence – first small, then mid-size. We’ll see what crops up first.

Another fun thing was to look at one of their very first models – a 16’ 1966 class C. The description is a little hard to read because of the grungy plastic cover, but check it out.

1966 16’ Lazy Daze

Price and description	Looking toward the rear
The kitchen and overhead bunk	Fridge and closet

From the Lazy Daze factory, it was on to the California Science Center. Our prime attraction here was the space shuttle Endeavor. This is the one they hauled through the streets of Los Angeles, even cutting down some trees to make room. They had a time lapse film of that trip. It was very interesting to watch even though I’m totally unfamiliar with the city. And the shuttle itself is very impressive. Too bad about the hordes of people. I suppose in a couple more years the newness will have worn off and it won’t be so busy.

Space shuttle Endeavor

For some reason I found the rescue instructions humorous. I mean, who’s going to read them?	I loved the pattern the heat tiles made, each one unique. What a jigsaw puzzle
The mighty engines of the shuttle	One of four seismic isolators to protect the shuttle from earthquake tremors

And a picture just for fun. While waiting at a stop light after leaving the Science Center, I saw this sign above a very 50’s looking Chevy dealership. It really tickled me. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a photo of the dealership before we took our left turn.

Felix the Cat at a Chevy dealorship

After finally checking into our hotel, we rested up for a bit and then headed out to Hollywood Hills to take our picture with the Hollywood sign. We found another couple there who were willing to take our picture and then we took theirs. A good trade for both.

Mary Lou and Ken “under” the Hollywood sign

This was not the location Ken remembered taking pictures from before so we drove around Hollywood Hills trying to find that mythical spot. Never did. What narrow, twisty, turny roads. This is a high price area to live but all I could imagine was the disaster a panic evacuation from there would be.

There was still a bit of daylight left so we headed down into Hollywood. We paid a pretty price to get into a parking lot near Hollywood and Vine and got out to walk around. Yep, there’re stars in the sidewalk. Some names we recognized, many we didn’t. As you can probably tell, I was underwhelmed by the whole experience. I looked up Grauman’s Theater and saw that it was over a mile away. Too far to walk tonight and we didn’t want to pay another parking fee. So we found a place for supper and waited *forever* for some OK food.

It was a long day of many, many impressions and I collapsed when we got back to the hotel.

One of Ken’s favorite liberal humorists

 

[written 12/23/13]

LA Bound

After all that concentration on the house we were ready for a break. Ergo, ROADTRIP! We’re heading to LA for a long weekend. We were going to leave tomorrow morning, but, after lunch, decided to hit the road and stop in Palm Springs for the night.

We got off I-10 and took the long cut through Wickenburg simply because Ken hadn’t been on US-60 west of there. US-60 joins back up with I-10 about 10 miles east of the California border. I had been on that stretch in the opposite direction in 2005 but only remember “boring”. Well, it’s still a fairly uninteresting drive, but then so is I-10.

We got to Palm Springs early evening, found our hotel and checked in. Nice place with surprisingly limited parking. Inquired about restaurants nearby and walked over to Trio’s. A pretty chi-chi place. I liked the food a lot, Ken not so much.

7-Springs Inn in the morning after check out

BTW, I’ve put links to the Google Map I’ve made of our trips in the “Tracks” tab of this site.

312 mi, 5:13 hrs total, 4:47 hrs moving

[written 12/23/13]

House Work

February was a busy month. After closing on the new house, Ken hired a contractor to remove the popcorn on the ceilings then retexture and repaint them. While that was going on, he and a friend got going on the repairs that *had* to be done before we could move in: replace master bath faucets, replace kitchen faucet, repair master bath toilet, fix half-assed repairs made on hall bath & master bath drains. Not difficult, but you know how plumbing jobs expand… The patio door was also repaired. It just needed new rollers, but the design was such that the entire door needed to be taken apart to get to the rollers. Then the axle grease the previous owner had globbed in the tracks to get it to slide needed to be removed.

I wanted a water softener (AZ water is *hard*!) so he spent some time installing that. I suppose not strictly necessary before moving in but easier to do now. Painting the master bedroom and office came next. Those two rooms would be very difficult to do after the furniture is moved in.

In the meantime, I was at the old house getting it ready to put on the market. That involved triaging things into Goodwill, daughter’s garage sale, trash, and things we didn’t immediately need. The latter was packed up and moved to the new house’s garage. I could make some of the decisions, but Ken was required for others. He was in hyper drive for several weeks between the two houses.

Finally, the old house was staged, put on the market, and had several offers above asking price the first day. Ken accepted the highest one (naturally) and the next highest wanted to be a backup bidder. So, that was settled. Now that we knew the buyers weren’t cash buyers and wanting in immediately, we could settle down and do some more work on the new house that was easier done when empty. i.e. painting, ceiling lamp replacement, switch and outlet replacement. Little things like that are much easier without the furniture.

Finally, everything was ready enough and we moved in on March 13. Ken started tackling all the outside work he wanted to get done before monsoon season hit. My request had been that we get gravel down before the rains came so mud wouldn’t get tracked inside. I’ll just let Ken’s own words describe the result of that request:

Project: Cover dirt in backyard with gravel
Oops! Better get some more dirt to improve drainage away from house.
OK, got dirt.
Oops, better pour some concrete for patio expansion. Concrete done.
Ready to spread dirt?
Nope, better paint block walls before dirt and gravel.
Get sprayer shipped from son's house in Ohio. Done.
Get sprayer repaired because it has not been used in 12 years. Done.
Spray paint walls with 3 coats of paint. Done.
Spread dirt. Done.
Oops, dirt does not settle as much as expected. Remove part of dirt and relocate. Done.
Oops, better put some plastic down over the new dirt. Done.
Spread gravel finally only to find out that the gravel company sold us twice as much as we needed. Have huge pile left over.

My role was much easier. I simply unpacked the boxes, put things away, forgot where I put them, found them again, and put food on the table.

Danny and Ken installing non-soft water line to outside faucets

New cement poured to enlarge and square off the patio

Painting porch roof after repair

New gravel down!

Oh. The old house purchase fell through just before closing. The wife lost her job and they couldn’t wangle things around enough to qualify for the mortgage. Luckily the backup bidders were still interested. Still above asking price but not nearly as much as the first couple. Oh well, it’s done.

[written 12/23/13]