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icepixieOkay, so the thought of the HTML necessary to embed 117 clickable thumbnails of my Los Angeles photos in the text makes the baby Jesus cry, so here they all are in gallery form!
And below the cut is the narrative that goes with them.
Did you know that Los Angeles International Airport has a flying saucer? It houses this intriguing restaurant. I never managed to get a picture of it, but it entertained us as we waited for planes to get in.
After a brief decampment to Kate's apartment, we headed south to the Point FermÃn Lighthouse, with a brief stop by the Korean Friendship Bell, since it was nearby. The internets had assured me that one could get down to the rocky beach below the lighthouse, but as they are wont to do, the internets lied. Still, the lighthouse was Victorian and adorable, and I got to see...a lot of the freeway? Always fun! There were a ton of billboards for TV shows--which you would think redundant in what is essentially a company town, where the company is, y'know, TV and movies--and one of the shows getting tons of advertising is Nashville. It was a mite surreal to see the name of my city plastered all over LA.
Whitney, Ellen, and Chandra monkeyed up several of what Google informs me are coral trees (Californians, you'll have to see if they bloom red in the spring for confirmation), while Kate and I sensibly stayed on the ground.
Still in dire need of beach adventures, we sped back north to the beach near Kate's apartment and wandered through the waves and watched the sun set. As you will see in the gallery, I took many pictures. Many, many pictures. It was pretty.
Oh, and on the drive back, southern California decided to welcome us with a brushfire. Such excitement!
After nightfall, we had some delicious crepes, and then Kate and I were in bed before ten. I never quite managed to make it off of Central time, as evidenced by the fact that I woke up at three frakking thirty the next morning, and 5:30 and 6:30 the next two days.
But getting up early allowed us to go to a farmers market, where I realized exactly how much of a bounty to farmers Calfornia's weather is. They had grapes, you guys. GRAPES. At a FARMERS MARKET. I don't think you can actually grow the not-for-wine variety here, or at least I've never seen them. They also had jujubes--which I always thought were just a candy, but apparently they're also a fruit. There were free samples of everything, so I tried one, and...I honestly can't tell you what it tastes like. It's a very "generic fruit" taste, with no particulars whatsoever.
I also tried a fig. It didn't taste bad, exactly, but the texture was far too reminiscent of a sea creature boiled in custard to be pleasurable.
(Getting up early also allowed me to watch the news and discover that the LA market gets no fewer than seven different seven-day forecasts. There's one for the coast, the mountains, the valleys, the metro, and lord knows what else, and it is MADNESS. "Microclimate" is taken to extremes out here.)
Once everyone else arrived, we did beachy things again at Venice Beach, which surely must have the highest per capita collection of shopfronts for "doctors" "prescribing" marijuana in the nation. Not to mention head shops and tattoo parlors.
That not really being our scene, we headed to the Getty Center, which is a very large, white building on a hillside. SoCal was having a heat wave at the time. It was dazzling in many ways. I quite liked the dahlias, though, as well as the rest of the flowers. Another brushfire started before we got there, and we watched planes and helicopters dumping water on it as we ate lunch. (We also saw what what the media claims was a non-emergency refinery flare, which looked pretty emergency to me, but what do I know.)
We didn't have time to see much of the art museum, but I breezed through the decorative arts wing--lots of shiny, sparkly eighteenth century goodies--and the Paintings 1600-1800 wing. Which, um, had a Degas, so I question their dating methods, but I'm not complaining, because I like Degas. I think my favorite was A Calm at a Mediterranean Port, by Vernet, though.
And then there was the Liberal Arts screening with fellow Kenyon folk. The movie was about what I expected, which is to say facepalmy and a bit dull, but it had Middle Path! And Ascension! And Old Kenyon! And Middle Ground and the chapel and the library and Rosse and Peirce and the bookstore and probably other things I'm forgetting, and that was excellent. In a way, the movie itself reminded me of Northern Exposure, both for the "nothing really happens, but people have really intelligent-sounding conversations," factor, as well as for the inappropriate relationship between an older dude and a 19-year-old woman. At the same time, it really isn't anything like NX, because the foundation of something worthwhile to say was missing. Also, a character for everyone except the protagonist was missing. Middle class white guy with a decent life is nevertheless full of ennui, and all these people come along to help him out of it while having no other purpose in life! Yeah, I hate that story. Also, it seems to me that Jesse's problem was not lacking a girlfriend, but that he obviously didn't like living in New York City. He's all, "rar, I hate the crowds and the noise!" and I'm like, "So...why don't you move back to Gambier? Or at least Columbus? Lots of colleges need admissions officers!"
However, the Q&A with Josh Radnor afterwards was actually quite interesting. He spoke very coherently and articulately about writing, acting, and making a movie, and although I still don't like his movie, I at least understand where it comes from.
Sunday morning, we were consummate tourists in Hollywood. The handprints in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater were too crowded to really look at properly, so sadly I didn't see the tiles I would've gotten something out of. But I did see both Ginger Rogers's and Fred Astaire's stars on the Walk of Fame, which was nice. And we saw the Egyptian Theater, where Myrna Loy got her first job, so that was nifty.
We ate at the museum of modern art, and while we didn't go inside the museum itself, we did get to see the infamous rock that was dragged halfway across the state on special trucks to be mounted above a sidewalk. It was...a rock. Honestly, the Balanced Rock at Rock City is more impressive, but perhaps I am just a philistine.
I was expecting the La Brea tar pits to be a bit blah, but the animatronics were amusingly eightiestastic, and the fossils and tar bubbles were pretty cool. Their gift shop was by far the best of all the ones we went into, too. I was extremely tempted by the shirt that Ellen got ("What happens in the La Brea tar pits stays in the La Brea tar pits," heh), but we didn't have time to poke too much at them, and I have no idea what size I am anymore. I got a stuffed saber-toothed cat, though, which is just as good.
Whitney had a memorial service on the USC campus to attend, so we got some delicious milkshakes at a coffee shop and then wandered through the California Science Center. I wanted to see planes and spaceships, which they did have (including a Wright Flyer!), but not in the abundance I expected. That's okay, though, because the ecology exhibit was pretty cool. The kelp forest was very nifty, and so were the starfish tanks. There was a lovely rose garden as well, but it was a bit too hot to really appreciate. Next time, next time.
We zoomed off to Griffith Park and Observatory after that, and I think it was the highlight of the trip. We got there just before sunset, so we didn't get a chance to walk around much, but there was a short hike up from the, er, street parking to the Observatory that sufficed very well for me. There was a great view over the city, and a really excellent view of the Hollywood sign, which was an unexpected bonus. As you all know, I have A Thing for Art Deco, and you guys, this building. IT IS SO ART DECO IT HURTS. I wanted to move in. And that's not even mentioning the cool exhibits! It was all about spaaaaaace! Also, there was a somewhat random Tesla Coil in there, which they lit up every half hour or so, and that was way cool. The guide was very informative; I knew Tesla had had some kind of rivalry with Edison, but that was as far as my knowledge went. Now it is much greater. It would be cool to put a light bulb in the dirt and watch it light up. *sigh*
We watched a great planetarium show. I haven't been in a planetarium since an elementary school trip to the Cumberland Science Museum, and I recall that one being sort of eh. This was beautiful. I mean, I knew 99% of the information, but it's not like I was there to be anything but awed by technology and prettiness. The show was also narrated live by a guy who must have the most narratorly voice in the world. I thought he couldn't possibly be real, but he was. It was slightly surreal.
The line for the telescopes was too long to get through, but the bottom floor of exhibits was arguably better. I loved the line of celestial jewelry they had running under a timeline of the universe; I swear, if I had seen that when I was twelve, I would have found a way to break in there and wear it all. I know I saw a couple pieces that I owned at one point. I also enjoyed seeing my weight on each planet and taking a picture with a statue of Einstein.
Monday morning, us early birds took a walk to a park that overlooks some wetlands near Kate's apartment, which was pretty nifty. We were going to go back to the creperie for lunch, but unbeknownst to us, it closes on Mondays. ALAS. We had to settle for IHOP, which was pretty good too.
My flight home included my one and only ~brush with fame~ of the weekend. While we were waiting for the plane to board, I sat next to Powers Boothe. I didn't actually recognize him, but some guy came up and asked to take a picture with him, and then he (Boothe) got into a conversation with the lady on his other side, who asked if he was famous. They had a long conversation about making movies and riding horses, to which I eavesdropped shamelessly. He was flying to Nashville to film some episodes of Nashville, in which he apparently has a role.
And then I came home, and promptly found that we've skipped the nice part of fall and gone straight to the need-a-jacket-and-real-shoes part. Damn. Perhaps I could go live on the beach?
And below the cut is the narrative that goes with them.
Did you know that Los Angeles International Airport has a flying saucer? It houses this intriguing restaurant. I never managed to get a picture of it, but it entertained us as we waited for planes to get in.
After a brief decampment to Kate's apartment, we headed south to the Point FermÃn Lighthouse, with a brief stop by the Korean Friendship Bell, since it was nearby. The internets had assured me that one could get down to the rocky beach below the lighthouse, but as they are wont to do, the internets lied. Still, the lighthouse was Victorian and adorable, and I got to see...a lot of the freeway? Always fun! There were a ton of billboards for TV shows--which you would think redundant in what is essentially a company town, where the company is, y'know, TV and movies--and one of the shows getting tons of advertising is Nashville. It was a mite surreal to see the name of my city plastered all over LA.
Whitney, Ellen, and Chandra monkeyed up several of what Google informs me are coral trees (Californians, you'll have to see if they bloom red in the spring for confirmation), while Kate and I sensibly stayed on the ground.
Still in dire need of beach adventures, we sped back north to the beach near Kate's apartment and wandered through the waves and watched the sun set. As you will see in the gallery, I took many pictures. Many, many pictures. It was pretty.
Oh, and on the drive back, southern California decided to welcome us with a brushfire. Such excitement!
After nightfall, we had some delicious crepes, and then Kate and I were in bed before ten. I never quite managed to make it off of Central time, as evidenced by the fact that I woke up at three frakking thirty the next morning, and 5:30 and 6:30 the next two days.
But getting up early allowed us to go to a farmers market, where I realized exactly how much of a bounty to farmers Calfornia's weather is. They had grapes, you guys. GRAPES. At a FARMERS MARKET. I don't think you can actually grow the not-for-wine variety here, or at least I've never seen them. They also had jujubes--which I always thought were just a candy, but apparently they're also a fruit. There were free samples of everything, so I tried one, and...I honestly can't tell you what it tastes like. It's a very "generic fruit" taste, with no particulars whatsoever.
I also tried a fig. It didn't taste bad, exactly, but the texture was far too reminiscent of a sea creature boiled in custard to be pleasurable.
(Getting up early also allowed me to watch the news and discover that the LA market gets no fewer than seven different seven-day forecasts. There's one for the coast, the mountains, the valleys, the metro, and lord knows what else, and it is MADNESS. "Microclimate" is taken to extremes out here.)
Once everyone else arrived, we did beachy things again at Venice Beach, which surely must have the highest per capita collection of shopfronts for "doctors" "prescribing" marijuana in the nation. Not to mention head shops and tattoo parlors.
That not really being our scene, we headed to the Getty Center, which is a very large, white building on a hillside. SoCal was having a heat wave at the time. It was dazzling in many ways. I quite liked the dahlias, though, as well as the rest of the flowers. Another brushfire started before we got there, and we watched planes and helicopters dumping water on it as we ate lunch. (We also saw what what the media claims was a non-emergency refinery flare, which looked pretty emergency to me, but what do I know.)
We didn't have time to see much of the art museum, but I breezed through the decorative arts wing--lots of shiny, sparkly eighteenth century goodies--and the Paintings 1600-1800 wing. Which, um, had a Degas, so I question their dating methods, but I'm not complaining, because I like Degas. I think my favorite was A Calm at a Mediterranean Port, by Vernet, though.
And then there was the Liberal Arts screening with fellow Kenyon folk. The movie was about what I expected, which is to say facepalmy and a bit dull, but it had Middle Path! And Ascension! And Old Kenyon! And Middle Ground and the chapel and the library and Rosse and Peirce and the bookstore and probably other things I'm forgetting, and that was excellent. In a way, the movie itself reminded me of Northern Exposure, both for the "nothing really happens, but people have really intelligent-sounding conversations," factor, as well as for the inappropriate relationship between an older dude and a 19-year-old woman. At the same time, it really isn't anything like NX, because the foundation of something worthwhile to say was missing. Also, a character for everyone except the protagonist was missing. Middle class white guy with a decent life is nevertheless full of ennui, and all these people come along to help him out of it while having no other purpose in life! Yeah, I hate that story. Also, it seems to me that Jesse's problem was not lacking a girlfriend, but that he obviously didn't like living in New York City. He's all, "rar, I hate the crowds and the noise!" and I'm like, "So...why don't you move back to Gambier? Or at least Columbus? Lots of colleges need admissions officers!"
However, the Q&A with Josh Radnor afterwards was actually quite interesting. He spoke very coherently and articulately about writing, acting, and making a movie, and although I still don't like his movie, I at least understand where it comes from.
Sunday morning, we were consummate tourists in Hollywood. The handprints in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater were too crowded to really look at properly, so sadly I didn't see the tiles I would've gotten something out of. But I did see both Ginger Rogers's and Fred Astaire's stars on the Walk of Fame, which was nice. And we saw the Egyptian Theater, where Myrna Loy got her first job, so that was nifty.
We ate at the museum of modern art, and while we didn't go inside the museum itself, we did get to see the infamous rock that was dragged halfway across the state on special trucks to be mounted above a sidewalk. It was...a rock. Honestly, the Balanced Rock at Rock City is more impressive, but perhaps I am just a philistine.
I was expecting the La Brea tar pits to be a bit blah, but the animatronics were amusingly eightiestastic, and the fossils and tar bubbles were pretty cool. Their gift shop was by far the best of all the ones we went into, too. I was extremely tempted by the shirt that Ellen got ("What happens in the La Brea tar pits stays in the La Brea tar pits," heh), but we didn't have time to poke too much at them, and I have no idea what size I am anymore. I got a stuffed saber-toothed cat, though, which is just as good.
Whitney had a memorial service on the USC campus to attend, so we got some delicious milkshakes at a coffee shop and then wandered through the California Science Center. I wanted to see planes and spaceships, which they did have (including a Wright Flyer!), but not in the abundance I expected. That's okay, though, because the ecology exhibit was pretty cool. The kelp forest was very nifty, and so were the starfish tanks. There was a lovely rose garden as well, but it was a bit too hot to really appreciate. Next time, next time.
We zoomed off to Griffith Park and Observatory after that, and I think it was the highlight of the trip. We got there just before sunset, so we didn't get a chance to walk around much, but there was a short hike up from the, er, street parking to the Observatory that sufficed very well for me. There was a great view over the city, and a really excellent view of the Hollywood sign, which was an unexpected bonus. As you all know, I have A Thing for Art Deco, and you guys, this building. IT IS SO ART DECO IT HURTS. I wanted to move in. And that's not even mentioning the cool exhibits! It was all about spaaaaaace! Also, there was a somewhat random Tesla Coil in there, which they lit up every half hour or so, and that was way cool. The guide was very informative; I knew Tesla had had some kind of rivalry with Edison, but that was as far as my knowledge went. Now it is much greater. It would be cool to put a light bulb in the dirt and watch it light up. *sigh*
We watched a great planetarium show. I haven't been in a planetarium since an elementary school trip to the Cumberland Science Museum, and I recall that one being sort of eh. This was beautiful. I mean, I knew 99% of the information, but it's not like I was there to be anything but awed by technology and prettiness. The show was also narrated live by a guy who must have the most narratorly voice in the world. I thought he couldn't possibly be real, but he was. It was slightly surreal.
The line for the telescopes was too long to get through, but the bottom floor of exhibits was arguably better. I loved the line of celestial jewelry they had running under a timeline of the universe; I swear, if I had seen that when I was twelve, I would have found a way to break in there and wear it all. I know I saw a couple pieces that I owned at one point. I also enjoyed seeing my weight on each planet and taking a picture with a statue of Einstein.
Monday morning, us early birds took a walk to a park that overlooks some wetlands near Kate's apartment, which was pretty nifty. We were going to go back to the creperie for lunch, but unbeknownst to us, it closes on Mondays. ALAS. We had to settle for IHOP, which was pretty good too.
My flight home included my one and only ~brush with fame~ of the weekend. While we were waiting for the plane to board, I sat next to Powers Boothe. I didn't actually recognize him, but some guy came up and asked to take a picture with him, and then he (Boothe) got into a conversation with the lady on his other side, who asked if he was famous. They had a long conversation about making movies and riding horses, to which I eavesdropped shamelessly. He was flying to Nashville to film some episodes of Nashville, in which he apparently has a role.
And then I came home, and promptly found that we've skipped the nice part of fall and gone straight to the need-a-jacket-and-real-shoes part. Damn. Perhaps I could go live on the beach?