We took a ride to go for breakfast at an amazing little place (which was in the Silver Lake neighborhood, I think.) We passed this huge smurf blue building which was the original Scientology building, not far from L Ron Hubbard road. On the way we saw a one legged cyclist whipping down the street at an impressive clip! It was raining steadily, though not too hard, which only made his balance more impressive. Square One is an amazing place! The ceiling is covered with large egg cartons, and the wait staff is kind of fun and quirky. We sat down next to Willis, who was hilarious and quite chatty. He apparently lives in the neighborhood and is a regular. He chatted us up for a bit, then settled in to make phone calls, and more phone calls!
The one legged cyclist made an appearance every 5 minutes or so, doing a circuit for a good half hour that we were there at least! It was truly impressive to see and I found myself watching out for him! We had an amazing and fresh breakfast- Jason an omelete and I got an egg dish cooked in a little cast iron skillet with chorizo, cheese, tortilla, peppers and onions. Willis had to leave, and the waitresses all said goodbye to him by name, thus cementing the mystique of Willis!
We made our way over to the LaBrea Tar pits, which included an amazing little museum showcasing the discoveries from the tar pits over the last almost hundred years. Apparently a man owned the land and came across this incredible discovery of these huge tar pits including the remains of animals from tens of thousands of years ago. He was rumored to be the inspiration of the ‘Beverly Hillbillies’! They had excavated several pits and had rebuilt the complete skeletons of mammoths, saber tooth tigers, bears, wolves, and many other animals in this cool little museum. It was so interesting! We watched the scientists work in the ‘fishbowl’ on Zed, a huge mammoth, and laughed at the funny things up on the white board. Those crazy scientists!! They had a block of the tar with bones sticking out everywhere on display, which was truly amazing. We then walked out to check out the tar pits, which you could really smell on the approach. They had marked and left some bones for viewing.
We then drove over to Exposition park, where we saw the huge swimming building which housed the swimming events at the 1984 Olympics. We walked past the USC Colliseum and then drove over to the other side of the park. We then took a walk through the huge and beautiful Rose Garden which used to supply some of the Roses for the Parade of Roses. There was a huge fountain in the center, and while the weather didn’t hold out for us, it was still quite beautiful.
The next adventure was to the Watts Towers, which has been one of my favorite things on the trip. In the middle of this now rough little neighborhood, is an incredibly unusual, quirky little testament to a creative mind. An Italian immigrant and day laborer built these towers out of .. trash, essentially. They are supported by metal, which he covered with mortar and broken shards and remnants of things that he found: bottles and broken bottles, pottery, pieces of plates, anything really! There are plaques up that describe his building process of the higher tower portions, where he literally built it one rung at a time. It is rather large and quite impressive, especially when you think of a man building it in the middle of a modest housing community ‘just cuz!’ The more you look, the more interesting things you find in the small, broken up pieces that make this sculpture so impressive! Across the street was a fabulous little house brightly painted with large colored flowers, adding to the ambiance of the place!!
Next we made our way to the Farmer’s Market and the grove to walk around and grab lunch. Jason ate at a little Cajun stand which is incredible Zagat rated! He got fried alligator there. An ice cream stand there had peppermint, which is one of my favorites, so I got a little cone. I wasn’t all that hungry so ended up just getting a croissant to snack on, and we walked around a bit to check out all the different places. We walked by a bakery and I saw red velvet cupcakes! I commented to Jason, and a woman walking by leaned in and said ‘don’t buy it from there!’ ha! It was a very compact little area that was mostly covered, and smelled delightful! There was a huge fruit stand, and every food you could imagine!
It really started to pour so we decided to just drive around for a while. We made our way through Beverly Hills looking out for some open houses, which sadly, we didn’t come by. Surprisingly, very few of the houses were for sale! I think we each picked maybe a dozen that we’d like to buy [in our dreams!] as we made our way through the neighborhood. We drove past the gated community of Bel Air, which put up the guard gate when they got tired of people driving through the neighborhood! We drove through Hollywood, past the start of the area at Hollywood and Vine, Kodak and Gromund’s (sp?) Chinese Theater. Jason was tired of driving, so we made our way down to Venice Beach to walk around and people-watch.
Unfortunately mother nature had other plans, and few people were around due to the rain. Most of the shops were even closed, but we walked a bit down the beach anyways. As we were walking, we saw a sign for medicinal marijuana, and right around then we heard a guy bellow out ‘Hey, does anyone have papers!?’ We saw several people smoking joints, right out on the walk. There were lots of little souvenier and tourist shops, a few of which were open. We decided to duck into a place to get out of the rain which was a bookstore and restaurant, and checked out the bookstore for a bit. They had some funny books, including a Twinkie cookbook, and a book of “Douchebag Quotes” which was much funnier in concept than the actual book!
I had met a gal from LA on my wine tour in Italy, and we had kept in touch when I got back. When we planned this trip I let her know, and she met us in the restaurant. We stayed there for a few hours talking with her, and it was lots of fun! She’s great! We then made our way over to a sushi place that she recommended for dinner. The first one she recommended, Fat Fish (where you can get a ‘fat ass’ roll!) was packed, with a line pouring onto the street. Instead we went to her second recommendation of Sushi Zo. It was a cute little place tucked right behind a strip mall, and delicious! They don’t have a menu but do a tasting of whatever they prepare. They ask what you don’t like, and then just keep bringing fish out to you. We had tuna, salmon, halibut, snapper, toro, and lots of other things. Jason had an octopus dish, as well as sea urchin and salmon roe, which I don’t eat and I had an oyster. The pieces were a decent size and so very fresh and well prepared. Nothing was really interesting, but all so very tasty! We left comfortably full and made our way back to the hotel. First, we decided to go to a bar across the street for a drink, called the Library Bar. There was an actual wall of books in it, and it was a cute little neighborhood place. Apparently the roof bar at our hotel was closed due to the weather, so it was a good thing we went the night before!
Fun-filled day. I was too tired to write this up last night, so posting today along with day 4. Sam
No comments:
Post a Comment