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Tuesday, Jan 17, 2006

The news said it was going to rain here last Saturday, but we didn’t care! Normally, that would be an enormous trauma in usually sunny L.A., but we were going to Portland to see the grandbaby.

It was a 6 am flight and we were ready. Even the last minute (4 am) news that there would be no one available to pick us up at the airport couldn’t stop us! We were up before the sun and napped on the way there.

My, but it was wet! The ground coming into the airport looked like a poster for the land of 10,000 lakes! It was chilly outside- we were glad to catch a cab. It turned out that our cab driver had a baby of 8 months and a 2 year old! He was Ukrainian, and we talked as he drove about the contrasts between there and the U.S. It wasn’t until he pulled up at the door that he realized- he’d been there just the night before. He had carried our Tyler and his mom home from the airport also! Small city! It was fun playing with baby Tyler and seeing his parents, but it was so cold (to us refugees from the warmer south): 45 degrees! There was that unfortunate episode when we tried to go out for lunch and the sky closed in, delivering hail. It bounced merrily on the roof of our car, for a bit before it relented and let us leave. Still, it was a nice homely visit, with lots of time with Tyler. We arrived back in LA on the last Alaska flight from Portland. Boy, did we sleep in!

The next day, we decided to take advantage of the MLK holiday and sightsee downtown L.A. Traffic was lighter. We easily found a lovely parking space next to the Grand Central Market. It’s across the street from Bunker Hill’s Angel’s Flight tramway (which, alas, is temporarily closed) on one side, and across the street from the Bradbury Building on the other. The Market is filled with stalls offering mainly Mexican items, resembling an open-air market, but is inside.

The Bradbury Building is quite nice on the outside, but the interior is its glory. The black Victoriana ironwork flows in Art Nouveau pattern connecting the stories, over the oak paneled walls and brick. Even the staircase risers, which support Belgian marble slabs, are black ironwork. The oldest Los Angeles commercial building, it is a bit of Victoriana left untouched. Opera music floated down the walkways as we showed the girls the iron-wrought elevators. Built in 1893, legend has it that the inexperienced draftsman who designed it held nightly communication with his deceased older brother through a Ouija board to draw the plan. If you’ve seen “Chinatown” or “Blade Runner,” you’ve glimpsed this interior.

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The Bradury Building------------------------------------Charlie and friends - Bradbury Building

Our next stop was the “pointy building”, L.A. City Hall. For years, it was the tallest building in the central core, at 150 feet, courtesy of the earthquake building codes. New engineering lessened its impact as far taller structures arose beside the freeways, but its slight separation from their area still leaves it a landmark.

Little Tokyo is further into the city, closer to the railroad tracks, but the HittyBs have a favorite stop there - Mitsuwa.

Hidden behind its parking structure, this is the home of “candy toys” by “Re-ment.” These are boxes with Hitty-sized items and a small piece of candy or gum inside. It was good to see the aisle again. Pictures were taken of such goodness, which brought out a store assistant. She asked us if we were a franchise? If so, there was a form, which we needed to fill out. We explained that we were just showing HMC the sights of L.A., not making a movie, or taking publicity photos. Compliments were exchanged all around as we left. Oh, we hope that MrsB continues to bring home more Re-Ment goodies!

Lured by the sound of drums, we saw that Aztec dancers were performing in the Plaza. The tall feather headdresses were impressive as they moved to the drumbeat.

Below the Plaza lies Union Station. Completed in 1939 as a WPA project, it is one of the last of the great American train stations. Reflecting a Southwest theme, the interior saw much of the glamour of Hollywood pass through its tiled corridors as well as many joyous reunions during WWII.

Today, it serves as a hub for much of the Metro rail service as wall as an AMTRAK station. Bird of paradise flowers, the official city flowers of Los Angeles, lie in beds in front of the station, surrounding the trunks of the bushy topped palm trees.

Union Station Counter .............................................................................Union Station waiting room

A short walk away is Philippe’s Original French Dip restaurant. Opened in 1908, the fabulous discovery of dunking a sandwich roll in roast meat juices created a sensation in 1918! We stopped by and down, merging with the crowd of many lines - all with but one thought: Yummy meaty goodness! We had lunch there and agree- they were right!

Since we were only a block from Chinatown, what could follow better than dessert at a Chinese bakery? Leaving the bakery, our bag held an 18” fried noodle, a deep yellow custard tart, a red bean paste filled bun and a honey glazed, coconut shred-topped coconut custard filled bun. Soon everyone was happily full!

After we found and photographed the gate to Chinatown, we went shopping! Four Hitty brocade oriental-style dresses later (actually purses, but they’ll be altered) and one delightful bi-colored embossed Hitty-sized metal urn, we left downtown, headed west.

Methane gas bubbled up greenly through the thin layer of water coating the tar pits. It almost looked like a submerged fountain beside the life-sized statues of mammoths embedded in the pits. Inside the George C. Page Museum we looked at the bones taken out of the brea. There were all sizes of animals, from tiny rodents to huge mammoths. The conservators even look for plant seeds for clues to the diet of the animals and of the weather of the past.

Further west we found the beautifully manicured fault scarp that lies in front of the West Los Angeles Church of the Latter Day Saints. In fact the entire wiggly length of the Santa Monica Boulevard is on a fault, carved out of the hills by its activity over the centuries, running all the way to the ocean. We followed it home and found rest.

Topiary Fountain