Los Angeles:
Los Angeles is one of those places where there are great things to see
and do, but you can only do so much because of the time you spend in
traffic! We opted to stay at an Airbnb
outside of the L.A. city limits, in Monrovia.
We were close to Pasadena, yet in the foothills of the San Gabriel
Mountains where we could get away from the traffic of the city. Fortunately for us, one of the places we
wanted to go was very close to our Airbnb!
We spent an afternoon at the Huntington
Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens. This is the collection of Henry and Arabella
Huntington. Henry was a railroad and
real estate businessman. The Library has
some of the most beautiful and historic manuscripts – a must-see for a librarian!
I particularly enjoyed this Ellesmere manuscript of Chaucer’s
The Canterbury Tales (ca. 1400-1405):
The botanical gardens encompass approximately 120 acres. There are different types of gardens to
explore, and since we had beautiful weather, we spent most of our time here.
One of our favorites was the Liu Fang Yuan Chinese
garden:
The Desert Garden featured many cacti and succulents from around the
world:
A trip to the L.A. area is not complete without a studio tour.
We opted for the one at Warner Brothers,
especially since he is fond of several of the classic movies. We both love the Big Bang Theory so it was fun to see where that was being
filmed. We drove down streets filled
with facades. The guide would play a
game with us – “is it real or fake?” It
was fun to see how some buildings were used for multiple purposes by just
changing a sign.
It’s amazing to see the inside of a sound stage, both empty and full of
sets! These buildings are immense and
the thought of multiple sets being setup at the same time and then dismantled
between seasons is mind-boggling.
We also toured through a prop warehouse.
And saw some costumes!
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| From "Crazy Rich Asians" |
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| From "Casablanca" |
After viewing several different Batmobiles, I got to design my own!
Can't leave out Friends:
Here are a couple of pages from Jack Warner’s phone book. He really had some great friends!
For art, there are two fabulous institutions to visit. We took a ride share to visit the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).
This huge installation greeted us at the Museum entrance:
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| "Urban Light" by Chris Burden |
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“The Treachery of Images (This is Not a Pipe)”
by René Magritte
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| "Typewriter Eraser" by Claes Oldenburg |
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| "Miracle Mile" by Robert Irwin |
The other must-see art institution is the Getty Research Institute. I had visited it before during a conference;
however, one of my previous colleagues (Helen) had so many wonderful things to
say about it that my husband was convinced that we should go!
We arrived by tram to the top of the mountain where the GRI sets! What a view of L.A.!
To me the building and garden are works of art:
And we really enjoyed the sculpture garden:
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| "Three Squares Gyratory" by George Rickey |
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“Walking Flower” by Fernand Léger
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“Delusions of Grandeur” by René Magritte
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As we headed north from Los Angeles, we drove through Malibu Beach and
had lunch there. Scars from the recent
fires were very apparent. We ventured on
to the Ventura/Santa Barbara area, settling down into a comfy Airbnb private
room in Summerland, high on a hill with gorgeous views of the ocean.
