Friday, August 3, 2007-- Four Things Around LA

We got off to a slower start this morning and enjoyed the leisurely pace for a change. Around 10:00, we left on a trip to a few things we wanted to see around LA.

Our first stop was Olvera Street, the historic core of the city of LA, where its Spanish and Mexican heritage is remembered. We went to the open air market there and browsed through the booths. Julie liked the colorful dresses a lot, but didn’t buy one this time. There’s a museum for Chinese Americans there too, but we left that for a future visit. We had a bad experience with burritos yesterday at California Adventure, so instead of Mexican food, we went across the street to Union Station where we had hot dogs and enjoyed the architecture.

Our second stop was “Kirby Plaza,” from the television series Heroes that Scott likes so much. The last few episodes of the season centered around a plaza that was supposed to be in New York City. All of the major characters passed through it at some time, and the season finale happened there with everyone. It features a very distinctive looking orange colored sculpture that resembles two spiral staircases (or two DNA strands). Arco Plaza in LA was the actual location of the filming, so Daddy had to get his picture taken there wearing his “Save the Cheerleader, Save the World” T-shirt.

After that, we went to the La Brea Tar Pits, and visited a great little museum that houses the thousands of fossils that have been pulled from there. The girls loved seeing the mammoths and mastodons and saber-toothed cat fossils that have been reassembled there. Anna liked pulling on a display that showed how sticky the tar is and how hard it is for an animal to get out once it gets trapped in it. The displays were really interesting and we also got a chance to see scientists cleaning more fossils in their lab. There was a film crew with a cute blonde hostess taking some video at the tar-filled lake out front, but we don’t know where they were from.

Julie found an IHOP nearby for dinner. Their Friday special was all you can eat Buffalo wings. They were pretty good, but Scott didn’t actually eat his fill because the time on the parking meter was almost over and the girls were getting restless.

We drove down Wilshire Boulevard to Sepulveda and started on our way up to Mulholland Drive. After a half hour detour to help Emma with a potty emergency, we made it up to Mulholland. We were able to get to drive the length of it and marvel at the houses and the views. We stopped at several of the overlooks along the way, including one over Universal Studios which looked towards Warner Brothers and the other studios in Burbank, and one over the Hollywood Bowl, where we faced Hollywood and LA and could peek to the Hollywood sign. After Mulholland, we drove around Griffith Park, trying to find our way up to the observatory, but with the recent fires there, we’re not sure that the way is still open. We ended up at a “universal access playground” where most of the usual climbing things are built to allow access for wheelchairs too.