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24 Hours in California: Palm Springs

My sister lives in the Los Angeles area, meaning that she is a short, direct flight away from Vancouver. As close as she is, I don’t get down there often enough. The reason isn’t a lack of interest. I like the region, and I like her, but I am hesitant to spend my limited vacation days to visit the US. And it’s not like it’s cheap for me to visit the United States. But this changed a little when we got a budget airline flying between YVR and LAX: Flair Airlines. The Ryan Air of North America. I think it is great for short trips; it’s super cheap provided you don’t need any extras. So I decided to go to southern California for 24 hours one weekend in April. Serious sister time and no vacation days used. Win. Win.

I asked my sister, Dawn, what she wanted to do, and she said she felt like driving to Palm Springs. It hadn’t even occurred to me that we could do this on such a short trip, but then I am someone who doesn’t drive. She does drive and assures me it would be no problem.

She picked me up at the airport at about 10:20am and we hit the road. Dawn, her dog Bear (a hearty whoodle), and me. It was a beautiful day as we zoomed out of the confines of Los Angeles and onto the desert. I was looking forward to Palm Springs, but even more, I was excited to make a stop at a quintessential California roadside attraction: The Cabazon Dinosaurs.

Dinosaurs!

Dawn and I are big Pee Wee Herman fans (I even have a Pee Wee Herman inspired tattoo) and if you have seen “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure” you know the Cabazon Dinosaurs. It’s where Pee Wee and the melancholy and wistful Simone go to talk before her crazy boyfriend shows up and chases Pee Wee around the dinosaurs. It is a real place, and you can visit it, just outside of LA.

In the 1960s, Claude Bell, a theme park artist and sculptor started creating a giant Brontosaurus. It was completed in 1975. It stands 45 feet tall and 150 feet long. A companion Tyrannosaurus Rex was completed in the 1980s. Bell died in 1988, but his legacy lives on.

You can stop and see these two giant dinos for free, but if you pay $15, you can go into small but fun dino park, where lots of other dinosaurs are on display. Admission also lets you climb int the T-Rex’s mouth. It was well worth the money, I say as a certified dinosaur dork. I took a ton of pictures and had a great time.

Our hearts full of joy, we carried on to Palm Springs.

Palm Springs

I had been curious about Palm Springs for a long time; not because I am a retired golfer, but because I love Frank Sinatra (another tattoo I have is of old blue eyes’ mug shot) and the Rat Pack era, and I have a fondness for mid-century design and architecture. It would have been nice to stay overnight, but this was a great intro.

Palm Springs just feels like it is from the 1950s. It has a smallish population of 44,000. Low slung buildings along a modest main street in front of a backdrop of dry rocky hills, dotted with cacti. No high rises. Lots of gorgeous mid-century houses. A design oasis. It is charming in a particular way that appeals to me.

Palm Springs has been settled for about 2000 years, due to the presence of hot springs in the desert, but it became trendy in the early 1900s when they started building small resorts and soon it was popular as a place for Hollywood types to have homes, including Sinatra, Bob Hope, and Bing Crosby. (I mean, who knows? Maybe it was trendy 2,000 years ago too.)

Other than visiting the art gallery and making a pilgrimage to Frank Sinatra’s house, I feel like I saw the city. It is small. A wander down the main street to pop into cute little shops and browse some of the excellent vintage and antique shops was a highlight. We had a good Mexican lunch and drove around ogling houses. I wouldn’t want to own one of these houses, but I would love to befriend someone who does. I can imagine smoking cigars by their backyard pools.

Speaking of cigars, there is a decent cigar shop, called “Fame” on the main drag and you can sit out front and have a cigar, but that is about it for smoking. Palm Springs is not a smoking friendly town.

I want to go back to Palm Springs and spend the night to do things I missed and take in a hike on one of the trails. But that would be for another time. We were headed west to Burbank.

Burbank and Heading Home

My sister moved from Hollywood to Burbank several years ago. Burbank gets made fun of a lot for being boring or whatever, but I kind of like it. It’s just a short drive to LA and it has a small city feel and, like Palm Springs, kind of feels like it is from another era.

We wandered downtown and had a bite to eat, taking in some street musicians before heading to bed. It was difficult to believe that I had only been in California for less than 12 hours.

The next morning, we got up around 4:30am (we’re both unstoppable morning people) and went for a walk, taking in the perfectly manicured residential streets and towering palms.

It was time to head back to the airport, but first a quick stop in Venice for breakfast and short walk on the beach. I was back in enough time to hang out at the airport lounge before boarding. I was back in Vancouver midday.

Santa Monica & Venice Beach

Do I wish I could have spent longer in California? Not really. It’s not going anywhere, and I like that I can go down again for an intense 24-hour sister visit. Plus, in about two weeks I would be off to Europe; Spain, Andorra, Lithuania, Latvia, and Sweden.

North America USA

The Broad

Today started by taking the Metrolink from Burbank to Union Station.

Once downtown, i skipped Olivera Street this time to grab some sushi in Little Tokyo. I then had a cigar at the 2nd Street cigar lounge where i had a lovely chat with a boxing manager/promoter about our shared love of international travel. After that i headed to The Broad.

The Broad is a new (opened last month) modern art museum downtown showcasing the private collection of a local billionaire/art collector who is now sharing his amazing collection of post-war modern art in an incredible building. (Take note, billionaires who are inexplicably reading this blog: this is a worthwhile use of your otherwise unjustifiable wealth.)

It is like a pared down NY MOCA, sans the Pollacks. A fantastic collection of Beuys, Twombly, Cindy Sherman, Jasper Johns, Koons (not my favourite, but fun to look at), Murakami, Wharhol, Lichtenstein, Damien Hirst, and more. And terrific customer service. The staff are more than happy to talk with you about the art.

It delights me not only to see the art, but to overhear the reactions of people. A lot of “i could paint this” and “i don’t get it”. But at least they’re there.

North America USA

Disney at Halloween

What would a trip to Los Angeles be without a trip to Disneyland? D and i made the trip there yesterday. We’ve both been to Disneyland and Disneyworld multiple times but i had never been in October when the park gets a Halloween makeover.

Mainstreet USA (the America that never was outside of film and nostalgia) is decorated with jack-o-lanterns and the Haunted Mansion gets a Tim Burton theme. It was wonderful. It amazes me how attractions and rides that are 60 years old still delight and awe. I still love the Jungle Cruise, even though the replicated sights are now things i have seen in real life in my travels. The Pirates Of The Caribbean is still cool with its obvious animatronics (i do believe though that they have taken out some rapey bits). (Allegedly this is this ride that terrified me as a toddler due to a fear of men with facial hair.) it’s A Small World is a kitschy delight. And tomorrow land feels more retro than anything, but it still great.

I love it. All of it….well, except for one thing. There are just too many children. I know, it is a family theme park and i don’t begrudge people taking their kids, but there are just so many strollers and babies screaming and kids that are just way too young to enjoy or remember any of it. We thought/hoped that by nighttime they would leave, but they didn’t. If anything, they multiplied and got exponentially louder and more unpleasant as the day waned.

In the end they beat us. Families with their strollers (including fat kids who should not have been in strollers but lacked the ability of sustained walking) stayed and camped out, awaiting the fireworks display as they cried and bickered. At that point, we had had enough and left.

It was great though. Always magical.

North America USA

A Day in LA (on foot)

Los Angeles has a reputation for being a city you cannot see or navigate without a car, and, true, in terms of transit, New York or London it is not, but i know from previous trips that there are people that live here who don’t drive at all, so i figured i could spend a day on foot and train seeing the things i needed to see. I have taken the subway here before, but only a few stops. I’ve never covered much ground without my sister driving me. Yesterday though she had to work all day and so i headed out solo and on foot.

I started in downtown Los Angeles, which is absolutely my favourite area. It feels like LA but it doesn’t. The buildings are tall and gloriously old (on a west coast US scale) and the area is sprinkled with cafes, restaurants, galleries, and shops but the area still retains a lot of the character from its recent, seedy past. It is just a bit grimy and has old bodegas, pawn shops, and less than reputable looking taco eateries by the roadside. More and more though the area is becoming gentrified, so soon much of the grittier bits will be polished away, and then it will all just be…too lovely. But right now it is good.

I started at the Grand Central Market for a perfectly pulled espresso and then walked up and down the tree lined streets as the neighbourhood was waking up with dog walkers and street sweepers leading the parade. With all day ahead of me i looked for a place to have a morning cigar and read my book. A bench perhaps? But then i found a little cigar/hookah lounge on Spring street that was open (at 7am). The cigar selection wasn’t great, but i grabbed the best of what was on display and made myself at home on their front patio with a book, a churchill, and a coffee. All was well.

After that i paid a visit to The Last Bookstore. Between its rambling aisles, random book architecture, awesome selection, nooks, crannies, slopes, corners, and hideaways ( not to mention the artists’ studios and vinyl section) this may be my new favourite bookstore (sorry, Powell’s).

After a sufficient browse i walked to the 2nd Street Cigar Lounge: a comfortable neighbourhood tobacconist with ample leather chairs for cigar No. 2. After that i wandered downtown a bit more, photographing the swell and often disused theatres.

From there i walked to Olivera Street – the historic and touristy Mexican area, crammed with stalls of colourful souvenirs and fragrant open air eateries.

I’ve been there a couple of times previously so i didn’t linger but took a turn around the square before entering the grand Union Station to catch a subway to Hollywood.

A word about the LA Metro: while it doesn’t cover every area, it is fairly far reaching, well mapped, efficient, and cheap (and air-conditioned).

I disembarked into the hustle of Hollywood and Vine and made my way down the strip, past the souvenir shops, the cheesy looking bars, and sleazy looking stores, dodging the guys touting tours of Hollywood homes and the scrawny Spidermen and buxom Marilyns posing for pictures with tourists. I smiled and was careful not to trod upon the stars of certain celebrities, namely Frank Sinatra and Bela Lugosi. There’s not much on Hollywood worth stopping for if it isn’t your first time, but it makes for an entertaining stroll.

North America USA

Fulfilling Childhood Dreams in Los Angeles

I don’t usually blog about places in North America. I live here, so it doesn’t seem very exotic, but this time i thought: Los Angeles is blog worthy. It’s not Ethiopia, but it still has much to see. So i cranked up a few choice songs from the Beverly Hills Cop soundtrack and set out to explore.

I am here visiting my sister, D, who moved here from Miami Beach a few years ago. This is not the first time i have come here to visit, but it is the first time i have been here for more than a long weekend and the first time i have had days entirely on my own – on foot – to wander without aim, as is my preference.

As much as Los Angeles doesn’t seem exciting it was the first and only proper vacation (as in: air travel required) we took as a family. I was 11 and we went to Disneyland and Hollywood and it was the highlight of my young life. There is still the memory of that childhood delight in seeing the landmarks, even if i no longer have a desire to stand in celebrity cement footprints and shop for plastic souvenirs.

More recent trips have involved drives down the coast, walks down Venice Beach, and cocktails at the Formosa.

This trip does have something of a purpose. D and i, both horror and Halloween fans, are centering many of activities around that theme. So far there has been horror movies and browsing in the sort of amazing year-round Halloween stores that could only exist in Los Angeles (or more particularly, Burbank.)

One of the highlights of this trip happened yesterday when we attended a screening of one of our favourite child movies: The Monster Squad. This was ordinary screening, mind you. This was an event. A screening at the stunning United Artists theatre, which feels like a cross between a gothic cathedral and a haunted castle.

We shelled out for the vip tickets which gave us access to a pre-show reception with many members of the cast and crew. You just don’t get to do this sort of thing in Vancouver. It was very cool to talk to people that had been in and created the movie we love so much. Everyone was so nice and generous with their time. Following the reception there was a Q&A and then the movie. It was a great experience. I also tried my first and last Twinkie (a snack featured in the movie). It was disgusting, but another once in a lifetime experience.

After that, still giddy, we had a cigar and coffee at a cafe on Broadway in the glorious 100 degree heat before driving to Pasadena for dinner.

It was a great day that satisfied both childhood and adult me.

Tag: Los Angeles

Dinosaurs!

Palm Springs

Burbank and Heading Home