Vacations Blog

It’s not true that nobody walks in L.A.  Sure, the city is spread out over an area bigger than some small states, but best way to see it is to find a popular spot and get out of the car.  You can’t get the sounds, smells, and sense of a city from inside a metal box.  Luckily, you don’t have to go it alone, wandering the city aimlessly.  Several companies and organizations offer guided walking tours of notable places in Los Angeles.  If you take one of them, you’ll learn more than Joe Tourist cruising down Sunset in his rented Chrysler Sebring Convertible, inevitably stuck in traffic, watching as you stroll by.

Get right down to the source at El Pueblo De Los Angeles – the place where the city was founded in 1779.  Docents will take you on a free 50 minute tour in the heart of the city, close to Union Station and Walt Disney Concert Hall.  Tours run Tuesday through Saturday at 10AM and noon, a good way to kill time in between other sightseeing stops.

Founder’s Plaque [photo courtesy of El Pueblo de los Angeles]

So yeah, yeah, I know you’re not headed to Los Angeles just for the history, you’re headed to HOLLYWOOD, baby!  There’s a few walking tours for that too.

The Backpacker Behind the Scenes Walking Tour takes only 1 hour and 15 minutes, brings you inside some of the more iconic Hollywood sites like Grauman’s Chinese Theater and Hollywood and Highland (home of the Academy Awards ceremony and the American Idol finals), and features wireless headsets so you can hear the tour guide over the din of the masses and the inevitable traffic.  Tours operate several times daily and prices start at $21.99 for adults, less for children 9-15, and infants are free.

Hollywood & Highland [photo courtesy of The Backpacker]

Backpacker’s Rival, the Redline Tour, offers a similar “Behind the Scenes” tour with the same hot spots and wireless headsets, but this one touts “legendary gossip” and an adult price tag that is $2 cheaper.

Grauman’s Chinese Theater [photo courtesy of redlinetours.com]

For a closer look at modern Hollywood, the one that’s all about business, take the NBC Studios tour in Burbank.  This tour is just over an hour and takes you around the stages where the television shows are taped, and kids can see themselves flying in a Superman scene.  This website also tells you how to get tickets to an NBC show taping.

For an all-day immersive Hollywood experience splurge on the Sony Pictures Studios Hollywood Walking Tour With LA & Beverly Hills Movie Stars’ Homes Tour (Minibus/Walking) from All Los Angeles Tours.  That title must be why the price tag is so high.  Oh, and the fact that you are on this tour for 8 hours (bring snacks!) and you also get to rest on the bus.  Operates Monday through Friday with courtesy pickups from most major LA area hotels.  The tour includes a mozy around the Sony studio lot, a drive-by of major stars’ homes, an hour at Grauman’s Chinese Theater and a chance to grab some lunch (not included) and then the basic Hollywood walking tour as offered by the other vendors above.  I hope you get a good tour guide, because you’ll be spending all day with that person!  Tickets are $74.99 for adults, and this tour is not recommended for very young children.

[photo courtesy of sony studios . com]

But you went on vacation to get away from the television, right?  The Los Angeles Conservancy offers a family-friendly walking tour of Union Station.  It is 45 minutes long and geared toward children 7-11, but does NOT include running amok on a train.  Rats.  Fourth Saturday of the month at 11:00 AM, tickets are $5 and $10.  The Conservancy also offers several other walking tours around downtown Los Angeles.

Union Station [photo courtesy of iNeTours.com]

If you’re getting familiar with downtown, check out this interactive guide to downtown Los Angeles by the University of Southern California.  Click on an area of the map and it gives you more detail with major landmarks, and click on one of those for a gorgeous photo.  Use this as a study guide before your trip and you’ll recognize the landmarks when you get there.

Walt Disney Concert Hall [photo courtesy of J. Mapes]

For the baseball fans, Dodgers Stadium offers an inside look for only $10 and $15.  The 90-minute tour takes you onto the field, into the Dodger dugout and The Dugout Club, the training center, and the press box.  This is something you wouldn’t get by just attending a baseball game.

[photo courtesy of dodgers.com]

From guest blogger Marsha Takeda-Morrison of Sweatpantsmom

As in most major cities, there is no shortage of great museums in Los Angeles.  We’ve got our Natural History Museum, our Museum of Contemporary Art, and our Aerospace Museum.  We’ve the one with the Tar Pits, the (relatively) newly revamped Getty Museum and recently facelifted Getty Villa.  And no list would be complete without the cultural gems like the Japanese American National Museum and the African American Museum.

But it’s safe to say that here in L.A. we’ve got something that no one else has, a museum that’s like no other, a shining beacon in galaxy of museums.  If this were American Idol, it would be David Cook

We’ve got the Museum of Jurassic Technology.

I’m not sure I can even explain what this museum is all about. Don’t let the word ‘Jurassic’ fool you – there’s not a dinosaur to be found.  The website describes it as a “specialized repository of relics and artifacts from the Lower Jurassic, with an emphasis on those that demonstrate unusual or curious technological qualities.”  Huh?

That means you won’t see any triceratops, but you can find an exhibit of decaying dice, and a rather large display case devoted to an exhibit consisting entirely of some fake plants and single ant, titled ‘Megolaponera Foetens: Stink Ant of the Cameroon of West Central Africa.’  The most curious thing is you can press a button and hear a buzzing sound, which is apparently what the stink ant of the Cameroon sounds like – although I’m sure I will never be able to verify this.  Also, don’t miss the unbelievably bizarre collection of letters to the Mt. Wilson Observatory titled, ‘No One May Ever Have The Same Knowledge Again’ and contains, among others, the following letter from a Mrs. Alice May Williams to Dr. Edison Pettit and Dr. Seth B. Nicholson (No, I don’t have any idea who these people are.)  This is an excerpt, and I kept the spelling as they had it:

“…I have got half a house with another woman some years older. She will not let me sit quite a moment it is terriable she keeps wanting to no the inds & outs of everythink. She keeps running up & down the stairs in & out of the doors slamming them about & keeps wanting to talk & keeps wanting me to get ready to go out. It is awfull I dont no wether I am standing on my head or feet & still I am going through that treatment I told you. At times somethink works my mouth to talk out loud & I have got to be carefull of her hearing as she thinks I am mad…”

See what I mean?

The last time I visited the museum, which was a few years ago, there was a guy around four-feet-tall playing the accordion on the sidewalk out front.  When he saw us approaching he stopped, ran inside and took his place behind the ticket counter to collect our admission fees.  Even the pricing is odd; where else is a child considered anyone from ages 12 to 21?  Here’s their entire price list:

Adults, $ 5.00
Children aged 12 to 21, $ 3.00
Students in full time education, $ 3.00
Persons 60 years or older, $ 3.00
Unemployed persons, $ 3.00
Disabled Persons $2.00
Active service personnel in uniform $ 2.00
Children under 12, Free

Also, their hours:

The Museum is open Thursday from 2:00 pm to 8:00 pm
Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 12:00 noon to 6:00 pm

Oh, and then there’s their membership page, which starts off with the oddest, off-topic paragraph I’ve ever read on a museum website:

On March 25, 1961 Zvezdochka, daughter of the stars, the last of a group of 11 remarkable dogs, was hurtled into space amidst the flaming cacophony of a Vostok four thousand kN rocket launch known to the world as Sputnik 10.

Here at the Museum we feel a strange affinity for these first exceptional, earth-born creatures to leave our planet. Like the dogs, we feel ourselves to be lonely vanguards in a rarefied and unknown atmosphere. But, like Zvezdochka, we are emboldened by those who have gone before while knowing full well the risks and hardships of the journey.

Seriously, you must visit the Museum of Jurassic Technology, if only to say that you have.  You’ll never be the same again.  Zvezdochka and the dogs thank you.

Photo: From the exhibit ‘Rotton Luck: The Decaying Dice of Ricky Jay’

From guest blogger, Marsha Takeda-Morrison, of Sweatpantsmom.

If you happen to stop by my house on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday between 8 and 9:30 and you’re not delivering a pizza, chances are you’ll be left standing at the door. Okay, maybe my husband will answer, but he’ll be under strict orders to get rid of whoever is there as soon as possible. This is because me and my two daughters cannot be disturbed while we’re engaged in that most noble of American pastimes: Heckling the performers on American Idol.

I admit to being completely disinterested at first in the blatherings of Ryan, Randy, Paula and Simon. I managed to avoid any Idol talk at parties and playgroups, proud to be the .0001% of the viewing public that wasn’t part of Idol hysteria. That is until my daughters watched it at their friends’ house, convinced me to tune in one fateful Tuesday night, and got me absolutely, hopelessly hooked.

You know the part where Randy shouts out, “Welcome to Hollywood, dawg”? Well they actually do come to Hollywood, believe it or not. The shows leading up to the finals are taped at CBS Television City, home of legendary shows like the Ed Sullivan Show, All in the Family and Hollywood Squares. More recently the studio has been the location for Dancing With the Stars and Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader. That’s a lot of TV dinners.

If you’re one of the gazillion viewers that would like to attend a taping of AI, you might want to check out OnCameraAudiences.com, a source for tickets to various show tapings. Once you’ve scored your ticket and flown, driven or hitchhiked your way to Hollywood, stop by Swingers Diner which is just down the street from CBS Television City. They have an awesome turkey meatloaf and a cool retro vibe. (Contrary to popular belief, it wasn’t the setting for the Vince Vaughn movie “Swingers.” That would be the Hollywood Hills Coffee Shop, located a few miles to the north.)

The finals of American Idol are filmed at the Kodak Theater, home of the Oscars. I attended an industry awards show at the Kodak a few years back, and have to confess that one of the most thrilling things was going to the ladies restroom. I couldn’t help but think, “Angelina Jolie might have sat in this very spot!” But even if you don’t make it into the theater, the surrounding Hollywood and Highland Center is worthy of a day trip. It’s a massive complex with shops, restaurants and clubs, and great for people watching. We like to take the kids to the Lucky Strike Lanes bowling alley, which is bowling at its most high-tech and luxurious. (More useless trivia: Brandon Routh from “Superman Returns” was a bartender here.) The complex also has one of those dying relics: an actual brick and mortar record store. You’ll find the Virgin Records Megastore on the ground floor if you ever decide to take a break from downloading your favorite AI tunes and buy one of those round, shiny things. What were they called? Oh yeah, CDs.

Who do you think will be the next American Idol? (Sorry, I won’t be answering comments on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday between 8 and 9:30.)