Seeing Southern CA for the Second Time - Day 2

On the most recent blog, Mom made it safe and sound to our house in Long Beach, and she, Chris, and I spent a night on the town in Bixby Knolls, our local area.  The next morning, a Thursday, Chris went to work (sucker!), and Mom and I woke up at a relatively normal hour to get ready to head northward to Hollywood.  While we'd hit some of the LA tourist traps the last time she was in town, we hadn't made it to Hollywood proper, so it was high time.

We headed north on the 405 from Long Beach, and on the way to Hollywood, we detoured through Beverly Hills, up Rodeo Drive, so Mom could see all of the ridiculousness there.  On the southern end of Rodeo, we made sure to slow down in front of the Anderton Court shops; although these are just more stores now, the building was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, so they're an architectural gem hidden amidst the gaudier buildings.

Check out the spire on top...

it looks an awful lot like the one in Scottsdale...

...(albeit less colorful)

and some other pieces you'll see in later pictures on this blog entry.

Mom, looking at her pictures later:

"I think I got a picture of one of the Dodgers!

That guy's in a Dodgers hat!"

Although she could be right,

I think this might not be likely.

As we finished up Rodeo Drive, we scoped out a few more BH landmarks and then headed to Hollywood proper.

The Bugatti that's often parked here.

Man, what do you think the BH Traffic Control folks

deal with on a daily basis?

"Hey guys, freaking Kendall Jenner

just drove into a lamppost again!"

We made it to our selected lunch location, Musso and Frank, just a few minutes after our 11:00am reservation, but it was not an issue, as we were one of the only tables there that early (file this under: story of my life).  When we decided we'd do Hollywood while Mom visited, I wanted to find an "Old School Hollywood Landmark" type of place to have lunch, and Musso and Frank more than fit the bill.  Dark, paneled wood booths, waiters in vests, mid-Century continental cuisine, stories of Hollywood legends on the menu - the whole nine yards.  Since we were walking and taking the light rail after lunch, we could make it a true, 1960's-esque, Mad Men-style lunch.  What that meant of course, was:

Cocktails!

Mom and her Ramos Fizz.

And escargot!

And more cocktails!

This is my sidecar.

A piece of Hollywood history!

After lunch, it was back to the car to change into sturdy walking shoes, and then it was on to see more sights.  We were right on Hollywood Boulevard, so on our way to the Chinese Theater, we peeped at the stars on the Walk of Fame, enjoying identifying each one and comparing notes.

Mom with John Goodman,

Sally Field, Will Farrell,

and Amy Poehler, among others.

We also randomly stumbled across the Museum of Broken Relationships, which we'd both seen profiled on CBS Sunday Morning.  We wandered into the lobby, but since we had other plans, we didn't spend much more time there.

But of course we took a picture!

When we made it to the Chinese Theater (passing by the red carpet leading into the Dolby Theater where AFI's tribute to Diane Keaton would be held later that night - yup, those things really happen right there), we grabbed a selfie and then commenced looking at the hand-, foot-, boot-, and paw/hoof-prints in the cement.

After that, it was time to head underground to ride the Metro red line for 10-15 minutes a bit farther east, to Barnsdall Art Park, home to another west-coast Frank Lloyd Wright design, Hollyhock House.  FLW designed and built Hollyhock for Aline Barnsdall, an actress in the early 1900s, and someone who turned out to be a pretty cool lady.  We hiked up the stairs to the top of the park and grabbed some awesome shots of the city along the way:

That's the Hollywood sign way on the left,

and Griffith Observatory on the hill on the right.

The Observatory from the front of the house.

As we bought our tickets for the house, we found out we'd come on an extremely special day.  The date we visited - June 8, 2017 - was FLW's 150th birthday.  Because of this, Hollyhock was open far more than it normally is, and we were able to tour many of the rooms into areas where visitors generally can't go.  We were also welcome to take as many photos as we wanted, which is apparently rare as well (after visiting several other historical homes, including FLW's own Taliesin West, this struck me as odd - they let you sit on the furniture there - but whatever).  The docents were operating at a fever-pitch level of excitement, as you might imagine.

We put on our booties and stepped inside:

The front door lock of the house - 

the key entry is actually hidden under that piece

that slides near the top right.

This is the docent's sleeve;

I had to wait patiently while he slid the piece

back and forth - back and forth - back and forth

about a million times before I could get this short.

Like I said, the docents were RAMPED UP.

The living room at Hollyhock.

Note the cool stone work over the fireplace.

Apparently, this room was where FLW played

around with the motif of the four elements meeting,

and the fireplace originally had a water feature as well.

While it didn't work for long,

it inspired him to go further in this direction,

and that led to his famous Falling Water house.

I still need to see that one.

Close up of the wood work over the ceiling skylight.

Looking from one opening of the living room,

through it, to an internal lobby area.

A close up of the column and window details here.

The column features FLW's abstract interpretation

of the hollyhock flower - Aline Barnsdall's favorite,

and the reason for the name of the house.

You'll see this motif in several pictures.

The other side of the living room

from the alcove/lobby seen above.

The dining room - see the hollyhocks on the chairs?

The kitchen is to the right - 

more on that in a moment.

Close up of the dining room window detail.

Looking through the dining room toward the kitchen.

Zoomed in on the kitchen.

This is as close as we could get,

which was a bummer, as it looked really neat.

Apparently, the kitchen was fully electric

when the house was built in 1919,

which is pretty rare.

An outside view of the other wing of the house.

Essentially the house is a big U,

with the living room being the base of the U,

the dining room/kitchen being the left upright,

and this wing, to the bedrooms, being on the right.

The courtyard that fills the void

in the middle of the U. 

A close up of the real hollyhocks

and their FLW counterparts.

Technically, the house is a big square,

with this piece connecting the left

and right uprights of the U shape.

However, go with me on the U thing, cool?

Anywhoo, the span you see here links the 

two wings of the house together

and is probably about 8 feet fall and 60 feet long.

You know what this was used for when Aline lived here?

IT'S HER FREAKING CLOSET.

She had one closet for her clothes,

and another just to store her steamer trunks.

As the lady docent manning this wing told us,

"When Momma got mad,

Momma went to Europe."

Seriously, Aline is my new idol.

After thoroughly exploring Hollyhock and tired of being cornered by overexcited docents, we headed out of Barnsdall Park and back underground, riding the Metro back to the giant tourist mess on Hollywood Boulevard and back into the car.  We took a quick trip to the Hollywood Bowl to pick up some tickets for upcoming concerts, and then it was back on the road to Long Beach.  While the traffic was starting to kick up (we left the Bowl around 3:30), we were home before 5:00pm, and had plenty of time to chill out while Chris started his own delightful journey to the house.

Once he arrived, we hung out, making steak for dinner, accompanied by a mustard/honey sauce and asparagus and peas (it was pretty good, if I do say so myself.  Thanks, Food and Wine magazine!), and somehow, we ended up finishing off a few bottles of wine while telling stories around the table and eventually watching Ink Master on tv (um, yeah we know how to party.  Don't be jealous).  It was off to bed on the later side, but we'd have time to sleep in the next day.

Coming up!  We visit another Bixby Knolls eatery and head further south to other nearby beaches.

Later!

Amy