City of Neighborhoods and Surprises

Boy, California isn't living up to its reputation weather-wise so far: thick grey clouds and only about 55 deg F/12 C this Tuesday morning in Los Angeles! And, it didn't get much better during the day. At least, we didn't pay a fortune for parking, and, traffic was less worse than expected, but we mainly chose side roads, not freeways. Which is recommendable, despite all the red lights because en route it's great to pass through different neighborhoods. Traffic is crazy in L.A., always, everywhere, and, it's not a city which can easily be explored - too spread out, everything too far apart, like a sprawling mushroom. 

Mostly explored new neighborhoods today. First stop, next to where we are staying (Eagle Rock): Elysian Valley (above), also called "Frogtown", the stretch where the LA River runs through and invites locals living nearby in pricey condos to bike, hike and kayak in summer. Not so much now - see photos above.

Same "vibe" in Silver Lake and Larchmont Village (right) , where lots of well-doing, dog-owning, dynamic and gay Los Angelinos live and play. We had breakfast - croissant & monkey bread - at a great bakery on Larchmont St. - perfect to watch people and dogs.

On to LACMA - the L.A. County Museum of Art - in a western LA neighborhood, by Hancock Park, where famous prehistoric La Brea Tar Pits and The Paige Museum are located as well: 

We had media tickets for LACMA pre-arranged, but, to our surprise, construction on real big scale is going on there: the Peter Zumthor-designed building, the David Geffen Galleries, is currently in progress to replace the older part of the museum. Therefore, our visit was quicker than expected. 

We will be back to this part of town on Friday to get into the Petersen Auto Museum and the new Academy Museum (the big ball in the background of the photo far  below is part of it).

 

 

Next stop: Hollywood - for sure a must-see, but pretty greedy, touristy, kitschy, superficial. The Walk of Fame - stars on the walkway –, the theaters, the crazy museums, the souvenir stores, historic Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, the Hollywood & Highland Center with shops, restaurants and the famous Kodak Theatre, home to the Academy Awards.

The complex sits just opposite of the El Capitan Theatre and offers views of the Hollywood Hills and Hollywood Sign to the north. Next to the Center: Famous TCL Chinese Theatre from 1927, with hand- and footprints of famous stars. We were fortunate and found parking on a side street. 

 

 

 

 

On to the Griffith Observatory in Griffith Park, through the exclusive Los Feliz neighborhood with huge, fancy mansions. It's hard in L.A. to take good photos, because it's hard to find parking along the streets to get out and take them. Same with Griffith Observatory, where we just quickly stopped.

 With over 4,000 acres of natural terrain and landscaped parkland and picnic areas, Griffith Park is one of the largest municipal parks with urban wilderness areas in the USA, situated in the eastern Santa Monica Mountain range. In addition to Griffith Observatory, the park hosts the famous Hollywood Sign, the Greek Theatre, golf courses, the Los Angeles Zoo, the Autry Museum, hiking and biking trails, playgrounds of all kinds and much more.

We also visited the Autry Museum of the American West there. Other than we remembered from a previous visit, it's not so much concentrated anymore on famous singer-actor-entertainer Gene Autry (photo below) and cowboy culture/movies, but more on the American West and Native American culture (exhibition on photo below) in general now. 

 

 

After a quick stop at Glendale Mall to check out UNIQLO we called it a day at cozy Paperback Brewery in Glendale, a neighborhood watering hole in a rather industrial area with fantastic beef birria melts with a sauce to dip in and "Smashed Burgers" from a food truck in front by name "Bun & Blanket".