When your backyard is the park - Greystone Mansion 7/5/13

Greystone Mansion, also known as the Doheny Mansion, is a Tudor-style mansion on a landscaped estate with distinctive formal English gardens, located in Beverly Hills.

As you can see, the grounds are beautiful...

Greystone Mansion Grounds 7/5/13

Greystone Manor 7/5/13

The mansion isn't bad either...

Getty Museum's Backyard 7/14/13

We took a trip up the road to the Getty today. I wanted to see the exhibition http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/overdrive/



Sadly, you can't take photos inside the galleries, so you will have to trust me that the exhibition is really cool.

There is a painting of LAX from 1960 that truly made LAX look space age.

However, you can take photos of the grounds. So here is a view of the Getty's backyard.

Getty Museum - View towards Santa Monica 7/14/13

Getty Museum Sculpture Garden 7/14/13

Getty Museum Entry 7/14/13

Entry Area

A few more photos from Angels Flight 070513

In Someone Else's Backyard - Lomita Railroad Museum

The Lomita Railroad Museum is another great example of what you can do with your own backyard in LA. The museum is in the middle of Lomita residences and nowhere near the rail lines. The owner just wanted some full sized trains.

The museum is an old train depot and there are the engine and caboose to explore. 

For more details - https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lomita-Railroad-Museum/114453927404

Lomita Railroad Museum - The Caboose

Ever wonder why there is a caboose on the train? Turns out that it is both the office and kitchen for the crewas well as serving as the vantage point for the brakeman.

The brakeman would sit in the cupola and have a view of the entire train with his hand on the brake.

More Photos from the Lomita Railroad Museum

In my backyard - Wayfarer's Chapel

The Wayfarer's Chapel was built in 1949 on the Palos Verdes coast. It is about 15 minutes from my house in San Pedro and is a favorite for weddings. We took a trip out there over the weekend and I was able to get a few pictures, but there was wedding which prevented a full photo of the Chapel. If you have never been, you should go. For more details - http://www.wayfarerschapel.org/

Wayfarer's Chapel Fountain

Wayfarer's Chapel Photos

View of the Chapel from the rose garden.

Hollyhock House - Hollywood

On Thursday, we were looking for places that we could enjoy regardless of the holiday. The Hollyhock House in Hollywood is one of my favorite spots in LA. I saw it for the first time about 6 months ago and have been looking for a reason to return. This is one of a handful of buildings built or designed by Frank Lloyd Wright during his association with Los Angeles.

From the website http://hollyhockhouse.net/
Hollyhock House is Wright’s first Los Angeles project.  Built between 1919 and 1923, it represents his earliest effort to develop a regionally appropriate style of architecture for Southern California.  Wright himself referred to it as California Romanza, using the musical term meaning “freedom to make one’s own form”.  Taking advantage of Los Angeles’ dry, temperate climate, Hollyhock House is a remarkable combination of house and gardens.  In addition to the central garden court, each major interior space adjoins an equivalent exterior space, connected either by glass doors, a porch, pergola or colonnade.  A series of rooftop terraces further extend the living space and provide magnificent views of the Los Angeles basin and the Hollywood Hills.

More photos of the Hollyhock House

Griffith Observatory

Griffith Observatory as seen from the Hollyhock House.

The tree in the left corner is the same tree in the right corner for the photo of the Hollywood Sign. Hollyhock House has a phenomenal view.

Hollywood sign

Hollywood sign as seen from the Hollyhock House

Shortest Railway in the World - Angels Flight

4th of July was a beautiful weekend here in LA. As a result, we traveled all over to see some of the landmarks of LA. On Friday, we were downtown at Angles Flight - billed as the Shortest Railway in the World. In operation since 1901, Angles Flight is a cable car that provides a quick and easy trip up Bunker Hill in downtown. Two cars run side by side up and down on a cable system. Unlike the cable cars in San Francisco, these do not turn around at the end of the run. Enjoy the photos.

If you ever see old photos of Angles Flight, you may notice that the railway is not in the same location. Angles Flight was relocated 1/2 a block in the 1990's.

For more details - http://angelsflight.com/

Angles Flight Photos - From the lower station

 

Watts Towers

Watts Towers

Back Yards of Los Angeles - Watts Towers

This past weekend, we toured some of the lesser known spots in Los Angeles. One of the first things I wanted to see were the Towers.

Description from http://www.wattstowers.org/  - The Watts Towers were built over the course of about 30 years, from the early 1920s to the early 1950s, by an immigrant Italian artisan named Sabato Rodia (also known as Simon or Sam). He single-handedly built a mosaic fantasia consisting of three spires of reinforced cement, the highest reaching to a height of 99-1/2 feet.

The Watts Towers are right in the middle of a residential area since Rodia built the towers on his property. (Basically, in his yard.) The story of the Towers is interesting and included the desire of the City of Los Angeles to tear down the towers until it was demonstrated that the Towers can sustain 10,000 lbs. of pressure.