Dad had requested that we try to visit The Bradbury at some point on this trip and mom had mentioned the central library. Since Sam had to work a half day on Monday we dropped her off, parked in downtown and attempted a walking tour. We first took Angel’s Flight (parking nearby) and then went across the street to the market. The market was actually rather lackluster, mostly cheapy Chinese and burrito stands. My parents didn’t want to eat there, but I didn’t know where else to take them being unfamiliar with that area of downtown. So, we went to the Bradbury building, which was three blocks away.
Next we walked to the main library, imagining we’d find a cafe or something along the way. We didn’t. We ended up eating at the tiny Trimana at the base of the Library Tower.
After leaving the library we still had a lot of time left before we’d have to pick up Sam for lunch, so we hiked up bunker hill and loosely weaved our way towards the Walt Disney Concert Hall.
The Concert Hall Gift Shop was the only thing open. After walking through we still had over an hour to go, so we walked down to city hall and took the elevators to the top. At the time I was really sad that there was so much fog (smog?) hanging over downtown; visibility was severely reduced. Ordinarily you can see all the way to the Hollywood sign to the north and westwood to the west, but today nothing was really visible north of the 110.
Days later when editing the photos from the trip I discovered that this actually lent a cool effect to the downtown shots.
Finally it was time to pick up Sam. We decided to go straight to Exposition Park for lunch instead of our original plans of eating Korean BBQ in KoreaTown. I made this decision because A) supposedly the restaurant in the science museum was Zagat rated and B) if we didn’t go straight there we wouldn’t have much time to see anything other than the space shuttle at the museum.
As it turns out, the restaurant at the museum isn’t very good. Nothing really looked that appealing to any of us, so we went to the McDonalds in the same food court. Afterwards we had time before our shuttle appointment so we wandered around in the rose garden.
The shuttle exhibit is really more of a museum piece ABOUT the shuttle technology than the craft itself. Before getting to the shuttle you’re bombarded with everything from touching the tires (which makes you realize you won’t be touching the real shuttle) to looking at the real canoga park launch control (below) to inspecting the space shuttle toilet.
Endeavour is being currently housed in a large warehouse. Eventually the museum wants to stand it upright, build a building around it and open the doors. For now, though, you’re only allowed to wander around underneath it.
After leaving the shuttle area we still had an hour or so before the museum closed, so we tried to check out some of the other exhibits.
After we were kicked out of the museum we headed to the LAX area to drop my parents off at their hotel. They opted to stay at a hotel and take a shuttle to their early AM flight instead of have us drive them to LAX at 4am on a Tuesday. I was grateful for this decision.
After eating a 5,000 calorie McDonalds lunch nobody was up for any more food, so we said our goodbyes and that was the end of the visit. I was hoping they could stay longer than a few days this time since we now have an actual bed for them to sleep in and their own bathroom at our condo; but mom just started a new job, so her vacation is quite limited. Future plans for a visit were ambiguous, but I have a feeling they’ll be out here at least one more time before I set foot in Ohio again.
All the photos from the entire trip can be found here.
