California here we are!!
Feb 7th, 2022, 11:31 AM
#83
Came here looking for CA trip reports and was surprised to see your name at the top of the page. Your post is as appreciated as your SE Asia posts; your helpful advice saved my trip there a few years back. We still talk about the $2.00 pho meal you and Caroline shared with us in Hanoi.
Feb 7th, 2022, 12:45 PM
#85
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 9,367
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Came here looking for CA trip reports and was surprised to see your name at the top of the page. Your post is as appreciated as your SE Asia posts; your helpful advice saved my trip there a few years back. We still talk about the $2.00 pho meal you and Caroline shared with us in Hanoi.
Feb 7th, 2022, 04:01 PM
#86
Yes, spooky. The pho came up because a new pho restaurant opened nearby that I want to try. Now that you bring up the IPAs, I'm reminded of what a pain my sister was as she searched for IPAs the entire trip. She never let up. I do remember the dive bar decorated in army fatigues. Thanks for those memories!
It is fun to randomly meet other Fodorites. The first time, I was at a restaurant in Italy. There were people seated at 4 tables. Started talking to the people next to us and it turns out 3 of the 4 were Fodorites.
This will be my first trip since Covid and headed to Napa and the Carmel area.
It is fun to randomly meet other Fodorites. The first time, I was at a restaurant in Italy. There were people seated at 4 tables. Started talking to the people next to us and it turns out 3 of the 4 were Fodorites.
This will be my first trip since Covid and headed to Napa and the Carmel area.
Feb 24th, 2022, 10:17 PM
#87
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 9,367
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
The Tdiddy LA Downtown Tour!
Apologies for the delay in continuing this TR!
A combination of jet lag, moving house on our return from California, a bout of man flu, massive storms in the UK knocking out power and, when I finally did get around to it, I typed it all directly into the forum TWICE and lost it!!! Who was it that said “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and again and expecting a different outcome”?
Anyway, here we go...
Carolyn calls them my "Fodors friends" and we have met up with a quite a few over the years in many places around the world - Saigon, Kuala Lumpur, Hanoi, Boston… We have always had a great time meeting like minded, travel obsessives!.So it was with great anticipation that we were looking forward to a double whammy by meeting up with mlgb and Tdiddy in downtown LA.
Mlgb I have been buddies on Fodors for as long as I can remember. We have a shared love of all thing Peruvian / New Zealand/ South Africa etc. We don’t always agree though, Buenos Aires immediately springs to mind - I love it, mlgb doesn’t! Mlgb loves cruising, whereas you would never find me on a cruise ship
. Over the years we have shared hotel and travel tips and have often stayed in the same hotels on each other recommendations, such is the power of Fodors
I have been travelling vicariously along with Tdiddy on his recent trip around Mexico, from where he returned just a few days before we arrived in LA. He visited many of the places we did on our trip there some three years ago and his report brought back some great memories (Though he seemed to dig deeper and find much more than did we!) .We also corresponded for a while when planning his trip to Vietnam and along the Mekong into Cambodia - again travel experience we both loved.
Enough of the background! Imagine our surprise when walking through Union Station to hear someone call out - Hey crellston! OK it was no surprise, we had arranged to meet the two of them by the ticket office. (Only a little less cliched than meeting under the clock at Waterloo Station with a rose in my buttonhole ( film reference!)
Tdiddy often runs tours of downtown LA and had kindly offered to show us around his city. His in depth knowledge put my own of London to shame! I would be delighted to show any of you around “my” town, but, despite living and working among some of the most iconic sights in the world, my knowledge is sadly lacking and I have found over the years that many Americans know far more than do I - I do know a few great pubs though!
On the instructions of Tdiddy we took the train from Pasadena to Union Station. What an architectural gem! Not huge but architecturally, it bears comparison with any train stations I have seen around the world (believe me, there have been a few!). It is just wonderful, lovingly restored, an architectural masterpiece that I just wasn’t expecting in Los Angeles- Not that I was sure what to expect.
Walking away from the station we bypassed a demo that was in full swing in the plaza before heading into the epicentre of the original settlement of LA, El Pueblo de Los Angeles. A very quaint historical monument to the origins of LA. Almost like being in any of the many of the places we passed through in Mexico. Indeed, until Tdiddy enlightened us, I didn’t appreciated that it was not too long ago, that it was a part of Mexico.
As we continued our stroll around downtown one thing that T pointed out was how often the city planners (or the just plain rich!) would just move a building somewhere else better suited or in one case, levelling an entire hill! Moving the whole Chinatown because they wanted to build houses etc Tdiddy came armed with a folio of before an after photos which really enabled us to appreciate the massive changes made to the city over the years. Also glad that we went to Runyon Canyon before this tour as it provide a pretty good perspective of the city and downtown area
We were introduced to a whole variety of architectural styles from Art Deco/Nouveau to the incredible, ultra modern, Walt Disney Concert Hall. Quite some building and one, surprisingly I had never heard of before. Gehry designed and clad in shiny steel, it was almost like a gravity defying psychedelic cloud. We were there in bright sunshine and blue skies but I imagine it changes completely through the day and must be a sight to behold at night. The interior was almost as impressive. It reminded me of the Birmingham Symphony Hall, close to were we lived some years ago except that it is probably ten times the size! I guess most concert halls are very similar in design for the acoustic properties ? the only one I have seen that is radically different is Londons Royal Albert Hall.
More to come but I am under orders to unpack more boxes - after nearly 15 years in storage during our wandering the world, there are quite a few!
Apologies for the delay in continuing this TR!
A combination of jet lag, moving house on our return from California, a bout of man flu, massive storms in the UK knocking out power and, when I finally did get around to it, I typed it all directly into the forum TWICE and lost it!!! Who was it that said “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and again and expecting a different outcome”?
Anyway, here we go...
Carolyn calls them my "Fodors friends" and we have met up with a quite a few over the years in many places around the world - Saigon, Kuala Lumpur, Hanoi, Boston… We have always had a great time meeting like minded, travel obsessives!.So it was with great anticipation that we were looking forward to a double whammy by meeting up with mlgb and Tdiddy in downtown LA.
Mlgb I have been buddies on Fodors for as long as I can remember. We have a shared love of all thing Peruvian / New Zealand/ South Africa etc. We don’t always agree though, Buenos Aires immediately springs to mind - I love it, mlgb doesn’t! Mlgb loves cruising, whereas you would never find me on a cruise ship
. Over the years we have shared hotel and travel tips and have often stayed in the same hotels on each other recommendations, such is the power of FodorsI have been travelling vicariously along with Tdiddy on his recent trip around Mexico, from where he returned just a few days before we arrived in LA. He visited many of the places we did on our trip there some three years ago and his report brought back some great memories (Though he seemed to dig deeper and find much more than did we!) .We also corresponded for a while when planning his trip to Vietnam and along the Mekong into Cambodia - again travel experience we both loved.
Enough of the background! Imagine our surprise when walking through Union Station to hear someone call out - Hey crellston! OK it was no surprise, we had arranged to meet the two of them by the ticket office. (Only a little less cliched than meeting under the clock at Waterloo Station with a rose in my buttonhole ( film reference!)
Tdiddy often runs tours of downtown LA and had kindly offered to show us around his city. His in depth knowledge put my own of London to shame! I would be delighted to show any of you around “my” town, but, despite living and working among some of the most iconic sights in the world, my knowledge is sadly lacking and I have found over the years that many Americans know far more than do I - I do know a few great pubs though!
On the instructions of Tdiddy we took the train from Pasadena to Union Station. What an architectural gem! Not huge but architecturally, it bears comparison with any train stations I have seen around the world (believe me, there have been a few!). It is just wonderful, lovingly restored, an architectural masterpiece that I just wasn’t expecting in Los Angeles- Not that I was sure what to expect.
Walking away from the station we bypassed a demo that was in full swing in the plaza before heading into the epicentre of the original settlement of LA, El Pueblo de Los Angeles. A very quaint historical monument to the origins of LA. Almost like being in any of the many of the places we passed through in Mexico. Indeed, until Tdiddy enlightened us, I didn’t appreciated that it was not too long ago, that it was a part of Mexico.
As we continued our stroll around downtown one thing that T pointed out was how often the city planners (or the just plain rich!) would just move a building somewhere else better suited or in one case, levelling an entire hill! Moving the whole Chinatown because they wanted to build houses etc Tdiddy came armed with a folio of before an after photos which really enabled us to appreciate the massive changes made to the city over the years. Also glad that we went to Runyon Canyon before this tour as it provide a pretty good perspective of the city and downtown area
We were introduced to a whole variety of architectural styles from Art Deco/Nouveau to the incredible, ultra modern, Walt Disney Concert Hall. Quite some building and one, surprisingly I had never heard of before. Gehry designed and clad in shiny steel, it was almost like a gravity defying psychedelic cloud. We were there in bright sunshine and blue skies but I imagine it changes completely through the day and must be a sight to behold at night. The interior was almost as impressive. It reminded me of the Birmingham Symphony Hall, close to were we lived some years ago except that it is probably ten times the size! I guess most concert halls are very similar in design for the acoustic properties ? the only one I have seen that is radically different is Londons Royal Albert Hall.
More to come but I am under orders to unpack more boxes - after nearly 15 years in storage during our wandering the world, there are quite a few!
Feb 25th, 2022, 06:34 AM
#89
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 2,249
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
A wonderful book that is about the impressive downtown LA library and then includes lots of LA history is Susan Orlean’s The Library Book. I grew up near Griffith park and downtown LA was important part of my life. My younger son ended up living in DTLA for 3 years and it was great to see the rebirth of downtown into a vibrant young neighborhood. I’ve left from that beautiful train station many times. Sounds like you had a great trip.
Thread
Original Poster
Forum
Replies
Last Post
lunaluna
Europe
11
Jun 18th, 2005 04:08 PM
Jayne11159
United States
7
Aug 4th, 2004 12:38 PM
Mary
United States
19
Jun 10th, 2002 11:28 AM
