My husband Tim and I live in a small piece of Los Angeles that juts into Culver City. We can vote for L.A. mayor, while living within the postal limits of trendy Culver City—the best of both worlds! He's a retired radio engineer. I am a freelance library consultant and teach library science. Our frequent partner-in-crime is Karen, my best friend since college.
It's been many moons since either of us has seen the Rose Parade in person—been-there-done-that when we were much younger and far more foolish! But I do love the spectacle of the parade and so get up early to watch it live on TV every year. No wonder then that I was thrilled when Tim's friend Art invited us to the big Tournament of Roses holiday party at the Wrigley Mansion, in Pasadena, a couple of weeks ago.
Mansion entrance
For the past 115 years, the parade has been managed by the Tournament of Roses Association, a volunteer-run organization that utilizes the talents of some 1000 people (including our friend Art) year-round to prepare for both the parade and Rose Bowl game. The Association's headquarters is located inside the Wrigley Mansion, an 18,500 square-foot Italian Renaissance-style home built 1905-1914 by chewing gum magnate William Wrigley. The mansion was donated to the city of Pasadena in 1958 with the understanding that it would house the Tournament of Roses. Once a year, the home is opened to the friends and family of Association volunteers to celebrate the holidays and the upcoming parade and Rose Bowl game.
Front door decorated for Christmas
We've driven by the house, located on Orange Grove Blvd., probably hundreds of times, but had never been inside. For a large mansion, it was remarkably cozy, especially with hundreds of other gawkers milling around! Art showed us the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame room upstairs and the room where the Rose queen and her princesses get ready for the parade.
Rose Bowl Hall of Fame honorees
Team helmets
The Royal Court's powder room
We then went downstairs—along with everyone else—for a buffet meal that included salads, sandwiches and an array of desserts. We lost Art in the crowd early on, but rejoined him before leaving the grounds. Among the special things we saw was an illustrated line-up of the 2016 floats—looks like it's going to be another excellent parade! I can hardly wait.
Season's greetings to you all! It was a fun year and we're looking forward to even more fun as an old retired couple, starting January 1st! See you then.
What a
long, strange year it’s been, filled with much happiness and sorrow, too. We
said good-bye to my mom, who passed away in July after suffering a major
stroke almost two years before. We miss her dearly.
My beautiful Mom, in her younger years
We also lost our
14-year-old cat Beanie, who, we’re convinced, died of a broken heart following
the sudden death of his brother Cecil last year.
But
there’s also good news. We paid-off the house—yay! Can retirement be far
behind? (Well, not for another two years, at least.) Plus we got two new
kittens, Jack and Bobby, who keep life exciting. Thanks, Karen and Eric!
Our continuing passions include:
mid-century fashion and L.A. architecture, especially renovated movie palaces—we’re
now members of the L.A. Historic Theatre Foundation; movies, in general
(attended this year’s L.A. FilmFest);
the Beatles (participated in two great album-listening parties at the Grammy
Museum);
and, of course, all things Disney.
Not a
lot of plays this year, but did go to several excellent concerts: the Eagles, who reopened the truly fabulous Fabulous Forum in Inglewood;
Steely Dan; Neil Young,
solo at the Dolby Theatre (absolutely amazing!); and Fleetwood Mac. We also
continued our mini-season subscription to the Hollywood Bowl and enjoyed this
year’s Grease sing-along.
We have much to be grateful for: the continuing
love and support of our family, friends and neighbors. We also love our boys,
Jack and Bobby, who are a constant joy (when they’re not being monsters!), and are happy for the recent rain that has rejuvenated our gardens. And finally, we are grateful to be employed in jobs that we love.
May your
holidays and new year be filled with love and happiness!
I turned 60 years old on
Christmas Eve, so Tim naturally thought we should celebrate by spending three
days at the Disney resort (yay!). We stayed at the appropriately historic Disneyland Hotel. The weather
was perfect—in the 70s—and we had a wonderful time.
Sleeping Beauty's castle, dressed-up for the holidays
One of the advantages of
staying at the resort is “magic hour,” when hotel guests get to enter the parks at 7AM, an hour before everyone else.
On Monday, we rode all the rides in Cars Land—including Radiator Springs
Racers, twice!—before the hordes
descended. Tuesday morning, we were among the first to ride Star Tours, Astro
Blasters, Indiana Jones, and the Haunted Mansion. Another advantage: we got to take a much-needed
nap before returning to Disney’s California Adventure (DCA), Monday night, for
the holiday version of the “World of Color” water show (beautiful!).
Maleficent horns. Do I look like
Angelina Jolie?
Since we go to the parks
so often, we decided to do stuff we don’t normally do when we’re there. For
instance, Tim had never been on the 3-D Toy Story Midway Mania ride, so we stood on line for 45 minutes—something we rarely do. Luckily, it was
worth the wait and so has now moved to the top of our “must-do” list of DCA
rides.
Midway Mania 3-D
We also looked for some of
the more “secret” parts of Disneyland that most fans know about. Every year,
Disney recognizes its more legendary “cast members” by inducting them into a
hall of fame at the Burbank studio.
But did you know that the most special Disney employees are also honored by
having their own Disneyland windows? The next time you visit the park, be sure to spend a few moments looking at the names on
the windows as you run down Main Street to get to your favorite ride. You might
be surprised by who you’ll find.
Uncle Walt, himself:
"Founder & Director Emeritus"
Sherman brothers, songwriters
extraordinaire
Bob Gurr, designer of the Monorail,
Autopia, etc:
"Leading the Race to the Future -
Our Vehicles Pass the Test of Time"
Hearing a rumor that it
will soon be dismantled, we went in search of the Fantasyland loading dock for
the old Skyway ride, closed 20 years ago. Built to resemble a Swiss chalet, we found it hidden deep
behind several tall trees to the left of Dumbo and the Casey Jones, Jr., train
ride. Sneaking up some roped off stairs, we snapped a couple of photos and fondly
remembered the ride my sister and I affectionately called the “barf buckets.” Check
out the great YouTube video below to see the fabulous Skyway views of Disneyland in the early 1990s.
Skyway remnants
The Skyway: one last time
While in Fantasyland, we
visited the Snow White ride, site of one of the many fun “Easter eggs” sprinkled throughout the park. Hear the evil queen laugh fiendishly when you
touch the golden apple. (Click on the video and turn-up the volume.)
Golden apple "Easter egg"
On my birthday, we took a 3-hour
holiday tour of both DCA and Disneyland. Highlights included going to the head-of-the-line
for three holiday-themed rides: the Jingle (i.e., Jungle) Cruise, Nightmare Before Christmas Haunted Mansion, and, yes, even the
dreaded It’s a Small World ride, which was beautifully decorated for Christmas.
Plus, we had VIP seats for the holiday parade.
DCA Christmas tree and Carthay Circle
Haunted Mansion
We were so exhausted by
the end of the three days we took the Monorail back to our car.
Yikes! What a crazy
year we’ve had! No wonder I'm so tired. Among this year's highlights:
Not much
travel, but we did go to Phoenix/Tempe for baseball spring training, plus flew
to Snohomish, WA, for a wonderful reunion with family in
August. I also took a solo weeklong driving tour of California, visiting
friends and conducting workshops along the way. I will never drive Highway 1 again . . .
Lots of music:
concerts by Steely Dan, The Rascals, Paul Revere and the Raiders, Earth Wind
and Fire, John Williams (thousands of Star Wars lightsabers!) and Danny Elfman. I
also took a three-week class on Bruce Springsteen at the Grammy Museum.
And, of
course, sports: Angels baseball was especially disappointing this year, but we were thrilled by Clippers basketball and got to see a couple
of games at Staples Center.
Tim is now
the ice-cream-making king, after we took a one-night class for Valentine’s. The
next day, we ran right over to Williams Sonoma and bought a Cuisinart ice
cream maker, which was in constant use over the summer. Our favorite flavor:
baked apple (yum!).
After all these years living in Culver City, we (finally!) toured Sony Studios, located practically in our own backyard. We also watched the Emmys red carpet from Tim's workplace, and returned to Smoke Tree Ranch for yet another Disney getaway weekend.
The backyard view from Walt Disney's original
Smoke Tree Ranch home
Our gardens
were featured as part of the prestigious Theodore Payne native plants tour for
a fourth year-in-a-row. Always a wonderful, if exhausting, experience.
Our own beautiful backyard
And sadly, we lost our sweet cat Cecil to cancer this summer. We miss him very much
and so now shamelessly dote on his brother Beanie.
Beanie and Cecil
Wishing you
and yours a joy-filled holiday and very happy New Year!
