California Car Trip

Mission mural in Lompoc

When I was a young woman, I’d hop in my car and go for a long drive at the drop of a hat. Not so much now. I’ve become a real homebody: with my work, gardens and favorite TV shows, it’s been several years since I’ve left the house for more than just a few days.

Recently, I either read an article in the AARP Magazine or saw something on the Today Show about traveling and how it can actually generate new brain cells and improve one’s memory—I am, after all, turning 60 at the end of the year. So I decided to take a weeklong car trip, starting in the Central Coast and then heading north to Monterey and San José before stopping in Fresno, where I had scheduled a workshop. I had various job-related meetings along the way and also saw friends, making the week a nice mix of work and pleasure. 

Here’s what I learned (in no particular geographic order):

It’s almost impossible to avoid traffic in California. No surprise that it took me nearly two hours to drive out of Los Angeles, but I was shocked, as well as exasperated, when it took three hours to drive from Monterey to San José, Sunday afternoon—a ride that should have taken a little over an hour. As I found out two days later, it can also take three hours to get from Gilroy to Fresno via Highway 152 if there are enough slow-moving trucks ahead of you. Maybe I shouldn't have spent the entire afternoon at the Gilroy Premium Outlets (?). 

We’ve always loved antiquing in Cayucos, a cute little beach town north of Morro Bay. Now there’s another reason to stop there: the Brown Butter Cookie Company, an unassuming storefront that hides a bevy of activity inside. The friendly staff offer newcomers an array of samples as soon as they walk in the door. The cookies are impossible to resist, made with natural ingredients and a touch of sea salt. They ain’t cheap, but boy are they tasty! I bought two dozen, plus a bag of lemon cookies. YUMMY!

Moss Landing, a small town north of Monterey, hosts a highly anticipated flea market, once a year, that draws hundreds, if not thousands, of bargain-hunters. Lots of great items; but get there early or you may have to park a mile away. Interestingly, Moss Landing is also home to several well-known local restaurants. But, again, plan to eat early or you may have to wait forever for a table, like we did. 

Lunch (at last!) at Haute Enchilada 

Downtown San José is a fun place to stay: historic buildings, the light rail, a new mini-Safeway market, and a movie theater across the street from my hotel. While taking my morning walk, I discovered the San José Museum of Art and a new exhibit, called “Pilgrimage,” by photographer Annie Leibovitz. The exhibit is absolutely wonderful: digital images of private artifacts that once belonged to an eclectic assortment of iconic figures (e.g., Abraham Lincoln’s hat and gloves, Virginia Woolf’s room, the television that Elvis Presley famously shot, a bullet hole made by Annie Oakley, Freud’s couch, etc.). From here, the exhibit moves to the Columbia Museum of Art in October and finally the Lincoln Presidential Library next year.

You can take the librarian out of the library, but not the library out of the librarian. So, of course, I visited many libraries—old and new—on my trip. My favorites were the Lompoc Carnegie library, local historical landmark no. 1 and currently the Lompoc museum, and the Pacific Grove library, where I helped administer a grant, last year, to create a much-needed teen area.

The former Lompoc Carnegie Library

Pacific Grove library's teen area

On a whim, I decided to take the beautiful but (oh so) harrowing two-lane Highway 1 from Cayucos to Monterey. I thought I saw my car smile when we started to ascend the notoriously winding road north. I, on the other hand, was terrified. As magnificent as the scenery was, it’s hard to enjoy the view when you’re constantly worrying about accidentally driving off the edge of the continent! I didn’t dare stop to take pictures for fear of not wanting to get back into the car again.

I did, however, take lots of photos of Lompoc’s amazing murals, which the L.A. Times once called “an outdoor art gallery.” Sprinkled throughout Lompoc, the best murals are those that decorate the walls of older buildings on the town’s south end. Themes range from historic Central Coast scenes to artistic military tributes. Here are just a few of the many murals I saw in Lompoc (click on images to enlarge):

Sharknado

SyFy's schlocky movie-of-the-week Sharknado was such a hit on Twitter last week that they showed it again last night. I made Tim watch it with me. 

As the title suggests, a tornado off the coast of Southern California sucks-up thousands of sharks, who then terrorize and destroy L.A. Even more ridiculous than the idea of sharks flying through the air and eating people in their swimming pools was the egregious disregard for Los Angeles geography. I'm sorry but Van Nuys is not 10 minutes away from the 6th Street bridge in East L.A. Nor can you see the Hollywood sign from Downtown. For a minute there I thought we were watching an old episode of 24.

Still, it's always fun to see our beloved city destroyed by natural—or, in this case, totally ludicrous—disasters. See for yourself:

By the way, a Sharknado II is already in the works. This time NYC is going to be destroyed (again). What a surprise!

Automobile Driving Museum

The Centinela Antiquers Club, of which we are members, had its annual field trip yesterday. The destination: a small but fabulous car museum located in a non-descript business park just south of the LAX airport. In a town rife with car collections, this is the only one where visitors can actually ride in a pristine classic vehicle—hence the name, Automobile Driving Museum. They also host car shows, rent event and meeting space, and feature a swing band concert every third Sunday of the month. It's a great little place. 

We went berserk taking photos, so I'll let the cars themselves tell the rest of the story.

Custom Packard behind glass

Lots of old Fords

T-bird

My favorite car when I was a kid: the Edsel

Can you find me in this picture?

Pontiac

Becoming L.A.

Griffith Park Observatory

We had the opportunity, yesterday, to preview the new permanent “Becoming Los Angeles” exhibit opening today at the Natural History Museum. It presents a solid overview of the history of L.A., but is nowhere near as deep or fascinating as, say, the Getty exhibit we saw last weekend. Still, the curators did a good job examining Los Angeles from various ethnic perspectives and sprinkling interesting factoids throughout, including the unanticipated impact of cow dung and ostriches.

Freeways east of L.A.

Early 20th-century oil rigs on the beach

The centerpiece of the installation is a late-1930s model of downtown L.A., created as part of a Depression-era Works Progress Administration (WPA) project. We, of course, loved it and spent a long time trying to find and identify several architectural landmarks that are still standing. The exhibit is worth the price of admission if only just to see this fabulous diorama.

The model at ground level—City Hall is upper left

City Hall detail

Los Angeles Public Library (center) and

California Club (lower right) detail

Union Station detail

Sony Studios Tour

Although we’ve been on the Sony lot many times for parties, a political rally, and even to see scenes filmed from the former TV show Joan of Arcadia, we’ve never—in all the 15 years we’ve lived here—taken a formal tour of the studios. Luckily, Sony is offering a twilight tour every Thursday this summer, so we went last week. It was very fun, even though we didn’t learn anything new about the Hollywood side of Culver City.

The tour started with a short video history of how Sony started as MGM and then Lorimar studios before its current incarnation. We also saw clips of MGM's most famous movies, including It Happened One Night, On the Waterfront, Lawrence of Arabia, and The Wizard of Oz. We then spent the next two hours walking around the lot, eyeballing buildings named for classic movie stars, like Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, Kate and Audrey Hepburn, and Spencer Tracy, and the recording stage, named after Barbra Streisand. We also saw cars from recent Sony movies and TV shows, ending the tour at the Jeopardy museum, which celebrates the most beloved game show of all time. 

Recent addition: an enormous rainbow

sculpture commemorating The

Wizard of Oz

Columbia Pictures, now a subsidiary of Sony, 

is here, too

Sony offices that can double as movie sets, as needed

Vehicles from Green Hornet and TV show

Breaking Bad

 Just a few of Jeopardy's many Emmy awards

Cardboard Alex Trebek and me

Faux theater facade

The highlight, though, was when our tour guide, Will, randomly selected three of us—two young people and me—to rehearse and enact an improvised movie scene. The premise: the kids start bickering when their mom (me) forgets the keys to their storage unit. Tim, of course, was our cinematographer. Here’s our first rehearsal:

No Oscars, but not bad for someone who hasn't performed since 10^th-grade Drama. Am I ready yet for my close-up?