2015 - October 22nd & 23rd - The Watts Towers, Rancho Los Alamitos and with Farewell at The Proud Bird

Our last full day of vacation with Sandra and Ray will be filled with local fun things. Picking The Watts Towers from The 100 Things book, we headed up the road to Watts. We have taken the different grandchildren here to see the Towers in different years of their summer vacations with us. It is such an interesting place to see and visit, that this was on our must-see local adventures for this holiday vacation. We arrived at the Watts Towers of Simon Rodia and started by looking at the Watts Towers Art Center. It was opened, so entered to look around. We found out that a tour of the Towers was beginning in about 10 minutes and decided to join. We had never been in the Art Center or taken a tour of the Towers. We were glad we did both.

The Art Center has a lot of historical art pieces and explanations of many of the things that have happened in the area over the years. Some of the houses facing the Towers have mosaic artwork themselves.

The tour guide unlocks the gated fence and we all follow in to be right next to and underneath the Towers to see close-up all of the magnificence done. The story of Simon Rodia's life and his work was explained by the docent in great detail as we wandered through the Watts Towers. The Watts Towers, consisting of seventeen major sculptures constructed of structural steel and covered with mortar, are the work of one man - Simon Rodia. In 1921, Rodia purchased the triangular-shaped lot at 1761-1765 107th Street in Los Angeles and began to construct his masterpiece, which he called "Nuestro Pueblo" (meaning "our town"). For 34 years, Rodia worked single-handedly to build his towers without benefit of machine equipment, scaffolding, bolts, rivets, welds or drawing board designs. Besides his own ingenuity, he used simple tools, pipe fitter pliers and a window-washer's belt and buckle.

Construction worker by day and artist by night, Rodia adorned his towers with a diverse mosaic of broken glass, sea shells, generic pottery and tile, a rare piece of 19th-century, hand painted Canton ware and many pieces of 20th-century American ceramics. Rodia once said, "I had it in mind to do something big and I did it." The tallest of his towers stands 99½ feet and contains the longest slender reinforced concrete column in the world. The monument also features a gazebo with a circular bench, three bird baths, a center column and a spire reaching a height of 38 feet. Rodia's "ship of Marco Polo" has a spire of 28 feet, and the 140-foot long "south wall" is decorated extensively with tiles, sea shells, pottery, glass and hand-drawn designs.
               
                    
               
               
               
               
It was a great adventure and we learned a lot that we hadn't been aware of before. Always interesting stuff around this LA area!

We wanted to get a bite to eat leaving The Watts Towers and before going to Rancho Los Alamitos. One place that we had not taken Ray & Sandra to eat that is one of our local favorites is Hof's Hut. We went to the Bellflower location on the way to the Rancho. We enjoyed the wonderful food at Hof's before embarking upon out next adventure.

Rancho Los Alamitos is twice listed on the National Register of Historic Places - once as the sacred Tongva village of Povuu’ngna, the traditional birthplace of the native people of the Los Angeles Basin and, second, for the evolution of its significant historic landscape over time. The site includes traces of the ancestral village, an adobe-core ranch house ca.1800, four acres of lush historic gardens developed during the 1920s and 30s, and the restored working ranch barnyard of the early-mid 20th century. Today Rancho Los Alamitos is 7.5-acres, a rare vestige of the original 300,000-acre Los Coyotes land concession given to Manuel Nieto in 1790 for his service on the Gaspar de Portolá expedition to California under the Spanish Crown. However, the story of Rancho Los Alamitos precedes these first newcomers, for the historic site is also part of the ancestral village of Povuu’ngna, the traditional place of origin of the native Gabrielino-Tongva people of the Los Angeles Basin, and still a sacred place. In 1968, the children of Fred and Florence Bixby, the last private owners, donated the family ranch to the City of Long Beach, transforming what had been a working ranch to a public oasis and setting the stage for what Rancho Los Alamitos is today—a place for all time. The docent we had was wonderful with soooo much knowledge. Great!!!

               

Such a pleasurable day. It just swept past us so quickly. So much fun and these old dogs were taught a thing or two as well on both of these adventures!

The 23rd brought us to our conclusion of our fantastic holiday vacation between four good friends and relatives. We have such a great time together that we only wish we could do it more often. Perhaps that 5500 mile "as the crow flies" distance between us makes it even more special when we do get together; but whatever the case, we truly cherish our time together. To cap off these three weeks, Ray and Sandra treated us to lunch at The Proud Bird Restaurant right by the flight-line of LAX. We had a 5-Star meal and a great bottle of White Zinfandel while we reminisced about some of our trip. The restaurant is historic with landing planes going right by the oversize picture windows. The grounds are decorated with various old planes while the interior is loaded with pictures of aircraft, pilots, and servicemen. Great lunch, fabulous company!
           
The view from our dining table overlooking the yard displays and the flight landings approach.
Then the saddest part of our holiday: driving the one mile over to LAX and saying "Farwell until the next time .. or when we Skype soon".

And so it ends ..... but only for this time ---
                       
All of the pictures for this blog entry can be clicked on here.