LA Weekend Getaway - Part One

For six years, H was on the advisory board for the Petroleum Research Fund.  That meant that three times a year, he would read a box full of proposals and then fly to the meeting place for the board and help his committee decide which proposals to fund.  The upside of this was that I got to go along with him, and thus we were able to travel to many places across the US, including Puerto Rico.  Now that his term on the board is over, we still get a hankering to travel someplace, especially at the end of September when we would normal go.

With this free weekend, we decided to take a trip into Los Angeles.  I particularly wanted to see things that we have not seen before. With our interest in history and architecture, we signed up for an historic downtown tour with the LA Conservancy.  First stop, Pershing Square where we were really glad we had a reservation when we saw throngs of people milling about.  Then we realized that these people were holding signs and dressed up and were probably not taking a Saturday tour.  It was some kind of protest about the economy.  Here is a youtube video that someone else put up on the web of the rally.

 The tour itself, 3 hours in all, gave us a much broader picture of some of the history of downtown LA than we had ever known before.  Our guide was quite knowledgable, and we saw parts of the city we have never seen before (in the 25 years we have lived in Claremont).

The end of the tour took us to the very famous Bradbury Building which looks nondescript from the outside, but quite amazing on the inside.  It was built the same year as the Columbian Exposition in Chicago - 1893.

This signature wrought-iron was made in France and was displayed at the Columbian Exposition before it arrived in Los Angeles.

 At the end of the tour, we headed into the Grand Central Market for lunch.

 Based on yelp reviews, we chose Tacos, Tumbras a Tomas for lunch (the long line confirmed that this was a popular place). We were not disappointed.

 Carne asada burrito that H could not finish.

 Birria tostada (goat meat) was particularly delicious.