Thursday, May 24, 2007

Part Eleven of our 35 day Adventure

Jerry and Hope have a friend named Robert, who they invite over every couple weeks for dinner and "movie night."   He came over on Wednesday night while we were there and he was talking about a project he's been working on with a group of business people.  It restoring the beautiful Million Dollar Theater.   It was built around 1918 and has been declared a National Historic Site.  Anyway, he invited us to come down the next day for a tour of this beautiful, old building.  It's really a mess right now but you can see the potential once the restoration is finished.  There are over 2,000 seats in this theater and may famous actors performed there, during the vaudeville days. Oh, if those walls could talk. It was not very light in there, so the pictures I took are not very good in quality.  After we finished in the theater we went a few steps down the street to the Grand Central Market which has been feeding Los Angeles since 1917.  There was every type of food item (and liquor) you can imagine for sale in the hundreds of stalls.  There were also many mini restaurants in there, where you could buy a meal.    From there we crossed over to the Bradbury Building.  It was so beautiful, as you walk into the building there's this huge atrium area, the use of wrought iron, hardwood and sandstone is awesome!

Then on Friday April 20th, Jerry, Hope, Bob and myself spent the day in Hollywood.  We had pizza at a little "hole in the wall" place that's been serving pizza inthat location for over 50 years.  The day was cool (it had poured rain the night before) so it was perfect for strolling along, taking in the sites.   This is one area of southern California that is truly sad.  There are street people laying on benches, up against street light poles and even along the curbs. It's very sad to see the toll that drugs, alcohol and mental illness has taken on these dear souls.  Down near the Kodak Theater and the Wax Museum, we ran into many familiar characters, all too happy to pose for pictures for a small fee.   All in all we had a good day, strolling along, people watching and getting a little exercise too.

Next entry....The Hollywood Walk of Fame and the area around Mann's Chinese Theater.  Until then, have a good day !    Linda in sunny and warm Washington state

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

The theatre Robert is working on is beautiful, I bet it'll be a picture when it's done! The rest of the photos are great too, looks like you had a wonderful time and made the most of the time spent there! Jeannette xx  http://journals.aol.co.uk/jlocorriere05/Welcometomytravels/  

Anonymous said...

A very interesting stop but I will reread this one after AOL puts the pictures back like the used to be next week.  I am getting motion sickness looking at nothing but moving pictures in all the journals, LOL.  
Sam

Anonymous said...

sounds wonderful!  thanks for sharing with us
tina
http://journals.aol.com/mcknansmom/steelmags

Anonymous said...

OH, I do enjoy reading about your travels and also seeing the pictures.  I have felt like I was right there with you!  Thanks so much for sharing it all with us in this very special way!
Marie
http://journals.aol.co.uk/mariealicejoan/MariesMuses/

Anonymous said...

What a wonderful ly interesting trip that was Linda and such lovely photographic memorys too ,Iwill as Isais enjoy them better when  I return later when I can view them the old way ..love Jan xx

Anonymous said...

Linda thanks for a lovely interesting entry and the Photographs are great ~ Robert is taking on a big project "Million Dollar Theater" bet it will be wonderful when it is finished ~ would love to visit that "Grand Central Market" sounds really interesting ~ so sad about the street people ~ we have quite a few of them here as well ~ Ally x

Anonymous said...

Wow I don't think I've been there since 1984....
You all are having a great time...
Linda :)