Monthly Archive: December 2014

Get Your Kicks on Route 66

Author: December 13, 2014

IMG_7295The Autry Museum sponsored a presentation by Jerry McClanahan and Jim Ross that made me want to start packing. They shared helpful tips and recommendations for anyone planning a trip along Route 66. They had recommendations for restaurants, hotels and other tips for the road. I’ve included links to their books under my bookstore tab and you can click on the picture for more information about the exhibit at The Autry that closes on January 5, 2015. There are more than 250 artifacts in the exhibit and the guides are very knowledgeable and able to provide a lot of the history of the route and its impact on American popular culture.

Route 66 was established in 1926 connecting Chicago to Los Angeles along a 2,400 mile road. At the exhibit you can see the oldest existing Route 66 shield, an early Jackson Pollock landscape painting, a ten-foot twin visible gas pump, the handwritten page from The Grapes of Wrath manuscript that introduces the “Mother Road,” renowned Dust Bowl–era photographs, Woody Guthrie’s guitar, the original typewritten scroll of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, a classic 1960 Corvette, and countless objects adorned with the Route 66 moniker or acquired along the route.

I’m looking forward to exploring this route in small bits and since the end of the route is at the Santa Monica Pier, I think I’ll start there and work my way East.

 

Los Angeles

Bike Sharing in Santa Monica

Author: December 12, 2014

After reading about Santa Monica’s Bike Share plan, I remembered how well the bike share programs worked in Paris, Brussels and Washington, D.C. What a great way to reduce traffic and make it easy to get in more exercise.

  • Bike Sharing in Paris Bike Sharing in Paris
  • Paris Bike Meter Paris Bike Meter
  • Paris Biker Paris Biker
  • Bike Sharing in Brussels Bike Sharing in Brussels
  • Bike Sharing in Washington, D.C. Bike Sharing in Washington, D.C.
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Los Angeles

Revisiting Marina del Rey

Author: December 12, 2014

I’ve been to Marina del Rey before . . . biking, enjoying the restaurants, training for a marathon and enjoying the Holiday Boat Parade . . . but I recently joined a meet-up group to see the Sea Lions, Pelicans, Boats and Tourists.

When you explore your neighborhood like a tourist you discover so much more, or maybe I don’t get out much. I had never really noticed the fishing boats or pelicans before. I knew you could rent sail boats and hop on a party boat, but I never paid attention to much else. Now I know the difference between a sea lion and a seal, I’ve seen the pelicans, I know where the birds hangout while they wait for the fishing boats to return and understand why this is one of the first places that tourists visit when they come to Los Angeles.

I hope you enjoy the photos of my brief trip to Marina del Rey. I’m looking forward to returning here for sunrise and sunset photos, as well as more tourist photos. Hope you’ll visit Marina del Rey as a tourist and add it to “YourStory”.

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The first residents of the area were the Shoshone and Gabrieleno/Tongva Indians that lived along the bluffs above the ocean; followed by the Spanish and eventually the first Angelenos.

In 1949, a $23 million plan for a marina proceeded slowly until 1954 when President Dwight Eisenhower signed Public Law 780, making the Marina harbor an authorized federal project. The Army Corps of Engineers’ project funded and planned by the Federal government, Los Angeles County and private developers. The channel leading into the harbor was vulnerable to strong wave action so baffles, lying perpendicular to the channel, were quickly installed, and then later replaced with a bouldered jetty that protects the channel.

The marina was originally called “The Playa del Rey Inlet and Harbor of Venice, CA.”, but Burton Chace worked to change the name to Marina del Rey which translates from the Spanish as “Harbor of the King.” On January 25th, 1962 Burton Chace received a telegram that read:

“Happy To Advise Senate Passed H.R. 157 Today To Change Name To Marina Del Rey. President’s Signature Expected in Due Course. – James Roosevelt” (a Democratic California congressman, and son of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.). Marina del Rey was officially born when President John F. Kennedy signed H.R. 157 into law. The Marina harbor was dedicated on July 10, 1965.

Marina del Rey, an unincorporated district of Los Angeles County, is the largest man-made marina in the United States, with over 5,300 small-boat slips and a population just over 8,000. Click here more information on Marina del Rey.

Los Angeles