Actually it was fun. It was a place we had both heard and read about and, surprisingly, I had never been there even though I lived in LA for many years - just never made it up here (the beach was in the other direction). So, when we noticed it on the map and realized how close we were going to pass by we decided to go for it.
The place is actually a quaint little county park located smack in the middle of the Miracle Mile section of Wilshire Blvd. in the heart of the city. In fact I noticed that the corporate headquarters for Variety - the show business weekly - was located in one of the high rises just across the street. That's the thing about the tar pits - they bubble up in the virtual center of one of the busiest and most exclusive parts of LA. Hollywood is just a few blocks away. Guess the place has been oozing for thousands of years, and trapping a variety of animals for millenia, including now extinct species like saber tooth cats, giant sloths and mammoths. Apparently they're still pulling bones out of the tar from several archeological digs, and there appears to be enough stuff to keep the folks who do this sort of thing busy for a few hundred years.
There were a few school groups on day trips but we worked around them pretty easily and actually spent a pretty nice afternoon wandering around the pits - which are now fenced off to keep the tourists from falling in I guess - and the museum, where they have some great displays of reconstructed skeletons and the like. The tar comes up thru cracks in the earth from miles below the surface - remember that the San Andreas fault runs right thru here - and you can see little puddles of the stuff all around the area. Guess it even spurts up around the cracks in the sidewalks in this part of town on hot summer days. We came across several spots about as big as the lid of a trash can as we walked around - gave the whole place an air of accidental discovery.
Anyway, here are a few photos:
One section of the pits with the museum in the background.
The displays of reconstructed creatures are really quite interesting since in most cases they had virtually the entire skeletons to work with.
After a late lunch we rejoined the crush of LA traffic and drove over to the airport hotel. Had time the next morning to work out at the gym, have a leisurely breakfast on the club floor, and then catch the hotel shuttle to the United terminal. Checking in and getting thru security weren't too much of an ordeal, and the flight passed quickly (thank goodness for I-pods).
Arrived in Portland around 3:15 where it was ....(drum roll please)....raining! Oh, well, at least we were home - having spent a couple of really enjoyable weeks getting our batteries recharged in the Southern California sun, seeing some old friends, and eating way too much good Mexican food. Looks like we can put the sunscreen away for a while as we get back to our exercise routines and generally try to lose all the weight we gained on the trip.
Next excursion will be July 9 when we fly down to Valdosta to spend 10 days with the kids & grand kids.
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