It’s good to have some activities up your sleeve that don’t require a full day commitment or a mall. Everybody has a few. The neighborhood park or the local library is always nice. But what about the park just a little way down the road or the library that’s so big it could fit all of our neighborhood libraries inside it? And even though Los Angeles is a city, a very big city, it still contains wildlife and swaths of green nature, tucked away from the main roads and found in the most unlikely places.
Take for example, Franklin Canyon Park, which can be found in North Beverly Hills off Beverly Drive, but which you would never have seen from the road, and yet it’s very big (605 acres.) It’s the kind of place that people don’t find unless someone else shows them. The park has different sections to it, but the main point of interest is a large pond (referred to as a ‘lake’) surrounded by trees and cattails and wildflowers and another smaller pond next to it with ducks and turtles. Of course there are trails to walk all around and explore. During this colder time of year, a chill settles into the park and you can almost smell winter in the fir trees.
Further up, off Coldwater Canyon Rd. is Tree People, another free park with trails winding over hills and through woods. It’s ideal for a long brisk walk and some fresh air.
Also in Beverly Hills, off of Foothill Rd., is Greystone Mansion, a castle-like estate built in 1928 by Edward Doheny, and eventually given to the city to be used as a public park. It has a big parking lot, an elaborate system of gardens, as well as fish and turtle ponds, and a house out of a storybook with a slate roof, and a veranda that looks out across the city. There are places to sit and read or enjoy a quiet conversation.
Then there’s the downtown area. If you haven’t been downtown lately, you are in for a surprise. When I first came out to LA, the downtown area was a faded and unwelcoming shell of its former self. But now, the sparkle and bustle of city life has returned since art deco buildings have been polished, the Disney Music Hall has opened, and real estate prices have skyrocketed. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Public Library, a huge architectural wonder, has continued to expand its appeal with a dazzling array of art exhibits and programs (not to mention a really cute gift shop.) The building is attractive inside and out with wall murals, carvings, fountains and tile work, it’s enjoyable just to look around. But then there are the books, the floors and floors of books. For people who love books, and I know there are a lot of us out there, the downtown library is a treasure trove of comprehensive collections and hard to find publications. Just think of a subject you’d like to learn more about and a bounty of books is likely to be available to check out or to reference. Once, my husband and I found a small white jar in the woods near my Grandmother’s house in Massachusetts. We went down to the patents floor of the library and actually found a picture of the jar and description of it, made in 1898, in the patents records.
The children’s section is absolutely dreamy with an enormous collection of books to choose from and chairs and couches to settle into for hours of reading.
A slight snag to the downtown library is the parking. In order to get a discount rate with validation, library patrons must park in the garage at 524. S. Flower Street, otherwise downtown parking can be a fortune.
One of my favorite places in Los Angeles is just a little south of downtown, where a family can find hours and hours and summers and late afternoons of enjoyment, for a small fee. A $60 family membership opens the doors to unlimited admission to the Natural History Museum, (which includes admission to the La Brea Tar Pit Museum on Wilshire Blvd., and the William S. Hart Park & Museum in Newhall.) The Natural History Museum comes in handy for “home nursery school” “camp Ema” and “after school play dates,” not to mention “relatives in town who want to go somewhere with the family on a Sunday.” Right next door to the free Science Museum, the Natural History Museum is huge and it is easy to visit it again and again for years and still have sections yet to explore. The Discovery Center, within the museum, is a two story children’s section with live insects and reptiles that are taken out of their tanks on a regular basis for educational (and petting) purposes. A whole section of the main museum is transformed a few times a year for special exhibits, and in the summer an outdoor garden pavilion is filled with a variety of fluttering butterflies to study up close. While it’s difficult to park on the street during the school year because of the USC students needing the spaces, during the summer and on Sundays street parking is easy to come by; just bring quarters (and save yourself the $6 parking lot fee.) The benefit of membership at such a big place is that you don’t feel compelled to see the whole thing in one day and can visit for short outings of an hour or two at a time, also members are sent schedules of events at all three museums throughout the year.
More local activity suggestions to come…
Notes: Franklin Canyon Park, 2600 Franklin Canyon Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210, www.lamountains.com
Tree People, 12601 Mulholland Drive Beverly Hills, CA 90210, (818)753-4600, www.treepeople.org
Greystone Park, 905 Loma Vista Dr., Beverly Hills, CA 90210. (310) 550-4654, www.beverlyhills.org
Los Angeles Public Library, Central Library 630 W. 5th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071 - (213) 228-7000, Mon. 10-8, Tue. 10-8, Wed. 10-8, Thu. 10-8, Fri. 10-6, Sat. 10-6, Sun. 1-5, www.lapl.org
The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
900 Exposition Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90007, (213) 763-DIN0, www.nhm.org