Travel Tales – LA Highlights

My husband and I spent the holiday weekend visiting our son in sunny southern California. It was so nice to get out of the rainy and gloomy Pacific Northwest for a few days and enjoy the sunshine and warmth. We had an excellent time and spent it hiking the hills and the streets of LA.

The last few times we went to the LA area, we were mostly in the south part near Long Beach. So we never really saw the Hollywood sign or the more glitzy areas of the city. Now that my son is living in Santa Monica, we saw a much different side of the city. We could see the Hollywood sign quite clearly from two of our walks, although we didn’t hike all the way there. It is a long hike up to the sign and we didn’t have time or enough water with us!

The big thing I noticed this time around was how lush everything seemed. They had a lot of rain last month and you can still see the effects of this from all of the flowers and green grass growing everywhere. It was so nice to see.

The big highlight of the trip for me was finally getting to visit The Last Bookstore in downtown LA. (click on the name for their website and cool video!) It was such a treat and a really cool place to visit. It took a lot of restraint not to purchase anything, no room in the suitcase, but I will definitely being going back, and will remember to leave room or take an extra suitcase next time.

For those of you who have never been, The Last Bookstore is a huge two story shop filled with all sorts of books new and used. They even have a rare book room and a vinyl record section. There are also art galleries on the second floor and book related art decorates the entire store.

This fun abstract art was made entirely of books, both closed showing covers and open showing pages. There is also a mammoth head, which I took a picture of, but not a very good one.

I really enjoyed all of the little touches, like the genres written on the stairs to the second floor. The book tunnel is also fun, and the little art corner with flying books was fun to look at and find fun details in.

This sign greets you once you get upstairs, and it really is a labyrinth. I almost got lost! (Just kidding!) There are some dead ends though so you do need to be careful. The other two pictures are taken of the first floor from the second. You really get a sense of how big this place is from them. I loved the cozy sitting area which many took advantage of. It was hard to get a snap when no one was there.

Finally I just loved this sign above the exit door. It really was like entering an entirely different world than the real one while you were inside.

On our last evening we went down to the beach to watch the sunset, and it was spectacular. The weather was about to change for the worst, we got out just in time, before the wind and the rain came back in force. But boy did it make for a wonderful sunset.

Now that things are finally getting back to normal, somewhat, I hope to do more traveling and see some more bookstores and libraries that are on my bucket list. Visiting the Last Bookstore was on that list, so I only have about a gazillion more to go. (Just kidding, its more like 50).