Sights in Los Angeles
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Venice Boardwalk
Venice Boardwalk is officially known as Ocean Front Walk. It’s a freak show, a human zoo and a wacky carnival, but as far as LA experiences go, it’s a must. This is where to get your hair braided, your karma corrected or your back massaged qi gong–style. Encounters with budding Schwarzeneggers, hoop dreamers, a Speedo-clad snake charmer and a roller-skating Sikh minstrel are pretty much guaranteed, especially on hot summer days. The Sunday-afternoon drum circle draws hundreds of revelers for tribal playing and spontaneous dancing. If the noise doesn’t show you the way there, just follow your nose towards whiffs of ‘wacky tabaccy.’ Alas, the boardwalk vibe gets a bit sketc…
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Griffith Observatory
Above Los Feliz loom the iconic triple domes of the 1935 Griffith Observatory. A recent makeover brought a super-techie star projector to its planetarium and doubled the exhibit space, including films in the Leonard Nimoy Event Horizon Theater. During clear night-time skies, you can often peer through the telescopes at heavenly bodies.
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Canal Walk
Just northeast of the intersection of Washington Blvd and Pacific Ave, it's a step through the looking glass from the traffic-clogged roar of Washington Blvd to the bougainvillea-lined bungalows bordering Venice's once-plentiful canals. Wandering the narrow, impossibly cute bridges and walkways, it's tough to keep envy in check as dog-walkers, surfers and grandmas pass by, enjoying their tranquil patch of paradise.
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Bradbury Building
This 1893 building is one of LA's undisputed architectural jewels. Its red-brick facade conceals a stunning galleried atrium with inky filigree grillwork, a rickety birdcage elevator and yellow brick walls that glisten golden in the afternoon light filtering through the tent-shaped glass roof. Location scouts love the place, whose star-turn came in the cult flick Blade Runner.
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Pit 91
Excavations at the La Brea Tar Pits continue every summer when you can watch paleontologists at work in Pit 91 . At other times, they're fussing over bones in the glass-encased laboratory inside the Page Museum itself, cleaning, identifying, cataloging and storing their discoveries.
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Will Rogers State Park
Rugged but small, this park sprawls across ranch land once owned by Will Rogers (1875–1935), an Oklahoma-born cowboy turned humorist, radio-show host and movie star. In the late '20s he traded his Beverly Hills manse for a 31-room ranch house and lived here until his tragic 1935 death by plane crash. Following extensive renovations, guided tours allow you to again nose around the Western art and Native American rugs and baskets and marvel at the porch swing right in the living room.
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Grauman's Chinese Theatre
Even the most jaded visitor may thrill in the famous forecourt of Grauman's Chinese Theatre, where generations of screen legends have left their imprints in cement: feet, hands, dreadlocks (Whoopi Goldberg), and even magic wands (the young stars of the Harry Potter films). Actors dressed as Superman, Marilyn Monroe and the like are usually on hand to pose for photos (for tips), and it's a good bet you'll be offered free tickets to TV shows (those in season).
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Santa Monica State Beach
There are endless ways to play on the 3.5-mile blanket of strand stretching from Venice Beach in the south to Will Rogers State Beach in the north. To reserve time on a beach volley-ball court, call and confirm applicable fees. For cerebral pursuits, settle in at a first-come first-served chess table at Chess Park, just south of the Santa Monica pier. As of October 2006, smoking is no longer permitted on Santa Monica beaches.
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Museum of Contemporary Art
Nearby, the Museum of Contemporary Art offers headline-grabbing special exhibits; its permanent collection presents all the art world's heavy hitters from the 1940s to the present. It's in a building by Arata Isozaki; many consider it his masterpiece. Parking is $8, at Walt Disney Concert Hall. There are two other branches of MoCA: the Geffen Contemporary in Little Tokyo and the MoCA Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood.
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Hollywood Forever Cemetery
- Los Angeles, USA
- Sights › Dark
Rock ’n’ roll faithful flock to the monument of guitar-playing Johnny Ramone at this Paramount-adjacent boneyard. Other residents include Hattie McDaniel, Rudolph Valentino and Cecil B DeMille. From Bugsy Siegel’s mausoleum, catch the perfectly framed view of the Hollywood sign – proving Hollywood, at least here, really is forever. Watch outdoor movie screenings in the summer (www.cinespia.org).
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Museum of Tolerance
Run by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, this museum uses interactive technology to make visitors confront racism and bigotry, with particular focus given to the Holocaust. You can study various Nazi-era memorabilia, including letters by Anne Frank, a bunk bed from the Majdanek camp and Göring's dress-uniform cap. Lectures by Holocaust survivors take place several times a week.
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Manhattan Beach
If Manhattan Beach had its own magazine, it would surely be called Gorgeous Living. Classy beachside cottages, bougainvillea-lined walk-streets, bustling sidewalk patios, friendly boutiques, surfers silhouetted against the setting sun, and babies who never seem to cry – all within half a mile of a portrait-worthy pier. It’s that impossibly perfect.
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Getty Center
The Getty Center presents triple delights: a stellar art collection, Richard Meier's fabulous architecture and Robert Irwin's seasonally changing gardens. On clear days, add breathtaking views of the city and ocean to the list. A great time to visit is in the late afternoon after the crowds have thinned. Parking is $10.
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Palisades Park
Perhaps it’s appropriate that Route 66, America’s most romanticized byway, ends at this gorgeous cliffside park perched dramatically on the edge of the continent. Just pretend you don’t see all the beggars. Stretching 1.5 miles north from the pier, this palm-dotted greenway is tops with joggers and people-watchers.
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Roundhouse Aquarium
Kids crowd the touch tanks at this tiny pier’s-end aquarium while their parents stare warily at the flickering fins in the 3500-gallon shark tank. Upstairs, smaller tanks hold an eclectic mix of local specimens including the clicking garibaldi and the stinging gorgonian – sometimes seen lurking barside at Zinc.
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Museum of the American West
Hop over to the Museum of the American West, where exhibits on the good, the bad and the ugly of America's westward expansion rope in even the most reluctant of cowpokes. Star exhibits include an original stagecoach, a large Colt firearms collection and a nymph-festooned saloon.
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Getty Villa
Malibu's cultural star is the Getty Villa, a replica Roman villa that's a fantastic showcase of Greek, Roman and Etruscan antiquities. Admission is by timed ticket (no walk-ins). Parking is $10.
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LA Live
Music pulses through LA Live. LA Live includes live-music clubs, a megaplex movie theater, a dozen restaurants and a 54-story hotel tower shared by Marriott and Ritz-Carlton.
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Exposition Park
Just south of Downtown LA, Exposition Park has enough kid-friendly museums, historic sports facilities and green spaces to keep you busy for a day. Parking is $8.
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Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
Part of Exposition Park, the 1923 Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum hosted the 1932 and 1984 Summer Olympic Games, the 1959 baseball World Series and two Super Bowls.
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Geffen Contemporary at Moca
Arty types can pop next door to gawk at the cutting-edge and often provocative exhibits at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA.
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Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Los Angeles County Museum of Art is one of the country's top art museums and the largest in the western USA.
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Forest lawn Cemetery
- Los Angeles, USA
- Sights › Dark
Pathos, art and patriotism rule at this humongous cemetery next to Griffith Park. A fine catalog of old-time celebrities – including Lucille Ball, Bette Davis and Stan Laurel – rests within the manicured grounds strewn with paeans to early North American history. Look out for the giant The Birth of Liberty mosaic, Boston's re-created Old North Church and bronze statues of Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln or watch a movie about the American Revolution. Staff aren't helpful in locating stars' graves but you can download guides from the internet (try www.seeing-stars.com). More dead stars are at the original Forest Lawn in nearby Glendale.
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Serra Retreat
Tile aficionados and hideaway fans should cross PCH and head up to the Serra Retreat, another former Rindge home that is now a religious sanctuary. We recently spotted Martin Sheen, Malibu honorary mayor and a devout Catholic, chatting with one of the Franciscan friars in the lovely ocean-view gardens. You're free to walk around and enjoy the flowers and the views, but respect the tranquil, hushed ambience. The Serra Rd turn-off is about a quarter mile west of the Malibu Pier (look for the sign and tell the guard you're going to the retreat). The road winds through another celebrity enclave where Britney unloaded her home for a cool $12 million in 2007.
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Santa Anita Park
Home of the legendary Seabiscuit, the art deco thoroughbred racetrack is the oldest and one of the most prestigious in Southern California. Free tram tours taking you to Seabiscuit’s barn, filming locations, the jockey’s room and other sites are offered during racing seasons. The track opened in 1934 and pioneered the use of the automated starting gate, the photo finish and the electrical timer. Stars who kept and raced their horses here have ranged from Bing Crosby and Errol Flynn to Mark McGrath (of Sugar Ray), Alex Trebek and Burt Bacharach. The only stain on its legacy happened during WWII when it served as a Japanese-American detention camp.
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