Summer Vacation - Hollyhock House, LA

On the last day of our summer vacation, we packed up Klaus and started the drive home. We had promised Celeste that we'd stop at a Q'doba for lunch (her favorite place - the nearest one to us is by LAX), so we slogged through some morning rush traffic en-route. But since we would have ended up at Q'doba a bit early, we stopped at L.A.'s Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Hollyhock house to take in another one of the master's finest works and to kill a little time.

We're very fortunate that Celeste, like Allie and I, thoroughly enjoys architecture tours and loves modern structures. We toured FLLW's Taliesin West on the move out here and previously the three of us have visited the Robie House (Chicago) while Allie and I have toured his Oak Park, IL home and studio and Taliesin (Spring Green, WI).
There weren't any tours scheduled that particular day, and our vacation budget was pretty much shot at that point, so we happily spent an hour or so exploring the grounds.
Built for oil heiress Aline Barnsdall between 1919-1921, the house is perched on a plateau just off of Hollywood Blvd. It's very pleasant up on the hill, most of the sights and sounds of the urban area disappear below you. Off in the distance you can see the Hollywood hills.
Always one to experiment with interesting new materials, FLLW made extensive use of cast concrete for the details of the house and surrounding grounds.
The central theme of the house is the hollyhock, Ms. Barnsdall's favorite flower. FLLW's stylistic hollyhocks are found throughout.
Overall the home is one of "Maya revival" with the exterior walls tilted back at 85 degrees.
It's quite an impressive structure (as they all are IMO). One of the most unique features is the reflecting pool which is not currently filled.
Like most Wright homes, the entrance is low, tight and somewhat hidden from view.
Unfortunately the concrete construction has not held up all that well over the past 90+ years. Numerous earthquakes and weather have taken its toll on the structure.
But it's owned by the city of Los Angeles and restoration is ongoing.
I hope we can eventually tour the place - especially the interior and be able to have some insight into the design of this beautiful home. Oh, and as a footnote, Celeste was very happy to have her favorite "veggie burrito in a bowl" that day.

Summer Vacation - Day One

This past July the three of us decided to conquer a large part of one of the classic American roads - California Hwy 1. Our final destinations was our friends Don and Stacey in San Jose and then Bill and Kiera in Oakland. Plenty of camping was planned for the trip both up to and back from the Bay Area and we brought the Electras along for good measure.

To get to 1, we had to first traverse Orange County and then the LA area to get to Santa Monica - the southern terminus of this great route. No big deal, we left after the morning rush and planned on eating lunch along the coast.

picnic pull-over in Malibu - it's nice when your vehicle has a built-in picnic table

sand, glorious sand!

Hwy 1 just north of Malibu

Pismo Beach or San Louis Obispo was target for the first night of camping. We had a few different campgrounds on the list and were hoping for cancellations so that we could spend the night on the water. However the first couple of state beaches were full. Calling a private campground in the Pismo Beach area that offered hot springs sounded promising, until we actually pulled in lot and found about eight tent sites in an 80x160 gravel/dirt plot with zero privacy. Thankfully a half hour or so up the road we found a great, yet small, county campground outside of San Luis Obispo.

Electras like camping too

We were only offered one night camping at this place since their annual Renaissance Festival was happening that weekend at the park. No problem as we had planned to be on the road anyway. The "magicks" were definitely in the aire that nighte with plenty of Renaissane enthusiasts setting up camp for the weekend. For some reason I craved a turkey leg.

as previously mentioned on this lame blog, this is the summer of tree climbing for the grrrl

that night we went for a short ride on this narrow bike path. oops, I mean golf cart path

rock climbing is almost as fun as tree climbing

using the phone as a flashlight to view the small frog that lived in a crevice

We had a good night's rest with the three of us spread out in our four man tent - even though the camper in the neighboring site had her classic rock on a bit later than we would have desired. But what's camping without getting the Led out?

Misc junk

I'm floored by how much old stuff is still around. Dan and I used to play with our Matchbox cars on the coffee table. Wicked banked turns. The hubcaps were from Grandpa's Cub Cadet garden tractor while croquet set has some nice history involving alcohol and balls ending up in the lake during some "spirited" games.

The aggregate sidewalk and patio still hurts my bare feet.

Fishin'!

Catching perch on "new perch pier". We caught nine little guys using wax worms and baby night crawlers. She prefered fishing to the idea of going out on the boat.

Green Lake Visit, Aug 21-22, night shots

Night time at Green Lake. I wish these shots had audio of the waves lapping at the shore, the insects and the sounds of distant boats.

Green Lake Visit, Aug 21-22

The three of us were very fortunate to visit Green Lake a few days ago. With Jupie on his last days, we wanted to spend some time with him to say goodbye.

We dragged the boat up, but never even launched it as we had more fun just hanging out at "Old Acres" for a couple of days of swimming, fishing and relaxing.

Much remains the same at the old place - pretty amazing since it's been 21 years since Grandma O sold it. A few trees have come down in storms and the houses could use a fresh coat of paint, but for the most part visiting the property is like traveling back in time.