Weekend in LA

This photo of Dave with a trident doesn't look like a temple trip.  The main purpose of our weekend in Los Angeles, from February 6 to 8, 2020, was, indeed, to visit the Redlands Temple, near San Bernardino.  However, we squeezed in lots of other fun, as well.

The Redlands Temple was small but beautiful, with a lovely stained glass window in the foyer depicting Christ.  Murals around the walls of the endowment room depicted the nearby San Bernardino Mountains.  I felt a strong sense of connection to this area.  I remember driving into the San Bernardino Mountains, from Los Angeles, when I spent a weekend with Lisa and her family at Lake Arrowhead several years ago.  This was also the temple for my grandson, Spencer, during his mission to East Los Angeles.  And, I heard my mother tell of how she nearly took a job teaching college in San Bernardino after getting her Ph.D at Berkeley.  If Mom settled in San Bernardino, would I be a Californian now?

 I have an insatiable appetite for cooking and eating ethnic food.  Part of my fascination in visiting ethnic restaurants is seeing what the dishes I cook at home are really supposed to taste like!

Dave and I stopped for lunch at a fun Hawaiian fast food restaurant.  Southern California has many immigrant communities, and they share their culture in various ways, including lots of great mom and pop restaurants.

 Dave and I shared a coconut smoothie with bubble jellies.  Ymmm!

The highlight of our trip (other than the temple) was a tour of the Warner Brothers film lot.  Mike suggested that outing, and it was even more fascinating than I expected.

 We rode a tram through the back lot, where buildings of all styles are used as backdrops in filming movies and TV shows.

 This street had the "middle class" homes used for many sitcoms.

 This street could be Manhattan or Boston.

 I had never been inside a sound stage.  The stage we visited had a list of the movies and TV shows made on that stage posted by the door.  Ours included "The Goonies" and "Batman and Robin."

 All of our tour members wanted to pose in this sofa, made famous by a sitcom I had never heard of.  "This is the golden age of television," our guide reminded us.

 We also visited museums at Warner Brothers, including one that showed the story boards that are used to plan a movie.

 We saw creatures used in sci-fi films.

 And I posed with cardboard characters out of a recent sci-fi epic.

 I was fascinated by the collection of costumes.  Whenever we see an outrageous costume, Dave always suggests, "Maybe you should wear something like that to work."  He likes to see me squirm, just at the thought of it!

 The museum included an area of Harry Potter props and costumes.

 It included another area of Batman props, including five or six of the actual cars used in Batman movies.

 At the end of our very busy Friday, we tried a Spanish restaurant in Long Beach, Cafe Sevilla, and then stayed overnight at a resort in nearby San Pedro.

 On Saturday morning we visited the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach.  It had wonderful exhibits on fishes of California, tiny jungle frogs, and penguins.  There was also a touching pond, where we could reach into a pool and handle starfish.

 We made time for one more ethnic restaurant--"Uncle Fung Borneo Eatery." 

 I love Indonesian food, and Uncle Fung's food was delicious--rich and spicy, but not hot.

Our next visit was to the USS Iowa, a battleship built in 1942 as a sister ship of the USS Missouri, on which the Japanese surrendered in 1945.  

 As I looked at the huge, 16" guns arrayed around the hull, I thought of my dad teaching Naval Ordinance at Princeton during 1942.  He taught naval officers to use the guns on just such ships as these.

 Dave also enjoys learning about World War II, so this was an adventure we both enjoyed.

 The ship even had a statue matching the famous Life Magazine photograph of a sailor kissing a nurse he didn't know in New York City during the celebration of the end of the war.

 Our final adventure, before running for the airport, was a stop at the San Pedro Fish Market, where mostly Hispanic families were enjoying Sunday dinners of fresh fish and barbecued ribs.

From the fish market, we took a ferry boat ride around the Long Beach harbor.

 Long Beach is one of the busiest ports in the world, and we were awed by the multitude of huge cranes hoisting containers on and off ships stopping at Long Beach from all over the planet.

 The containers were attached to huge trucks that immediately left to carry the goods around America.

 I love ships and the sea, just like my father did.  I enjoyed seeing all the ships in the harbor, from Coast Guard cutters to container ships to sailboats.

These seals enjoyed the balmy weather and the gentle rocking of the buoy.